Geest, Pieter Rutger de.

Geest, Pieter Rutger de, born 09-08-1908 in Arnhem, Netherlands. Pieter was a painter’s assistant in Arnhem. Pieter was a member of the resistance group “De Vries” in Ede during the war. The Resistance group “de Vries” (pseudonym of Evert Jan van Spankeren), also known as De Vrijbuiter, was a resistance group in Ede. From September 1944, this group published the illegal newspaper De Eendracht (no. 153 in L. Winkel, De Ondergrondse Pers).

Evert Jan van Spankeren led a “wild” fighting group during the war called group-De Vries, named after his alias in the resistance. They were active as far as Gelderse Veenendaal and Barneveld. The resistance group of Van Spankeren may have been behind the fire in the Ede town hall in February 1942, with the aim of destroying the population register. Van Spankeren was a teacher at the Veldhuizenschool on Kraatsweg in Ede. Additionally, he was a member of the Special Volunteer Landstorm, where he was part of the sharpshooters. Van Spankeren survived the war and passed away on 25-12-1961, age 52 in Ede. The term Landstorm in World War II primarily refers to Landstorm Nederland, a Dutch pro-German Waffen-SS formation. under command of SS-Standartenführer Martin Kohlroser .  Kohlroser survived the war and died 14-11-1967 (aged 62) in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany.

On 02-03-1945, Pieter helped with a weapons drop. He had to stand guard on the nite of March 8 to 9. He did this together with Derk van Gestel, Rijk Tigelaar, Cornelis Verduijn,

and Rinus Pol.

They wanted to know if the Germans suspected anything after the first weapons drop. Then it was decided that weapons would be dropped again that nite. As a result, these five resistance fighters became involved in the second dropping within a week. The dropping had dramatic consequences: Pieter was arrested.

In the Resistance Heroes neighborhood of Ede, on the site of the former Ede-Oost barracks complex, a street has been named after Verduijn, the Cornelis Verduijnstraat. Verduijn received the honorary title Righteous Among the Nations from the Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem in November 2021.

Death and burial ground of Geest, Pieter Rutger de.

On 20-03-1945, Pieter de Geest, age 36, was executed on the Appelweg in Amersfoort in retaliation for the murder of a ‘collaborating’ police officer. with nine other prisoners and it was an reprisal, Pieter de Geest ashes, are buried in the Mausoleum wall in Ede, grave monument at the Vossenakker in Ede. The excucution with de Geest, concerned Gerrit Boonzaaijer, Lambertus “Bart” van Elst, Pieter Rutger de Geest, Derk van Gestel, Johannes “Jo” Kelderman,   Maarten Hendrikus “Max Lugthart, Jan Mekking, Ferdinand “Ferdi” Rombout, Barend “Bab” Veenendaal, and Elbert Veenendaal. In memory of this execution, a monument has been erected on Appelweg in Amersfoort.

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