1940-1945. The resistance in the dutch province of Limburg

Horst

Oorlogsmonumenten ⚔️⚔️⚔️

Sporen die bleven HorstWikimedia: De Zwarte Plak 1945 Jacob & Johanna Poels–Emonts

Text on the monument Sporen die bleven (Traces that remained) →
In the fall of 1944, over 3,000 boys and men were arrested by the Nazis during raids in the region between the Meuse river and the Peel and deported to Germany for forced labor. These events cost the lives of 120 men and left a deep trauma for the survivors and those left behind.
From Horst 94 people were deported.
Of them, 1 man did not survive the war.
Between Maas and Peel

Horst is a good example of how in North Limburg the barriers between the O.D. and the L.O. hardly mattered. This was by no means the case everywhere. Cammaert writes: Local O.D. members and helpers for Jews and Allied refugees were involved in the founding of the organization for people in hiding, also called Diving Organization. In the spring of 1943, F.P.J. Smulders and J.G. Arts attended meetings in Venlo at the request of the Catholic parish priest J.C.B. Janssen from Horst-America. Smulders was already a member of the O.D., as were G.A. Lucassen and J.J.L. Timmermans. They all joined the L.O.. (Het Verborgen Front - History of organized illegality in the province of Limburg during World War II, chap. VIb $ VIII.2.4. Rayon Horst).
Near Horst are the Schadijkse Bossen, the Schadijk Woods (Open Street Map). During World War II, a resistance group set up two camps in this area for crew members of crashed Allied planes, as well as male residents of villages in the area and students who wanted to escape forced German labor service. On the instructions of the traitor Antonie Damen, the SiPo (Security Police) from Maastricht, supported by members of the Green Police, went into action on August 19, 1943. They combed the Schadijkse Bossen and arrested sixteen people, but the camps themselves were not found. (The Tragic Role of Jacques Schreurs)
The OD in Venlo developed plans to train all these people in hiding to become soldiers and also built forest camps. Read more: A military training camp for people in hiding.
A month later, Derk van Assen from Maastricht refused to name resistance fighters after being arrested. On September 14, 1943, he was murdered in the Schadijkse Bossen by Nitsch of the SiPo Maastricht.

Meijel was liberated for the first time on September 25, 1944, for the second time on November 6, and for the third time finally on November 17.)

Liberated: 1944-11-22 – 1944-11-23