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The fallen resistance people in Limburg
Louis Uphus was a window dresser [1#2] and lived in Roermond [1#3] since July 16, 1940. He belonged to the 14 Roermonders murdered during Christmas 1944, who were shot just across the German border, in order to expel their male townmates between the ages of 16 and 60.
Unmarried (engaged to a sister of the brothers Thijs, Wicher and Jan Oljans). About a week before Christmas 1944, during a raid, a search of the Oljans family home took place at Schoolpad [2] in Roermond. While Thijs and Wicher Oljans (18 and 22) managed to reach the hiding place in the attic in time, their younger brother Jan and Louis Uphus were caught. Jan, who was not yet 16, was released the same day. Uphus managed to escape. He later joined Thijs and Wicher, who no longer felt safe at home, even more so after Louis was almost arrested, and took refuge under the floor of a classroom at the girls’ school on Schoolpad. On the instructions of Dieudonné Verstappen, a local resident who had just been arrested for theft, the hiding place was discovered on the night of December 25-26, 1944. On Boxing Day, a Feldkriegsgericht (improvised court martial) presided over by Major Matthaeas imposed death penalties on the Oljans brother and Uphuss, among others. These were executed the same day. On December 26 and 27, 1944, a total of 14 men and boys were executed in the Elmpt Forest [2] near the German border village of Elmpt. Uphus’ name is inscribed on a plaque on the facade of the St. Alfonsus School [2] and on the monument at the Tussen de Bergen Cemetery in Roermond. [2][3]
Detailed information on this website: The Tears of Roermond and on a now inactive website, fortunately archived by the Way-Back-Machine, also titled: The Tears of Roermond. [5].
Reburied on the National Field of Honor in Loenen, grave D-180 [6]
Footnotes