Ode to Annick van HardeveldBullets before dwan
Annick van Hardeveld, photographer: unknown, North Holland Archive collection
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On the evening of May 4, 1945, 21-year-old Annick van Hardeveld celebrated the approaching liberation at home, cheerfully wrapping the Dutch flag around herself. But at night, when the rest of the family was asleep, she set out for Amsterdam-Noord on her bicycle in her nurse's uniform. As a courier, she had to deliver some last messages to the resistance in case certain German soldiers in the city did not surrender. That bicycle ride became fatal to Annick.
“She was the last courier killed in World War II.”
On the Hekelveld she crossed a patrol of the Grüne Polizei. Without pardon, the soldiers shot her with a large number of bullets. Annick died almost immediately, in the early morning of May 5, 1945, the day peace was signed. She was thus the last courier to die in World War II.
Annick Germaine Mathilde van Hardeveld (born Amsterdam, Nov. 9, 1923) grew up in a well-to-do family in Amsterdam-Zuid. In 1942, Annick passed her mulo exams and then took a course at the Amsterdamsche Huishoudschool (Household School) to orient herself to her further future. She started working as an office clerk at a clothing company but soon decided she would rather train as a nurse. With her diploma in hand, Annick was then able to start work as a nurse at Amsterdam's Wilhelmina Hospital in 1943.
As a nurse, Annick had a Red Cross credential in her pocket. This document allowed Annick to go out on the streets even when curfew was in effect. She made grateful use of the document when she joined the resistance. Dressed in her hospital uniform, Annick carried voucher cards, false papers, weapons and ammunition, and sometimes people in hiding. Determined and unafraid, Annick insisted that like the men, she was “allowed to do the real work, through all weathers.” Her family knew nothing of the dangerous work their daughter was doing until, on the day of liberation, while the whole town celebrated, they heard the tragic news of their daughter's liquidation. Annick's life had come to an end far too young. A monument has stood on the Hekelveld since 1985 to commemorate Annick van Hardeveld and her role in the resistance.
Period
1923– 1945
About
Ode by Clara Kroes, De Zaak Muurbloem, to Annick van Hardeveld.
Annick van Hardeveld was in the resistance during the Second World War. She was afraid of nothing and no one. On the morning of the liberation (!) she was shot dead by the Germans on the Hekelveld during her last assignment.
Annick van Hardeveld
Annick van Hardeveld was in the resistance during World War II. She was afraid of nothing and no one. On the morning of liberation (!) she was shot dead by the Germans on the Hekelveld during her last assignment.