Liquidation site of Gerard Kerlen

Willemsplantsoen

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Gerard Kerlen, Chief of the Utrecht Police, thought he was just going home, as he did every day. He would be welcomed home by his wife Alida after his short walk from the Paardenveld police station to the street Willemsplantsoen, where he lived. Alida would then have a meal ready for him. He would greet his young son and they would sit down for dinner. Instead, he died on the street that day in Alida's arms, a few meters from his front door, with two bullets in his body. Those bullets had been fired by none other than Truus van Lier, resistance fighter with the armed group CS-6. She had been shadowing him for weeks, observing his every move. That afternoon, September 3, 1943, she was waiting for him, at the end of Walsteeg. She wore her gray-checkered coat and a revolver in her coat pocket. Her bicycle was ready for flight, parked only a few footsteps away. Kerlen was in charge of the task force Central Control, better known as the "Jodenploeg," which persecuted, robbed, arrested and then deported Utrecht Jews. Truus and her fellow resistance fighters had no doubt: Kerlen had to go. No sooner said than done. Truus meant Kerlen's downfall, but he also meant hers.