(Halle, 1923)

Member of the 1st Company DNB

Resolute for Freedom

Gerrit Legters was born on April 10, 1923, on a farm in Halle. From July 1943 he went into hiding, first at the farm of Scholtenboer Te Raa in Winterswijk and later with the Knip family in Slangenburg. This brought him into contact with other people in hiding, such as Jim Zoethout (‘Lange Jim’) from Oostvoorne and Chris van Lathum.

Through Co Hettinga, they became involved in January 1945 with the resistance group De Bark in IJzerlo, where they conducted military exercises to assist the approaching Allies in the liberation of the Netherlands. After the liberation, Gerrit immediately joined the Dutch National Battalion.

After the capitulation, he returned home to take over his father’s farm. In 1949, he married Martina te Paske, with whom he started a family on her parents’ farm in Ratum. The combat and the gruesome tasks performed just after the war around Camp Amersfoort left deep scars on his later life. He spoke little, if at all, about the war.

Gerrit Legters passed away on January 5, 2014.

Gerrit Legters