The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Ernst Berets
(Ernst David)

Maastrichtse Gevelstenen

Ernst Berets came from a Jewish family with many children. His father was Dutch, his mother German. They had moved to Krefeld after World War I, where they ran a wholesale fruit and vegetable business and a transport company. In the 1930s, Ernst began spying for the Dutch secret service through the consulate in Düsseldorf.
…noted troop movements and material transports, among other things. He also made site plans of factories in Krefeld, where the textile industry, an important part of the German war industry, was located. Together with his second cousin Max Behretz, he spied for the so-called Z-Net of British intelligence. [2]
In his biography on struikelsteentjes-maastricht.nl we read: When their wholesale business was destroyed on Kristallnacht [2], November 9-10, 1938, Ernst and Adèle fled. [1]
First to Venlo, later they moved to Maastricht. There they had a library with a magazine store. Ernst continued his espionage activities, but now in Welkenraedt on the Aachen-Belgium railroad line. Welkenraedt would be annexed by Germany a short time later, on May 29, 1940. Ernst spoke German without an accent and did not stand out in this border town, or at least he thought so.
He regularly visited a pub in Welkenraedt, Belgium. There he sounded out train drivers about German troop movements. This information, it became known only after the trial documents came to light, went to British intelligence via the Dutch. [1]
On May 18, 1940, a week after the German invasion, Ernst was arrested while visiting his mother in Amsterdam and charged with espionage and treason against Germany. Perhaps one of the German train drivers betrayed him.
On August 24, 1942, sentenced in Berlin to five years in prison with deduction of pre-trial detention. In December 1942, Ernst was transferred to Auschwitz. There he died of “Miocardinsuffizienz” on January 18, 1943, which indicates that he was shot by the executioner Walther Quakernack. [4]
In any case, the death certificate was signed around 8:00 a.m. by Quakernack, of whom it was known that he shot prisoners daily for his pleasure and then wrote the death certificate with the above cause. [1]

Ernst’s mother was also murdered, as were seven of his siblings. Only the oldest and the youngest survived the Shoah. So did his wife Adèle and their two children. [1]
On May 4, 2017, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses looted by the Nazis from Fritz Berets’ brother, was returned in Maastricht to Alexander Berets, Ernst’s son. This Pentateuch had been discovered shortly before in the Judaica Department of the library of the Free University of Berlin. [5]

Footnotes

1. joodsmonument.nl Ernst David Berets
2. "Kristallnacht", Novemberpogrome 1938, Wikipedia
   • Nederlands • Deutsch • English • Français • Português
3. struikelsteentjes-maastricht.nl, Ernst David Berets Nederlands – English
4. en.wikipedia Walter Quakernack
5. 1. struikelsteentjes-maastricht.nl, namenlijst Berets, Ernst David
   2. https://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/ub/ueber-uns/provenienzforschung/geschichten-der-verfolgten/fritz-berets/index.html
6. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl
7. http://www.maastrichtsegevelstenen.nl/0.OORLOG/oorlog2c-verzet.htm