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

NSB

Limburgsche Volksdag

National Socialists

In full, the Dutch branch of the German NSDAP was called Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (National Socialist Movement).
Its leider (literal translation of the German word Führer) was Anton Mussert. When it was founded, the NSB copied the program of the German Nazis, except for the passages on racial ideology, because they knew that this would not go down so well in the Netherlands. For the same reason they tried to give themselves a more civilized image than their German comrades had.
We see this today again with the right-wing populists. In Germany, many members of the AfD and especially of the party youth openly sympathize with the Nazis. Formerly it was spoken of the HJ (Hitler-Jugend), the AfD youth sometimes call themselves Höcke-Jugend. Wilders’ one-man party, on the other hand, occasionally tries to speak more civilized words. Then he suddenly puts his unconstitutional plans in the fridge just to be able to form a coalition. But still he calls Islam “not a religion but a dangerous ideology” because of reactionary thinking among some of its adherents. And what is entirely reminiscent of the language of propaganda minister Josef Goebbels is the yell, “Do you want more or less Moroccan criminals?”

When push came to shove, the NSB was quick to embrace the ideology of Greater Germania. They dreamed of the restoration of the ancient Seventeen Provinces [1], i.e., roughly the present Benelux countries plus Dunkirk and environs, naturally under the leadership of Anton Mussert. But the German Nazis did not like that idea.
The Limburg leader was Max de Marchant, a party member since 1933. He opened his castle in Amstenrade wide for anything that smelled brown. But the headquarters of the party was not there but in Valkenburg:
Where now in Thermae 2000 the guests physically cure stood Villa ’t Hooght, from 1936 to 1943 headquarters of the National Socialist Movement (NSB) in Limburg. [2]
During the liberation, unsavory scenes took place in many places, in which long pent-up anger erupted. It was often women who suffered. Women who had had relations with Germans for pay or out of love were labeled Moffenhoeren and were shaved bald. These were generally not members of the NSB. There was even a murder during the liberation, and that was of the landwachter Funs Savelberg in Valkenburg.

After the liberation it was felt that NSB members should be re-educated by working for the community.
In the monastery Ravensbosch [3.1] of the Oblate Fathers on the outskirts of Arensgenhout, in April 1945 the Military Authority requisitioned most of the building for internment of about a thousand women, who - whether proven or not - had been “wrong” during the war years. On crammed English army trucks, the first 182 women arrived at Ravensbosch on April 21, 1945. In the week from April 23 to 29, hundreds followed the others, until the 1,000 mark was exceeded. On May 22, 1945, the women rebelled …against the strict surveillance, against the poor food and against the far too slow conduct of their affairs.
…The Military Authority therefore had to do something and had its eye on the large vacant Ignatius College of the Jesuit Fathers, which was a stone’s throw away. [3.2]
…The Ignatius College buildings were put to use as a detention camp in the fall of 1945. [4]

St. Ignatius College in Valkenburg was empty, as the Nazi Reichsschule had fled. A large re-education camp for male and female collaborators from all over the country was set up there. It existed until 1948. The re-education of the men, if they were willing and able, consisted of underground work in the neighboring coal mines, important for the recovery of the Netherlands. For this they received normal wages, which for the miners of that time were quite high.
Marcel Krutzen writes: As of mid-May 1946, there were about 1,500 political prisoners in internment camp Valkenburg. They had chosen to work as underground workers in the Limburg coal mines rather than serve their time in a jail. They were put to work in the Oranje Nassau II (Schaesberg), the Oranje Nassau III (Heerlerheide) and the Laura (Eygelshoven). The central office of the Limburg mine camps was established in the above-mentioned Amstenrade castle of the NSB governor in Limburg, Max de Marchant.
The political offenders in the mines went on strike one day. They were temporarily distributed to a number of camps in the rest of the Netherlands to cool off. After that, the work continued. [5]

Something similar also existed in a smaller form in the elementary school in Vilt near Valkenburg: the camp Voor galg en rad. The internees had to work in a local pebble quarry. [6]

The above is mainly about the NSB in Limburg and Valkenburg. For more information on the NSB throughout the Netherlands, see Wikipedia. [7]

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1. 17 Provinciën, Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch • English • Français • Português
2. Lou Heynens Bruin-zwart erfgoed in Valkenburg of: fragment over het beschimmelde ‘thuis’ van onze vaders …, ingezonden stuk
3. OpenStreetMap
   1. Ravensbosch Valkenburg
   2. Ex Jezuïetenklooster, Valkenburg
4. Fons Heijnens, Kamp Kattebeek in de gemeente Valkenburg-Houthem Samenvatting
5. Marcel Krutzen, Rauw geschreeuw slaat uit de muren : Politieke delinquenten in bewarings- en verblijfskamp Sint-Ignatiuscollege te Valkenburg aan de Geul (1945-1948) in: De Maasgouw, 138 (2019) nr. 2, p. 20/24. Samenvatting online op archieven.nl: trefwoord: interneringskampen
6. NSB Interneringskamp Vilt
   1. Caspar Cillekens, Blank en zwart op de vuist in Heer, De Limburger, 14 nov.2009
   2. Jan Diederen, Mijn oorlog en bevrijding
7. N.S.B., Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch • English • Français • Português

The fallen resistance people in Limburg NSB – 13 pers.
(Zeguers-) Boere, Aldegonda Elisabeth Gonnie	∗ 1918-07-16 Maastricht † 2005-03-12 Veldwezelt (Belg. Limburg)	- War Criminals - NSB - Survivors - Maastricht - Gonnie Boere is listed here as an NSB member, but that is mainly to make her easier to find. For the same reason she is listed here under the name Zeguers-Boere, because she is often called that. …
Berendsen, Johan	∗ 1912-09-02 Avereest † 1947-05-02 Vught	- Police - NSB - War Criminals - Venlo - Photo from the criminal file in the National Archives: Johan Berendsen in early September 1944. Johan Berendsen was a Dutch war criminal known as “the terror of Venlo. [1]
Couperus, Otto	∗ 1898-10-29 Hüls	- Police - NSB - War Criminals - Survivors - Venlo - Picture: beeldbankwo2.nl [1] Otto Couperus became a police inspector and, during the war, also an SS officer. He began his career in Rotterdam, at the notorious …
Essers, Henricus Hubertus	∗ 0000-00-00 † 0000-00-00 ?	- NSB - Valkenburg - German Front Soldiers - Four young men from Valkenburg did not have German citizenship, but joined the German army voluntarily.The baker Henricus Hubertus Essers (*1916) who used to live on Wilhelminaan …
Heijnens, Joseph Lodewijk Jef	∗ 1905-01-30 Valkenburg † 1945-01-07 ?	- Valkenburg - German Front Soldiers - NSB - Four young men from Valkenburg did not have German citizenship, but joined the German army voluntarily.The miner Joseph Lodewijk Heijnens (*1905), who formerly lived on …
Holla, Gerardus Hubertus Gerrit	∗ 1906-07-18 Arcen en Velden	- NSB - War Criminals - Survivors - Roermond - Cammaert wrote about Gerrit Holla: Roermond, pub owner. Affiliated with N.S.B. and Landwacht. He was feared and hated because he made many victims among resistance people and … t-
Marchant et d’Ansembourg, de Maximilianus V.E.H.J.M. Max	∗ 1894-01-18 Gulpen † 1975-01-24	- NSB - Survivors - Amstenrade - Max Marchant’s father was a reactionary who also sat in the Dutch Chamber of Deputies, but never said a word there. He was a supporter of census voting, which means that the vote of the rich …
Rennes / Renesse, van Godert	∗ 0000-00-00 Heteren † 1903-02-16	- NSB - Valkenburg - Police - Survivors - On the genealogy page of the Van Rennes family we read that both forms of the surname … More in our story Resistance in Valkenburg
Savelberg, Alphons Hendrikus Funs	∗ 1917-11-06 Valkenburg † 1944-09-14 Valkenburg	- NSB - Valkenburg - Landwachter (Country guard, a kind of auxiliary police). He was shot by a group of revengeful boys who called themselves OD on September 14, 1944. … More in our story Resistance in Valkenburg
Schmalbach, (Godfried Jozef) Paul	∗ 1897-09-16 Vaals † 1952-09-18 Vaals	- Valkenburg - Mayors - NSB - Survivors - 1942-1943 mayor of Beek, 1943-1944 mayor Valkenburg-Houthem. His predecessor and successor was Piet Hens.
Schut, Cornelis Martinus Wilhelmus Willy	∗ 1901-11-28 Utrecht	- Police - Sipo/SD - NSB - War Criminals - Survivors - Picture: Before coming to Maastricht, Willy Schut was the chauffeur of Anton Mussert, the leader of the NSB. [1] Cammaert wrote: Employee of the
Senden, Willem Hubert Hubert	∗ 1924-09-29 Houthem † 1941-11-23 Bolschekrepinskaja	- Valkenburg - German Front Soldiers - NSB - Four young men from Valkenburg did not have German citizenship, but joined the German army voluntarily.Hubert Senden, without profession and living in Vroenhof, died on November …
Stipdonk, Johann	∗ 1919-11-18 Haarlem † 1941-11-28 Taganrog	- Valkenburg - German Front Soldiers - NSB - Four young men from Valkenburg did not have German citizenship, but joined the German army voluntarily.Johann Stipdonk, a machine fitter born in Haarlem in 1919 and resident of …