Abraham “Bob” Wijnberg.

Abraham Wijnberg “Bob”, born 17-10-1913 in Groningen, Netherlands to Mozes Wijnberg and Estella Cohen. “Bob” the son of a wholesaler from Groningen, was married with Mimi Gobits (1914-1990).

  The couple had one child, Chawwa Wijnberg (1942-2019) . Bob had two older sisters, Marta Keizer Wijnberg (1909-1943) war victim. The family lived in Dordrecht.  Abraham’s parents owned Hotel Wijnberg in Zwolle. The family in which Wijnberg grew up was traditionally Jewish, in the sense that the household was kosher and all holidays were observed. Wijnberg himself did not strictly observe dietary laws. However, he was active in the left-wing Zionist youth movement. He met his wife, Mimi Gobits (1914–1990), through the Dutch Zionist Federation. They planned to emigrate to Palestine. Wijnberg lived there from 1934, but was unable to find steady work, after which he returned to the Netherlands.

Before the war, Wijnberg had read Hitler’s Mein Kampf and would have preferred to emigrate to Australia. However, there were no opportunities for that. Before the war, he did undergo military training with the Vrijwillige Landstorm.  Around November 1941, Wijnberg was approached by Willem Hendrik Hertly, a municipal official from The Hague, who recruited him for the Ordedienst. Hertly member of the LO in The Hague. Municipal official.

In November 1941, Abraham Wijnberg joined the Ordedienst (OD) under the alias Bob. He was involved in the attack on a WA officer on 20-04-1942.

Through Hetty, he obtained a forged identity card in the name of Bernard van der Wal. Bernardus Johannes Cornelis van der Wal (Utrecht 1897–1943 Vught), police officer in Utrecht. He became involved with the OD in Utrecht, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Frederik Hendrik Wanninkhof. Arrested on 13-03-1942; died in Vught on 27-01-1943, executed. Frederik Hendrik Wanninkhof was one of the founders of the Ordedienst. He oversaw the search for weapons left behind by Dutch soldiers. In the spring of 1941, he took command of the Ordedienst. On 08-04-1942, Wanninkhof was arrested and taken to the prison in Scheveningen. On 11-05-1942, he died in Amersfoort from exhaustion. Fourteen days later, 72 of his colleagues were executed by firing squad.’

Little is known about Wijnberg’s exact activities with the Ordedienst. Bob may have been involved in espionage and was likely involved in a failed assassination attempt on a WA officer named Cornelis Pieter “Kees” van de Sande,

In the spring of 1945, however, his resistance activities were discovered; on March 3 of that year, Kees van de Sande was arrested in Sleeuwijk and transferred to the prison on Wolvenplein in Utrecht. He and his fellow “line-crosser” Arie “Aaike” van Driel were subjected to harsh interrogation and mistreatment. Ultimately, they were sentenced to death and taken to Fort De Bilt to face execution. There, they were executed by firing squad on 30-04-1945. Kees was 27 years old and was buried at the General Cemetery on Laantje in Werkendam. On 25-07-1942, Hertly was arrested as a member of the OD after being betrayed by SD collaborator Antonius “Anton” “Tom” van der Waals from Rotterdam.

Wijnberg was active in an OD group led by Willem Johan Marie Joseph “Wim” d’Aquin. D’Aquin had come into contact with Anton van der Waals, who managed to convince D’Aquin that he was a secret agent for the British. In fact, he was working as a contact person for Joseph Schreieder of the Gestapo. Traitor Anton van der Waals announced that a supply drop would take place on 24-07-1942. The meeting point was the house at Burgemeester Prinslaan 66 in Ede. D’Aquin arranged for a number of helpers to assist with the airdrop. Van der Waals picked up all the helpers one by one at Ede-Wageningen Station. Upon arrival, they were arrested by the SD. That day, twelve members of the OD fell into German hands, including D’Aquin and Wijnberg. Wijnberg was carrying two pistols at the time.

Sixteen days before his arrest, Wijnberg’s wife had given birth to their first daughter, Chawwa. Chawwa Wijnberg (1942–2019) would later become known as a Jewish poet, columnist, and visual artist. In January 2003, she became the first person to be named city poet of Middelburg, where she had lived with her wife, Marianne Gossije, since 2000. Wijnberg died of cardiac arrest at the age of 77 on 21-12-2019, leaving behind her partner, two children, and three grandchildren.There is a known photograph of Abraham Wijnberg with his daughter. Almost immediately after he fell into German hands, his wife decided to go into hiding with their child. They eventually found shelter on a farm in Ilpendam and survived the war.

Wijnberg himself ended up at Camp Amersfoort via the so-called Oranjehotel in Scheveningen. On 15-03-1943, the Second OD Trial began in Utrecht, in which Wijnberg was charged along with 99 others. Twenty-one OD members were sentenced to death, four of whom were later pardoned. On 29-07-1943, sixteen men, including Wijnberg, age 29, were executed by firing squad at the Leusderheide. His friend Adrien Lambert Jacques Emile Marie Moonen, nicknamed “Broer”  was shot a week later due to illness.

Abraham “Bob” Wijnberg, is buried at the Rusthof General Cemetery in Amersfoort, Section 12, plot 136.

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