Today a memorial stone was unveiled in the former Chamber of Commerce building at Maliesingel 2. It is a tribute to the resistance fighters who were arrested there by the Germans.
On November 22, 1944, with the impending liberation slowly coming into view, a meeting was held for the first time with the most important resistance groups of Central Netherlands in the Chamber of Commerce building at Maliesingel 2. Due to an unfortunate coincidence, the announcement for this meeting was leaked the previous day when a Utrecht courier was arrested in Veenendaal.
A day later, the occupier invaded the meeting. Two people present flee upstairs; the others flee to the cellar and are arrested, abused and taken into captivity. A later liberation action failed miserably, resulting in even more victims. The two resistance members who fled upstairs manage to hide in the attic for two days and manage to miraculously escape despite several searches.
Of the nine resistance fighters deported, seven others did not survive the war. A year after the war, a memorial stone was made for them by the Utrecht sculptor Pieter d’Hont, which will be placed in the Chamber of Commerce. After moving, the memorial stone was placed in storage at the House of Representatives. The Chamber has asked the municipality to find a good destination for the memorial stone. The municipal Direct Facilities Working Group has found a suitable place in a side wall of Maliesingel 2 on the Nachtegaalstraat side. This brings the stone back, now to the building where it was originally placed.
This resistance drama is discussed in detail in the podcast ‘Noise in the Slachtstraat’.
Tags: Memorial stone memory executed Utrecht resistance fighters unveiled
