(Naarden, 1920)

Member of the 1st Company DNB

Hussar of Boreel, Marechaussee, Aalten Assault Group, pilot helper

Gerardus Albertus (known as Gerbrand) Groot was born in Naarden on 7 June 1920, the youngest son of Willem R.C.J. Groot and Gerritje Groot-van Groningen. He grew up with two sisters and three brothers. He became a professional soldier with the ‘Huzaren van Boreel’ regiment in Amersfoort. Following the capitulation in May 1940, he was assigned to the Marechaussee corps in Bilthoven. In July 1940, the Marechaussee lost its ‘Royal’ prefix and its military status. In Utrecht, he met Grada Leuverink from Eibergen, who was working in the city at the time.

In late April 1943, all (former) Dutch military personnel were ordered to report for the German labour service. Wanting no part in this, he went into hiding with his future parents-in-law in Eibergen, Gerrit and Hendrika Leuverink-Sellink. Because Jewish people were also hidden there, he moved to a different hiding place in Aalten. He found shelter with the Sellink-Rutgers family on Vossenbulteweg in Lintelo. Also staying there were an evacuated family from Scheveningen, David Engers (a Jewish person in hiding from Amsterdam), and Wim Leuverink, Grada’s brother. During this period, he joined the ‘Raad van Verzet’ (Council of Resistance), contributed to the operations of the Aalten Assault Group (Knokploeg Aalten), and assisted Allied pilots. His alias was ‘Poese’. In the autumn of 1944, Groot, Leuverink, and Engers enlisted as members of the Dutch Interior Forces (Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten), combat section.

His name is registered in American and British war archives as a helper of Allied air force personnel (Netherlands Escape Lines). He escorted pilots on four separate occasions. For instance, he transported a British pilot (who had stranded near Borculo in October 1944) to farmer Prinzen at the ‘Somsenhuis’ farm in Aalten. In November 1944 and January 1945, he brought a total of four American pilots from Overijssel to Aalten. Later, he and his resistance comrade Co Hettinga took two of them to Utrecht.

Immediately after the liberation of Aalten, as a member of the Interior Forces, he assisted in the arrest of German SS members and Dutch Nazi (NSB) collaborators. Shortly thereafter, he enlisted in the 1st Company of the Dutch National Battalion (DNB) with the rank of corporal.

On 28 July 1945, he married Grada Leuverink in Eibergen, the sister of his resistance comrade Wim Leuverink. The marriage certificate lists his profession as sergeant (wachtmeester) in the Royal Marechaussee. The couple later settled in Zeist and De Bilt and had two children. Gerbrand Groot passed away in De Bilt on 13 April 2006.

Gerbrand Groot