Zomaar een vermoorde verzetsman: Henk Streefkerk

Zalig de hongerigen en dorstigen naar gerechtigheid, want zij zullen verzadigd worden.
Matth. 5:6, het staat op de steen.
Hendrikus Streefkerk, gefusileerd te Eindhoven op 13 september 1944 (zo staat het er, met deze etymologisch verdedigbare spelling).
Lid van de Partisanen Actie Nederland, waar ik overigens net zo min van gehoord had als van Henk Streefkerk.
Onze makker David Rovics brengt hem in herinnering. Er is geen video van, u moet de audiolink aanklikken. Hier is de tekst:

Henk Streefkerk was a member of the Dutch resistance to the German occupation in the early 1940’s. A relative of his in Germany commissioned me to write this song, for which I am very grateful, because it led me to do a lot of research into the Dutch resistance (and because I needed the money). It took a long time to come up with the song, not because I lacked sufficient information on the events of the day, but because it took a while until I felt like I had a handle on the feelings of the average Dutch person of the period towards the German occupation and the resistance to it, which is overwhelmingly, in my judgment, one of remorse (rather than patriotic fervor and the celebration of heroism, etc.).

There are those who will tell stories of their youth so long ago
They will talk of past adventures like a wild picture show
They’ll talk of comrades lost, and lovers found along the way
They’ll tell of how they almost didn’t live to see today
And then there are the many who never made it through
Who leave their friends and family to wonder if they knew

Who leave their friends and family to wonder if they knew
And to always ask the questions about what they didn’t do
To always ask the question, why did they survive
While others died to see the day that they would be alive
For some the liberation was a great, heroic feat
For others it’s all much more bittersweet

We didn’t want another hero
A noble struggle to employ
We just want our lieve jongen
We just want our boy

Henk Streefkerk was born in Naarden, and as the story goes
He went to work for Phillips to work on radios
He lived through the Depression, next came the German tanks
Friends joined with the Resistance, Henk also joined their ranks
He lived an unassuming life beneath Holland’s cloudy sky
Working quietly at night, not to draw a German eye

Henk Streefkerk was killed, that’s how history is made
Until this day no one knows how he was betrayed
He was standing on the sidewalk, he was executed there
Left lying on the pavement, blood spattered his blond hair
Four days later the war was over, they say the Allies won
Many people celebrated while the Streefkerks buried their only son

It was more than sixty years after the occupation’s awful toll
Someone noticed Henk wasn’t on the Honor Roll
And on a wall somewhere perhaps now his name will be engraved
They’ll thank him for his courage and the families he saved
He’ll join the thousands of Nederlanders, and millions more
All the lieve jongens killed in the world wars

Henk.