The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Johan(n) Zanders

Johan Zanders is listed in the index of the CPN Limburg. [1]
His card states the following:
He was allegedly arrested on August 24, 1934. This is obviously a spelling mistake and should read August 24, 1943. Or was it perhaps September? See below under Genealogy Moelker.
Reason given for the arrest: high treason.
His date of death is given as above, his age at the time of death is also given: 46 years. Manner of death: sick in prison.
His widow Zanders-Hendriks, 38 Stationstraat, has submitted a photograph.
He was a member of the CPN, the Communist Party of the Netherlands. No profession is given.

In the Moelker genealogy, his first name is written Johann, born in Kevelaer (D), but resident in Heerlen. Arrested in September 1943, sentenced to 10 years in prison in Hamm in October 44. Then transferred to Siegburg prison. Shortly before liberation, he is said to have escaped and been wounded by shelling. Allegedly then admitted to an emergency hospital for typhus patients in Siegburg. [2]

Many resistance fighters from the western occupied territories were imprisoned in Siegburg prison. The prisoners were made available by the Nazis on a large scale to companies in the region as forced laborers: Zellwolle AG in Siegburg, Klöckner and Dynamit Nobel in Troisdorf, as well as the companies Löhe, Jakobi and Meys in Hennef. [3]
Around 300 prisoners died of typhus there shortly before the end of the war:
The jails in Rheinbach and Siegburg were two central facilities of regional Nazi rule in the district. Thousands of prisoners were passed through here and/or imprisoned for years, not only political prisoners from the region, but also resistance fighters from Western Europe, Jews persecuted for "racial defilement", "normal" criminals, "war economy criminals" and "radio criminals". Hundreds of them were deported to concentration camps from 1942 as part of the "Thierack Action", and around 300 died as a result of the devastating typhus epidemic that raged in Siegburg prison at the end of the war. [3]

Cammaert mentions two people with the same surname who supported the work of the CPN in Heerlen: In Heerlen and the surrounding area, J. Barelds, J. van Beers, H. Garritzen, E. Kasemier, A.J. Overeem, O. Schumacher, W. Warrink and M. and Th. Zanders supported the work of Potze. [4]
These two were arrested on September 24, 1940 by order of Commissioner Hübner in Aachen, but were later released. [4, Appendix VIII.]

Johan(n) was probably German, as he was born in Kevelaer. This is close to the Dutch border, and the dialect was still commonly spoken at the time, which is hardly any different from Limburgish on the Dutch side. This is probably why he was able to settle in easily in Heerlen, where he married and, according to the Nazis, committed high treason. We can therefore regard him as a true Dutch resistance fighter.

Footnotes

1. Archief CPN Limburg, Image 25
   Collection International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam)
2. Genealogie Moelker Johann Zanders
3. rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de Der „Rhein-Sieg-Kreis“ im Nationalsozialismus
4. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   10. De C.P.N. en de illegaliteit, p.982