All the fallen resistance people in Limburg

Willem de Backer, Debacker

Willem Debacker had a Maastricht mother and was born in Maastricht as well. That is why he is mentioned, by the way without any further comment, on maastrichtsegevelstenen.nl [1].
In the Netherlands, 6 September 1944 is called "Dolle Dinsdag" [7] (Mad Tuesday, english and french wiki available), but also in Belgium there was panic among the Germans and their Belgian collaborators because of the rapid advance of the Allies. Thus, 900 political prisoners locked up in the Cavalry Camp of the concentration camp of Beverlo were released by their German guards. Some of them were invited to a luncheon by the inhabitants of Leopoldsburg in a brasserie.
A group of Flemish SS men and a German soldier, fleeing from Antwerp on a bicycle, vented their frustration to 22 participants of this meal. Among them was Willem Debacker, one of the just liberated political prisoners. Why had he been in prison?
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A few hours later Leopoldsburg was liberated by the Piron brigade. [2]
At www.wo2slachtoffers.nl we read the following [6]:

Lived in Leopoldsburg. Son of administrator Gerardus Johannes De Backer (born in Kortgene) and Victoire Adrienne Hélène Royen (born in Maastricht). Married. Day labourer. Roman Catholic. He was detained as a political prisoner. Debacker, as the Belgians write, is one of the 22 victims, who were shot on 6 September 1944 around 6:30 in the evening by some SS men of the retreating division Langemarck. At the approach of the Allied troops, 900 prisoners had been released that day. Residents of Leopoldsburg provided shelter for Debacker and a number of other former prisoners and gave them a good meal. During this ‘freedom feast’ SS men stormed in, herded the participants together and made them walk towards a canal. There they were shot. The part of the creek, where the drama took place, has since been called the Treurgracht(Mourning Trench) and the part of the IJzerlei, where the memorial with, among others, Debacker’s name is located, has been changed into the Martelarenstraat. The SS men involved were sentenced to death or life-long forced labor. About the killing of the 22 victims the book „6 september 1944 - De Fusillade te Leopoldsburg“ (6 September 1944 - The Fusillade at Leopoldsburg) by Marius Louche has been published [3].

Some documents about him can be seen at www.nationaalarchief.nl/. [4]

Footnotes

1. http://www.maastrichtsegevelstenen.nl/0.OORLOG/oorlog2c-verzet.htm
2. tracesofwar.nl: Treurgracht, Leopoldsburg
3. Een uittreksel uit De Fusillade te Leopoldsburg, 6 september 1944, Marius P.R.Louche, uitgegeven in eigen beheer, 1989-2013
4. https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/2.19.255.01/invnr/219434A/file/NL-HaNA_2.19.255.01_219434A_0002
5. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl
6. https://www.wo2slachtoffers.nl/bio/53286/Backer-de-Willem.htm
7. Wikipedia NL: Dolle Dinsdag