This memorial page is dedicated to Johannes Pieter Coté, one of more than 725 war victims connected to the municipality of Deurne documented by Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers. The municipality of Deurne and the surrounding villages of Liessel, Vlierden, Helenaveen, Neerkant and Zeilberg were liberated in the autumn of 1944 during heavy fighting. Victims fell on all sides: Allied soldiers from countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and New Zealand, and German soldiers.

But the archive covers more than just the combat victims on Deurne soil. Residents of Deurne who lost their lives elsewhere are also commemorated: civilians who were murdered in concentration camps, forced labourers who died in Germany, people who were executed or succumbed to the effects of persecution and oppression. In addition, residents of Deurne who entered German military service and were killed elsewhere are also included.

Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers has been documenting the story of all these people since 1995, without distinction of nationality, side or background. The goal is to give every person a name and a face, and to keep their memory alive.

 

Johannes Pieter Coté

Name: Coté
First names: Johannes Pieter
Nickname: Theo
Date of birth: 11 September 1907
Place of birth: Helenaveen
Residence: 30 Terrasweg, Santpoort
Rank / Occupation: Member of the Resistance / Civil servant
Identity tag: –
Unit: –
Date of death: 6 April 1945
Place of death: Limmen
Cause of death: Executed
Cemetery: Bloemendaal Memorial Cemetery in Overveen
Memorial site: War Memorial in Castricum

Additional information

Grave location: Section 8, grave HH

Son of Johannes Christoffel Coté and Frederika Blankendaal, widow of Geertruida Adriana Gans.

Johannes Pieter Coté worked as a clerk at the North Holland Provincial Electricity Company (PEN) in Bloemendaal. Whilst he had previously been involved in resistance activities on his own initiative, from early 1944 he was active in the underground organisation the V-Leger in Velsen. As part of the V-Leger’s Civilian Work Department, he looked after people in hiding and carried out courier duties. As the local head of the National Support Fund, he organised fundraising. He was also a member of the LO executive committee in Santpoort, and acted as an intermediary in the transport of food and the accommodation of Jewish people in hiding and underground workers. He kept a revolver and hundreds of food ration vouchers hidden in his home. Alongside these activities, he also distributed the underground newspaper *Trouw* and the *Trouw-Bulletin*.

On Thursday 1 March 1945, during a meeting with four other underground activists, including D.J. van Rijswijk (‘Zwart’), Coté was arrested at his home at Terrasweg 30 in Santpoort by two members of the Velsen police force. After, amongst other things, a large bundle of Trouw-Bulletins – which had been delivered shortly before to be distributed in Velsen – was discovered, he was taken to the Central Police Headquarters in IJmuiden-Oost and subsequently to the HvB-Weteringschans in Amsterdam. On 6 April 1945, he was executed in Limmen
.

An avenue in the municipality of Velsen was named after him.
In de gemeente Velsen werd een laan naar hem vernoemd.

View all persons in the category: Shot, liquidated or murdered in some other way