Alphonse Sonneville <i>(Fons)</i>
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Alphonse Sonneville is listed in the Resistance Memorial on the
left wall, row 36 #04

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Alphonse Sonneville (Fons)


 23-07-1883 Maastricht      25-02-1945 Dachau (61)
- Underground Press - Communists & Sympathizers - Intelligence - Maastricht -



Maastrichtse Gevelstenen

    As the following shows, Fons Sonneville was not a communist, but he did work with communists. Therefore, he was considered and treated as such by the Nazis. This cost him his life.
    He was an office clerk/ factory supervisor at his marriage on August 4, 1906, 1933 registered as a merchant at the marriage of one of his daughters.
    He was a wine representative and therefore had many French contacts.
    Sonneville was a politically inspired man. During the 1927 Provincial Council elections, Sonneville ran for the Free Democratic League (VDB), he was not elected. The VDB is a progressive liberal party and strongly opposes fascism, national socialism and the social influences of the Catholic Church at the time.
    In December 1931, Sonneville runs for the Small Business Department at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry; he is elected. On March 15, 1933, Sonneville again stands as a candidate now for the Dutch parliamentary elections of April 26, 1933 on behalf of the Algemene Democratische Unie (ADU) together with W.A. Kalse from Maastricht; they are not elected
    .
    Under the impression of rising fascism, he and his friends collaborate with left-wing socialists and communists. This attracts attention even before the occupation, and the Nazi and later Maastricht police inspector George Seelen puts him on his infamous "List of 15" anti-German persons, which he has drawn up for the German Abwehr. Sonneville is suspected by Seelen of having worked for British and Belgian intelligence during World War I and later for a French intelligence agency.
    The above information is taken from his short biography on struikelsteentjes-maastricht.nl. [1]
    The following information is taken from the book Het verborgen front by Fred Cammaert. [2]
    He became a propagandist for the Vereniging van Vrienden van de Sovjetunie (V.V.S.U., Association of Friends of the Soviet Union) and co-founder of the Maastrichtse Culturele Filmliga (Maastricht Cultural Film League). The league aimed to correct the negative image of the Soviet Union by showing Russian (propaganda) films and warning against fascism. (Cammaert X, p. 978 ff.). Arrested on May 10, 1940 for anti-German attitude. He was released on March 27, 1941, but his further activities were closely monitored. Since then he was involved in the distribution of De Vonk, the Limburg edition of De Waarheid. On June 25, 1942, the SiPo, in cooperation with the Ordnungspolizei, struck again and arrested at least 27 distributors of De Vonk, including Sonneville.

    In his file at the OGS is a newspaper clipping from the Maastricht daily De Limburger of Thursday, November 30, 1961, entitled On December 9 in Loenen (Veluwe) - Funeral of a Maastricht citizen murdered in Dachau. In it, among other things, the following is reported:
    Mr. Sonneville, who was well known to many in Maastricht and beyond, was arrested in the spring of 1942 at his home on the Duitse Poort in Maastricht because he had repeatedly expressed his dislike for the occupying forces and their Dutch henchmen. He was transferred to the Amersfoort camp and from there to Buchenwald and the Natzweiler extermination camp in Alsace. As Allied troops approached, Mr. Sonneville was transported with other prisoners to Dachau, where he did not live to see the sun of liberation.
    His remains were among the approximately three thousand bodies that the Americans found upon their arrival at Dachau and provisionally buried in a mass grave.
    Recently, a number of bodies were identified. Among them were those of ten Dutchmen, including Alphons Sonneville of Maastricht. On December 7 and 8, the remains of nineteen Dutchmen, identified in mass graves at other former camps, will be buried in Loenen
    . [3]

    There is a stumbling stone for Fons Sonneville, Duitsepoort 32, 6221 GD Maastricht [4].
    He is listed in the “Erelijst 1940-1945” (Honor Roll of the Dutch Parliament). [5]

    Reburied on the National Field of Honor in Loenen, grave E 341 [6]

    Footnotes

    1. struikelsteentjes-maastricht.nl Korte biografie
    2. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
      10. De C.P.N. en de illegaliteit
    3. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting (@ Nationaal archief), Dossier Fons Sonneville • #26
    4. Struikelsteentje Fons Sonneville Duitsepoort 32, 6221 GD Maastricht
    5. Erelijst 1940-1945
    6. Nationaal Ereveld Loenen
      oorlogsgravenstichting.nl4en5mei.nl, oorlogsmonumenten
      Wikipedia • NederlandsDeutsch
    7. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl