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Limburg 1940-1945,
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The fallen resistance people in Limburg
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The daily newspaper Het Belang van Limburg wrote on September 18, 2017 [1] under the title "The 9/11 of Opglabbeek": "Shot after an attack by resistance fighters on retiring Germans. In addition to Nicolaas Esser, Antonius Alenus, Renier Coolen, Henri and Josef Dirckx, Jaak Hellings, Pierre Paspont, Pieter Slootmaekers, Jacq Vanaanhoud, sisters Leonie and Maria Vliexs and Maria Hubertinia Voorpijl were also shot without any form of trial." In reality, it was not an attack, but a very unfortunate confluence of circumstances and probably treason that led to the Maaseik section of the Secret Army ceasing to exist shortly before the liberation. Read more about this in the introduction about the Secret Army.
The Vliexs sisters also belonged to this section. Their father was from Hulsberg, their mother from Meerssen. They married in Amby and moved from there first to Maastricht and later to Maaseik in Belgian Limburg.
In the middle of 1942, the dean of Maaseik knocked on the door of the Vliex family. He asked if they could help four escaped French prisoners of war. The four stayed in their house for a few days and then moved to an old barn nearby for an unknown reason. In the evenings, the sisters brought food and drink to the barn. Thus, the three older sisters, including Pia and Bertha, joined the secret army in 1941. Alphonsine (Sieske) Vliexs (∗ Amby, November 2, 1925 - † Maaseik, March 11, 2016) also wanted to join. At the time she was deemed too young, but later she too joined in. [3.1][4]
After the disaster of September 10 and 11, 1944, nine people were murdered in the vicinity of Maaseik, others between Heer and Cadier en Keer, a third group even further east, on the German-Dutch border, while the cannons of the approaching Allies could already be heard. All were accused of being members of the secret army. [1][2]
The youngest sister, Sieske Vliexs, survived the German camps disabled. Sieske and Helène Vanlaer were among others in the camps Ratingen and Ravensbrück, where they had to do slave labor.[3.1.]
Footnotes