![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
The fallen resistance fighters in the dutch province of Limburg
In the memorial chapel of the provincial resistance monument on the Cauberg in Valkenburg, on three walls are the names of fallen resistance fighters from Dutch Limburg. They are all names with a story, which of course cannot be told there due to lack of space. So that happens here. Anyone who can contribute is expressly requested to get in touch. See the contact page.
Those resistance people, in this case almost only men (Why, in fact? See couriers, the group of resistance fighters, which increasingly consisted of women.), are mostly unforgotten, especially in the places where they lived. We find their stories on local websites, in some cases also on Wikipedia.
A great help for those who search for Dutch war victims are specially the websites of the Oorlogsgravenstichting (war graves foundation) and www.tracesofwar.com.
Much of the background information comes from the unsurpassed book by Fred Cammaert: Het Verborgen Front, Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog.
The complete book can be found on the website of the University of Groningen. (Only a summary is available in english.)
| Vervolgd in Limburg (Prosecuted in Limburg) | The Danger of Lists | The “Hannibalspiel” | Englandspiel | The strikes of April-May 1943 | SiPo Maastricht | SiPo Maastricht | The Raid of Weert | The Strike of Wittem | The Raid on the Distribution Office in Valkenburg | The Treason of Maastricht | The raid on the Maastricht prison on september 5th, 1944 | Eleven imprisoned resistance fighters from Nijmegen killed | Between Maas and Peel | A military training camp for people in hiding | The Tears of Roermond | Revenge actions during the liberation
In summary: “A small group of moral leaders in Limburg showed the way of practical charity. Their positive example made it easy to follow them.”
He notes, that point 2 played a decisive role in the numbers of saved Jews.
The murder of the Sinti (Porajmos), who were present in Limburg before and during the war, went quite differently. They did not live in the midst of society like the Jews, which made it easier for the Nazis. The snare, even for the people themselves, was put on almost silently. First the so-called “work-shy elements“ were forbidden to travel, then they were obliged to go to central assembly camps, where they were to be “re-educated”. Many settled Limburgers may have thought at the time, “Well, it was about time!”. But most did not even notice. The Sinti at that time still lived almost all in caravans. These were confiscated. Thus, a large part of them disappeared from view. On 16 May 1944 a large-scale raid was carried out throughout the Netherlands, during which 578 people were arrested and taken to camp Westerbork. Finally, 244 of them were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on May 19, 1944. Only 31 of them survived the war.
More in the Advies Gemeentelijk woonwagen-en standplaatsenbeleid of the “Vereniging Behoud Woonwagencultuur in Nederland” (association for the preservation of the caravan culture in the Netherlands). It discusses the persecution of the Sinti and the other Roma, but also of other people who led a “gypsy-like” life according to the National Socialists.
See also what Roger Moreno Rathgeb said, the composer of the Requiem for Auschwitz, about “The Forgotten Holocaust” before he lit a candle during the memorial service “Valkenburg liberated 75 years ago”.
This is the translation of an excerpt of De jacht op het verzet (The Hunt for the Resistance), chapter: The tragedy of the ‘small’ resistance by Ad van Liempt.
Already in the first years of the war, the CPN resistance organization was busted in three villages (Schaesberg, Nieuwenhagen and Ubach over Worms, which form what is now Landgraaf in the eastern part of the coal mining district) by the negligence of one of its members, who was suspected of having stolen a bicycle. A list of names was found in his house. Almost everyone on this list perished in German camps. Among them were also some people who, according to Van Liempt, had bought a communist newspaper only once or twice. After the war, these people were also listed in the CPN archives as comrades who had fallen in Limburg.
All but a few of those arrested were found guilty of membership in a communist group. Via the Amersfoort concentration camp, they ended up in camps such as Neuengamme, Buchenwald and Rathenau. Among them are at least seven men who had read such a newspaper only once or twice. According to his brother Dirk, 27-year-old Johan Veldhoven, for example, had read a copy of De Vonk only once: “He didn’t sell this newspaper”, Dirk Veldhoven stated emphatically after the war. Johan Veldhoven was no longer able to express himself, because he died in Neuengamme on November 6, 1942.
