The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Wim Quint
(Johannes Wilhelmus)

On the occasion of his copper jubilee as mayor of Brunssum, the Nieuwe Limburg wrote on May 30, 1959: “After high school he attended the school for reserve officers of the infantry in Kampen. In the following years he specialized in municipal administration, especially municipal finances. [1]
Het land van Herle mentions J.W. Quint, first lieutenant of the reserve, former local commander of the O.D. in Heerlen. [2]
In the archives of Rijckheyt there are two Im Memoriam cards in the name of Quint with the same date of death. One on the given names Johannes Wilhelmus, the other on the nick name Wim. This second one is also the source of the picture on the right. [3]
Cammaert calls him W.J. Quint and writes in a summary about him: Heerlen, civil servant, resistance pioneer. Was part of the O.D. and the L.O. Quint worked mainly behind the scenes and was involved in the production of the underground newspaper “Het Vrije Volk”. [4.1]
He was the deputy of Charles Bongaerts as commander of the O.D. in Heerlen.
Through the influence of Quint, Bongaerts was involved in helping (Jewish) people in hiding.
… Quint, who had gone into hiding immediately after the arrests in November, became his successor as local O.D. commander of Heerlen. [4.2]
In the above-mentioned article of the Nieuwe Limburger we read further:
On the eve of Christmas 1943, he was forced to go into hiding until the day Heerlen was liberated
… After the liberation, he was entrusted with the local command of the Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten (Domestic Armed Forces) and the management of the opsporingdienst voor politieke delinquenten (Search Service for Political Offenders). [1]
Cammaert: Preparations in connection with the arrest of political offenders were entrusted to a committee of former resisters set up by Nicolas, in which W.J. Quint held a prominent position. In its work, the committee was able to draw on the lists kept since 1941 by Molenaar and Bongaerts, which included a total of eight hundred people who were suspected of “unpatriotic” behavior. [4.2]

Footnotes

1. rijckheyt.nl koperen dienstjubileum J.W. Quint
2. Het land van Herle Editie 3-2011
3. rijckheyt.nl • Quint, Johannes Wilhelmus • Quint, Wim
4. Cammaert, A. P. M. (1994). Het verborgen front: Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
   1. Hoofdst. 0, pp.18ff: Introductie van vaak genoemde personen
   2. Hoofdst. 8. De Ordedienst, pp. 923-926