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= Anda Kerkhoven = Melisande Tatiana Marie “Anda” Kerkhoven (April 10, 1919 - March 19, 1945) was a woman of Dutch and Indian origin, born in France and raised in West-Java, before moving to Groningen for her studies. She was known for her pacifistic ideology and joining a resistance group during the second world war. For that reason she was arrested and killed in March 1945 by the German Sicherheitsdienst.

Early Life
Anda Kerkhoven was born on the 10th of april, 1919, in Saint Cloud near Paris, when her parents were on a holiday there. She was the third of eight children. Her mother, Constance Paulina Bosscha, had Indian ancestors. Her father was Adriaan Rudolph Willem Kerkhoven. His grandfather, Anda’s great-grandfather, was Rudolf Kerkhoven, the son of an Amsterdam banker named Johannes Kerkhoven, who founded the Johannes Kerkhovenpolder in Termunten. The novel The tea lords of Hella Haasse was based on Rudolf Kerkhoven.

Anda grew up in the Djampangs on West-Java. Her father was a hunter and also owned tea and rubber plantations there. Anda grew very fond of nature and all that lived and, despite her father’s profession, became vegetarian at a young age.

Student of the University of Groningen
Anda started to study Medicine at Batavia. However, cutting living tissue was an obligatory part of this study and since this was against her principles, she did not want to finish her study there. The University of Groningen was willing to make an exception for this part of the curriculum and therefore, she started her study there in 1938.

In Groningen she became a member of the all-women student association ‘Magna Pete’ and the SDSC: the Social Democratic Student Club. Via ‘De Linetreckers’, a drawing club connected to Magna Pete, she came in touch with the Groningen painter Johan Dijkstra. He painted multiple portraits of her and let his class do that as well.

Anda also wrote for the university paper ‘Der Clercke Cronike’. Her articles were often pacifistic, which often led to conflicts with her fellow students. In an article about the moral value of science and the place of humans, she wrote: ‘What is not allowed, is not allowed, no matter the price!’ She closely followed the events in Hitler-Germany.

After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the start of the war, debates grew about self-defence. Her defence of internationalism, temporary resistance and consequent pacifism sparked fierce controversy in this field. She wrote in Der Clercke Cronike on October 6, 1939: ‘No tyrant can force me to obey him, nor to commit moral suicide by using methods of combat that I detest against him or his slaves.’ With these words, she made clear she would not let anyone force her into doing things she did not want to do.

Resistance during the Second World War
When the Netherlands got occupied in the second world war, Anda tried to not get involved and to focus on her studies. However, due to her pacifistic ideology, combined with her political and artistic contacts, she got involved in the Groningen resistance group De Groot. About 30 people were involved and the group focussed on the pacifistic resistance: falsifying documents, housing people in hiding and spreading food sources and pamphlets. Anda also wrote illegal leaflets and passed these out herself, in which she called for moral action.

One of the people also involved in the group was Anda’s landlord, Karel Hendriks. He and his family became friends with Anda during the years of war and she spent a lot of time at their place.

Death
On December 27, 1944 house Hendriks was raided by the Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence agency of Nazi Germany, and Anda Kerkhoven was arrested. She was tortured by them, but never gave in and provided them with no information.

On March 19, 1945 she and another member of her resistance group were shot and buried in the Quintusbos, a forest in Glimmen. They were rumoured to be told to have some time to stride here on their own and subsequently be shot out of nowhere by the Germans. Later, a memorial was put up for Anda here.

On June 22, 1945 her remains were dug up and reburied at the Noorderbegraafplaats in Groningen. In 1967 her remains were moved one last time and she was laid to rest at the honorary cemetery in Loenen.

Memorial Glimmen
Near the woods where Anda Kerkhoven was shot, a memorial stone was placed. The memorial is located on a sand path, the Oosterbroekweg, in Glimmen. It was an initiative of Klaas Drenth and Rieneke Pisuisse-Ekkelenkamp, both members of the 4th of may commitée of Haren. On May the third 2003 the stone was revealed by Vincent Kerkhoven, a nephew of Anda Kerkhoven. During the reveal, Klaas Drenth held a speech in which he stated: “This is how we resist the flow of impermanence and how the resistance is given a face.”

The text on the memorial stone translates as follows:

Stained glass window
In the Academy building of the University of Groningen, there is a stained glass window on which Anda Kerhoven is featured. The window is part of five stained-glass windows that were put up in remembrance of the history of the University. The window with Anda was made after Anda’s death by Johan Dijkstra.

The five windows were made and installed in the period lasting from 1937 until 1951. The window featuring Anda is the last one made, installed most on the right, which depicts the modern times. Anda is depicted by Johan Dijkstra as a female figure in white, as a sign of peace and truce.

Exhibition in Maritime Museum of the North
In the Maritime Museum of the North (het Noordelijk Scheepvaartmuseum), an exhibition about the resistance in the Netherlands was held from March 30th until May 27th 2018. The exhibition was called ‘''Voortdurend verzet! Wat zou jij doen?’, which translates to ‘Ongoing resistance! What would you do?''’

Anda Kerkhoven was included in this exhibition as one of the fighters of the resistance. The exhibition depicted her work for the resistance group ‘De Groot’, but also told the story of the rest of her life, as the aim of the exhibition was to give a face to the fighters of the resistance.

Paintings in the Groninger Museum
From July until September 2013 three portraits of Anda Kerkhoven were exhibited in the Groninger Museum. The portraits were all painted by De Ploeg-painter Johan Dijkstra, who is known to have painted portraits of Anda several times while she was living in Groningen.

One of these paintings was donated to the Groninger Museum by the BankGiroLoterij, a Dutch lottery and charity organization. At the time, the other two paintings were owned by the Johan Dijkstra foundation and lent to the museum. In May 2014 the foundation gifted the museum one of these paintings. The paintings are now exposed in the portrait gallery of the Groninger Museum.