The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Emile Goossens
(Emile Antoon Felix)

Het Grote Gebod – L.O.

Emile Goossens was a vicar in Echt 1936-1945. For French-speaking prisoners of war who escaped from Germany, downed allied pilots, Jewish fellow citizens and resistance fighters in hiding, he set up escape routes as far away as Belgium and northern France (Nancy, Père Tim). In early 1944, vicar Goossens had to go into hiding, because there were well-founded suspicions that the SiPo was watching him. After some wandering, he finally ended up with J. Simmelink in Nunhem through the intervention of Father Damen. There he was arrested by coincidence on June 29, 1944. Cammaert III,  [1.1]
See also chapter VIb. [1.2]
Goossens was subjected to harsh interrogation by Nitsch and Schut in Maastricht prison a day later, during which it emerged that they had accidentally caught an very important resister. Quote Strobl: “We were looking for someone else, but found someone even more heavy”.
…
The next day the torture was continued, but Goossens revealed nothing about his resistance work. At the beginning of August 1944, the vicar was transferred to Vught. Via Oranienburg, he finally reached the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he died of exhaustion caused by an infectious disease at the age of 42. [2]

On April 21, 1985, a memorial dedicated to him was unveiled at the church in Echt. The memorial speech was given by the retired parish priest Janssen, a friend of Goossens who had been vicar in Horn during the war and had worked with him in refugee aid. [2]

Footnotes

1. Cammaert, Alfred Paul Marie, Het Verborgen Front
   1. III: Ontvluchte (Franstalige) krijgsgevangenen, p.210
   2. VIb: De LO, p.625.
2. 4en5mei.nl Echt, monument voor kapelaan Emile A.F. Goossens
     • OpenStreetMap Vrijthof 2a, 6101 AP, Echt
3. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl