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War Memorial in Aachen-Eilendorf
Limburg 1940-1945,
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Huub Thelen
(Hubertus Maria Joseph)
∗ 01-05-1920 Heerlen † 17-10-2012 Marseille (92)
- Survivors - Group Smit - War Criminals -
Cammaert, A. P. M. (1994). Het verborgen front: Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.Hoofdst. 2. De eerste militair-civiele verzetsformaties p.111- KZ Flossenbürg, Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch • English • Français • Português
- Harry van Dijck Een verraderlijke geschiedenis uit Heerlen over Charles Spreksel en de groep Smit, uit: Themanummer Tweede Wereldoorlog van MijnStreek, 2019 Nr.3, p. 4 ff.
Uitgave Stichting Historische Kring ’Het Land van Herle’ - nllegioen.eu 1948 Tien vrienden in de dood gejaagd, verrader vluchtte naar vreemdelingenlegioen
Hubertus Thelen had German parents who came from Verlautenheide near Aachen and settled in Heerlen in 1910, ten years before Huub’s birth. He was a demobilized soldier, a miner on the Oranje Nassau IV, and only 21 years old when he joined the Smit group in the second half of 1941. See also Cammaert. [1]
From his military service, Thelen also knew 25-year-old Charles Spreksel and was able to convince him to join the Smit group in August 1940. They spent a lot of time together, but were not really close friends. Thelen took Spreksel with him to various people in search of weapons. [2]
Nothing is known about his motives, but the fact is that in September or October 1941, Thelen had already taken the initiative to send a letter to the German representative for the province of Limburg, W. Schmidt, in which he revealed the existence of the Smit Group. [2]
He was directed to the SiPo in Maastricht. There he told them everything he knew about the Smit group. They urged him to cease his resistance activities but to keep an eye on the group. Thelen believed that one could not be done without the other, perhaps because he feared that this would attract attention. So he was arrested too.
From his arrest on February 2, 1942, until the surrender (of Hitler’s Germany), Thelen was imprisoned in camps without interruption. There he behaved improperly. He constantly collaborated with the Germans and pretended to be an “ethnic German.” This was one of the reasons why his fellow prisoners shunned him. He was imprisoned in Natzweiler, Dachau, and Flossenbürg [2], among other places. He was liberated near the latter camp in 1945. When he returned as a concentration camp prisoner, he settled in Heerlen. [3]
He later escaped prosecution by joining the French Foreign Legion. He apparently continued to live there after his retirement, as he died in Marseille at the age of 92. [4]
Footnotes