Ode to Johanna Elisabeth Hendrika Bovenkerk | An activist life

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When I read your life story, written by daughter Karien Maas, I immediately knew an ode must be made for this woman. You were active in the Spanish Civil War, were in the resistance during the Second World War, you dedicated yourself to world peace and everyone who was in trouble could count on you while you yourself were thwarted all your life by the Internal Security Service (BVD) because you had been a member of the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN). But you didn't let yourself be cowed. You were the first Dutch person to be allowed to see her own BVD files.  

Johanna (Jo) was born in Amsterdam but grew up in the then Dutch East Indies. Back in the Netherlands, she decided to study German and join the Social Democratic Workers Party (SDAP) and later the Independent Socialist Party (OSP).

Not liking the study Jo, feeling useless, she decided to change course and become a nurse. All this was very much against the wishes of her parents. They were not at all happy with their daughter's choice. With her nursing diploma in hand, Jo went to work at the Amsterdam Inner Hospital. 

Starting in 1933, more and more Jewish refugees from Germany come to the Netherlands. Jo also took refugees into her home. This is how she hears firsthand stories about advancing fascism and the increasingly strict rules and prohibitions for Jews. The CPN arouses her interest and she becomes a member.

In 1936 a military coup takes place in Spain. The nationalists led by General Franco and supported by Hitler and Mussolini oppose the republicans. A bloody civil war breaks out. Many citizens in Europe feel sympathy for the leftist ideals of the republicans. And so does Jo. With the cooperation of the Committee Aid Spain, she leaves for Spain.

There she first works for a while at the international press service that publishes a newspaper in several languages.  Later, Jo works as head nurse in the ward at the Dutch Hospital Villa Nueva da la Jara. But when Franco's army advances, the hospital must be moved to San Agaro on the Costa Brava. That move is a hell of a job. The transportation of hospital materials and wounded is by train and takes 5 days and 5 nights. 

When Jo returns to the Netherlands after the Civil War, she starts working in Amsterdam at the Wilhelmina Hospital. Soon World War II breaks out. Jo became active in the resistance. She looks for hiding addresses. She distributed fake food stamps and stencils. Jo herself also took in Jewish refugees: Sam de Wolff and his wife, the Meijer couple, Sue Weinberg and her son Sylvian. With all these people in hiding in the house, she dared not invite anyone to visit her at home for almost 3 years.  

One day in 1943 Jo visits her parents but finds no one at home. Arrested and imprisoned in Havenstraat. Jo was surprised to find out that her parents were also in the resistance. Father Bovenkerk was a member of the resistance group 'de Geus'. Her mother was released after 3 days and Jo managed to free her father through her spotless German and her nurse's costume.

Jo barely survived the hunger winter. She weighed only 49 kilograms.

After the war Jo married Henk Maas and together they had a daughter, Karien. Her husband could not find a job after the war, Jo also encountered difficulties because of her communist sympathies.  The marriage failed. At age 52 Jo resumed her old studies in German, but even with her diploma she had difficulty finding a job. When she applied for a job in Dordrecht, the BVD forbade hiring her. Eventually she succeeded in becoming a teacher of German at a Lyceum in Enkhuizen. 

In 1981, Jo quit the Communist Party and became active in various peace organizations. Until her ninetieth year, she stands every month on Dam Square to demonstrate against the arms race. She collects signatures and money for charities, writes letters to heads of state for Amnesty International. For years, she has been a member of a committee that advocates and raises donations for death row inmates. Victor Roberts was able to hire a lawyer thanks to that money. The death sentence was commuted to life in prison.

At ninety, Jo is the first person to get permission to see her BVD file. Practically all Dutch newspapers wrote about this. In the company of her daughter, she was allowed to see her file for 2 hours. She sees that all kinds of things have been made illegible with marker. The entire file contains 48 pages and goes from 1947 to 1982.

For 35 years, the BVD has pursued a woman whom all those interviewed say is compassionate, peaceful, helpful and wouldn't hurt a fly.

For the last part of her life, Jo lived in an annex of the Henriette Roland Holst home in Amsterdam

Jo(hanna) Elisabeth Hendrika Bovenkerk dies a week after celebrating her 100th birthday.