All the fallen resistance people in Limburg

 

Joseph Smit (Sef)

∗ 09-09-1916 Roermond     † 17-09-1942 Amsterdam (26)
- Initial resistance - Group Smit - Police - Heerlen -

Sef Smit from Roermond was before the war a professional sergeant in the 13th Infantry Regiment. [1]
He chose after demobilization in July 1940 to join the police in Heerlen. He did not stay there for long. It was a thorn in his side that the public actions of N.S.B. members and other pro-German elements remained unpunished. When it also became clear that anti-N.S.B. sentiments had to be suppressed, he had had enough. He lost confidence in the police leaders and in the spring of 1941 he resigned. On 19 June he entered the service of the Oranje Nassau mine as a turner.
There he stole dynamite rods for committing acts of sabotage. [2]
He sought and found contact with former soldiers and others who thought as he did, in the mines and beyond. Thus was born the Group Smit.
Smit was shot and reburied on 17 May 1954 in Maastricht in grave R 20b at the Municipal Cemetery on Tongerseweg, circle of honor R: graves of 6 fallen resistance fighters from Limburg. [3]
According to a form in his file at the OGS, presumably filled out by the MP after the war, he was head of the OD group in Heerlen. The usually very well-informed Fred Cammaert writes: Until his arrest in November 1943, Reserve First Lieutenant C.M.H.J. Bongaerts was the central person in the Heerlen OD. [4]
 [5]
He is listed in the “Erelijst 1940-1945” (Honor Roll of the Dutch Parliament). [6]

1. landvanherle.nl 2019 N°3 MijnStreek in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Harry van Dijck „Een verraderlijke geschiedenis uit Heerlen“
2. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   2. De eerste militair-civiele verzetsformaties p. 107)
3. maastrichtsegevelstenen.nl Verzetsmensen met een Maastrichtse connectie
4. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting (@ Nationaal archief), Dossier • Sef Smit #7
5. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   8. De Ordedienst, p.920
6. Erelijst 1940-1945
7. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl

wall: left, row 19 #02