Willem "Willy" August Theodorus Niemeijer (March 8, 1907 - February 16,
1945), a tobacco manufacturer in Groningen, was involved in
underground activities and later perished in Neuengamme concentration camp.Queer Places:
Ohlsdorfer Friedhof
Ohlsdorf, Hamburg-Nord, Hamburg, Germany
Willem "Willy" August Theodorus Niemeijer (March 8, 1907 - February 16,
1945), a tobacco manufacturer in Groningen, was involved in
underground activities and later perished in Neuengamme concentration camp.
Willy Niemeijer was the eldest son of the well-known tobacco manufacturer Theodorus Niemeijer and Helen Antonie Antonia Augusta Gieske. Willy was gay and was working for the resistance in Groningen. In the same city Tiemon Hofman was arrested and sentenced because of his homosexuality.
Willem Niemeijer died on 16 February in concentratition camp Neuengamme near Hamburg. His body was laid to rest at the Dutch Honourary Cemetery in Hamburg as W.A.Th. Niemeyer.
Between 1941 and 1945, more than 5500 Dutch men and women were taken to the German concentration camp Neuengamme. The Germans sent people to the camp for a variety of reasons. The majority were in the resistance (like the poet Jan Campert), but there were also hostages, people who had been captured in retaliation, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses and black traders. As the war situation became more difficult for the Nazi regime, the situation for the prisoners got worse. There was virtually no food and drink and the terror of the camp guards took on great forms. In the end, only about ten percent of prisoners returned to the Netherlands in 1945.
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