The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Wiel Houwen
(Willem Laurens)

floddergatsblog.wordpress.com …

Photo: documentation center De Moennik and André Hanssen
The parents of Wiel Houwen had a bakery. Apparently Wiel also worked there, because the Limburgsch Dagblad wrote on October 15, 1990 on the occasion of his funeral: During World War II, the baker from Helden-Panningen was the leader of the most feared knokploeg (armed group) that has been operational in Limburg. [1]
But he apparently also worked for the municipality: As an employee at the distribution office in Helden, Wiel Houwen printed hundreds of ration cards for people in hiding, including many Jews.
… As head of the air protection service in Helden, he transported in his service car dozens of aircraft crew members, downed by German anti-aircraft guns, to hiding and transit addresses. In the woods of Helden, he and youth leaders established a camp for hiders, which had to be hastily evacuated in mid-July 1943 after an NSB member reported he discovered the camp to the police. [1]
More on this in the article A military training camp for people in hiding.
There are other actions by Wiel Houwen described in the above newspaper article, such as the theft of population registers and the kidnapping of Ludo Bleys, who refused to go into hiding voluntarily, although it was already known when he would be arrested. These were ordered actions, at the request of the L.O. from other places. This proves, how much trust was placed in him.
Cammaert writes about him: Official at the municipal distribution service and head of the local air protection service. Resistance pioneer. Houwen became involved in helping Allied refugees at an early stage. Played a prominent role in the local L.O. and headed the knokploeg Helden, which showed remarkable activity. [2.1]
On Sunday, April 23, Houwen, Raedts, Grijsbach, Moust and a hider drove to Heerlen. They had been asked by the K.P.-Heerlen to free the arrested resistance man Theo Crijns, who was in the hospital with injuries. Earlier that day, Houwen had transported an injured pilot, but he had run out of gas on the way. Passersby had shown a conspicuous interest. Possibly someone had alerted the German authorities. [2.2]
In any case:On April 23, 1944, Houwen was arrested by Max Strobel, the head of the security police, the Sicherheitsdienst in Maastricht, on the bridge over the Maas in Roermond. Houwen was carrying a pistol and shortly afterwards tried to free himself shooting, but was overpowered. He was then interrogated by Strobel’s right-hand man Richard Nitsch, who did so very violently. Shortly thereafter, he was transferred to Camp Vught. [3]
After Houwen’s arrest, the K.P. Helden disintegrated.
He was imprisoned in Vught, sentenced to death, however, was confused with somebody else, who was executed in his place. On Sept. 6, 1944, he was transported to Sachsenhausen (Oranienburg), where he was put to work in a bakery. He survived the death march from Sachsenhausen to Schwerin where he was liberated by Russians in early May 1945. [1]
Those death marches toward the end of the war had multiple objectives. The SS fled the approaching Allies with thousands of concentration camp prisoners. They wanted to minimize the piles of bodies in the camps by leaving the corpses of exhausted victims along the roads. The strongest who remained could then possibly be used as slaves elsewhere. When that too was no longer feasible, thousands were sent to the coast and put on ships. A sad example is the Cap Arcona, which was bombed by the British Air Force near Lübeck in the belief that these were troop ships. Schwerin is also on the coast, but this dirty plan was prevented by the end of the war.

After the war, Houwen received the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm from the U.S. government in The Hague on September 4, 1946. He was also a bearer of the Resistance Memorial Cross and Member of the British Empire. Later in life, he took issue with the fact that many people who, in his view, had done little within the Resistance were awarded honors. [4]
Wiel Houwen is buried in Helden-Dorp. [4]

Footnotes

1. delpher.nl/ Wiel Houwen (79) in Venlo overleden, Limburgsch Dagblad, 15 oktober 1990
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. Hoofdst. 0, pp.18ff: Introductie van vaak genoemde personen
   2. 6.VIII.2.7. Helden, Meijel & Kessel, p.600
3. wikipedia NLWiel Houwen
4. genealogieonline.nl Willem Laurens (Wiel) Houwen
5. https://floddergatsblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/foto-6-wiel-houwen.jpg?w=454