The Zeemanshoop
was a Dutch lifeboat at Scheveningen, a coastal resort and fishing port
near The Hague, which was hijacked by four university students to
escape to England on the day they heard the broadcast announcement of
the surrender of Dutch forces.
The names of the 46 passengers and crew of the Zeemanshoop
were written on the back of a chart of the coast of the Netherlands during the voyage. The chart is now in the North Holland Archive
but has been widely reproduced and was on display at the reunion held
at Scheveningen on the anniversary of the voyage.
The last name on the list is that of Lou Meijers and since his is the
only name for which both initials are given he was probably the student
who wrote the list. Despite differences in spelling, the lack of
forenames and married
women being merely appended to the names of their husbands as vrouw
(wife) this chart has been the key to tracing the families of those who
escaped almost certain death in a concentration camp or if young, male
and Dutch joined the fight to free their country.
At least two are alive today: Karel Dahmen is a fit 96 year old who lives in Austin, Texas, and sculls on its lake with a crew of young women, and Loet Velmans lives in the USA with his wife who survived the Holocaust to write a best selling book about her experience. Marien de Jonge celebrated his hundreth birthday in September 2011 but died at The Hague on the 16 July 2012.
Click on the links to find out what happened to them after their arrival in England.
Passengers
Belinfante and sister
Goldschmidt and wife
Mrs Daniels
Jacob Meier
Singer
Fam (family) Arnheim / Aruheim 3 women and 1 man - or Von Stroheim?
Note: Harry Hack gave this name as Stroheim
P
Zaitscheck(or,
perhaps, a transcription of the Czech name, Zajíček)
Mayer and wife
Weyl
Meuleman and wife
Munzer and wife
Velmans and wife and son
Polak and wife and son
Fischer and wife
Goldschmidt (2nd) and wife
Marx
Speijer to the right and very faint Jonge
Van Wezel
- ditto -
Neurath
Mrs Reidemeister ditto
Note: this name would therefore read Mrs Reidemeister Neurath (which is how Dutch women are often addressed – two surnames)
Wessel
Van der Laan
+ 4 Crew
Harry Hack
Bongaerts
Dahmen
L M Meijers
I would like to hear from the families of the following passengers
return to the home page for the
