Gerrit Jacobus Boekhoven was a Dutch resistance fighter during the Second World War. He was the son of lithographer Gerardus Boekhoven and Johanna Frederika Nanninga, and the younger brother of Gerard Boekhoven, who later became a mayor.
At the outbreak of the war, Gerrit was the manager of the Noord-Nederlandse Clichéfabriek in Groningen. In 1942, he was approached by members of the underground newspaper De Vonk and joined their resistance efforts. Operating under the alias “Henk de Groot,” he helped form the De Groot Group together with his companion Dinie Aikema and fellow resister Anda Kerkhoven.
The group had a pacifist character and specialized in providing forged identity papers and ration cards to people in hiding. Boekhoven used his printing skills to produce these materials and to create clichés and stamps used in counterfeiting operations.
On 12 January 1945, Boekhoven was arrested by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). He was imprisoned and tortured at the Scholtenhuis in Groningen but refused to betray his comrades. On 19 March 1945, he was executed by Dutch collaborators of the SD at the Vosbergen estate in Eelde.
His group members, Anda Kerkhoven and Dinie Aikema, were also executed shortly afterward.
A street in Groningen, the G.J. Boekhovenstraat, is named in his honor.
