The fallen resistance people in Limburg
pers.Valkenburg 1940-1945

Hein(z) Cremers
(Henricus)

Photo from the Cremers family archive, published on Rundsje Vallekeberg, March 21, 2018.

Biographical details about Heinz Cremers, who was called Hein in Valkenburg, can be found on his Im Memoriam card [1] and on openarchieven.nl. [2]
At the end of the war, the municipal officials Hein Cremers and especially Guus Laeven ensured that the entire register of the registry office of Valkenburg “somehow” got lost, when the Germans had the idea to force all male inhabitants between 16 and 60 years old to work in digging trenches. [3][7]
On August 31, 1944 at 13:00, the Combat Group (KP) South Limburg appeared in front of a small door at the side of the town hall. They were let in and the loot was packed into sacks and taken to the KP headquarters in Ulestraten. Guus Laeven was sprayed with chloroform and feigned unconsciousness. [4]
The role of Hein Cremers is not explained in detail there; presumably he later claimed that he had just been on his lunch break. But he is not only mentioned as an “accomplice” in the “History of Valkenburg-Houthem” quoted above. De Nieuwe Limburger also wrote on March 13, 1966 on the occasion of his silver jubilee with the municipality of Valkenburg-Houthem under the headline “Mr Cremers warmly celebrated”: Mayor F. Breekpot was the first to congratulate the jubilarian in the presence of his wife, his children and the municipal staff. Not only his competence as a civil servant in the population department, his cordial collegiality, but above all his patriotic deed, which he accomplished during the occupation when he made the entire population register of the municipality of Valkenburg-Houthem disappear. [5]
From that newspaper report it can be deduced that Hein must have entered the service of the municipality of Valkenburg-Houthem only in 1941. Before then, according to a private e-mail, he was a commercial traveler by profession.
He is buried in the cemetery on the Cauberg in Valkenburg, grave number: 916481. [6]

Footnotes

1. rijckheyt.nl Im Memoriam Heinz Cremers
2. openarchieven.nl Henricus (Heinz) Cremers
3. H.J.H. Schurgers - J.G.M. Notten - L.G.W.N. Pluymaekers, De geschiedenis van Valkenburg-Houthem, uitgeverij "Het land van Valkenburg". 1979, ISBN: 90-6190-017-4
4. 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.686
5. delpher.nl, De Nieuwe Limburger, 13 maart 1966
6. online-begraafplaatsen.nl Valkenburg, begraafplaats Cauberg, grafnummer: 916481
7. More in our story Resistance in Valkenburg