Bezooijen, Henk “Hendrik”, born 11-01-1903 in Everdingen, Netherlands 
the eldest of the farming family of Gerrit van Bezooijen and his wife Cornelia, born Middelkoop. Everdingen is a village on the river Lek, not far from Utrecht. Although he was a good student, studying was not an option. His father died young. Henk had to go into the business. After his marriage to Adriaantje Pesselse in 1930, who was born 05-05-1901 in Hoogblokland, 
he started on a rented farm in Meerkerk. Later he rented a farm on the Minkeloos in Hoogblokland. Two boys came, Gerrit (1932-2014) and Teunis (born 1936). 
In 1938, Henk’s wife died 05-03-1938, age 36, in Hoogblokland (ZH), zij was toen 36 jaar oud. Henk was left with two small children, here with the oldest Gerrit,. 
Henk van Bezooijen was certainly not a superficial man. He was the leader of the Knapenvereniging, where boys were taught about faith. He was also an elder in the Dutch Reformed Church. If there was no minister to lead the church service, Henk would do the honors as sermon reader. He liked to read. Abraham Kuyper, for example, an orthodox Protestant politician, theologian, journalist and many more. Colijn and Vader Cats (after Jacob Cats 
who was a talented jurist who managed to rise to Grand Pensionary of Holland, a position he held for fifteen years. He was also one of the most influential poets of the Golden Age) were also read, as well as books about nature and animals. Beautiful books, but not light fare. Henk also tried to work his way up in his company through study, although that was not easy in the Netherlands in the thirties.
We do not know exactly when Henk van Bezooijen started his resistance work. It was probably in 1941. We do not know exactly why Henk joined the resistance either. Patriotism and a strong sense of justice certainly played a role. Henk was a man of principle who knew the difference between good and evil. He knew that a choice was expected of him. And he chose.
Soon the farm at Minkeloos was teeming with people in hiding. Jews, but also people who wanted to escape the control of the occupier for other reasons. His son Teunis (then still a little boy) still has fragments of memories of it. “There were always a lot of people around. Sometimes you had to do things so as not to make others wiser unnecessarily. For example, I had to call the wife of one of the people in hiding Aunt Zus. Even though she wasn’t my aunt at all. One evening I woke up and ended up downstairs again. There was an injured Irish pilot there. He was treated by the local doctor before being helped again. ‘That man talks strangely’, I said. In retrospect, I certainly wasn’t supposed to see that.
His son tells, my father was a caring man. When I got tuberculosis during the war years, he was really worried about it. He was also caring for his people in hiding.When I had tuberculosis I lay in a tent outside the farm. Then I could always lie in the sun and the fresh air and that helped against the disease. I remember a German plane flying very low. I thought it was beautiful, but the pilot was probably looking at what that tent meant. And maybe also what was happening on that farm.”
A lot happened there and it kept increasing. Earlier, Henk had joined the LO-LKP resistance group in Gorinchem and surroundings. With the end of the war in sight, the government in London wanted to bring more unity to the resistance. The BS (Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten)-(Internal Security Forces) was set up. The organization of this was quite a challenge in many places, because resistance fighters are just like people. Two BS units were set up in the region around Gorkum. From September 1944, they were both given hospitality at the farm of Henk van Bezooijen in Hoogblokland. That involved quite a lot. A transmitter was set up. Meetings were held. Weapons were hidden and distributed from there. Attacks were prepared. While there were still people in hiding. Beautiful, but also bitter detail: at the end of 1944, Henk van Bezooijen married for the second time. Gerrit and Teunis had a stepmother, Klazina Buizer (1921-2010). Gerrit and Teun 
photo 2011
Death and burial ground of Bezooijen, Henk “Hendrik” “Minkeloos”.
All those resistance activities were more than enough for the bullet at the time. The occupiers acted very harshly. Resistance fighters were not safe. The Germans tried to infiltrate resistance groups. That was still reasonably preventable when the resistance mainly functioned regionally. As it became more national, people you did not know could also join your group.That is exactly what happened in the BS units, which worked from Henk van Bezooijen’s farm. 
Someone joined who was later proven not to have been ‘wrong’, but to have acted very carelessly. He introduced someone else, who turned out to be a traitor. Perhaps unacceptable risks were taken, but the knowledge of today is different from the knowledge of then.Because of that betrayal, four resistance fighters were arrested at the end of January 1945. Henk van Bezooijen was not among them. One of the four must have been tortured to such an extent that he did mention Henk’s name. Henk was arrested with someone else at the beginning of February. On 31-03-1945, age 42, about five weeks before the end of the war, Henk van Bezooijen was shot 31-03-1945 in Utrecht, at Fort De Bilt
.
As a reprisal by the occupier for acts of resistance and without any form of trial. After the war, the traitor was sentenced to life imprisonment, a sentence that was later commuted to twenty years in prison.
Henk van Bezooijen heeft de geschiedenisboeken niet gehaald. Tien tegen één dat hij daar helemaal niet op uit was. Hij was een man met karakter, kende het verschil tussen goed en kwaad en durfde daaruit consequenties te trekken. Tot het uiterste aan toe. Juist vanwege dat karakter mogen we Henk van Bezooijen nooit vergeten.
Henk “Hendrik” “Minkeloos”. Bezooijen was buried at the local cemetery of Hoogblokland, Section 83. ‘t Hoog 1, 4221 LM Hoogblokland.
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