Original: https://www.struikelsteentjes-maastricht.nl/uimg/struikelsteentjes/b84504_att-verzetsgroep-oranje-koerier-het-verraad-en-biografie-tom-engeln.pdf

Main page 1940-1945.
Group Dresen

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Biographie de Tom Engeln

Paulus Anthonius (Tom) Engeln, an unmarried accountant from Purmerend, 20 years old at the time and living in Heerlen, was drawn under number 20 and medically admitted to military service on July 5, 1921. Tom was a small man for his age, 1.67 meters. In March 1922 he was drafted into the infantry as a conscript. Later, after his basic training, he was transferred to the military engineering as an office boy. On November 18, 1922, he was promoted and made a conscript sergeant. This was a normal phenomenon at that time; the secondary school opened the promotion to NCO for the conscript and high school students were trained as reserve officers. On February 28, 1923, Tom left the Dutch army. Tom’s ancestors came from Germany and his grandfather Engeln was born in Mesum, a village in the municipality of Emsdetten in former West Prussia, near Hengelo in the Netherlands. Distant relatives of the Engeln family still live there. Tom, 22, left Heerlen for Germany in June 1924. His destination was Johanngeorgenstadt in Saxony. Here he became an authorized signatory in the local piano factory. A stormy love affair with his German girlfriend living there produced a son, Paul Büschenfeld. His daughter Claudia was present at the laying of the Stolperstein. Tom left his German girlfriend and went to Berlin. Paul Büschenfeld grew up with his grandparents in the Ruhr area. He took the name of his grandparents. In Berlin, Tom Engeln worked as a cab driver for Hans Wanger, the brother of his future wife, Betsy Wanger of Berlin. On August 13, 1928, Tom Engeln married Betsy Wanger at the Berlin-Kreuzberg District Town Hall and the couple moved to Grimmstrasse 25 in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district of Berlin. Shortly after their marriage, Tom and Betsy moved to Lutterade near Geleen (NL) and opened a needlework business there with an interest-free loan from Tom’s mother.

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After Lutterade, they moved to Lindelaan in Valkenburg-Houthem, where their first child, daughter Betsy, was born in 1930. The next place of residence became Heerlen, Willemstraat, where they ran a store for wool and silk. Business was good and by 1933 they operated three stores in South Limburg, including one at Muntstraat 4, Maastricht. Their second child, son Max, was born here in 1936.

Later in the 1930s, the wool and silk store ‘Betsy Dameshandwerk’ was moved from Muntstraat 4 to Muntstraat 19 in Maastricht. Residents of Maastricht who wanted to learn crafts were given free lessons by Betsy. At that time, the Engeln-Wanger family lived at Schoolstraat 6 in the municipality of Heer, where their third child, son Hans, was born in 1938. Shortly before the German occupation in 1938, the company went bankrupt. Tom founded a new company ACOM, a small leather goods factory on the Calvariestraat in Maastricht, where mainly belts were produced. The company was again financed with an interest-free loan from Tom’s mother.
Tom sold his products at the Limburg ‘noodbeurzen’, emergency markets. At one of these markets in Roermond, during the German occupation, he met Isidoor Brandon, a Jewish Amsterdammer. The two clicked and they began working together. Tom helped Isidoor Brandon go underground and made him a partner in his company. Brandon bought into the company with 1000 guilders and borrowed money from Tom’s mother. In return, Brandon gave five U.S. shares, which later turned out to be counterfeit. Nothing unusual so far.
In May 1941, the ACOM company moved from Calvariestraat to Bredestraat 37. The new building offered Tom and Brandon the opportunity to work and live there. Tom lived alone on the 1st floor and Brandon on the 2nd floor, along with his girlfriend, nurse Cor Meijer from Bloemendaal.

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Eventually Isidoor Brandon and Cor Meijer betrayed Tom Engeln and the resistance group to which Tom belonged, to the SiPo-agent R.H.G Nitsch, to their own benefit.

The betrayal of the resistance group “Oranje Koerier” for 1000 guilders and a travel certificate

About the emergence of the resistance group Dresen/Hage, “Oranje Koerier” and their resistance against the German occupiers, we dealt in detail with the stumbling stones for Douwe Verhagen and Egbert Wolf. The betrayal of the resistance group was initiated by Isidoor Brandon and his girl friend Cor Meijer. But how did it come about?

Through the sister of Tom’s girlfriend Tini Lint, he came into contact with a resistance group he did not know. In early 1941, resistance fighter Bert Spierings introduced Tom to the other members of the Dresen/Hage resistance group, aka “Oranje Koerier”. Tom became a dedicated, active, and estimated member of the resistance group. Brandon, who by now was interested in Tom’s resistance work, therefore regularly visited the house of the chief guard of the prison Fons Macor at Lambert van Middelhovenweg 6 in Blauw Dorp. Brandon saw who all came and participated in the production, printing and distribution of illegal leaflets and the illegal magazine “Oranje Post”. This knowledge later came in handy in his personal conversations with SiPo man RHG Nitsch. In mid-1941, the first friction arose between Tom and Brandon. Brandon still had a debt of 1000 guilders to Tom, his entry fee as a partner. This money was now intended as payment to Tom for the sale of the business, whereupon Brandon should become owner. The deadline for transferring the money and the company was set for December 1, 1941. Because of Tom’s arrest, Brandon ended up having to pay nothing. He got the company dumped in his lap for nothing.

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The Betrayal

The amount Brandon owed Tom Engeln’s mother weighed like a millstone around his neck. In the meantime, it had turned out that the five U.S. shares were fake, that is, worth nothing. Tom and Brandon were now really getting into trouble with each other. Brandon was looking for a way out on the road of betrayal and found it through NSB accountant Herman Borgman. Borgman, Tom’s accountant, called NSB member J. Blokker, a police officer in the village of Heer near Maastricht, and thus the first “stone” of betrayal was laid.
Blokker contacted Brandon and Meijer, where he first heard the story of the Dresen/Hage resistance group. Motivation for NSB member Blokker was the reward of 1000 guilders he received from the SiPo for betraying the Dresen/Hage resistance group.

The next step was to inform the SiPo man Nitsch. Blokker introduced Nitsch to Cor Meijer, who told Nitsch the resistance story. The latter did not know the resistance group. Nitsch did not want to receive the Jew Brandon in his office, thus Cor Meijer came into the picture. In the subsequent conversation with SiPo man Nitsch, Cor Meijer immediately betrayed Tom Engeln, Bert Spierings and the meeting places such as the boatman’s pub of Hendrik Meulensteen and the house of Fons Macor. She told Nitsch about Tom Engeln, that he printed the illegal magazines "Vrij Nederland" and the "Oranje Post" in the back room of his company. Young unknown men would pick up the illegal magazines to deliver them in the city.

Meijer revealed that it was a military resistance group and that resistance fighters had thrown German soldiers into the Meuse River, made plans to blow up bridges, and received shipments of weapons from Belgium. She would have gotten this information from Brandon. According to Meijer, Tom’s girlfriend Tini Lint and saleswoman Johanna Engelaar were couriers for the resistance group.

Nitsch, for his part, used the V-man Andreas Engwirda as an infiltrator. The former communist and Spain fighter Engwirda managed to penetrate the resistance group via Hendrik Meulensteen’s boatman’s pub.

Before the arrests on November 28, 1941, Brandon had personal contact with SiPo man Nitsch several times at Coenegracht’s café on the Kleine Staat and at Café Bosch on the Grote Staat (street names). At Nitsch’s request, Brandon compiled a list of names he knew from his visits to Fons Macor and gave the list to Nitsch. This list was the basis on which Nitsch made his 23 arrests.

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Arrests

On Friday morning, November 28, 1941, at about 09:00, three SiPo men appeared at the store in Bredestraat 37 and asked for Tom Engeln. They wanted to see his room on the first floor. Tom Engeln was not in Maastricht on business that day and the saleswoman Johanna Engelaar told them that the room was locked. The SiPo men asked for the key and she could not help opening the door. Meijer was present during this conversation and she was the only one who knew that Engelaar had the key. Engelaar was arrested, as was Tom’s girlfriend Tini Lint later.
Brandon had tactically withdrawn, was not in the building, and did not return home until late in the evening.
After the SiPo left with their detainee, a police officer stayed behind to keep watch. Later in the day, Bert Spierings showed up and, after positive recognition of Meijer, was arrested and turned over to the SiPo.

On the same day, Friday evening at 7 p.m., Tom Engeln came home, was detained by the waiting policeman, and the SiPo, who had been called in, came to pick Tom up. A large number of illegal magazines were found in Tom’s house and confiscated. During the arrests at Bredestraat 37 by the SiPo, Meijer remained unmolested. She saw everything and gave hints to the SiPo during the search, she was not arrested.

A few days after the arrest of Tom Engeln and the others, almost the entire Dresen/Hage resistance group, 23 resistance fighters, were arrested. Against the three most important resistance fighters of the resistance group “Oranje Koerier”, Pierre Dresen, Dirk Hage and Gerrit Spierings, the death penalty was demanded and pronounced, as we have already seen. Tom Engeln, together with eight other prisoners, were taken to Kamp Amersfoort in so called ’Schutzhaft’ (protective custody).

Tom Engeln was deported from Kamp Amersfoort on October 30, 1942, first to the Gestapo prison in Düsseldorf and then to Buchenwald concentration camp with prisoner number 208. From Buchenwald, the only tangible memory of Tom is the paper bag that had contained his watch.
On March 2, 1944, he was deported to the notorious “Nacht- und Nebellager Natzweiler” together with a large group of Dutch. Here he was given prisoner number 7779. With the imminent arrival of the Allies, the prisoners of the Natzweiler camp were transported

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to the Dachau concentration camp on September 6, 1944, and Tom Engeln was given prisoner number 100905. He had to work in the Allach subcamp.

A week later, on September 14, 1944, Tom was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. There he was assigned to the Melk subcamp, where he had to work hard in the local quarry. He was given the prisoner number 98005.
He finally succumbed of exhaustion in the infirmary of the subcamp Ebensee on April 27, 1945, one week before the liberation of the camp. He was 43 years old at that time.
In November 1945, a letter signed “Herman Oenradi” reached Tom’s relatives, stating that he had been with Tom from Kamp Amersfoort until his death in the Ebensee camp. Tom was always cheerful and optimistic during his captivity in the various camps and always had a good word for his fellow sufferers. “[…] You may be proud of him. He behaved as you might expect a good Dutchman to behave. After all, he had to make the sacrifice that many made with him, while being aware of what he was sacrificing his life for. Let this be a comfort to you.”

How did the children of Tom and his ex-wife fare? After Schoolstraat 6, Betsy Wanger moved with her children to the address Onder de Kerk 7 in Heer. On Pentecost Sunday 1944, Betsy left with her children to join her family in Berlin. This was short-lived. They then moved on to the town of Landsberg upon Warthe, about 100 kilometers east of Berlin beyond the Oder River. After the Russians arrived, the Germans had to leave, the town became Polish and the Germans were not welcome. Betsy Wanger left the town with her children, on their way to Berlin. In 14 days they walked the approximately 120 kilometers to Berlin and moved in with relatives in Kurfürstenstraße.

With thanks to Max and Hans Engeln.

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After the Amersfoort concentration camp, the prisoners were deported to the German concentration camp Neuengamme near Hamburg. There were murdered:

• Pierre Dresen on December 1, 1942,
• Dirk Hage on April 3, 1943,
• Guido Droitcourt on 11. February 1943,
• Hendrik Meulensteen on February 2, 1943,
• Douwe Verhagen on January 18, 1943,
• Egbert Wolfs on December 4, 1942,
• Jan Duijnkerke on March 4, 1943
• Roelf Bartels on December 14, 1942.

Details about the fallen members of Group Dresen.

Only Jan Schutrup and Gerrit Spierings survived the German camps and returned after the war.

How did it end with Brandon and Meijer?

At the beginning of 1942, Brandon and Meijer lived in the house of another Jewish V-man of the SiPo, Herbert Goldschmidt at Wijckerbrugstraat 51 in Maastricht. There, Brandon and Meijers indicated to NSB policeman Jo Lindeboom, who lived with them, that they were relieved. Brandon had found a parachute in the attic of Tom’s company and had voluntarily given it to SiPo man Nitsch. Now, Brandon felt, Tom Engeln would certainly not get free.
Brandon now had a free hand. In the course of July 1942, a few months after the arrest of Tom Engeln, the ACOMA company of Isidoor Brandon and Cor Meijer was moved from Bredestraat 37 to Amsterdam at Ceintuurbaan 422. They continued to work there for the German Wehrmacht; specifically leather bags.
Brandon, who maintained contacts with NSB-ers in Maastricht and Amsterdam, did not need to wear a “Judenstern” (yellow badge) as a reward from SiPo man Nitsch and could travel through the Netherlands without permission. Until the liberation of Maastricht, September 1944, Brandon, who lived in Amsterdam, was in contact with NSB man Smeets, who lived in Bouillonstraat.
Smeets took over the items Brandon had made and resold them to Germany.
After the end of the German occupation, SiPo man Nitsch made a statement to the Political Research of Maastricht. He stated, “[…] However, I benefited greatly from the information of Brandon and Meijer. As a reward for the treason committed by Brandon, I gave him a travel certificate.”
Brandon and Meijer were prosecuted a after the war in Amsterdam for treason against the resistance group “Oranje Koerier” and collaboration with the Germans during the German occupation. They were found guilty in 1947 and both were sentenced to 12 years in prison.

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Summary

The responsibility for the liquidation of the resistance organization “Oranje Koerier” lay with:

The liquidation of this resistance organization yielded the SiPo:

The Opperwachtmeester (station chief) of the State Police J.H.M. Blokker was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment by the Special Court in Maastricht on September 8, 1947. Shortly after his release, he died in Heemstede on November 13, 1961.

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