Alfons Reinoud Berger <i>(Fons)</i>
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Alfons Reinoud Berger is listed in the Resistance Memorial on the
right wall, row 28 #02


Limburg 1940-1945,
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Alfons Reinoud Berger (Fons)


 01-05-1925 Venlo      22-01-1945 Neuengamme (19)
- Aid to People in Hiding L.O. - Couriers of the Resistance - Venlo -



Het Grote Gebod – L.O.

    Fons Berger was the eldest son of the mayor of Venlo, who stepped down in 1941, and attended the gymnasium Sint-Thomas College there.
    He became a district courier for the L.O. in Venlo, took Jewish children to their hiding addresses, and helped transport downed Allied airmen and escaped prisoners of war. He worked closely in the resistance with the vicar Jac. Naus (1913-1945). On February 8, 1944, J.H. Scheeres, a person in hiding, was arrested, carrying a note of the Venlo diver chief (local contact, Harry Holla). So he had to know more about the organization, and SD officer Nitsch managed to pry names out of him. Then, on February 29, 1944, the Security Police (Sipo) arrested 30 people in Venlo, including Fons Berger and Frans Coehorst. Fons was staying at parish priest Omloo and was arrested together with him in the presbytery. All those arrested were taken to the Café National in the Spoorstraat, the SD’s assembly point. [1]
    Note: SD and SiPo are two names for the same organization.


    In 1944, the SiPo inflicted two major blows on the Venlo resistance. (Municipal Archives [2])
    On Tuesday, February 29, the Sipo struck and arrested P.N.A. Peters, Harry Holla, parish priest Omloo, the couriers A.R. Berger and F.G.M.J. Coehorst, some other collaborators of the L.O. and a number of people in hiding. Berger eventually ended up in Neuengamme, where he succumbed to exhaustion in January 1945. [3]
    Plaque in the Sint-Jozefkapel in Broekhuizen. [4]
    Go to Broekhuizen to read more of the story of Fons and this chapel.
    Plaque in the Valuascollege in Venlo. [5]
    He is listed in the “Erelijst 1940-1945” (Honor Roll of the Dutch Parliament). [6]

    Footnotes

    1. vriendenkringneuengamme.nl Alfons Reinoud Berger
    2. Gemeentearchief Venlo
    3. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
      6. De Landelijke Organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers p. 582
    4. Sint-Jozefkapel, Broekhuizen
    5. OpenStreetMap Valuascollege, Venlo
    6. Erelijst 1940-1945
    7. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl
    8. http://historie.venlo.nl/persoon.asp?odID=707