The faces behind the Stolpersteine on the Domplein beside Utrecht University
Utrecht University honours Second World War victims with Stolpersteine
Utrecht University commemorates the lives of students and staff who were persecuted by the Nazi regime during the Second World War through Stolpersteine (literally ‘stumbling stones’). The Stolpersteine are laid to the left of the University Hall on the Domplein.
The lives behind the Stolpersteine of 2026
On 4 May 2026, five new Stolpersteine will be unveiled. They commemorate the lives of Isaac Cohensius, Wim Eggink, Cornelis van Lier, Trui van Lier, and Truus van Lier.
Isaac Cohensius
Isaac Cohensius studied at the Faculty of Medicine and became engaged to nurse Ester van der Hoeden during his studies. He had his roots on Goeree-Overflakkee, where he was born on 14 November 1910 into a Dutch Jewish family.
Isaac took considerable risks by openly flouting the anti-Jewish measures. He did not wear the Jewish star, ate in restaurants, and disregarded the travel ban in order to continue attending births. In July 1942, he and Ester married. A few weeks later, they were transported from Utrecht to Westerbork.
Read more about Isaac Cohensius
By special exception, Isaac was granted a temporary pass to sit his medical finals in Utrecht. On 28 August he took the Hippocratic oath, three days before his transport eastwards.
At Cosel, some 80 kilometres short of Auschwitz, the men were forcibly removed from the train. Ester continued to Auschwitz, where she was murdered shortly after arrival. She was 28 years old. Isaac was put to work as a ‘Krankenbehandler’ – the title of ‘Arzt’ (doctor) being reserved for ‘Aryans’ – in at least seven forced labour camps in Upper Silesia, Poland.
Isaac survived the war. He remarried, emigrated to Israel, and died on 5 March 1993.
Willem (Wim) Eggink
Willem Eggink, better known as Wim, was born on 3 May 1920 in Utrecht and studied Human Geography. When Rector Hugo Kruyt called on students to remain calm in the autumn of 1940 following the introduction of the ‘Aryan declaration’ and the dismissal of Jewish professors, Wim anonymously distributed a sharply worded pamphlet. In it, he urged the University Senate to express solidarity with their ousted colleagues.
From 1941 onwards, Wim coordinated much of the nationwide student resistance from Utrecht, and joined the resistance group centred around Utrecht-based Hispanist Johan Brouwer. Wim was a co-founder and editor of several underground publications, including Sol Iustitiae (written specifically for students of Utrecht University) and Ons Volk.
Read more about Wim Eggink
On 21 January 1944, Wim was arrested by National Socialists during a large-scale operation targeting Het Parool. Via Kamp Amersfoort, he was deported to Germany in August of that year. Just before his twenty-fifth birthday, on 1 April 1945, he died in a labour camp near Hameln. He is buried at the Erebegraafplaats Bloemendaal in Overveen.
A room in Utrecht University’s Administration Building bears the names of Wim, and Trui and Truus van Lier: the Van Lier en Egginkzaal.
Cornelis (Kees) van Lier
Cornelis (Kees) van Lier was born on 5 June 1912 in Utrecht. As a student of Mathematics and Physics, he played an active part in university life. He was a member of the Utrechtsch Studenten Corps, wrote for the Faculteitenblad, and served as chairman of the Algemeene Debating Club. His promising academic career and future were brutally cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War.
Read more about Cornelis van Lier
On 19 January 1940, Cornelis married Bernardina Daamen. He was called up for military service and served until the Netherlands surrendered to the German occupier. When an attempt to flee to England with his pregnant wife and parents failed, the family made a drastic decision. Together, they took their own lives. On 14 May 1940, in Haarlem, Cornelis’ life came to an end at just 27 years of age.
In commemorating Cornelis, we pause to reflect on the devastating impact of war on individual lives. We honour the memory of a promising scholar whose contribution to learning and society was so brutally cut short.
- Cornelis’ story was written up in 2025 by Sarah Baldassi, a student of German Language and Culture
Geertruida Elisabeth (Trui) van Lier
Geertruida Elisabeth van Lier – Trui – was born on 13 November 1914 in Utrecht, the youngest of three children in a liberal household. Her Jewish father was a solicitor and director of the Utrecht Mortgage Bank. In 1935, Trui began studying Law in Utrecht, where she later became president of the Utrechtse Vrouwelijke Studenten Vereeniging.
Even before Germany invaded the Netherlands, Trui had resolved to do something for Jewish children should the fighting reach Dutch soil. When war broke out, she abandoned her studies and in November 1940 opened the Kinderbewaarplaats Kindjeshaven nursery at Prins Hendriklaan 4.
Read more about Trui van Lier
Trui ran the crèche together with her friend Jet Berdenis van Berlekom. By keeping a double set of records full of aliases and fictitious addresses, the two women managed to deceive the authorities for a considerable time. Following a night-time raid in 1944, Trui was forced into hiding. Jet kept Kindjeshaven going until February 1945. An estimated 150 Jewish children found shelter there. Trui died in 2002 in Ede.
Geertruida (Truus) van Lier
The youngest daughter of solicitor Willem van Lier and chemist Derkje Wensink, Geertruida (Truus) van Lier was born on 22 April 1921. She was named after the same grandmother as her cousin Trui van Lier.
Shortly after the German invasion, Truus began studying Law in Utrecht. Through her fellow students she became involved in organised resistance, joining the armed Amsterdam group CS-6. There she carried out courier work, escorted Jews to safe houses, and smuggled weapons. In 1943 she infiltrated the NSB and the Wehrmacht in Amersfoort, secretly photographing the Soesterberg air base.
Read more about Truus van Lier
On 3 September 1943, Truus carried out her best-known act of resistance. For weeks she had shadowed NSB chief superintendent Gerardus Kerlen, who commanded a special unit enforcing the persecution of Jews. She waited for him outside his home and shot him dead. She escaped by bicycle, but a week and a half later she was arrested in Haarlem and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Here, she was executed by firing squad on 27 October 1943. According to eyewitnesses, she walked to the firing squad singing.
On a wall in the Walsteeg, near the Willemsplantsoen where Truus carried out her final act of resistance, the poem Truus can be found. It was written by Hanneke van Eijken, Professor of Rule of Law and Democracy and one of Utrecht’s city poets.
The lives behind the Stolpersteine of 2025
In March 2025, the first Stolpersteine were laid beside the University Hall on the Domplein. These are the stories of Marianne Blazer, Jacques Bol, Jacob van Gelderen, and Henny de Vries, gathered and written up by students from the German Language and Culture Bachelor’s programme.
Marianne Helena (Panny) Blazer
Marianne Helena Blazer, affectionately known to friends and family as Panny, was studying Medicine when the Second World War broke out. She was born on 21 August 1917 into a Jewish family in Rotterdam and came to Utrecht in 1936 to study. As an active member of the Utrechtse Vrouwelijke Studenten Vereeniging, she was closely involved in student life, where she also met her future husband, Leendert Tinus de Jong.
Read more about Marianne Blazer
Marianne’s life and ambitions were abruptly cut short by the systematic persecution of Jews during the war. On 10 November 1942, she was deported together with her husband to Auschwitz, where three days later, on 13 November 1942, she was murdered at the age of 25.
More than eighty years on, her name is given a permanent place on the Domplein. Through her Stolperstein and those of the others, we commemorate Marianne and the hundreds of other members of the university community whose lives were destroyed. These stories remind us of the enduring need to remain vigilant against exclusion and discrimination.
- Larissa Bies
Jacob Johannes (Jacques) Bol
Jacob Johannes Bol, better known as Jacques, was a promising student of Art History. He was born on 13 August 1922 in Dordrecht and grew up in a loving family. In 1941 he began his studies, and as a student assistant to Professor Willem Vogelsang, an academic career seemed to lie before him.
At a time when freedom of thought was under severe pressure, Jacques refused to abandon his principles. By declining to sign the loyalty declaration in 1943, he embodied the academic values at the heart of the university community: independence, critical thinking, and intellectual integrity.
Read more about Jacques Bol
The consequences were far-reaching. Jacques was immediately excluded from the university and, on 6 May 1943, deported along with thousands of other students to Kamp Ommen and a labour camp near Berlin. From there he continued to send his family letters and drawings. This proved his undoing: in February 1944 he was suspected of espionage and arrested.
Jacques died on 4 May 1945, presumably at the Red Cross hospital in Cham, Germany.
- Jorja Vorsselman
Jacob (Bob) van Gelderen
Jacob van Gelderen was an economist, politician, and Professor of Sociology. He was born on 10 March 1891 in Amsterdam, where he grew up in a Jewish middle-class family. He wrote for socialist periodicals, worked for the Bureau of Statistics of the City of Amsterdam, served as Professor of Political Economy in Batavia, and acted as adviser on colonial affairs and economics at the Ministry of the Colonies.
In 1937 Jacob entered the House of Representatives on behalf of the SDAP and took up a professorship at Utrecht University. He championed social justice and the rights of oppressed peoples. In his lectures he stressed the importance of objectivity and facts, maintaining that these need never conflict with personal conviction.
Read more about Jacob van Gelderen
Jacob foresaw the catastrophic consequences of the German invasion. “It is over,” he told his fellow SDAP member Jozef Emanuel Stokvis. Four days later, Jacob took his own life together with his family. Like other victims associated with our university, his story illustrates the many different ways in which the war destroyed academic careers and lives.
- Mirco Vantangoli
Henny (Mimi) de Vries
As the persecution of Jewish citizens intensified, Henny de Vries – known to those closest to her as Mimi – went into hiding in Lunteren on 13 July 1942. Together with her sister Meta, she was discovered and imprisoned in the Oranjehotel in Scheveningen, a notorious prison where resistance fighters and other ‘enemies of the regime’ were held.
After twelve days, on 12 August, the sisters were transferred to Kamp Westerbork. On 24 August, deportation to Auschwitz followed on transport number 74, together with 963 other prisoners. Henny was murdered immediately upon arrival on 3 September 1943. She was 29 years old – her future and ambitions cut short before their time.
Read more about Henny de Vries
In her birthplace of Amersfoort, where Henny came into the world on 27 September 1913, a commemorative stone has already been laid. Now Utrecht University joins in honouring her life. In this way, the impact of the Holocaust is not merely a figure in the history books, but something tangible: the loss of real lives, full of dreams, relationships, and unrealised potential.
- Kayleigh Dijkerman