Board

The members of the committee and of the later foundation often had, and still have, a direct or indirect connection with the war and/or one of the war monuments. For example, the founders of the committee were often old resistance fighters or relatives of executed resistance fighters. Notable among them are M.M. Oosenbrug, C. Schüngel and J.C. Hooykaas.

Marcus Marinus (Wim) Oosenbrug was a young stonemason who was active in the resistance during the war. From the spring of 1944, Oosenbrug was the leader of the ‘Falsificatie-centrale’ (FC). The FC was originally an independent group of resistance fighters who, under the leadership of the Nijmegen student J.J. de Weert, supplied forgeries of identity cards, distribution documents and many other useful papers to the National Organisation for Assistance to People in Hiding (LO). After Weert’s arrest, Oosenbrug took over the leadership. At that time, Oosenbrug was in hiding in Gelderland to escape captivity.

After the war, Oosenbrug was involved as a stonemason in the construction of, among other things, the monument on the Waalsdorpervlakte and the liberation monument in Loosduinen.

Oosenbrug was chairman of the foundation for a long period. In 1987, he resigned as a statutory member. He was then appointed member of merit. Oosenbrug died on April 17, 1999 at the age of 84.

Cornelis Schüngel was the quarter commander of the Dutch Internal Forces (NBS). This resistance group emerged from the Order Service (OD), the national resistance groups (LKP) and the Council of Resistance (RVV). Schüngel worked at the Nutsspaarbank in Loosduinen where he came into contact with Jan Willem Kempff, leader of another resistance group: the Bijzondere Vrijwillige Landstorm. After this meeting, plans were made for a merger between the resistance groups of Schüngel, Kempff and also the resistance group of Martinus Staamer. A few days after the merger was final, Kempff and Staamer were arrested. They were both later shot. Schüngel escaped and after the war focused on commemorating his fellow resistance fighters and other war victims.

Schüngel was secretary and treasurer within the foundation for a long time. Schüngel resigned in 1982. After this he became a member of merit.

J.C. Hooykaas was the former secretary general of the Hague Interchurch Bureau for Food Supply (IKB) at the beginning of 1945. The local IKBs were established on 9 January 1945 due to the famine winter to ensure that food supply agencies would be established in all major cities in the west. The IKBs provided food to children and the sick on a daily basis.

The IKBs also provided child evacuations. The Hague IKB sent a total of 4,000 children to the north and east of the country.

In addition, the IKBs also carried out several acts of resistance/illegal acts. For example, the IKB provided identity cards to people in hiding and members of resistance groups.

Sources:

Boom, Bart van der. The Hague in the Second World War. The Hague: SeaPress, 1995.

www.4en5mei.nl