The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Harry van Rooij
(Hendrikus Wilhelmus)

Harry van Rooij was a lumberjack [1#3] and cultivator. [1#32]
Nowadays such a person would be called an arborist. He has always lived in Venray. [1#4]
On October 10, 1944, Harry van Rooij was arrested during a raid and taken to a labor camp in Remscheid (near Wuppertal). (See also The big round-ups) On April 15, 1945, he was killed by shrapnel during wartime operations. [1#23]
It was the day Remscheid was liberated by the US army. There were about 9,000 forced laborers in Remscheid at that time, about 2,500 of them from the Soviet Union.
Read more: Bei Kriegsende 9.000 Zwangsarbeiter in der Stadt. (At the end of the war 9,000 forced laborers in the city) [2]

Harry van Rooij’s brother attended the latter’s funeral and had a gravestone erected by a German friend, but later the grave could not be found anymore. [1#6]
The Identification and Recovery Service (dienst identificatie en berging) carried out an investigation at the cemetery in question (Friedhof Papenberg in Remscheid [3]). The mortician could not remember the exact location of the grave and the burial was not recorded in the cemetery register. [1#13]
Harry is commemorated by the war memorial in Venray. [4]
His name is engraved in the memorial stones on the Dutch Field of Honor in Düsseldorf. [5]

Wikimedia
Ereveld Düsseldorf

Footnotes

1. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting (@ Nationaal archief),
   Dossier Harry van Rooij • #3 • #4 • #6 • #13 • #23
2. Bei Kriegsende 9.000 Zwangsarbeiter in der Stadt
3. Friedhof Papenberg, Remscheid
4. Oorlogsmonument in Venray
5. Nederlands ereveld, Düsseldorf, Gedenkstenen
6. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl