The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Theo Treuen
(Theodorus Gerardus Johannes Peter)

Oorlogsgravenstichting

The parental home of Theo Treuen stood at Maasstraat 43 in Steyl. He worked in the butcher shop Leenders in Voerendaal and during the pre-war mobilization he was a soldier, 2nd rgt. Hussars. [1#4]
During 1940 he was contacted by Jozef Smit, who had also been demobilized. Through Theo Treuen, the students Paul Leclou, A. Rameckers and H.H. Baeten were also included in the group Smit. [2]
An infiltrator betrayed the Smit group to the Germans. Theo was arrested in the butcher shop. On July 16, 1942, Smit and Treuen were sentenced to death in Amsterdam and the other members of their group to concentration camps.

See also Charles Spreksel and the short biography of three Voerendaal resistance fighters, including Theo Treuen. [3]

Theo’s father wrote on an OGS questionnaire about the circumstances of his son’s death and burial:
• executed by the occupiers for continued favoritism to the enemy of the Germans (German: “wegen fortgesetzter Feindbegünstigung”). According to the German military chaplain he was taken with 4 others outside the city of Amsterdam on an open truck; this chaplain did not want to say anything about where the transport took place to.
• Nothing is known about this. According to discreet information, he and the fellow executed were not buried but ashed. [1#5]
The Germans sometimes took urns containing the ashes of their victims, perhaps to avoid hero worship. That of Theo was interred in the Friedhof an der Seelhorst cemetery in Hanover on November 13, 1942 as an unknown Dutchman, urn no. 13620. The ashes were transferred to the Netherlands on November 26, 1953. [1#6][1#14]
Theodorus Gerardus Johannes Peter ( Theo ) Treuen is listed in the Erelijst 1940-1945 (Honor Roll of the Dutch Parliament). [4]

Reburied on the National Field of Honor in Loenen, grave  C67 [5][6]

Footnotes

1. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting (@ Nationaal archief),
   Dossier Theo Treuen • #4 • #5 • #6 • #14
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, pp. 109-110
3. Korte biografie van drie Voerendaalse verzetsmensen
4. Erelijst 1940-1945
5. Nationaal Ereveld Loenen
   oorlogsgravenstichting.nl • 4en5mei.nl, oorlogsmonumenten
   Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch
6. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl