Benjamin Heiman Broekema was married to Sara Mina van der Klei. They had two daughters, Reina and Rachelina. Broekema's mother, Reina Broekema-van Dam lived with them. The family lived at 7 Oosterstraat in Warffum. At first, Benjamin Heiman Broekema worked at his father's butcher shop. He became known as a writer and was the author of over 65 plays and skits. He also worked as a journalist (Het Volk) and a radio announcer (VARA). He tended to write and speak in the Groningen dialect. He was the director for the drama groups Triton and Uni in Winsum.
In April 1947 Andries Doornbosch delivered a commemorative speech on the regional broadcasting association:
'I knew Broekema well. Curiously, I met him not through his plays but at a meeting in town. I no longer remember whether the meeting was for our party (the SDAP) of for the VARA. Of course I knew he wrote plays at the time. During the break we struck up a conversation about drama and writing in general. Talking with Broekema about that was always fun. A good conversationalist, he was modest, decent and simple. I never heard him brag about his successes. Never. But he was proud when one of his plays did well. "Yes," he would say, "that's why I write. Everybody likes it when people read what they write, and playwrights like it when their plays are performed."
In addition to an impressive number of plays, he wrote a weekly column in the Volksblad [a Groningen daily affiliated with the SDAP], ever since it started to appear. Every week people looked forward to reading the familiar section and said: 'Let's see what Poere [as he was known] has written in this issue.'"
Broekema, Benjamin. Een verzwegen dood (Amsterdam 2001)
H. Hamburger and J.C. Regtien, Sporen van een joods verleden in Noordwest Groningen (Bedum 1995) 27
In addition, a Jokos file (number 40108) on this family is at the Amsterdam Municipal Archive. Access is subject to authorization from the Stichting Joods Maatschappelijk Werk.