The fallen resistance people in Limburg
pers.Valkenburg 1940-1945

Frans Cobbenhaegen
(Frans Alexander)

Frans Cobbenhaegen was a post official in Valkenburg, unmarried, arrested (date unknown) in Cologne for smuggling letters to the Netherlands. He passed through the camps of Amersfoort, Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald [1] on his ordeal, and died on Dec. 20, 1944 in concentration camp Kommando Langenstein-Zwieberge, a subcamp of Buchenwald. [2#12][3], prisoner no. 93278 [2#14], buried in Quedlinburg, Hauptfriedhof. [4]
He reached the age of 23.
He worked in the new post office in the Lindenlaan, which had been put into operation in 1942. In 1943, Frans was forced to work in Germany. He was caught in Cologne smuggling letters to the Netherlands and was taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar. [5]
Apparently he worked in Cologne at the post office too. By the way, he did not die in the non-existent Langenweide, but in Langenstein-Zwieberge, see above.
He and his colleague Jan Hubert Vrancken, who died in Maastricht on September 29, 1944, received a memorial plaque in the facade of the building that was once their workplace. [5]
Photo: memorial stone on the former post office in Valkenburg: war victims among postal workers. [4]

Footnotes

1. Concentration Camps
Buchenwald
2. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting (@ Nationaal archief), Dossier Frans Cobbenhaegen • #12 • #14
3. Kdo. Langenstein-Zwieberge (Buchenwald), Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch • English • Français • Español
4. Ex PTT Valkenburg: plaquette Frans Cobbenhaegen & Hubert Vrancken
5. Jan Schurgers, Dood van twee postbeamten, in Valkenburg 2019 – 75 jaar bevrijd – 75 verhalen over de inval in 1940, de bezetting en de bevrijding september 1944, p.123.
6. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl
7. More in our story Resistance in Valkenburg