(Rotterdam, 1922)

Member of the 1st Company DNB

From Rotterdam to Aalten

Daniël (Daan) Groenewegen was born in Rotterdam on 13 April 1922, the son of Gerrit Groenewegen and Adriana Groenewegen-Verschoor. The family lived in Kralingen. Daan attended the technical school (Ambachtsschool). His dream was to go to sea. First, he had to complete his training; this was his parents’ wish—working during the day and attending classes at the Machinist School on Schiedamseweg in Rotterdam in the evenings. He worked briefly for a blacksmith in Delfshaven.

On 14 May 1940, he experienced the bombardment of Rotterdam. In fifteen minutes, the city centre was reduced to rubble, including his school. Classes were moved to the Waalhaven. It was dangerous to travel there in the dark, but Daan completed the course and received his diploma. He then received a summons for the German Arbeitseinsatz (forced labour). Through Reverend Delleman in Kralingen, he was provided with a hiding place in Aalten. The Reverend knew Aalten well, having served as a minister there until July 1938.

Daan Groenewegen ended up with Gerrit Jan and Leida Navis-Vreman at the Navis farm on Navisweg in Lintelo. Gerrit Jan’s mother, sister, and brother also lived there. He remained there until the liberation; he enjoyed his time there but was restless and went out often. Guus Dekking was his fellow person-in-hiding at the Navis farm.

During the Hunger Winter, Daan’s sister Cathrien came to Aalten. She stayed for some time and, during a neighbours’ party, met Gerrit Harbers from the ‘de Kuper’ farm, whom she later married. Sheltered with the Harbers family was Arnold Polak, a Jewish optician from The Hague.

On all the surrounding farms, there were one or more people in hiding. Many of them joined the local resistance group in the hamlet during the war. There was also contact with several members of the Knokploeg (assault group) Aalten.

From September 1944, the Interior Forces (Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten), combat section Lintelo, Aalten branch, was formed. Daan mainly associated with Piet Wildschut, another person in hiding (likely also sheltered in Lintelo). In mid-April 1945, they enlisted together as members of the first company of the Dutch National Battalion.

Groenewegen left the battalion in July 1945. After that, he served as a merchant navy officer until 1958. On 10 March 1955, he married Antje van Tienhoven. During the war, she had undertaken four ‘hunger treks’ from Rotterdam to Aalten, where her brother Henk was in hiding at the Winkelhorst farm in ‘de Haart’. Daan and Antje had four children. When he started working at DSM in 1958, the family moved to Geleen. Later in life, he spoke little about the war. He visited the Navis family in Lintelo with his own family several times until, following Gerrit-Jan, Leida Navis also passed away.

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