Karel C. van Berckel
† 5 sept. 1944

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Dr. Van Berckel was already preparing his resistance before the outbreak of the war, among other things by arranging a secret room in his house.
He and his wife Eleonora have systematically obstructed the Nazis since the beginning of the war by offering help to Jews, accommodating crashed allied pilots and helping the underground press, among others..
When the resistance fighter Theo Crijns was wounded when fleeing and was brought to the hospital as a prisoner, Van Berckel dressed his wounded face in such a way, that he could not speak and managed to keep him out of the hands of the Sicherheitspolizei (German security police) for the time being. Crijns is freed with a shooting, as a result of which a guard died. Dr. Van Berckel ensured that the crew of liberators could leave the hospital with their seriously injured. He is interrogated, arrested in the early morning of Friday, August 24, and taken to camp Vught. He was shot there on September 5, 1944, 52 years old, a few days before the Allies freed the camp.

To honor this patriot of the best kind, shortly after the war, on 5 September 1947, a memorial plaque made by the young artist Harry Stump from Heerlen was unveiled in the Saint Joseph Hospital by his wife.
Some time after the move in 1968, the memorial stone was placed in the large hall of the new DeWever hospital (now called the Zuyderland hospital) on Henri Dunantstraat.

Met Godsvertrouwen voor het vuurpeloton • Karel van Berckel, verzetsman en chirurg, door Lodewijck Ivo Crijns, ISBN 9789462490888
Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught, biografie

Album : Resistance

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