A total of sixteen men died in this matter. Waltherus van den Beemd was one of the few prisoners who returned after the war: In April 1945, he was liberated from the Rathenau camp by Russian troops. His left thigh had been frostbitten by the long hours of roll call, and “due to the mistreatment by Nitsch and in the camps, I am no longer able to do heavy work,” he stated. Maricus van de Wetering (37), Heinrich Tholen and Albert Koenders (54) from Schaesberg, Johannes Tersteeg (52) and Cornelis Rombouts (53) from Nieuwenhagen and Gerrit Jansen (54) from Ubach over Worms, they all died in Neuengamme or Buchenwald. Their crime: reading a single issue of De Vonk or De Waarheid.
An important part of the resistance work, especially in the border province of Limburg, was already early in the war to set up escape lines for prisoners of war who fled from Germany, later also for fleeing Jews, shot down Allied aircrew (usually called pilots) and Dutchmen on their way to England. From Germany and the Netherlands one of these lines ran via Eijsden (NL) to Voeren (B) and Visé. From the Land of Herve and Liège, the refugees were taken to Givet on the French border or to Brussels, where other resistance groups took them over. The first were the French and Belgians who fled from captivity. This started as early as 1940. They often knocked on churches’ doors for help. In the course of 1941 a resistance group arose in the border town of Eijsden from the local brass band Sainte Cécile: the fruit grower Alphons Smeets with his entire family, the couple De Liedekerke, customer D. Sleeuwenhoek (who could freely cross the border and knew when patrols were running) and the brass band conductor Arthur Renkin from Liège. (Cammaert 75-94, 135, 239-240). Through Renkin, they established cross-border contacts with resistance fighters in the province of Liège from the organizations Luc /Marc and Clarence such as the doctor Jules Goffin from ’s-Gravenvoeren, Christiane Derenne-Lamazière, the monks father Hugues (Karel Jacobs) and father Étienne (Piet Muhren) from Val-Dieu Abbey and others. Also in the province of Liège, besides former soldiers, parish clergymen were often active. An important contact point was also the gendarmerie in St.-Martensvoeren where Theodoor Brentjens, born in Kessenich on January 12th, 1894, was commander. He then made sure that the former prisoners of war ended up in the Monnikenhof farm that belonged to Val-Dieu Abbey.
The “Hannibalspiel”
Clarence was primarily an intelligence service. For example, they collected information about the railway traffic around the important junction of Visé. An important security principle especially of Clarence was, that per person only one activity should be developed: either intelligence, or the smuggling of those wanted by the Germans, or helping people to hide. In the case of the group Erkens this was not so strictly adhered to, which would promote their later downfall. Nic Erkens came into contact with this group through Pierre Dresen.
They were infiltrated by the office Groningen of the German Marineabwehr (counterintelligence service of the German Navy), who set up the deadly “Hannibalspiel” for this purpose. No less than four infiltrators were deployed, who succeeded in penetrating deeper and deeper into the network due to the naivety of Erkens and especially Renkin. After their arrest Erkens in particular had to take the rap.
On the Dutch side this meant the end of the Erkens group and in Belgium a major blow to the "Luc /Marc" and "Clarence" organizations. In total, the Germans arrested 86 persons from these groups between June 8, 1942 and March 19, 1943. 30 persons were released after a short imprisonment; 18 persons were released after trial; 22 persons were deported to German camps of whom eleven did not survive the war. Eleven persons were sentenced to death and shot on 9 October 1943 in Fort Rhijnauwen (Bunnik, near Utrecht). The fate of five detainees could not be determined (J. van Lieshout, "Het Hannibalspiel", Bussum 1980, pp. 319-324).The Hannibal game of the Marineabwehr (counterintelligence service of the German Navy) in Groningen set an end to the activities of the Erkens group. Those who were sentenced to death were executed at Fort Rhijnauwen (Bunnik, near Utrecht, Netherlands) on october 9th, 1943. (J. van Lieshout, “Het Hannibalspiel”, Bussum 1980, pag. 319-324).
Communiqué of the High Führer of the SS and the police of the provinces of Limburg and North Brabant on the death sentences related to the strike in the mines from April to May 1943.
On July 1, 1946, a mass grave containing seven bodies was discovered in Wellerlooi (municipality of Bergen) on the Wellse Heide (now the nature reserve Landgoed de Hamert). There an oak wood cross stands on a red brick wall, the resistance monument, as a permanent reminder of the seven resistance fighters Han Boogerd, Bob Bouman, Leendert Brouwer, Pieter Ruyters, Reinier Savelsberg, Meindert Tempelaars and Servaas Toussaint, shot in connection with the strike in 1943.
In the Dutch coal mining area this strike was called miner’s strike. The actual mining area stretched from Geleen to Kerkrade, but a not inconsiderable number of miners lived outside of it, for example in Valkenburg. In Maastricht, the strike was initiated by government employees. Later bank staff joined in. When the postal workers also wanted to go on strike, the members of the nazi party NSB present forced them to continue working with all sorts of threats. Long queues of people immediately formed in front of all the counters, wanting to buy one single 1-cent stamp. This way the post office was closed too. The factories also joined.
In the beginning there was a party atmosphere. People flocked to the pubs and didn’t suspect (or didn’t want to think about it) that the occupiers would of course not tolerate this and that there would be victims. These events made it clear that attempts to lure the Dutch with the status of an “Aryan brother nation” had failed.
The miners’ strike was part of the strikes of April-May 1943. The background was the return of Dutch soldiers to captivity, planned by the occupiers, to be put to work in the German war industry. They were the transition to a more massive resistance movement throughout the Netherlands, including the province of Limburg. The strikes were brutally suppressed, but the resistance organizations gained more new members (perhaps even because of this?). For the majority of Dutch Jews, however, it was already too late. :(
Tom (Th.C.) van Helvoort (Roermond), Joe (F.J.K.) Russel (Venray), Jan (J.A.) Dijker (Nijmegen *) and Kees van Sambeek (Maas en Waal *) could escape.
*) The districts of Vierlingsbeek, Nijmegen and Maas en Waal, although outside the province of Limburg, were part of the LO province of Limburg. More info on these districts
During the month of July and the first half of August the detainees in Vught were interrogated continuously by Nitsch who was authorized to conduct so-called sharpened interrogations. After two weeks he received assistance from C. Schut, who revealed himself to be a devilish sadist without inhibitions, which even went too far for Nitsch. Repeatedly he had to restrain his helper. Especially Knops and the vicars Naus and Berix were badly injured by the two. By bluffing and playing off the arrested persons against each other, by which he cleverly used previously acquired knowledge and contradictory statements, Nitsch found out a lot. Soon new arrests followed in Roermond, Helden and Wittem. (Cammaert VIb, page 567) (Cammaert VIb, pagina 567)
Read more in Fred Cammaert – Het verborgen front (The Hidden Front) Chapter 6a, §VI, pp. 560 ff.: De overval van Weert
The Treason of Maastricht
As a result of the betrayal by the brothel madam Aldegonda Zeguers-Boere, more than fifty people were arrested in May 1944. (Cammaert VIb, from page 649.) She was the mistress of Max Strobel, the head of the SiPo (security police) in Maastricht, but at the LO she pretended to work for the resistance at her parties for the Germans. It was Strobel’s intention to set a trap for the resistance fighters. Zeguers-Boere forwarded that a prisoner transport would take place soon. This trap failed due to poor coordination on the resistance side, they did not show up. She then ”mediated” the release of some resistance fighters. During these negotiations LO-leader Jo Lokerman was arrested, and immediately afterwards more than fifty people, including a hider (a so-called diver) that Zeguers-Boere had taken into their home in order to give the impression that she could be fully trusted, as well as the person who had brought the diver to her. Most of those arrested were released after some time. As a result of Zeguers-Boere’s betrayal, the following people died:
H. Brouwers,
Edmond Houtappel,
Prison guard Hubert Jamin,
vicar Hein Lochtman, Jo Lokerman and Joseph W. Ummels (Cammaert VIb, page 651).
During the occupation, the villages on the west bank of the Meuse, such as Sevenum and Horst, were, from the point of view of the LO in Venlo, “outlets” par excellence for people who had to hide themselves, the so called “divers”. They were small, closed agricultural communities. Also larger villages like Venray and Horst were much smaller than today.
Read the story of the area between Maas and Peel during the war.
Open Street Map
A headquarters was established at the Groot family’s farm "Rust Roest" in Sevenum. Numerous people in hiding, including more than a hundred Jews, found shelter in Sevenum alone. According to the manipulated harvest statistics, Sevenum officially suffered from constant crop failures. In reality, shiploads of grain were distributed throughout the country to supply those in hiding and others who needed it. The security police in Maastricht did not succeed in getting a handle on this, and labeled Horst and Sevenum "hotbeds of resistance." Nothing ever came to light during raids. An O.D. man had established a secret telephone connection between Venlo and Den Bosch through Sevenum, which also the L.O. could use. In Sevenum there was a tripod from which a piece of rail was suspended. When it was struck, a high-pitched, penetrating sound could be heard. So one always knew in time when a raiding party was approaching.
The first major raid was carried out by the SiPo on April 5, 1944, due to the activities of NSB member W. Engels. Although his regular letters to the German authorities were always intercepted at the post office, but he still eventually managed to pass on his discoveries.
Towards the end of the war, the character of the raids changed. More and more it was about hunting slaves for the German industry. At the same time, the German army command did not want to be attacked from behind by the population when the Allies advanced. Therefore, all able-bodied men had to go away to Germany, just as later (Christmas 1944) in Roermond. The means they adopted for this purpose was well suited for this pious region: the church raid. On Sunday, October 8, 1944, such church raids took place throughout North Limburg, which was not yet liberated by then, and in parts of North Brabant. South Limburg was already free by then. 2,805 men between the ages of 16 and 65 were arrested. Most were employed in the Hermann Göring-Werke. The majority of them survived the war. This was not the case for 121 of those arrested. Most of the other deportees did not return home until May 1945. (Source: Dwangarbeid in Duitsland, Forced Labor in Germany).
The raids had a great impact on the whole population and thus promoted solidarity. In Het grote gebod, LO-LIMBURG (by Drs L.E.M.A. van Hommerich) we read on p. 324: “When the Germans held a raid near Vierlingsbeek on one side of the Meuse, everyone who had a boat came with it onto the river to bring the persecuted to the other side. In Maasbree the population was warned of danger from the enemy by the position of the wings of the windmill.”
Text on the memorial at the Peelstraat, Kronenberg (Horst aan de Maas):
In memory of the men and boys from Kronenberg, who were kidnapped by the Germans during the Church raid of October 8, 1944 and died in Germany. The reburial of some of them took place on September 4th, 1951. | Martin Aerts, Jozef Baeten, Piet Billekens, Lodewijk Franssen, Hendrik Hoeijmakers, Piet Philipsen, Jan Philipsen, Peter Roodbeen, Jan Verstappen |
See the report on the church raid in Kronenberg.
Read more on the background of this slave hunt at www.4en5mei.nl: Sevenum, sporen die bleven (Sevenum, traces that remained).
See also at Wikipedia NL about the church raids in North Limburg and parts of North Brabant.
In the chapel of the Resistance Memorial of the Province of Limburg, the fallen from these places are listed with their church villages (i.e. not Brabant villages):
Broekhuizen & Broekhuizenvorst,
Grubbenvorst,
Haelen,
Heel-Panheel,
Helden,
Heythuysen,
Horst,
Kessel,
Maasbree,
Nederweert,
Roggel,
Sevenum,
Wessem
When in 1943 the great majority of the students did not want to sign the declaration of loyalty and when also because of this more and more young men wanted to go into hiding in the area between the Meuse and the Peel, some former soldiers from the OD in Venlo came up with the idea of training them to get soldiers. They had in mind a sort of partisan commando that would be able to hide well in this wooded area. The choice for one of these camps was the forest Bovensbos near Helden, see Open Street Map near the farm of Cornelis Krans.
From Cammaert’s dissertation, Chapter VIII De Ordedienst, p. 883: The Diver’s Camps in Helden and Sevenum you can read a short summary here.
Cornelis Krans provided five demountable chicken coops that had room for 40 to 50 recruits. The camp was given the name "Vrij Nederland." Because of the large number of people in the know, some of whom seemed to regard the camp rather as a sort of summer camp, rumors soon began to make the rounds. N.S.B. man H. Kessels also heard them and biked there on Thursday, July 15, 1943. Some farm workers showed him the way because he said he also wanted to go into hiding. He found what he was looking for and talked about it with his party comrades Kluytmans and Maessen. A day later he filed a complaint with the police. Constable Evers, a friend of the Resistance, promised to take care of it the next day and immediately sounded the alarm. It was decided to liquidate Kessels as soon as possible. This happened immediately: on the night of Friday, July 16, to Saturday, July 17, he was shot and his body was left there for unknown reasons. This made everything even worse. The SiPo (SicherheitsPolizei, security police) from Maastricht, led by Max Strobel/Ströbel, started an investigation and learned from Kluytmans about Kessel’s discovery.The chief of police in Helden-Panningen Alphons van der Mullen, informed the resistance that a large-scale raid was imminent. While waiting for reinforcements from the Ordnungspolizei, the SiPo people arrested the Krans couple and several other people, including the Jewish De Jong family of Nijmegen, who were in an underground hiding place near the farm. They and Cornelis Krans did not survive the war.
Just over the Belgian border, a similar initiative emerged. Also there started by soldiers: Secret Army Zone II/Limburg. That didn’t go well either, as you can read there. In this densely populated part of Europe, resistance in small, relatively independently operating groups was much more effective and secure.
There were also some camps for people in hiding in the Schadijk woods (Open Street Map) near Horst, but they were not designed as military training camps.
After the liberation of South Limburg and the area west of the Maas River and the failed Battle of Arnhem, the Maas River in Central and North Limburg remained the front line for the time being. In Roermond, when it had been front city for over a month - arrived in the night of 25 to 26 November the depleted 1st battalion of the parachute regiment Kampfgruppe Hübner. The commander Ulrich Matthaeas became city commander (Ortskommandant) and because the west side of the Maas was liberated territory, he also became front section commander (Frontabschnittskommandant). A grim atmosphere immediately developed in the city. He and one of his subordinates, F.W. Held, practiced true terror there in December. The soldiers knew, of course, that the war was unwinnable and that they were hated. There was nothing left of the friendly face that the occupiers had initially put on. Most of the police were less and less willing to cooperate with their terror. At the same time, the demand for forced laborers in Germany was increasing. Matthaeas and one of his subordinates, F.W. Held, exercised downright terror in December. The hunt for people in hiding was also intensified for another reason. The Major had had a panic fear of partisans since his stay in Russia. When the Allies would cross the Meuse River, he feared being attacked from behind. Therefore, he sought an opportunity to get rid of the entire male population of “recruitable” age. That opportunity presented itself around Christmas 1944. By betrayal a hiding place of eleven Roermonders came to light, who were hiding under the floor of a classroom at the Schoolpath. One young man, Jacobus Sevenich, managed to escape.
The remaining ten and two other detainees had to appear before a hastily assembled drumhead court-martial. The verdict was decided in advance: death by bullet.Because it was not about their withdrawal from the labor service or other so-called offenses such as listening to the BBC. It was about terror as a means to get the men and boys out of Roermond and furthermore to make them slaves. On December 26 and 27, 1944, the 14 were shot in the Elmpterbos just across the German border near Roermond: Louis Claessens, Frans Denis, Josef Fuchs, Johannes Hanno, Lambertus Janssens, Willem Jongen, Thijs Oljans, Wicher Oljans, Hubertus Selder, Mathieu Sevenich, Jan Tobben, Louis Uphus (later reburied on the National Field of Honor in Loenen), Willem Winters and ‘Frans’, an escaped Polish prisoner of war.
Cammaert writes in chapter 6b, on pages 621-622: “The twelve innocents were sentenced to death for ‘illegal activities’. That same day Matthaeas had them shot in the woods between Roermond and the German border village of Elmpt. The next day he had two more people, including a Pole, executed there. After the proclamation of the verdict and the order that all male inhabitants of Roermond and Maasniel aged between 16 and 60 had to register with the Ortskommandantur before December 30, 4:00 p.m. under penalty of death, a wave of horror swept through the city. As a result, about 2800 Roermonders showed up. On December 30 they were forced to march in the freezing cold to Dülken, where they had to spend the night standing in the cycling arena in the open air. The next day they were taken by train to Wuppertal for forced labor in the German war industry.
On the old cemetery near the Kapel in ’t Zand, popularly called the Aje Kirkhaof, a memorial stone permanently commemorates this dark event known as ‘het verdriet van Roermond’, the tears of Roermond.
Just across the border, near the site of the executions, citizens from Niederkrüchten erected the memorial stone pictured above (Mahnmal Lüsekamp).
Lindenhof
Other the people in hiding also became victims of this manhunt. See the story of the “divers” at the farm Lindenhof.
Het verborgen front (The Hidden Front) History of the organised resistance against nazi occupation in the Dutch province Limburg during World War II. Plus excerpt in English. Since its publication, this doctoral thesis has been THE standard work when it is about the Limburg Resistance. Also on this site a lot of information is taken from it.
Resistance in Valkenburg The whole story, through the eyes of contemporary witnesses..
Sources etc.
Jan van Lieshout, Het Hannibalspiel
A sinister game during World War II of the counterintelligence service of the Kriegsmarine (Marineabwehr), which led to the downfall of three Dutch-Belgian resistance groups, ISBN 10: 9026945744 ISBN 13: 978902694574880
Loenen Field of Honour
Over 3,900 war victims are buried at Loenen Field of Honour and include those who lost their lives in different places around the world due to various circumstances. There are military personnel, members of the resistance, people who escaped the Netherlands and went to England during the first years of the WWII to join the Allies (‘Engelandvaarders’), victims of reprisal and forced labour and …79
Markante feiten in Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog
Remarkable facts in (Belgian) Limburg during the Second World War
Anyone who thinks that hardly any resistance took place in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium should definitely read this document. The emphasis is on the armed resistance. Author: Mathieu Rutten.78
Stichting Struikelstenen Valkenburg
Also 45 Jews deported from Valkenburg did not return. The Stichting Struikelstenen Valkenburg (“Foundation Stumbling Stones Valkenburg”) was established to place so-called stumbling stones in the sidewalk in front of the house from which they were deported, in memory of the murdered Jews from Valkenburg. With a complete list.
See also Stolperstein on Wikipedia.77
Roermond Front City
Series of stories by Eric Munnicks about the last months of the war.
