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Limburg 1940-1945,
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Anna Maria Johanna Cremers (Annie)
∗ 05-06-1924 Voerendaal † 22-08-2005 Heerlen (81)
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Photo: Annie in the distribution office. Family archive.
Annie Cremers forged documents for the people in hiding at the so called Municipal Distribution Office of Valkenburg-Houthem. Her colleagues Willem Freysen and Vic Willems did the same. It was foreseeable that their trickery would be noticed. The resistance therefore organized a break-in at the distribution office by the Knokploeg (combat group) of Heerlen.
One of Annie’s daughters wrote by e-mail:
She was a daughter of Hubert Lodewijk Cremers and Maria Adelia Mandersmit. She was a niece of Gerda Schunck-Cremers.
Annie Cremers had just graduated from the MULO school [1] when the Second World War began. After graduating, she initially worked in her parents’ bakery. There she was asked (perhaps as early as 1940) to work in the distribution office of the municipality of Valkenburg-Houthem. She also worked in other municipalities in the Valkenburg distribution district. She worked there until her marriage to Jef Conemans (in 1947). At that time, female civil servants were dismissed when they got married.
Our mother also worked in that office in Neerhem-Valkenburg during the time of the robbery. She never told us that she made forgeries there in favor of the people in hiding.
During the time she worked at the distribution office, she regularly visited the hotel of her uncle Jean and her aunt Trienchen. She got on well with Gerda and Pierre Schunck. She always kept in touch with them.
It is likely that Annie also acted as a courier between the distribution office and Pierre Schunck, the sub-district leader of the LO in Valkenburg. The most inconspicuous way of doing this was through family visits to Jean Cremers, Pierre’s father-in-law and Annie’s uncle.
It was obviously a matter of course for the Cremers family to help people in need, even if it meant putting themselves in danger. All resistance families were cut from the same cloth.
See also The Cremers resistance family.
Footnotes