Stein
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Limburg 1940-1945,
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1940-1945. The resistance in the dutch province of Limburg

Stein

https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1422695#map=10/50.9743/5.8646

Early on during the occupation, small groups throughout the Netherlands began helping refugees. This started with escaped French prisoners of war who wanted to go home, later also Jewish families and children came, and still later crashed Allied air crews.
Meers is a village on the Meuse River, which belongs to the municipality of Stein. The Meuse flows around it in a loop. The aid organization Dutch-Paris had set up an escape route via Meers, where refugees were taken by villagers in rowboats across the Meuse to Belgium. From there, they went via Brussels, Paris and Lyon to Switzerland or Spain  [1]
Meers is the birthplace of vicar Giel Berix, one of the founders and the first leader of the Heerlen district of the L.O..
In the municipality of Stein there were other active resistance groups, organized by village, which joined the L.O. in 1943. Because the administrative manipulations of some officials threatened to come to light, the K.P.-Sittard carried out a raid on the town hall of Stein on the night of July 25-26, 1944. [2]

After D-Day, the Normandy landing, and after the Allies had overcome their initial difficulties, most Germans realized that the war was actually already lost.
In early September 1944, there was a shootout between the Meers resistance group and dozens of heavily armed German soldiers entrenched at Meers Bridge. On the German side there was one dead and two wounded.
After the soldiers surrendered, they were dispersed in small groups on Meers, where by then nearly 40 of their brothers-in-arms were being held as prisoners of war
 [2]
In those days, such events occurred all over the Netherlands. So also in Maastricht.
On Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday, september 5, 1944), the liberation of 80 prisoners finally succeeded there. See: The raid on the Maastricht prison on september 5th, 1944

  1. elsloo.info Ontsnappingsroute in de oorlog via Meers
  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 • VIII-IX, p.680


Liberated: 1944-09-18

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The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Stein – 2 pers.

Schepers,
Johannes Wilhelmus
Wim
∗ 1919-12-11
Stein
† 1945-03-25
Bremen-Farge
- April-Mei-stakingen, 1943 - Forced Labor - Stein -

Wim Schepers was a miner and participated in the 1943 mine strike, which was part of the April-May strikes. He was unmarried and lived with his parents. On kleinemonumentenstein.nl [1] there is …

u-01-02
Visschers,
Hubert Joseph
Hub /Huub
∗ 1922-04-23
Elsloo
† 1944-10-20
AEL Köln
- Unorganized resistance - Forced Labor - Stein -

Hub Visschers moved with his parents from Elsloo to Steskensstraat 42 in Stein on May 14, 1929. He was unmarried during the occupation and therefore lived with his parents. He worked in Geleen as …

wall: right, row 21-02