Plaque Gerrit Jan van der Veen

Gerrit Jan van der Veen (Amsterdam, November 26, 1902 - Overveen, June 10, 1944)

Gerrit Jan van der Veen was the first to occupy the artist's residence at Zomerdijkstraat 22. Van der Veen was a sculptor, a pupil of, among others, Bronner, and initially worked as a mechanical engineer. In addition to medals and plaques, he created portraits and several monuments and groups of sculptures (monument for Wilhelmina Drucker in Amsterdam, group of sculptures with three women on a railway viaduct in Utrecht). He worked in a naturalistic style, gradually moving towards a more stylized approach, in bronze, stone, and terracotta.

Gerrit Jan van der Veen

Furthermore, he was a leader of the Dutch resistance during World War II. During the war, he refused to become a member of the Kultuurkamer established by the Germans as a sculptor. He even became the leader of an action group against this chamber, resulting in his swift arrest. After his release, Van der Veen went underground. For the rest of his life, he roamed Amsterdam, moving from one hiding place to another. Van der Veen participated in the raid on the population register at Plantage Middenlaan in Amsterdam in 1943, from which he barely escaped. During a liberation attempt by resistance fighters at the detention center on Weteringschans, he was arrested on May 2, 1944. He was executed in Overveen on June 10, 1944.

Jos WRSM