Hans Kuik was born on 19 November 1926. Together with his older brother, Bert, he witnessed the attack on and occupation of the Netherlands by German forces in May 1940. Both decided to join an underground resistance group called the ‘Rolls Royce Club’.
In the Second World War the Kuik brothers were couriers and provided people in hiding with food, medicine and other supplies. The brothers also gathered information to help the resistance movement. During Operation Market Garden, Hans and Bert assisted wounded British soldiers in Arnhem at the Saint Elisabeth Hospital. After the fighting was over and the city was full of German troops, they helped various British soldiers to escape from the hospital.
On 3 November 1944 the hospital was evacuated. Bert and Hans swapped their civilian clothing with the uniforms of two soldiers so that the soldiers might escape. Unfortunately the brothers were spotted on the street with parts of the British uniforms and were arrested. They were brought to the German ‘Golflinks’ barracks on Apeldoornseweg at Arnhem. At this spot various people had been assembled for interrogation. Bert and Hans managed to escape but were caught again. On the same day they were brought to the area of the Rosendaelsche Golf Club, where Friedrich August Enkelstroth, a German member of the Security Police, shot both of them.
After the war Enkelstroth was convicted for the murder of four civilians and the torture of twelve others. He was sentenced to death but in the end only served twelve years in prison.
