All the fallen resistance people in Limburg

Jan Mennen

Oorlogsgravenstichting

Johannes Joseph Mennen was a baker. The memorial plaque [1] at the monument in Roggel reads: This monument was erected in memory of the resistance fighters Jan Muis and Jan Mennen. On September 26, 1944, they went by bicycle, together with a resistance comrade Frits Coenen, to relieve the guards in the forest. In the forest at that moment there was a German soldier who was a prisoner of war. On their way, they were coincidentally stopped by two German soldiers. Less than 100 meters in front of them, two more German soldiers were lying in the ditch along the road with their rifles at the ready. Suddenly, shots were heard. Frits Coenen managed to escape. Jan Muis and Jan Mennen were killed…
Cammaert writes: J.P.N. Muis, J.J. Mennen and G. Coenen set out for the cellar on Tuesday, September 26, to relieve the guard. German paratroopers searching the area at the same time noticed the three and took them under fire. Coenen escaped, but Muis was fatally shot. Mennen suffered a shot in the lungs and was taken to the hospital in Roermond, where he died the next day. [2]
He is listed in the “Erelijst 1940-1945” (Honor Roll of the Dutch Parliament). [3]

Footnotes

1. Plaquette, monument in Roggel
2. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   8. De Ordedienst, p. 898
3. Erelijst 1940-1945
4. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl