The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Johan Roosjen
(Johannes)

www.oorlogsbronnen.nl …

Johan Roosjen was a main supervisor at the electricity supplier Provinciale Limburgse Electriciteits Maatschappij. He was also a wealthy man who traded in shares and drove around in a Ford. He was married to Harmine Ketelaars. [1]
Their son Remco (March 26, 1916 - Feb. 2, 2002) had not gone to Germany for forced labor but went into hiding instead and during that time helped at least 75 Allied airmen on their way back to England. Johan supported that. [1]
But that was not the reason for his arrest. In September 1944 part of Limburg had already been liberated, but Johan Roosjen lived in the part still occupied. The PLEM had its own telephone network, which the Germans did not know about and which was therefore not tapped. An inventive colleague of Johan Roosjen was E.H.G. Moors. Among other things, he managed not only to connect the P.L.E.M. telephone network to the private networks of the coal mines in South Limburg, but also to that of the power supplier P.N.E.M. in the province of Noord-Brabant. This was especially useful during the advance of the Allies, because information could easily be passed on through the front. In the liberated area, a direct connection with the Americans was established. Until the NSB man and engineer J.H. Vos, who had fled from Maastricht from the Allies, investigated the private P.L.E.M. telephone network. The Sipo from Maastricht, who was also on the run and was now in Venlo, was involved with it and investigated in the PLEM telephone exchange in Blerick and when that yielded nothing, in the one in Herten, next to Roosjen’s residence. [2]
The latter was already in prison, having been reported by a neighbor across the street who was a member of the NSB because he was an avowed anti-Nazi. The extent of Johan Roosjen’s role in the intelligence network is not known. But the Sipo murderers saw sufficient reason to transfer him to Venlo.
There he was executed at the airbase Fliegerhorst Venlo together with three resistance fighters from Brabant: Willem Jan Jonker (45 years old), Gerardus Wilhelmus Johannes Hekman (19 years old), Maarten Reuchlin (33 years old). A large cross at the site commemorates their execution [3][5]

The memory of Johan Roosjen is also kept alive:
• A stumbling stone in front of his house. [3]
• Oorlogsmonument (war memorial) Roermond. [4]
• Memorial on the Toeperweg. [5)

He is buried in the Municipal cemetery Kapel in ’t Zand, Roermond, grave 2nd class 1 10. [6]

Footnotes

1. Gevallenenen Roermond - Achtergrond verhalen (background stories).
2. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   12. Inlichtingen, p.1129.
3. archiefroermond.nl Roosjen, Johannes
4. Oorlogsmonument Roermond
5. Venlo, monument aan de Toeperweg Voor hen die vielen 1940-1945
   • www.4en5mei.nl • OpenStreetMap
6. Gem. Begraafplaats Kapel in ’t Zand, Roermond
7. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl
8. https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/tijdlijn/Johannes-Roosjen/02/129632