The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Antoine Kessen
(Antonius Hubertus Marie Cornelis)

resources.huygens.knaw.nl …

After Antoine Kessen had attended the municipal gymnasium in his native city, he passed the licentiate examination in Germanic philology cum laude at the University of Louvain in 1926, followed by a doctoral examination in the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy in Leiden, where he obtained his doctorate in 1931 with a dissertation entitled Het Cancellierboeck, a literary-historical and linguistic study of and edition of a medieval Dutch confessional book. [1]
During the mobilization of the Dutch army before the war, Antoine Kessen was a conscript reserve 1st Lieutenant. [2]

Cammaert writes summarily about him: Maastricht, municipal archivist. Was affiliated with the O.D. and played a mediating role in conflicts within the local resistance. Also illegal press and intelligence. [3.1]
In the Maastricht OD he was appointed chief of staff. [3.2]

Apparently he was active in several resistance organizations, because in a biography of Antoine Kessen from the Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands we read: During World War II, Kessen was active in the resistance. For example, he cooperated with the National Organization for Assistance to Divers and the National Knokploegen. Later, as co-editor, he would shape their history in Het Grote Gebod. [4]
During the occupation he also played an important role in the distribution of the illegal newspaper Je Maintiendrai [5] in Maastricht and the surrounding area and he had contact with the Medical Resistance.
…From 1944 to 1945 he was head of the Cultural Affairs Department of the Military Authority in Limburg and then, until his departure for Groningen in 1946, director of the Regionale Omroep Zuid (regional broadcasting company. [6]
Cammaert adds: The Maastricht municipal archivist Dr. A.H.M.C. Kessen was in charge of distribution (ration service) in particularly the eastern part of South Limburg. [3.3]

This dynamic man did and wrote so much in his rather short life that it is impossible to list everything here. The National Archives provides an incomplete list of the positions he held: [7]

• Municipal librarian and archivist at the city library in Maastricht
• District inspector of the Netherlands Art Property Foundation
• Member of the Society of Dutch Literature in Leiden
• Member of the Royal Dutch Archaeological Society in Amsterdam
• Member and board member of the Dutch Association of Librarians and Public Reading Rooms
• Curator at the library of the University of Groningen
• Librarian at the library of the National University of Leiden

See also a list of texts by Dr. Antoine Kessen in journals and other books at dbnl.org. [8]

Footnotes

1. dbnl.org Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, 1961
2. openarchieven.nl
3. 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. 8. De Ordedienst, p.931
   3. Hoofdst. 11, Illegale pers, p.1063
4. Het Grote Gebod Gedenkboek van het verzet in LO en LKP tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog
5. Je Maintiendrai (krant), Wikipedia • Nederlands
6. huygens.knaw.nl, Levensbeschrijving Antoine Kessen
7. nationaalarchief.nl Onderwijs: Personeelsdossiers, dr. A.H.M.C. Kessen
8. dbnl.org Teksten van Dr. Antoine Kessen
9. https://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn6/bwn2/images/KESSEN.jpg