Memorial for the Van den Berg brothers

The monument on the quay in Makkum keeps the memory of Tijmen and Aart van den Berg alive. During the Second World war, the two brothers had an eel smokehouse and a fish canning factory, which served as a cover for their activities in the resistance. Regularly, the brothers bought the freedom of people who had been arrested; they then paid the occupier in smoked eel, liquor and money.  

On Saturday morning 7 April 1945, a raid was carried out by the Sicherheitsdienst, the German security service. The canning factory of the Van den Berg brothers was raided as well. Several arrests were made in the factory and in the village, while weapons were found in the factory as well. Several men were rounded up, six of them were executed that same day after having been brutally tortured. They found their final resting place in the Protestant Cemetery next to the Van Donia church. One prisoner was executed at Anna Paulowna a few days later. 

Both Van den Berg brothers survived the war. In 1981, the Local Interest Association for Makkum took the initiative for the creation of this memorial for them at the Vallaat.   

The Dominee L. Touwenlaan is situated close to the memorial. Lourens Touwen worked as a clergyman in Makkum from 1934 and got involved in the resistance after the German invasion in May 1940. He was active in the National Organisation for Aid to People in Hiding and arranged accommodation in Southwest Friesland  for a large number of Jewish people in hiding. In the end, he was rounded up on 8 September 1944 and executed in Vries in the province of Drenthe.