Galien van der Hendrik

Galien van der, Hendrik Sybe Hendrik van der Galien, a father of nine, was a policeman in Leeuwarden. In 1940, he joined the local Resistance movement. When the persecution of the Jews intensified, he endeavored to warn them about imminent razzias and helped them go into hiding. He was also instrumental in falsifying documents for Jews. In his Resistance work, Hendrik cooperated with the tax supervisor Jan Evenhuis*, the head of the NSF branch in Leeuwarden. After betrayal, the NSF archive was located and several activists were arrested, and brutally interrogated. A letter written by Hendrik was discovered in the archives and the Germans subsequently raided his home, where they found more sensitive material. Hendrik was arrested on July 19, 1944, and imprisoned in Leeuwarden, then Groningen, and finally Vught, where he was executed on August 18, 1944, as one of the Germans’ retaliatory measures. Because of the secrecy that surrounded his activities, no survivors ever testified about Hendrik’s wartime work, but there is abundant documentation attesting to his heroic deeds. On June 29, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Hendrik Sybe van der Galien as Righteous Among the Nations.