The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Hendrikus Joseph Alphonsus Maria Zwaans (Hein /Harry)

Oorlogsgravenstichting

Jesuit Harry Zwaans came to Maastricht in September 1940 as director of the Canisius Congregation.
The chief of the municipal police in Maastricht wrote to the oorlogsgravenstichting (war graves foundation) on April 27, 1957:
He possessed Dutch nationality and was a Roman Catholic priest (Jesuit).
He was registered at Maastricht on Sept. 14, 1926, coming from Nijmegen. On Aug. 3, 1931, he de-registered to The Hague, and on Aug. 22, 1940, he returned to Maastricht from The Hague. During his stay in Maastricht he resided in the convent of the Jesuit Fathers at Tongersestraat 53.
As far as we have been able to ascertain, he was arrested by the Germans and imprisoned in a concentration camp. The charges against him are not known here. [1]

In the sidewalk in front of the former main entrance of the Canisianum in Maastricht, his last place of residence there is a stumbling stone to remember him. [2]

At the time of his arrest, Father Zwaans was director of the Canisius Congregation and as such one of the engines in the Catholic Maastricht resistance circles.
…
Zwaans activated the members of the Canisius Congregation to resist the German occupiers.
…
Zwaans was betrayed and he was arrested by the SD-Aussenstelle on July 19, 1941. He was found to be in possession of a pamphlet about a possible strike if the NSB should join the government. After being sentenced to eight months in prison minus three months pretrial detention, he was remanded to the Penitentiary of Kleve in Germany for execution of the sentence. A day before his intended release, Father Zwaans was transferred to Schutzhaft by the SD: first to the concentration camp in Oranienburg and later to the concentration camp in Dachau, where he arrived in early March 1942. There he succumbed to exhaustion on July 27, 1942. [2]

The website oorlogsbronnen.nl has got visual material. We can read there: From March 20, 1942, Hendrikus Joseph Alphonsus Marie Zwaans was imprisoned in Dachau. His camp number was 29525. [3]

On Himmler’s orders, concentration camp of Dachau had a central position in imprisoning clergy who were not willing to compromise with the Nazi regime. Presumably about three thousand Catholic priests alone were detained here. [2]

Memorial Chapel in Maastricht, Von Dopfflaan, Jezuïetenberg (Jesuit Mountain, normally not freely accessible).

Footnotes

1. nationaalarchief.nl Dossier #3
2. jezuieten.org Struikelsteentje voor jezuïet Hein Zwaans
3. oorlogsbronnen.nl tijdlijn Hendrikus Joseph Alphonsus Maria Zwaans
4. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl