Jan & Jacques Moors

The first article below appeared in at least two Dutch newspapers on Thursday, November 14, 1974. [1]
It is about the murder of the two brothers Jan and Jacques Moors from Herten near Roermond. They did not want to join the evacuation forced by the German army of the entire population of the not yet liberated part of Limburg on the east bank of the Maas. The Germans had a tremendous fear of being attacked from behind by the resistance.
See The forced evacuation to Friesland, Groningen and Drente.

Read below what happened and how the famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal [2] got involved with it. In the second article you can read what was the result.

Wiesenthal demands prosecution of ex-officer

Eyes Betray Murderer

By one of our reporters
HERTEN - The Moors family from Herten in Limburg has filed a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor’s office in Graz against former First Lieutenant Helmuth Behagel von Flammerdingen. The Austrian ex-officer, as commander of a paratrooper battalion, is alleged to have been responsible for the murder of Jan (25) and Jacques Moors (19) at the end of World War II.

In a letter, Simon Wiesenthal asked Justice Minister (Dutch Attorney General) Van Agt to ask the authorities to prosecute the 54-year-old Austrian.
After 30 years, the Austrian was recognized Saturday by Mrs. Van de Beek of Wessem at Graz police headquarters among one of nine people.

"I could never forget his eyes. Now they betrayed him again. I met this man often enough in my dreams," she said.
At the end of the war, in early 1945, the Middle Limburg village of Herten was a bridgehead. The population had been evacuated. Mrs. Van de Beek had hidden in a barn, as had Jan and Jacques Moors and a daughter of the village policeman.
During a raid, they managed to escape. The four took refuge in the cellar of the presbytery in Herten. There they were discovered by the Germans on February 8. The two women were to be transported to Germany, but managed to escape again.

execution
The Moors brothers were captured. They were interrogated for three days. On February 11, Commander Helmuth Behagel von Flammerdingen ordered the execution of the two brothers without trial.

They were accused of signaling to the English troops on the other side of the Meuse River. One German soldier refused to take part in the execution. He was never prosecuted for this.
For thirty years Jan Stein worked on this case. Last year the file was played into the hands of war crimes prosecutor Simon Wiesenthal.

Impressed.
Ms. Van de Beek is still impressed by her confrontation with the ex-officer.
"I was trembling during that encounter. I can’t judge what punishment he should receive. The judges should make him feel what he did to the parents of Jan and Jacques."
Anna Dignum-Moors (52), a sister of the two brothers, has not remained inactive either. She has agreed to the investigation. "I’m glad the case is going on now. I hope it will go to trial. At the beginning of next year, the legislation in Austria will change. The Netherlands will then have to explicitly request prosecution."

* Jan (left) and Jacques Moors, who were executed without trial in Herten, Limburg, at the end of World War II.
* Mrs. A. Dignum-Moors (right), a sister of the two brothers has consented to the investigation. "I am happy that the case is now underway," she said, showing a photo of her brothers.

Note: there is an error in this text. The commander of the paratrooper battalion was Major Ulrich Matthaeas, 1911-1994, and not Behagel von Flammerdinge. Matthaeas was also a war criminal. We are talking about the 1st battalion of the paratrooper regiment Hübner, which had already suffered great losses, when they arrived in Roermond and its surroundings. The result was a collective trauma, which may partly explain their war crimes. The commander of a battalion is normally a colonel (Oberst). Matthaeas was only a major, thus three steps lower in the hierarchy, ascended because many officers already had died. The same, of course, applied to the lower echelons. So probably the first lieutenant Behagel von Flammerdingen was company chief, which really should have been a captain (Hauptmann).

Haarlem’s Dagblad | 1975 | January 28, 1975 | page 2 [3]

ACCORDING TO SIMON WIESENTHAL:

“Proceedings against Behagel waiting for van Agt”

(By our editor in Vienna)

VIENNA - “As of now it depends on the Dutch government whether action can be taken against former first lieutenant Behagel”, said Simon Wiesenthal. Behagel was responsible for the murder of the Moonen brothers, who were executed without trial in Herten at the end of World War II. Wiesenthal said he wrote to Minister Van Agt as early as November last year, but never received a reply.

Under Austria’s new criminal law, which came into force on January 1, crimes committed by Austrians abroad can in future be prosecuted only if the country concerned declares that it considers prosecution desirable. Wiesenthal therefore wrote to Van Agt urging him to press the Austrian government to prosecute Behagel. To date, however, the minister has not responded.
For Austria, sometimes called the “paradise of war criminals”, this is a welcome alibi. If they are not even interested in the Netherlands, why should we reopen such an old case, the argument goes.

Criminal complaint
Behagel, now 55, lives in Graz and makes a very good living from his work as a sales representative.
A Dutch woman who was present at the tragedy in February 1945 immediately identified him among nine persons as the murderer of the Moonen brothers (18 and 23 years old) in a confrontation.
Behagel, who has since adopted the double name Behagel von Flammerdinghe, denies having had anything to do with the execution. However, he is also heavily incriminated by former war comrades.
In the meantime, the Moors family filed a complaint of murder against Behagel from the Netherlands, whereupon the public prosecutor’s office in Graz initiated an investigation; Wiesenthal provided the necessary evidence. However, nothing can be done without an official request from the Dutch government.

The Dutch government did not want to cooperate. In the 1970s there was the discussion about the last German war criminals in a Dutch prison and pressure from the West-German government to release them, despite protests from Dutch society. Thus, the West German ambassador to the Netherlands brought to these prisoners a television set and video recorder for their cells. For all other prisoners in that prison, this remained forbidden. [4]

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Krantenviewer Noord-Hollands Archief Haarlem’s Dagblad | 1975 | 28 januari 1975 | pagina 2
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