The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Jan “Nicolaas” Theelen
(Johannes Jozef)

Jan Theelen was born in Velden on December 21, 1919, a Sunday.
Unless otherwise stated, this and the following data are taken from the article De oorlog die Jan Theelen verloor (The war Jan Theelen lost). So is the photo, made available by relatives. [1]
Jan Theelen was one of those policemen, who tried to combine their work with resistance.
In 1942 he was one of the founders of an underground committee that collected food parcels for Dutch soldiers in German captivity. Assistance to French prisoners of war and Allied pilots. As “duik-inspecteur” (diving inspector) of the organized resistance, he provided hiding addresses. He was involved in raids on distribution offices and liquidations of traitors. As a policeman in hiding - betrayed and hunted several times - he continued to carry out resistance activities in Venlo and its surroundings. [3]
He thus functioned, among other things, as a diving inspector, a post created to ensure optimal connections between district leadership and workers at the base. The dive inspector’s duties included visiting the villages and parishes to survey the available hiding addresses and to ascertain how many false papers and ration cards were needed. In case of any problems, they acted as arbitrators. Furthermore, they distributed illegal magazines. [2.1]
So this is similar to what the the local contact persons did, but at the district level.

There were more resistance people among the Venlo police, but after all, only Jan Theelen had not yet gone into hiding. They did important work such as timely warning of raids, providing forged documents, etc. Opposite them were fanatical NSB people, such as chief of police Otto Couperus and the hunting dog Johan Berendsen. These had long suspected strongly, that Theelen had something to do with the resistance.
He had to go into hiding after the tragic liquidation of resistance fighter Van Bilsen, who was wrongly suspected of being a traitor. This former police inspector had been placed on a list of traitors (V-men) by the national resistance organization (completely wrongly, as it would turn out after the war).
He simply continued his resistance work after going into hiding.
He manufactured false identity cards, distributed illegal magazines, warned of danger and provided intelligence. He arranged for a bugging microphone to be placed in the chief of police’s room. He also continues, dressed in his police uniform or a uniform of the Grüne Polizei, to help take away escaped French prisoners of war and Allied pilots.
Meanwhile, Johan Berendsen’s AKD raged ever more fiercely, even by German standards.
Berendsen’s actions became even more trippy after he was shot at near Grubbenvorst by the hiding policeman and L.O. resistant J.J. Theelen on July 16, 1944, hitting him in the right foot. [2.2]
Thelen was now outlawed, he was doggedly pursued by the AKD and the Grüne Polizei. He only just escaped a few times. After the evacuation of the entire population from the still occupied eastern bank of the Maas to Groningen, he too fled, first to Germany, where nobody was looking for him, and later also to Groningen. Read about that also: The forced evacuation to Friesland, Groningen and Drente.

After the war, Jan Theelen returned to his function. One of his tasks was to interrogate his old opponent Berendsen, since he knew the latter’s misdeeds better than anyone else.
After the war, there was also the story of the feud between Thelen and the acting chief of police Henk Wierks. The latter was suspected of having been corrupt during the occupation years, but that quickly disappeared into the cover-up with the help of the protection Wierks received from the mayor. But that is beyond the scope of this website. For more information, go to the article mentioned above De oorlog die Jan Theelen verloor [1]

Footnotes

1. Gerrit van der Vorst, Buun 12, Stichting Cultuurhistorische Publicaties, serie cultuurhistorische jaarboeken voor Venlo en omstreken, 2010, pp.57-79: De oorlog die Jan Theelen verloor
2. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   6. De Landelijke Organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers. 1) p.579, 2) p.584
3. veldense-volkscultuur.nl Verzet Velden 1940 – 1945 in kaart gebracht