The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Mies Förster
(Maria Anna Clara)

Het Grote Gebod – L.O.

Nurse, assistant to the medical examiner at the municipal employment office in Heerlen. "She saved numerous approved persons from being sent to Germany for forced labour by changing medical certificates on a large scale and by signing rejection certificates herself." [1]
She forged "the signature of doctor Winters from Kerkrade. Winters was an N.S.B. (Dutch Nazi party) member who approved almost everyone who was examined by him for forced labour in Nazi Germany". She worked together with the trade unionist Jan Maenen, who "treated" people with a drug that caused eczema. Mies Förster then took care of a flawless rejection. [2]
She was watched by an N.S.B. colleague by order of the SiPo Maastricht and had to go into hiding in 1943. "Her successor, Miss M.A.P. Duysens, continued Förster’s activities." [1] Their colleagues in Venlo and Roermond did the same. According to De Nieuwe Mijnstreek [3] she saved hundreds of boys from the hands of the enemy.
She also carried out courier services. As a result of her resistance work, she contracted a serious illness from which she succumbed on 18 March 1945. [4]
††† Akerstraat †††, Heerlen. [5].

Footnotes

1. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front - Hoofdstuk VIb, De landelijke organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers p. 659
2. Marcel Krutzen, Mies Förster (1915-1945) Verpleegster in oorlogstijd Land van Herle 2018-1, p. 30
3. Verpleegster van het Vaderland. In Memoriam: Maria Anna Clara Förster artikel in De Nieuwe Mijnstreek, 23 maart 1945
4. Brabantse Gesneuvelden
5. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting, Dossier Mies Förster #4
   OpenStreetMap ††† Akerstraat †††, Heerlen, R.K. 2 292
6. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl