VALKENBURG 2024 – 80 years free

Liberation celebration St. Nicholas and Barabara church

Kom vanavond met verhalen
Hoe de oorlog is verdwenen
En herhaal ze duizend malen
Telkens weer zal ik wenen

Leo Vroman

Come and tell what’s oft been told
Of how the war went by
And repeat it thousandfold
Each time again I’ll cry

Translation: Arnold Schunck

Wikimedia

Parish priest H. Jansen [1]

Welcome to all of you.
All who were not yet born 80 years ago; but especially those over 80 who experienced and lived through WWII and the liberation live as children or young adults.
Welcome to this place; the Church of Nicholas and Barbara. Another special place to commemorate, remember and give thanks amidst many other places of remembrance in our medieval fortified town.
Some striking moments and facts from the wartime areas of the church’s history:
On February 2, 1942, a vicar of this church was arrested by the German occupiers. His name: vicar Hub Hennekens. He would spend 3 years imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp.
On June 26, 1945, he returned and was respectfully welcomed and honored at the Lourdes grotto on the Cauberg. A solemn praise celebration with many priests and parishioners.
On January 26, 1943, the three bells were removed from our church tower to be melted down for weapons of war.
I read in the parish annals, among other things, the following, written by Ad. Welters, then parish priest in this church:

“On January 26, without asking and with rough violence, they sawed through the floors of the tower attic and further, with vandalism, they began to cut through the vault of the XIII century tower.
With indignation I protested against this and complained to the mayor.
The mayor warned the NSB-governor of Maastricht and fortunately the vandalism stopped.
But the hole in the vault continues to cry out: vandals, vandals!
Rough workers from Geleen from an NSB firm were so sunk that they lit their pipes on the church candles.
On January 27, they let the bells down through the large north window of the tower to the great disapproving noise of the children, not without damaging the roof and slates and wall. Many people saw the bells that evening placed on the square in front of the Theunissen house. As I could not watch what was happening during the day, I said goodbye to the bells alone at 1 o’clock at night and had the texts recorded for the last time, as I could no longer record the right sounds on gramophone records to preserve them for posterity.
I still hope that the bells, which were still being collected in Maastricht in March 1943 and had not left then, will one day return as innocent birds to their loft.

BELLS FROM THE TOWER
WAR LOST