The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Harrie “Bergmans” Janssen
(Henri Louis Joseph)

The photo on the right and the dates of birth and death can be found on his In Memoriam card, which was provided by the chairman of the local history association OOS NAER in Neer. The photos below are also from this source. [1]

Cammaert writes summarizing about Harrie Janssen: Horn, vicar. Resistance pioneer. Became involved at an early stage in helping Allied refugees and supported efforts to structure it. From 1943 he was closely involved in the L.O., later also the K.P. (command group). Exponent of the humanitarian inspired resistance. [2.1]
Horn is located opposite Roermond on the western bank of the Maas and, as far as the L.O. was concerned, belonged to the Heythuysen rayon in the Roermond district. [3]
In his chapter 3 on the Aid to (French-speaking) Prisoners of War who had fled from Germany, Cammaert writes: Teacher L.F.J.H. Frantzen and vicar H.L.J. Janssen had been in charge of the aid in Horn since 1941...
Because of safety, Frantzen separated the aid to prisoners of war and to crashed allies. W. Meevissen henceforth cared exclusively for the first category, F. Verbruggen for the pilots. Vicar H. Janssen acted as liaison between the two and the L.O.
Although a strict separation was impossible, this demarcation of duties functioned to everyone’s satisfaction. Frantzen and Janssen provided proof that it benefited the safety of all concerned because calamities did not occur in Horn. [2.2]
From the second half of June 1943, the LO district of Roermond got off the ground. Ludo Bleijs, a priest from the city of Roermond, visited clergy in the region looking for suitable workers for the organization. With teacher L.F.J.H. Frantzen of Horn, a former Nederlandsche Unie activist, and vicar H.L.J. Janssen of Horn, he formed the district council from June 1943. [2.4]
As the number of fleeing French-speaking prisoners of war decreased, the number of Allies who had crashed with their planes and wanted to go home increased at the same time. This was related to the increased bombing of German industrial areas. From August 1943, Harrie Janssen was supplied with airmen by Wiel Houwen, among others. [2.3]
He was also involved in the rescue of the crew of the “Spirit of 76,” which had crashed near Haelen.
Vicar Harry Janssen (pseudonym Bergmans) was a central figure because he recruited people to help, encouraged them, while also his house often functioned as a temporary shelter before the people in hiding were taken away.
Well-known is the story of the flying fortress that crashed at 1 p.m. between Haelen and the Spik. At seven in the evening, 10 of them were sitting with the vicar at coffee. Who had brought them all he himself did not know. But others knew where to deliver them. From his official residence they were taken away, such as to Neeritter where they crossed the border. [4]

Harrie Janssen was a classmate of Jac Naus.
, one of the founders of the LO.
In February 1944, vicar Jac Naus, Jacques Delsing and some others met in the home of vicar Harrie Janssen (classmate of Jac Naus) in Horn to discuss the so called liberation of father Bleijs. According to well-informed sources, father Bleijs would soon be arrested by the Germans. Father Bleijs knew all the pilot helpers and would therefore be a good catch for the Germans. [5]
The problem was that Bleijs did not want to go into hiding at all. He was therefore “arrested” in collaboration with a policeman in uniform and sent to England to report on the Limburg resistance to the Dutch government in exile.

As a meanwhile retired parish priest, he gave a speech at the unveiling of a memorial stone for Emile Goossens at the parish church in Echt: the memorial was unveiled on April 21, 1985. The memorial speech was given by the retired pastor Janssen, a friend of Goossens who had been vicar in Horn during the war. [6]




Footnotes

1. Heemkundevereniging OOS NAER Neer
2. Cammaert, A. P. M. (1994). Het verborgen front: Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
   1. Hoofdst. 0, pp.18ff: Introductie van vaak genoemde personen
   2. Hoofdst. 3 , pp.160 ff.: $III.2.5. Roermond-De Weerd-Horn
   3. Hoofdst. 4, $VIII. De vluchtroutes vanuit Echt, p.332
   4. Hoofdst. 6: De LO, p.611
3. OpenStreetMap Horn
4. wo2forum.nl Crash te Haelen, het verhaal van de ”Spirit of 76”
5. Egchels verleden Kapelaan Naus
6. 4en5mei.nl Echt, monument voor kapelaan Emile A.F. Goossens