On April 14, 1945, Marnezijl witnessed a terrible execution near Bolsward. As a reprisal for the death of a German soldier, three men were executed at the transformer house on the Makkumervaart.
Just before the liberation in April 1945, a large number of German trucks passed through Bolsward in the direction of the Afsluitdijk. The German non-commissioned officer Bernhard Rolf from Münster had technical problems with his army truck. He asked the Bolswarder police officer Jan Schoonbeek to show him a garage. On the way back, a team of ten men from the Interior Forces crossed their path at the Snekerpoortsbrug. The leader of the group, Piet Cnossen, shot the German dead with his stengun.
As a counter-action, on the orders of the Ortskommandant Schneider, residing in Sneek, close to the site of the shooting, Jan de Koning (57) and his son Jacobus de Koning (31), evacuee Herman Hennekes (35 and architect Ruurd Jorritsma (28)) were arrested.
They are transported in an army truck to the transformer house at Marnezijl. When they have got out of the truck, Jorritsma suddenly runs away. He throws away his coat and jumps into the cold water of a ditch. The Germans react too late and he escapes. The other three men are executed. On the site of the execution is a monument with the names of the three victims.
