Before the war Herbert Otto Drilsma was a city councillor for the SDAP in Haarlem. A German non-commissioned officer was shot in Haarlem on 30 January 1943. As a reprisal a group of ten prominent men from Haarlem was arrested. On 2 February 1943 these men were executed in the dunes of Bloemendaal. Herbert Drilsma was one of these ten men.
On 4 May 2005 a plaquette was unveiled in the council chamber of Haarlem with the names of the city councillors who died in the war.
Herbert Drilsma’s name is on this plaquette.
Addition of a visitor of the website
For additional information, see:
W. de Wagt, Blijf ik geen mens? : Herbert Drilsma en Ali Nieuwveen, een liefde in de schaduw van de oorlog (Wormer 2008).