See also the other War Stories of the Roermond Municipal Archives. Unfortunately no translation available. 76
Belgium WWII
A virtual platform on Belgium and its inhabitants during the Second World War74
Former concentration camp Natzweiler-Struthof, Alsace
European Centre of Deported Resistance Members. Camp and museum73
The Jewish Victims of National Socialism in Cologne | A–Z
72
Documentation Center on the National-Socialism in Cologne
Virtual visit of the museum and the memorial in 8 languages, amongst them Hebrew and Spanish71
Camp Vught National Memorial
The Camp Vught National Memorial (Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught) is located on a part of the former SS camp Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch, also known as Camp Vught (January 1943 – September 1944).70
The Margraten Boys - About the US War Cemetery
Harrowing and redeeming, this is the history of a unique ‘adoption’ system. For generations, local families, grateful for the sacrifice of their liberators from Nazi occupation, have cared for not only the graves, but the memories, of over 10,000 US soldiers in the cemetery of Margraten in the Netherlands.
Free e-book by Peter Schrijvers. More e-books on WWII, in English and Dutch, by this author: https://www.google.de/search?hl=de&tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Peter+Schrijvers%2268
The Jewish Monument
Every victim of the Holocaust who was murdered is memorialised on the Joods Monument with a personal profile. The Jewish Monument is not only suitable for searching and commemorating. You can supplement the monument with photos, documents and stories, by making family connections and adding members of families. To place a call and get in touch with other users. You can also add information about stumbling stones and important other external links.67
When the miners go on strike against the German occupiers
The mine strike in Limburg started on April 29th, 1943. The workload was rising and rising. The first Dutch men were forced to work in Germany. The immediate reason was General Christiansen’s order to arrest all released prisoners of war from the Dutch army again and to transport them to Germany. The strike is broken up by means of executions.66
Persecuted in Limburg
Jews and Sinti in Dutch Limburg during the Second World War
ISBN 978-90-8704-353-7
Dissertation by Herman van Rens on 03/22/2013, University of Amsterdam, slightly edited
© 2013 Hilversum65
Ons verblijf in het dorp Mergel (dagboek) (Meerssen 1989)
Our stay in the village of Mergel (diary, Meerssen 1989
Joop Geijsen from Meerssen tells how he and two other boys went into hiding for a year in the limestone caves just outside Meerssen, which was later called the diver’s inn.
As far as we know, sold out and only available in Dutch libraries.64
Yad Vashem
The World Holocaust Remembrance Center63
Beelden van verzet
This book shows, how every Dutch generation deals differently with the past of resistance.
If you can read Dutch, you can find the download link for this essay by Sander Bastiaan Kromhout
Published by the Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 May, 2018
Print edition ISBN 9077294244.62
Regional Historic Center Limburg
Limburg has numerous specialized archive institutions that preserve relevant historical sources concerning World War II. However, it is not always clear to the public for which information they can go where. Archives have overlapping work areas, organizations and people have been active in the past in different areas and in different fields. So it often takes a long time to find the right place to find information.
Here you can search, but also share your documents with other interested parties. This can be done by donating them to existing archives or museums, or by making digital copies of the available documents or images.61
War deads in Nijmegen 1940 - 1945
With search function60
Foundation Dutch Resistance Monument
Names of resistance fighters in the Netherlands and colonies during the Second World War59
La résistance durant la guerre 1940-1945
It is mainly about the network “Clarence” whose founder was Walther Dewez; evoked are also the names of various agents of Visé and the Fourons that were part of this movement.58
Fallen resistance people Maastricht
A brief description and a long gallery of portraits57
Stichting Herinnering LO-LKP
The foundation remembrance of LO-LKP wants to raise awareness of the history of the resistance by the organisations LO and LKP. To this end, she makes the contents of his memorial book and many original documents available to the interested reader in digital form.56
The Forgotten Genocide – The Fate of the Sinti and Roma
Also known as Gipsies.55
1944-2019 ⇒ South Limburg 75 years free! ⇐
An overview of the activities in South Limburg around this memorable anniversary in september. It is celebrated in every municipality.54
Short historic American film about the Divers Inn
A silent film, shot by a USAmerican team after the liberation of Valkenburg. The first part has been re-enacted, with the help of the Valkenburg resistance. It shows how people going into hiding (divers) were taken to the divers inn. The man in the hat is always Pierre Schunck. The film starts at his home in Plenkertstraat, Valkenburg. The role of the policeman on the bike at the start is not entirely clear. According to the accompanying text, this is a courier.53
Database persoonsbewijzen uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog
About Dutch identity cards in the Second World War as well as images of identity cards in combination with other documents and genealogical and personal data including life stories.49
Memorial stone for the resistance people Coenen and Francotte
In front of the Provincial Resistance Monument in Valkenburg. Here the underground fighters Sjeng (John) Coenen and Joep (Joe) Francotte were murdered on 5 September 1944, just before the liberation of Valkenburg48
Resistance Memorial of the dutch province of Limburg
Every year on May 4, the commemoration ceremony for the fallen of this province takes place here. Meanwhile, also the veterans are no longer among us anymore.47
Call to everyone, but especially to the residents of Valkenburg
On September 17, 2019 it will be 75 years ago that the town and all villages of the current municipality of Valkenburg aan de Geul were liberated.
