The latest family correspondence also clarifies that Willem van Norel visited Henk Blaauw and his wife in early 2025, most recently recalled as February 2025, although an earlier message mentioned January. Henk’s wife died in December 2025 according to the family correspondence; an earlier suggestion that she was alive in February 2026 was mistaken. Willem recalled the possibility that a small Bible with an underlined passage survived Gerrit’s imprisonment. Neither its location nor the exact passage is known. [Van Norel correspondence, August–October 2026] On 28 October 2026 the family enquired of Stichting Doetinchem Herdenkt about the original prison records behind Gerrit’s detention at De Kruisberg. Secretary Martine Goedhart replied that the enquiry would be discussed at a meeting the following week. No prisoner card, cell list or transport record was supplied in the reviewed reply. A separate enquiry sought a name search in Netherlands archival collection 2.09.08, inventory 461, concerning the so-called Apeldoorn Case and Sicherheitsdienst crimes. No result of that search is yet confirmed. [Research emails, 28 October 2026] A distinct family connection concerns Wijnand Rekers (1919–2010) and the Verscholen Dorp near Vierhouten, as described in the researcher’s family correspondence. It provides context for a wider family interest in Dutch resistance history, but is not evidence that Wijnand Rekers and Gerrit Blaauw operated together. [Family correspondence, August 2026]
Related original illustrations and records
