The exciting and fateful history of the Bakker family
The epic story of an extraordinary Frisian family: from strict Reformist Northern notables to unyielding, gay resistance fighters.
At the end of the Nineteenth Century, Popke Bakker, son of an innkeeper in Langweer, along with his wife Dieuwke decided to start a yarn-and-ribbon shop in Buitenpost. The company quickly became a household name. In the years that followed, P.S. Bakker grew into a well-known fashion house in the north, with branches in Leeuwarden and Groningen. The strictly Reformed Bakkers were also active administratively and politically.
Some of Popke and Dieuwke's grandchildren were homosexual, an orientation that they tried not to show from their Reformed background. Couturier Sjoerd, his brothers Albert, Popke and Dirk, and their cousin, publisher Bert Bakker, played a prominent role in the artistic environment of the late 1930s in Amsterdam. After the invasion of the Germans they resisted. Sjoerd, who made the police uniforms for the attack on the Amsterdam Civil Registry Office in 1943, would eventually be executed along with his resistance comrades. A dramatic fate also awaited other Bakker family members.
It is the first time that Bakker descendants have been interviewed about their ancestors. Toni Boumans was also given access to many personal documents. An unforgettable story of an exceptional family with an admirable moral compass