To commemorate the liberation and to display the wartime as accurately as possible, the Museum Land van Valkenburg is looking for personal stories, eye witnesses and tangible memories.
Of all these lifelike stories, materials, photos, footage and equipment, we are organizing a unique and as complete as possible overview exhibition under the name “We Do Remember”46
Roll of honor of the fallen, 1940 - 1945
A website commissioned by the dutch Second Chamber (~ House of Representatives). The Honor Roll of Fallen 1940-1945 includes those who fell as a result of resistance or as a soldier.45
Grenzeloos verzet
Borderless resistance – On Spying Monks, escape lines and the “Hannibal Game”, 1940-1943
ISBN 9789056220723
Paul de Jongh describes in detail an escape line from the Netherlands to Belgium. Unique case study on the resistance in World War II on both sides of the Belgian-Dutch border. Focus is on the Belgian side. Extends the book by Cammaert, especially where it concerns the group Erkens in Maastricht.44
The hidden front
History of the organized resistance in the Dutch province of Limburg during World War II
PhD thesis 1994, by CAMMAERT, Alfred Paul Marie.
The complete book in Dutch, with English summary, on the website of the University of Groningen.
Core literature!43
Forgotten History – Pierre Schunck, Resistance Fighter
42
Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog
The Kingdom of the Netherlands in World War II (Downlod PDF)41
World War II in South Limburg
Very many pictures ordered by municipality. For Valkenburg: many pictures from the Nazi boarding school for boys Reichsschule der SS (former Jesuit convent) and from the days of liberation, by Frans Hoffman.40
Sources Network on World War II (NOB)
Search in 9 million documents, movies and pictures about and from World War II in the Netherlands.39
Institute for Studies on War, Holocaust and Genocide
Institute for Studies on War, Holocaust and Genocide
Issues related to war violence generate a lot of interest from society and demand independent academic research. NIOD conducts and stimulates such research and its collections are open to all those who are interested.38
Limburg gaf joden WOII meeste kans
Dutch Jews had the best chance of going into hiding and surviving the Holocaust in the province of Limburg. This is apparent from the dissertation on the persecution of Jews and Sinti in Limburg during the Second World War by the historian from Beek, Herman van Rens at the University of Amsterdam.
More info in Dutch36
Tweede Wereldoorlog en bijzondere rechtspleging
About the trials of Dutchmen who collaborated with the occupiers: The so-called special administration of justice. This page shows you the way. Here you will find photos, the most used keywords, references to interesting archives, indexes, websites, personal stories and guides for research.35
Nederlands Auschwitz Comité
34
Secret Army Zone II/Limburg
About the failed attempt to set up a complete guerrilla army in Belgian Limburg. Use the built-in translator20
30th Infantry Division Old Hickory
Liberators of South-Limburg17
Bond van Oud-Stoottroepers en Stoottroepers
16
The Dutch Underground and the Stoottroepers
Stoottroepen (Stormtroopers) consisted of the ancient resistant fighters who entered in the Dutch army after the liberation of Limburg, to participate in the war against the fascism.15