All the fallen resistance people in Limburg

Simon Stendert Groot (Simon)

Het Grote Gebod – L.O.

Simon Groot was a farmer. He belonged to the LO-Sevenum and possibly the OD. His farm Rust Roest (Rest Rusts) in Sevenum was a hotbed of resistance during the Second World War. People in hiding were housed there and the resistance met here regularly.
Dr. Jan Eduard de Quay, one of the members of the Triumvirate of the Nederlandsche Unie and later prime minister, was in hiding at the Groot family’s farm in Sevenum from 1943 to 1944. [1]
Provincial LO leader Jan Hendrikx invited the LO leadership to a meeting at Rust Roest in December 1943. [2]
After Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday), September 5, 1944, the resistance fighters became more bold.
At one moment there were about 500 men at the Groot family’s farm Rust Roest in Sevenum to receive weapons that were to be dropped there. Because of the setback in the battle of Arnhem, which started on Sunday, September 17, 1944, the dropping was cancelled and most of them left. [6]
South Limburg had been liberated in early September 1944, but Sevenum still had to wait until November 22, 1944. Many German soldiers had long since stopped believing in the Endsieg (Final Victory).
The last day in the lives of the Groot cousins is described by several sources:
On September 20, 1944, a shootout occurred with looting German soldiers. One of the OD members who fled to the hayloft shot a German in his back. [1]
A detailed version is in the Venlo Municipal Archives, Mercus Collection, and can be found at the OGS website:
On Wednesday, September 20, 1944, 3 Germans showed up around noon. A firefight ensued in which Simon Petrus Groot was killed on the spot and Simon Stendert Groot was critically wounded. A few hours later he also died. On the German side, 2 men were killed. The third managed to escape. [6]
The German local commander probably knew that the three soldiers had been looting. Perhaps this is another explanation for what happened next:
The mediation was done by Mrs. van der Helm, who was a German. She had been born in the same place as the then Ortskommandant (local commander) of Venlo and knew him very well.
After the bodies of the fallen Germans had been deposited again near the Groot farm, the Germans refrained from further reprisals. [6]

Simon Stendert Groot is buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery St. Fabianus & Sebastianus, row 9, grave 3. That is a family grave. It shows, that both Simon Stendert and Simon Petrus were called Simon. [6]
At the site in Sevenum, where the farmstead Rust Roest stood, there is now a monument commemorating it. [3]
He is listed in the “Erelijst 1940-1945” (Honor Roll of the Dutch Parliament). [5]

Footnotes

1. tracesofwar.nl Groot, Simon Stendert
2. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   6. De Landelijke Organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers • VIII-IX, p.593
3. Sevenum, Herdenkingsmonument Hoeve ‘Rust Roest’, Dorperdijk 19, 5975 PV, Sevenum (Horst aan de Maas), Limburg, Nederland
4. biogr. Groot, Simon Stendert
5. Erelijst 1940-1945
6. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl