Wilhelmus Cornelis Meere

This is the story of my Father W.C. Meere, who gave his life when he was excecuted by the German forces on March 8, 1945 at the Waalsdorpervlakte in Wassenaar, ZH, Holland.

He was born on October 10, 1910 in Scheveningen, ZH, Holland, son of Jan Gerrit Meere en Petronella van der Toorn and grew up in Scheveningen and The Hague and married my mother Lena Jacoba Barnhoorn.

Before the war Willem Meere worked as a Radio Telegraphist Technician for the then Dutch Government, owned Airline "KLM" and was often flying to Indonesia as a on board radio telegraphist.

He lived with his family on the Airport "Schiphol" in Holland, when during the month of May 1940, the Germans bombed "Schiphol" which was also destroyed the family home c/w everything in it and his wife Lena had to walk with 2 kids to her In-laws and relocated to Rijswijk (ZH).

Because of a great need of people having a good knowledge of Radio operation in the Restistance "Meere" was contacted soon after arrival in Rijswijk by the Resistance and his Pseudo name became "Jack Guillaume" and he became jeavy involved in the resistance and became a Commandant of the Radio Service which was headed by Mr. Jan Thijsen's "Raad van Verzet" which was the (committee for Resistance) in The Hague (Den Haag) and started to teach other resistance fighters how to operate the telegraph keys for communication with the Allied Forces through different groups of fighters.

His wife Lena Meere also helped, mainly as a courier for the group and on her bicycle she delivered notices and also new codes for the telegraphs having received approval from a friend who still had electrical power in his butcher shop they developed hidden compartment in the Coldroom for their radio equipment and ther groups code name was "Packard"and had been operating for many years during the war.

My parents also had hidden radio equipment in our house in between double walls, which also doubled as hiding places for the family of 4 Jewish people who were living in our house for over 2 years during the early years in the war.

Their Sender was finally discovered by a special roaming locator on February 7, 1945, during a staff shift change over and 4 people were arrested including my dad and also arrested were 2 sisters who lived above the shop and at the end of the day, 6 people were send to the "ORANJE HOTEL" prison in The Hague and were welcomed by a Dutch collaborator who said "Welcome to Hell, you will never leave here alive" and were held in solitarily confinement for 3 months, and the 4 men were executed on March 8, 1945 on the Waalsdorpervlakte in Wassenaar, with my dad being 34 years old and the 2 sisters were liberated by the Canadians on May 7, 1945.

Lena Meere after the war had to identify my fathers remains, who after the war was buried with full military honor in Rijswijk and was reburied in the honor fields in Loenen, Holland, which I was able to visit in 2016, and we will allways remember and honor them.

Written up by his son,
Wilhelmus Cornelis Meere in Kelowna,
BC, Canada