The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Piet Vossen
(Peter Hendrik)

Oorlogsgravenstichting

Piet Vossen was a farmer at the Spikkerhoeve. When he and his siblings were little children, their mother died and their father married her sister Antonia Hubertina Salimans on August 16, 1918 in Roggel. [1]
Cammaert writes in Chapter III on p. 178 [2]:
The threat of having to go back to captivity of war and the convocation for forced labor in Germany caused the sons of the house to go into hiding. This created links with the local resistance.
For they hid on their own farm and others followed them. Not far away was the estate De Bedelaar of Marie Eugénie Hooijer-Dubois, who also had a son hiding on her property on today’s Professor Duboisweg, named after her father. Soon other youths from the village joined them. The information below is taken in part from Mrs. Hooijer-Dubois’ diary. Hardly anyone in the resistance kept a diary, for understandable reasons. So this is an almost unique handwritten document that you can read online. [3]
Cammaert continues on pp. 306-307 [2]:
Like De Bedelaar, the Spikkerhoeve developed in 1943 into a safe house for people in hiding, French-speaking prisoners of war and Allied airmen.
There were up to 40 people in hiding at some moments [4], on the farm itself or in the surrounding woods, and looked after by the Vossen family. Many people in hiding were also looked after from De Bedelaar. In the fall, one raid after another took place. During the first large-scale raid, on Tuesday, September 26, a group of soldiers raided the Spikkerhoeve. The family had to leave the house and was forced to stand facing the wall of the farmhouse. There were nine K.P. (armed resistance group) members in the hayloft, but none of the family members let on. After looting what they liked, they departed. The K.P. members also left. German attention, however, remained focused on the isolated farm in the woods. It was suspected of being a hotbed of resistance. More raids followed in early October. After the raid on Sunday, October 8, three Vossen brothers were deported, and in the final raid the next day, 20-year-old P.H. Vossen was shot while trying to escape. [2]

On Wednesday, September 11, 2019, the section of the street Speckerweg in Haelen between Professor Duboisweg and the entrance to Spikkerhoeve was renamed Piet Vossenweg. The farm previously had the address Speckerweg 19, 6081 NN Haelen. [4]
The next day, a series of 10 open-air performances, Vossen van de Spik, began on the Spikkerhoeve, telling the above story, [5] thanks to the benevolent cooperation of the current owner.
At long last, the dangerous resistance work that mother Vossen, her six sons and two daughters had done under the eyes of the occupiers was honored. With success. Six thousand spectators were drawn into a magnificent presentation of local war history. [6]
His middle name was Hendrik. [7] The roll of honor erroneously gives Hubertus, see below.
He is buried in the Catholic cemetery of Heythuysen, grave L0715. [9]
Peter Hendrik ( Piet ) Vossen is listed in the Erelijst 1940-1945 (Honor Roll of the Dutch Parliament). [8]

Footnotes

1. wo2slachtoffers.nl Vossen, Peter Hendrik
2. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front
   III. Hulpverlening aan uit Duitsland ontvluchte (Franstalige) krijgsgevangenen
3. Marie Eugénie Hooijer-Dubois Dagboek 28/1/1943 - 23/6/1945
4. openstreetmap.org Spikkerhoeve, Haelen
5. TV: L1 Vandaag De Spikkerhoeve in Haelen
   deltalimburg.nl Openluchttheater Vossen van de Spik over WO II in Haelen op L1 TV
6. Aan alles komt een eind. Afsluiting van ’Vossen van de Spik’
7. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting, Dossier Peter Hendrik Vossen p.2
8. Erelijst 1940-1945
9. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl