Wilhelmus (Wim) Schalkwijk (March 4, 1922 - August 24, 1998)
Wim Schalkwijk was 20 years old when he joined the resistance in late 1942. During the war years he lived with his parents at 7 Bovenkerkerweg in Bovenkerk. Together with his father Roelof Schalkwijk ran a coal business.
When the persecution of Jews began during 1942, several residents of Amstelveen and Bovenkerk went into resistance. Christiaan Jonkers (chairman of RODA) decided to set up a resistance group and asked Wim Schalkwijk, among others, to join it. In fact, Wim had a truck at his disposal because of transporting coal to customers. With the truck he could transport Jewish compatriots, other people in hiding, stenguns, dough bombs, detonators and ammunition among the coal.
In this way Wim brought several people in hiding to hiding addresses in Amsterdam, Amstelveen and Ouderkerk a/d Amstel, among other places.
The resistance group had also set up an illegal newspaper called Triomfklanken. Wim Schalkwijk had put a radio at their disposal so they could make the news paper via the English radio station the BBC. This illegal newspaper was distributed in several ways by Wim and others.
In order to supply food to those in hiding, the resistance group successfully raided the office of the local food supply in Uithoorn. Of course, this was not without risk. The fear of being caught by the occupiers was obviously very great. During his resistance work Wim therefore always carried a weapon. He also 'stole' wheat, rye, peas, beans, etc. from farmers in the polders around Amstelveen. etc. This was done by appointment, as it were, to ensure that the food did not fall into German hands. This was then distributed among the people in hiding and the emergency hospital in Amstelveen. Cattle were also secretly slaughtered and distributed.
And of course there was sabotage. Together with the resistance group, Wim also sunk Wehrmacht barges with plastic bombs.
Personal story of Wim Schalkwijk:
“The kitchen of our house on Bovenkerkerweg was confiscated by the Germans to carry out checks on the streets. In the evenings the Germans drank and talked a lot with my father and me. It was a good thing they had not looked around the kitchen and scullery. For under the pans were hidden weapons, dough bombs and detonators.”