The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Pierre Janssens
(Petrus Antonius Josephus)

Het Grote Gebod – L.O.

Pierre Janssens was a house painter. [1#2]
He was recruited by Father Ludo Bleys. [2]
Pierre frequently employed Jewish people in hiding. He also organized underground addresses for Jewish people and escape routes for pilots to the south.. [3]For convenience, all crew members of crashed Allied planes were called pilots.
In Roermond, G.H. Holla, a fanatical hulplandwachter (assistant gendarme), was very active in tracking down persons wanted by the Sipo. Cammaert: The Sipo, probably on the basis of one of his indications, arrested in June 1944 the L.O. worker P.A.J. Janssens and a person in hiding from Rotterdam. The latter’s fate is not certain; Janssens died in the Sachsenhausen camp on January 6, 1945. [3]
Pierre Janssens’ family reported: Finally, on June 2, 1944, he was arrested and taken away to the infamous attic in Maastricht and later to Camp Vught. In September 1944, he was deported to Oranienburg. [4]
That infamous attic was part of the prison of the Sipo in Maastricht, next to the House of Detention in the former Minderbroedersklooster on the Patersbaan. The latter was under Dutch justice authorities. In summer it was bloody hot, in winter freezing cold. The food was poor and insufficient; other tortures were also the order of the day there. In Oranienburg near Berlin there was already a concentration camp of the SA at the beginning of the Nazi era, the “Konzentrationslager Oranienburg.” Usually, also in this case, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp is meant.
According to oorlogsbronnen.nl, he was arrested on June 1, 1944, in Roermond. [5]
The date of his death is believed to be January 6, 1945 [1#2] in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Oranienburg.
Petrus Antonius Josephus ( Pierre ) Janssens is listed in the Erelijst 1940-1945 (Honor Roll of the Dutch Parliament). [6]


Minderbroederskloosters Maastricht.
Foto: NIMH

Footnotes

1. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting (@ Nationaal archief),
   Dossier • Pierre Janssens #2
2. Ludo Bleys, Wikipedia • Nederlands
3. 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, p.617
4. oorlogsgravenstichting.nl Familie Pierre Janssens
5. oorlogsbronnen.nl, tijdlijn/Petrus Antonius Josephus Janssens
6. Erelijst 1940-1945
7. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl
8. https://gevallenenroermond.nl/appellijst/