The Resistance

The resistance was a group of ordinary people, who fought against the occupying Nazi forces. This could be helping Jews and hiding them in their homes, to blowing up bridges.

Marinus Kopmels was born on 2^nd August 1910 in Vlissingen, a town in Zeeland, which is a province in the Netherlands. He grew up in Vlissingen and married Anna-Maajte de Bruijne at age 23. He worked as a civil servant working in Customs at the local port. Marinus and Anna-Maatje had 3 children; Jodocus, Annamarie and Ruud. I got my name form Anna-Maatje.

My great grandad, Marinus Kopmels, was part of the Resistance in Holland. Marinus lived an ordinary life up until the Second World War, but that all changed when the German army invaded the Netherlands in 1940 and became an army of occupation. Marinus did not like living under German rule and so he joined the Dutch Resistance.

The English RAF would drop weapons and ammunition that he would collect with other resistance members and store secretly in their houses.  The German army would regularly do raids on a whole street at the time to look for weapons and radios. The weapons were hidden in a footstool, which was thrown over the fence and to neighbours in the next street. They had to be very careful because if the weapons were found they would be killed.

He also raided post offices with his bother Frans, who was a policeman.  They stole food rations and coupons which were used to buy food to feed English air crew, Jewish and Dutch people who were in hiding. 

Towards the end of the war the Germans were on to him and so he spent six months hiding in an underground cellar being looked after by other Resistance members.

After the war he carried on working for the Dutch Customs service and lived a happy unremarkable life again.  He didn’t like to talk about his war time experiences.

He died on 27^th October 1984 aged 74.