Gerrit van der Waals

For the Nobel Prize–winning physicist, see Johannes Diderik van der Waals.
Gerrit van der Waals
Gerrit van der Waals in 1945; photograph from a Soviet prison
Born(1920-04-24)24 April 1920
Surabaya, Dutch East Indies
Died11 August 1948(1948-08-11) (aged 28)
Moscow, Soviet Union
AllegianceNetherlands
BranchRoyal Netherlands East Indies Army
RankSecond lieutenant
ConflictsWorld War II
AwardsBronze Cross

Gerrit Hendricus Maria van der Waals (24 April 1920 – 11 August 1948) was a Dutch officer of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and a member of the wartime resistance.

After the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, he escaped from a German POW camp in 1943 and later was active in anti-Nazi resistance in Hungary. Arrested by the advancing Soviet forces in late 1944, he was imprisoned in Moscow, accused of aiding anti-Soviet forces, and died there in 1948. He was posthumously awarded the Dutch Bronze Cross.

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