The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Klaas Koers

Details of birth and death the Koers-Brouwer couple can be found at geni.com. [1]
Of Klaas only birth details are known so far.
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The state police officer Klaas Koers had been reassigned from Beek to Geulle in March 1943, where he held the position of chief constable. [2.1]
His wife worked at the customs department. [2.2]
Cammaert writes summarily about Klaas Koers: Was involved in helping Allied refugees - maintained close contacts with the Belgian underground - and the distribution of illegal press (“Trouw”). [2.3]

Resistance newspaper Trouw
He and his wife Neeltje Brouwer began their resistance work by distributing the orthdox reformed resistance newspaper Trouw. The tax official Evert Bakker, who lived in the same village [3], was the main distributor of Trouw for South Limburg up to Sittard. Through the contacts Klaas in particular would gain in Belgian Limburg (see below), it was possible to distribute Trouw there as well, while by the same route Belgian underground magazines came to the Netherlands. [2.4]

Repatriation of escaped prisoners of war and downed aircraft crews
Assistance to these two groups proceeded almost identically, but not quite simultaneously. For the POWs came early in the war, the aircrew came in larger numbers after the start of the major bombing of Germany.
Koers soon became acquainted in Geulle with A.J. Bollen from Uikhoven, Belgium, a carpenter who worked in the Dutch town of Meerssen. Bollen and his co-resister J.A.F. Houben were doing all kinds of underground work by order of Paul Schoenmaeckers from Rekem, a refugee helper from the very beginning. Koers informed Bakker of this contact and a discussion ensued about cooperation between Bakker, his coworker M. Bruynen and teacher J.A.F. Kortleven in Uikhoven. Shortly thereafter, Schoenmaeckers crossed the Maas and joined Koers, living in the patronage building. It turned out to be possible to have allied airmen, who had been tracked down by workers of the national distribution apparatus of “Trouw,” brought to Uikhoven via Bakker and Koers by Bollen and Houben. From Uikhoven, Schoenmaeckers would provide connection to an escape line to Brussels. The first airmen of “Trouw” arrived in Geulle in September 1943. [2.5]
In the chapter on helping French-speaking prisoners of war who escaped from Germany, Cammaert writes about Klaas Koers: Koers knew exactly where the Maas could best be crossed. When the coast was clear he whistled the first stanza of the Dutch national anthem. The two waiting Belgians on the other side answered with the first stanza of the Flemish Lion. Then they crossed the river in a rowboat and took over the refugees from either Koers or Bakker. In Belgium they were handed over to Miss C.M.A. Spierings or Countess M. de Bissy in Rekem who, among others, collaborated with F. Bierneaux in Hasselt, a link in an escape route to Brussels. From September 1943, Tummers et al. began to make intensive use of the route via Geulle. In cars belonging to the firms Turlings and Smeets, refugees were brought from Echt or Sittard to Geulle. [2.2]

There is an account of the assistance in the Netherlands to downed Allied airmen (so not only pilots) during World War II on the website of the Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society in which on pp. 92-93 an article is devoted to this couple: The Koers Family. [4]
The translation in other languages can be found on this website: Neeltje Brouwer & Klaas Koers.

K.P. South Limburg
The situation changed as the Allies approached toward the end of the war. Pierre Driessen, the leader of the knokploeg Zuid-Limburg, was searching for new people in 1944.
From The Hidden Front (Chapter VII, The armed groups and the history of the Stoottroepen until the summer of 1945) come the following two quotes: Some of the newcomers were the pilot helpers K. Koers and E. Bakker who worked in the Geulle region. After the invasion in Normandy, almost no pilots needed to be helped anymore. Koers was closely involved in the preparation of a raid on the Vught camp, which ultimately was not carried out. He also tried to get his hands on some of the weapons dropped by British planes near Rekem, Belgium. They had been promised to him by Belgian colleagues from the underground. However, that drop turned out to have been betrayed. The Rekem resistance suffered heavy blows, but the weapons did not fall into German hands. They were transported to Antwerp by a barge master. [2#7]
Koers apparently had cars of the knokploeg Zuid-Limburg hidden, because on Tuesday, September 5, J. Coenen and W. Francotte visited Koers in Geulle to pick up two cars needed for the raid on the Vught camp. [2.6]
That day, just before liberation, ended fatally for Coenen and Francotte. Klaas Koers fortunately survived the war in one piece.

Footnotes

1. geni.com Neeltje Brouwer
2. Cammaert, A. P. M. (1994). Het verborgen front: Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
   1. Hoofdsuk 4. Hulpverlening aan geallieerde piloten en hun bemanningsleden, pp.329 ff.: De vluchtroutes vanuit Echt
   2. Hoofdsuk 3. Hulpverlening aan uit Duitsland ontvluchte (Franstalige) krijgsgevangenen, III.5. Twente/Achterhoek-Echt-Geulle p.203-212
   3. Hoofdsuk 0, pp.18ff: Introductie van vaak genoemde personen
   4. Hoofdsuk 11. Illegale pers, pp.1057-1058
   5. Hoofdsuk 4, Hulpverlening aan geallieerde piloten en hun bemanningsleden, p.330
   6. Hoofdstuk 7, De knokploegen en de geschiedenis van de stoottroepen tot de zomer van 1945 II.7. De K.P.-Zuid-Limburg, p.780-781
3. oorlogsbronnen.nl Geulle
4. AFEES, Air Forces Escape & Escape Society