Henri Broekman (1883-1945)

Henri Jacques Broekman (dutch link) was born 27 Jan 1883 in Amsterdam, born to Marinus J. Broekman and Margaretha Cramer. He was one of twins, his brother Gerard died 10 Jan 1884. They were the last two of eight children, and my husband’s granduncles.

While the family were predominantly Evangelical Lutherans (at least in name), Henri became a Remonstrant, a follower of Jacobus Arminius, who had protested Calvinism in 1610. The group remains one of the more progressive groups in the Netherlands.

Like his father, Henri became a merchant. Whether he took over his father’s store is unclear; but later he became a translator. He married Gustel Weber in Elberfeld, near Wuppertal, and they live for many years in Amsterdam⁽¹⁾

The family moved before 1945 to Wuppertal, but it is not clear exactly when or why. What is clear, is that both Henri and his son Marinus died on 1 Jan 1945 at 7 pm in the bombardment of a suburb (Vohwinkel) of Wuppertal, aimed at the railroad station. In two days the English dropped over 2600 bombs on the town, killing 196 civilians. Of course, from our point of view it was a good thing, but I am sure, it did not make it easier for the civilians. The death certificates of Henri and his son state that they died by enemy action (Feindeinwirkung) and a skull fracture.

(1) The many addresses I have for them come from various part of the civil registration system: Family cards, which register the family at their various places of residence; these were later replaced by personal cards (Persoonskaart), which does the same thing, but for each person separately. The Amsterdam Woning Kaarten (house cards) give information about the inhabitants of each individual dwelling but one can only search those by address. Before the family cards there were the population registers (Bevolkings registers), which were originally a book system. Because there are so many places to find this information, this is a great reminder to save and organize everything properly, as it took me quite a while to figure out where I found it all.

Addition (11 Mar 2018): It is possible Henri and his son Marinus were members of the NSB (National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands, or a similar organization); according to my husband, his mother told him, they called him Han, because they didn’t want to call him Mar (and he had to be called Marinus Johannes to keep with the family tradition), as some one in the family with that name was a member of the NSB. I don’t think we will ever find the proof one way or the other, and it only proves that every family has its bad apples.