Maria Magdalena Vusschers <i>(Marijke?)</i>
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Maria Magdalena Vusschers is not (yet?) listed on a wall of the chapel.
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Maria Magdalena Vusschers (Marijke?)


 02-01-1914 Heerlen      25-04-1945 Ravensbrück → Schwerin (31)
- Communists & Sympathizers - Women in the resistance -

    Maria Magdalena Vusschers had been married to Johann Gerritsen [1] since January 17, 1935 and lived in Heerlerheide.
    According to her archive card (no. 23) in the CPN Limburg archives, she was sympathizing with the Communist Party and was arrested for helping anti-fascists. [2]
    She eventually ended up in the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp. In her timeline on oorlogsbronnen.nl, she is suddenly called Marijke Visser. These surnames are indeed similar, with Vusschers being a Limburg variant. But are they really the same person? It says: From July 24, 1942, Marijke Visser was imprisoned in Ravensbrück. Her camp number was 12639 [3.1]
    Shortly before the end of the war, the Swedish Red Cross organized evacuation transports from German camps to Sweden under the leadership of Folke Bernadotte af Wisborg. This involved a total of 15,345 prisoners, 7,795 people from Scandinavia and 7,550 from other countries. The "White Buses" operation rescued 249 Dutch women from the Ravensbrück concentration camp. [4]
    The CPN archive card reports that she was killed by machine gun fire after her liberation. [2]
    We can read more about the machine gun fire here: The Red Cross transport that left Ravensbrück on April 25, 1945, was shot at several times during the day by British fighters on the road between Schwerin and Wismar. And the next day near Plön. Some of the dead were buried in Lübeck. [3.2]
    The buses were conspicuously white, precisely to avoid such things. But this did not always prove helpful, as the British pilots did not trust this.
    Her name therefore appears on a list "Died on the way to Sweden". On this list, she has the prisoner number 12639 [5], just like Marijke Visser mentioned above.
    According to her archive card at the OGS [6], she died on 25-04-1945. Also in the timeline on oorlogsbronnen.nl: During the transport from Ravensbrück to Lübeck. CPN, bombing of Schwerin, April 25-26, 1945 White buses.
    She was buried with some other victims in Lübeck, but her grave has since been cleared. [6]

    Footnotes

    1. rijckheyt.nl Johann Gerritsen × Maria Magdalena Vusschers, 17-01-1935
    2. CPN Limburg Image 23
    3. oorlogsbronnen.nl
      1. tijdlijn Maria Magdalena Vusschers
      2. Bombardement Schwerin
    4. White buses / vita bussarna, Wikipedia • NederlandsDeutschEnglishFrançaisEspañol
    5. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting (@ Nationaal archief), Kaart Maria Magdalena Vusschers
    6. vanommen.de Gestorben auf dem Weg nach Schweden
    7. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl