Police officer Willem Ragut always carried two pistols and was able to use them even while lying on the pavement with a bullet in his body. This foresight cost the life of one of the bravest Dutch resistance fighters—the very man who had just shot him. Jan Bonekamp died while executing a sentence on a man hated by the entire Zaandam underground.
From Driver to the Underground
Before the war, Jan Bonekamp lived the typical life of a Dutch worker. He worked as a driver at the Hoogovens factory, was a member of the transport workers’ union, and was active in the Communist Party of the Netherlands. In 1938, he got married, and two years later, his daughter was born. At the outbreak of war, he was a peaceful family man.
In the spring of 1943, the Germans ordered Dutch soldiers to return to captivity. The society’s reaction shocked the occupiers. Strikes broke out in factories, including at Hoogovens. Bonekamp threw himself into action, distributing illegal newspapers and leaflets calling for protest.
After the strikes were suppressed, the Gestapo began making arrests. Bonekamp was detained and interrogated, but the Germans made a mistake—they believed they had captured the wrong Bonekamp and released him.
When they realized their error and returned for him, it was too late. The former driver had hidden under the floorboards of his own home and then vanished into Brabant. He never returned to IJmuiden.
The Man with Two Pistols
Willem Ragut was appointed chief of police in Zaandam in autumn 1943 and immediately became known for his zeal in tracking down the underground. He especially pursued seven prisoners who had escaped from the Wormerveer jail. The Resistance Council sentenced him to death.
The execution was entrusted to Bonekamp and Hannie Schaft, a 23-year-old law student new to the armed underground. It was Bonekamp who taught her to shoot. It is little mentioned, but this red-haired girl, who would later become a symbol of Dutch resistance, was still inexperienced at the time.
Preparations took weeks. Ragut knew what he was doing and always carried two pistols. The team had to determine his daily route, choose a location, and plan an escape path. Bonekamp, known in the underground as Kleine Jan, oversaw every detail—or so he thought.
Shooting on Westzijde
On the morning of June 21, 1944, Schaft and Bonekamp left their hideout in Limmen. On Westzijde, just in front of the Chamber of Commerce building, they waited for their target. Hannie fired first and immediately fled by bicycle. Ragut collapsed on the pavement.
Contrary to the plan, Bonekamp approached to give a finishing shot—that was a mistake. Lying in a pool of his own blood, Ragut managed to draw his weapon and shoot Bonekamp in the abdomen. Bonekamp emptied his clip into the dying policeman, but he himself was mortally wounded. Coincidentally, a formation of bombers was flying over the city, so witnesses mistook the shooting for an air raid.
Ragut died on the spot. Bonekamp, bleeding heavily, knocked on a random door. One policeman hid his revolver, but another, a collaborator, notified the Sicherheitsdienst. The wounded partisan was taken to Wilhelmina Hospital in Amsterdam. Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, sisters who fought in the same unit, saw as Bonekamp, heavily guarded, was carried in on a stretcher.
Betrayal Under Anesthesia
The Germans administered a truth serum to the dying Bonekamp. He gave his wife’s address in IJmuiden and probably also revealed Cor Koelman, a frequent associate of Hannie Schaft. The most controversial issue, however, concerns Schaft herself.
According to one version, Gestapo agent Emil Rühl leaned over the dying man, pretending to be a friend, and asked if he could do anything else for him. Bonekamp then allegedly gave Hannie’s name and address. Another account claims a nurse offered to warn someone—the result was the same.
A week after Bonekamp’s death, the Sicherheitspolizei raided the apartment on Van Dortstraat. Hannie Schaft managed to escape, but her hideout was compromised. She survived another ten months before the Germans caught and executed her. Ironically, she carried out dozens of missions, but it was this single action with Bonekamp that began her path toward death.
Jan Bonekamp is buried in IJmuiden cemetery. In the 1980s, former comrades tried to move his remains to the prestigious Bloemendaal cemetery, but their request was denied. The regulations closed the cemetery to new burials before 1960, and no exceptions were to be made—even for a hero who gave his life for a free Netherlands.
Autor
Rory Thornfield
Rory's grandfather left behind a wartime diary filled with accounts of a minor Burma skirmish that history books never mentioned. Reading it, Rory realized: behind every famous battle are dozens of forgotten struggles, each with its own human drama.
His preferred topics: The overlooked corners of military history – secondary campaigns, shadow battalions, local conflicts that never made headlines. From medieval sieges to twentieth-century expeditions, he focuses on the soldiers, not the generals. The people who faced impossible choices and carried those experiences forever.
Rory strips away the romanticism without losing respect for those who served. He combines tactical analysis with personal stories, examining human endurance and moral complexity rather than celebrating warfare. His writing is balanced, thoughtful, and deeply researched.
Outside work, Rory visits forgotten battlefields (now quiet farmland), photographs war memorials nobody tends anymore, and interviews veterans' families.