Ed “Bas” Miedema (Petrus Reinier Eduard Jozef)
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Petrus Reinier Eduard Jozef Miedema is not (yet?) listed on a wall of the chapel.
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Ed “Bas” Miedema
(Petrus Reinier Eduard Jozef)


 20-09-1912 Sint Anthonis      28-08-1985 Haelen (72)
- Initial resistance - Aid to People in Hiding L.O. - Zwarte Plak - Aid to Jews - Pilots’ helpers - Ondergrondse pers - Survivors - Gennep - Schaesberg -



www.tienray75jaarbevrijd.nl …

    After Ed Miedema was ordained a priest in 1938, he first became vicar in Ottersum and then from 1940-1950 at St. Martinus Church in Gennep. [1]
    In Gennep he became leader of the local L.O. group during the war. This town was on the approach route of Allied bombers to the Ruhr and other industrial centers in Germany.
    On tienray75jaarbevrijd.nl/ there is a fairly detailed article about Ed Miedema, from which we quote here. He brought the crews of crashed Allied planes to farm de Zwarte Plak in the village of America. He also organized accommodation for Jewish children. He distributed resistance newspapers “Ons Volk” and “Trouw” in the area. He hunted black marketeers, which raised as much as 25,000 guilders for the resistance. He was forced to go into hiding with his parents in St. Anthonis on July 11, 1944. Because he helped so many people during the war, it was not difficult to come up with a gift for him: bedsheets. He gave away so much that he himself slept on straw. [2]
    At museumhetpetershuis.nl it is suspected, that his unruly character and manner led to his many transfers until he was finally appointed parish priest. And to a conflict, which would become known throughout the Netherlands [1] because it fitted so clearly into the issues of the time:
    He was also vicar in Heerlen, Sittard and Roermond, among other places, and then was appointed parish priest of St. Michael parish in the quarter “’t Eikske” of Schaesberg. Here he came into conflict with Bishop Moors because of his liberal conception of ministry and authority in the Catholic Church. He was intransigent in his opposition to the church of power. This led to his dismissal in 1968.
    The church board resigned, and supported by the parish council, services continued in an own church building. A critical base parish, the so-called “free regional parish” of Schaesberg, came into being. As a result, lawsuits arose for possession of the baptism and marriage registers, and the new Bishop Gijsen declared the marriages that had been contracted by Miedema invalid. In 1979, he married Gonnie Hermens. [2]
    For a biography on Ed Miedema, journalist Katja Kreukels is looking for people who knew Miedema or his later wife Gonnie Hermsen, especially during his years in Gennep. If you have any information or memories, you are kindly requested to contact her by e-mail: katjakreukels@planet.nl or secretarishetpetershuis@gmail.com. [3]

    Cammaert writes summarily about him: Gennep, Vicar. Resistance pioneer and exponent of humanitarian inspired resistance. Got involved early in the war in helping Allied refugees and (Jewish) people in hiding. Led the local L.O. and distributed several banned newspapers. [4]

    Footnotes

    1. museumhetpetershuis.nl Wie kent de rebelse kapelaan Miedema?
    2. tienray75jaarbevrijd.nl Kapelaan Miedema
    3. gennep.news Rebel Ed Miedema
    4. Cammaert, A. P. M. (1994). Het verborgen front: Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
      Hoofdst. 0, pp.18ff: Introductie van vaak genoemde personen
    5. Ed Miedema in Schaesberg


    6.  
    7. https://www.tienray75jaarbevrijd.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Miedema.jpg