1

The fallen resistance people in Limburg

 

“Dick” Sleeuwenhoek
(Dirk)

∗ 16-05-1917 Delft? Rotterdam?     † 26-05-1967 Amersfoort (50)
- Aid to escaped POW’s - Initial resistance - Erkens Group - Intelligence - Survivors - Eijsden -

oorlogsbronnen.nl and other sources give as place of birth Rotterdam. [1]
In September 1941, a new customs officer was appointed in Eijsden, Dirk Sleeuwenhoek from Delft. Jan Smeets got to know him in Maria Walpot’s pub on the border in Withuis. Dirk Sleeuwenhoek quickly became friends with the Smeets family and regularly joined them for dinner at their home. Alphons Smeets (father of Jan) asked him out so often about the service schedule and the number of the border guards that Sleeuwenhoek soon noticed. Smeets then told him the truth and Sleeuwenhoek was willing to cooperate. From then on, he checked the border area by bicycle and in uniform. When all was safe, Jan Smeets crossed the border with his refugees at border post 45, and then they proceeded inland to the little plank “bridge” over the Berwinne that led to Guillaume Otten’s farm. [2]

G.Sleeuwenhoek wrote this contribution on May 18, 2015 on verzetsmuseum.org with Delft as birthplace: [2]
Dirk Sleeuwenhoek (Dick) was a resistance fighter, and customs officer by profession. Among other things, Dick Sleeuwenhoek helped escaped prisoners of war and Jews to cross the border via Maastricht to Belgium, to reach France and Spain. The contacts with England were through the Count of Liedekerke de Pailhe, Alfons and Hubert Smeets. He was involved in the Hannibal-spiel. In October 1942, he was arrested by this treachery and imprisoned in Maastricht, where the SD were using a convent on Tongerseweg as a prison. In late November 1942, he and other resistance fighters from his group were transferred to the SD Polizeigefangnis Haaren. On July 27, 1943, he was transferred to the Kriegswehrmachtsgefangnis on the Gansstraat in Utrecht for a trial that began two days later. At the trial in Gansstraat death sentences were pronounced, three pardons and the rest were ‘abgetrennt’ as was Dirk Sleeuwenhoek. On October 23, 1943, he and the rest of the segregated prisoners were transferred to P.D. Amersfoort. On October 27, 1943 Dirk Sleeuwenhoek was transported with 67 others to concentration camp Natzweiler where he was subjected to heavy forced labor as a Nacht- und Nebel prisoner, which means that he became a prisoner falling under the so-called Nacht- und Nebelerlaẞ. Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog) was a special punishment class ordered by the chief of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel [4] by order of Adolf Hitler during World War II to make resistance fighters disappear without a trace. On April 17, 1945, he was moved to the concentration camp Dachau where he was liberated by the US Army. Dirk Sleeuwenhoek died on May 26, 1967 at the age of 50.
Written by G.Sleeuwenhoek on May 18, 2015 at verzetsmuseum.org. [3]

Footnotes

1. Dirk Sleeuwenhoek
   1. oorlogsbronnen.nl
   2. openarchieven.nl
   3. ancestors.familysearch.org
2. Paul de Jongh
   • Grenzeloos verzet Over spionerende monniken, ontsnappingslijnen en het Hannibalspiel, 1940-1943
   • Résistance sans frontières À propos de moines espions, de lignes d’évasions et du Hannibalspiel, 1940-1943
3. verzetsmuseum.org Dirk Sleeuwenhoek
4. Wilhelm Keitel, Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch • English • Français • Español