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Limburg 1940-1945,
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The fallen resistance people in Limburg
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The photo at the side can be found at Omroep Venlo, among other places. [1]
The birthplace of Wiel van Boekhold is Venlo. [2.1] But on Geni.com, they say Venray. [2.2]
Cammaert writes about him in his introduction to Het verborgen front (The Hidden Front): Exponent of the active O.D.-ers. Was involved in various resistance activities: aid to Allied refugees and people in hiding, clandestine press, sabotage. Great merit for the O.D., especially in the Venlo district (commanded O.D. troop detachment in Venlo). [3.1]
By the expression the active O.D.-ers, Cammaert means, that in Northern Limburg many OD members worked in unison with the LO, this in contrast to many other places. They did not want to wait for liberation. In this they were preceded by General Jans.
Like most OD members, Wiel van Boekhold was on active military duty as a sergeant-capitulant (enlisted sgt.) at the capitulation of the Dutch army in 1940. One of his first acts of resistance was the salvage of an anti-tank gun (P.A.G.). A colleague from Beegden, E. Ruyten, knew that this cannon had been deposited in the Maas river near the local ferry house in the May days of 1940. At low water, the gun barrel protruded above the water. He informed W. van Boekhold and with L. Jans they retrieved the gun from the Maas in the winter of 1942. They disassembled it and brought the parts to Venlo. There it was repaired and hidden in a chicken coop at Van Boekhold’s place. After the chicken coop went up in flames, the P.A.G. gun was stored in A.H. Gödden’s sculpture factory. This factory gradually developed into a repair and assembly workshop for weapons and ammunition. [3.2]
Wien van Boekhold collaborated on underground magazine ORANJE-HAGEL in Venlo during the war years.
The title ORANJE-HAGEL was chosen with the intention of having the truth come down like orange hailstones on the occupier and his sympathizers, according to the magazine’s founder, the inspector (then constable) of police H.H. Pollaert. From the beginning, L. Meijers contributed to it. After the first issues, which contained mainly messages concerning the occupier and his accomplices, H. Jussen and Leo Jans were asked to write articles. When Pollaert ( the publisher of it) had to go into hiding, Leo Jans and W. van Boekhold temporarily took over its publication on a modest scale. [4]
Wiel van Boekhold was involved in the establishment of a military training camp for people in hiding after the Venlo OD came into contact with about four people in hiding in the Bovensbos forest near the farm of Cornelis Krans near Helden. Wiel van Boekhold was ordered to set up a military (“test”) camp for hiders on the spot. [5]
That camp became a flop due to imprudent behavior of some of the residents and the liquidation of a Dutch Nazi, who knew about it as a result. That liquidation proved to be useless in retrospect, because by then others had also been informed. Cornelis Krans unfortunately did not survive, nor did the Jewish family, which was in an underground hiding place near his farm. But the residents of the camp were able to escape in time. For this, among other reasons, he was awarded the Dutch Bronze Cross (Bronzen Kruis) on October 8, 1951. The opinion reads:
He has distinguished himself in the face of the enemey by courageous conduct during the occupation as illegal worker in Gewest 19 (Limburg) of the O.D. He was second in command of a camp for military in hiding in the area. He gathered military intelligence and hid arms in his workshops. At the end of October 1944, he took command of a group of armed members of the O.D. in order to liberate de commander of a detachment of troops from the police office in Venlo which was heavily guarded by the Grüne Polizei (German Secret Police). He cut the bars with a saw himself while his men stood guard around the officebuilding disguised as workmen. [6.1]
After the war, on August 20, 1945, he married Bernardina Henrica Konings (Diny), born on October 3, 1918. [7] [8]
She too must have taken an active part in the Resistance, as she, like her husband, was awarded the Resistance Memorial Cross. As so often, unfortunately almost nothing can be found about her. [6.2]
At the time of the wedding, Wiel was an ensign in the Dutch Army, [7] that is, he was undergoing officer training, presumably at the Royal Military Academy (KMA) in Breda.
Footnotes