Regio Goeree Overflakkee » Hendrik (Henk) APPEL (1926-1953)

Personal data Hendrik (Henk) APPEL 

• He was born on October 23, 1926.
• He died on February 1, 1953 in Middelharnis, Goeree-Overflakkee, NL-ZH, he was 26 years old.

  drowned

• A child of Laurus (Lauw) APPEL and Jannetje TROOST
• This information was last updated on January 7, 2015.

Household of Hendrik (Henk) APPEL

Notes about Hendrik (Henk) APPEL

Middelharnis - The Van Pallandt Polder

It was birthday time at the (farm) Van Pallandstee for Aat Troost. Aat had gotten a beautiful doll with matching
clothes. Home were father Arie Troost and Mother Cornelia (Kee) Hoogmoed. Of their six, only Gr, Aat, and little Piet
were home. Visiting were Opoe Arendje Hoogmoed (n van Delft) and her daughters Maria and Teuntje. KeeGÅ ??????à?????????????/s uncle Jacob
Hoogmoed lived-in.

The three oldest boys Troost, Jaap, Jan and Job had headed for Middelharnis village to the first two to visit their
fiances, Job to visit family, Piet Verhage. later opoe Hoogmoed and both the aunts had taken a taxi to their home in
the Kerkstraat in Sommelsdijk.

After the alarm struck, Jaap and Job Troost had been directed by company manager Ton Mijs to fortify the Van
Pallandtstee, which is part of NV van Pallandtpolder. The same was asked of Jaap Appel and his brother Henk volunteered
to come along, by car with Mr. Mijs. Trucks had been ordered to remove the cattle to the village but they werenGÅ ??????à?????????????/t
coming.

At the farm the cattle had been freed, they had a better chance that way than remaining in the stalls. Arie Troost gave
the order to evacuate, and Hendrik Appel 26, Jacob Appel 22, Jacob Troost 22 and Job Troost 17 headed into the dark.
Arie Troost remained.

Perplexingly only moments later a motorcycle and side car drove up. They were federal police, directed to take shelter
on the farm. Before a response could be issued, the water broke through the dike with such force and speed that the
three men could barely reach safety in the attic of the wagon house. A banner was improvised to wave from a hole in the
roof.

Griet van der Wekke (n Appel), Henk and JaapGÅ ??????à?????????????/s sister, had spent the night with family in Kralingen but as it was
flooding there, had with husband Koos fled for the Gelderse Dijk to get to her parents on the Voorstraat in
Middelharnis. Once there, everyone worried about the boys who had gone of to look after the cattle. Stories of white
rags or sheets seen being waved a the wagon house had reached them.

When Piet Troost found out the next morning that his brother Arie was in the flooded polder, he decided to go and get
him. He found Klaas Vroegindeweij and Hendrik van der Gijze willing to take him on a row boat, dragged out of the
Middelharnis harbour and over the Oost Havendijk. Near the very damaged Schapendijk they launched again to row to the
farm. When they got there the first question was GŠ???????where are the boys?GŠ???????? But they had not arrived, either in Middelharnis
or Sommelsdijk. The six of them got into the little boat and made it back to Middelhanris against the wind and with
great difficulty.

The family Hoogmoed needed to be evacuated, Opoe Arendje, the aunts Maria and Teuntje and thier sister Kee and her
children Gr, Aat and Piet, seven in all. They end up in Naaldwijk with a family from Ouddorp, Heerschap, and later
stayed with a family in Zeist. This is where they are informed their boys and the old man have been found.

Searches had been made daily around the farm for the five missing men. The search crew was composed of Arie Troost and
his son Jan, Frans Both and Piet Aupperlee and Dammes Vroegindeweij. A tractor just managed through te water across the
narrow roads and looked in the lower-lying ditches. Another team, Koos van der Wekke, brother-in law to the Apple boys,
and Jaap Appel and others searched daily in a small boat. Dredging took place near the Schapendijk.

It took a week to find the bodies of Jaap Troost and Jaap Appel. Henk Appel and Job Troost were recovered two days
after that. All four near the Schapendijk where they were overcome, their faces in the same direction. The elderly
Jacob Troost was also recovered.

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Timeline Hendrik (Henk) APPEL

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