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Valkenburg resistance
The Valkenburg Resistance was the resistance movement in Valkenburg, Limburg, Netherlands, during World War II. The majority of work done by the movement was dedicated to providing aid to those seeking refuge from prosecution by the occupying Nazi Germans. Sheltering Jewish refugees was punishable by death and one third of the people who kept them from Nazi punishment did not survive the war.
When World War II broke out the Netherlands intended to remain neutral, as they had been in World War I. But when Nazi Germany nevertheless invaded in 1940, at first little changed and life went on fairly normally.[citation needed] There had always been Germans in this region so close to the German border and the Germans expected the Aryan Dutch would 'fall in line'. But then the Germans started imposing their ideology on the people, limiting people's rights, forcing people into involuntary labour internment (Arbeitseinsatz), and deporting Jews and others. These and other factors caused a growing group of people who wanted to resist the occupation, at first through individual acts like non-cooperation.
But activities such as helping people who had gone into hiding (e.g. to escape the Arbeitseinsatz), shot down pilots and escaped POWs needed more organisation. Small groups united into the Landelijke Organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers (LO, National Organisation for help to people in hiding), which divided the province of Limburg in ten districts under Jacques Crasborn. Another organisation was the Knokploeg (assaultgroup) or KP. The KP would obtain goods needed for the people in hiding and the LO would then distribute them. In spite of the name the KP was not necessarily violent, but violence was sometimes needed in (mostly nocturnal) activities like obtaining identification carnets and ration cards and sometimes even German uniforms, which were used for raids.
The LO in Limburg started in Venlo in February 1943 under teacher Jan Hendricx (pseudonym Ambrosius). Another important figure was L. Moonen (pseudonym Ome Leo – Uncle Leo), secretary to the bishopric, who used his episcopal contacts to make the Limburg resistance an ordered organisation.
Head of the Valkenburg LO was Pierre Schunck (pseudonym Paul Simons). Notable members were Harry van Ogtrop and Gerrit van der Gronden. But many more people helped, more or less frequently, such as civil servants Hein Cremers and Guus Laeven, who, at the end of the war, 'lost' the population records when the Germans wanted to put all men between 16 and 60 at work digging trenches.
Pierre Schunck came into contact with the resistance because he lived across the street from a cave where people hid. When chapelain Berix Schunck visited there, he asked Pierre if he could get some clothes for the people in hiding. Which he did. But he went further by improving the living conditions (electricity and food). And in the end he decided to get more people involved and set up a resistance organisation, which hid a total of 150 people. At one point there even arrived a group of 100 people from the district of Maas en Waal, where there had been problems. Most of these could be hidden at several farms. Pierre Schunck's pseudonym 'Paul Simons' was a result of the at the time rather common custom to stitch one's initials into clothing and handkerchiefs, so the initials had to match. The fact that he chose a Jewish name is rather peculiar, though.
Apart from helping people in hiding, other activities took place, like raiding a store of radio equipment in Klimmen, a train full of eggs, and a dairy plant in Reijmerstok for a ton of butter. And hiding valuables from the Jesuit cloister in Valkenberg. One of the people who did this was Pierre Schunck, who owned a laundrette and simply hid the goblets and such under the laundry and put his children on top. At a hospital in Heerlen a whole floor was 'hidden' from the Germans to hide (and treat) crashed pilots and other people in hiding.
The many marl mines in South Limburg were also ideal hiding places because they needed a guide to navigate them (especially the ones in Maastricht have a very extensive system of corridors than has been used throughout history for this purpose). When Pierre's father Peter Schunck, who owned some land with entries to mines, where he knew people were hiding (which he chose to ignore), was asked by the Germans to lead them into the caves, he took them to a section he knew was dangerous and poked his walking stick in the ceiling, causing part of it to come down. Upon which he said he would not enter there. To which the Germans agreed. The caves were also used to hide guns (provided they weren't too damp) and as shooting ranges. And to imprison (possible) traitors.
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Valkenburg resistance
The Valkenburg Resistance was the resistance movement in Valkenburg, Limburg, Netherlands, during World War II. The majority of work done by the movement was dedicated to providing aid to those seeking refuge from prosecution by the occupying Nazi Germans. Sheltering Jewish refugees was punishable by death and one third of the people who kept them from Nazi punishment did not survive the war.
When World War II broke out the Netherlands intended to remain neutral, as they had been in World War I. But when Nazi Germany nevertheless invaded in 1940, at first little changed and life went on fairly normally.[citation needed] There had always been Germans in this region so close to the German border and the Germans expected the Aryan Dutch would 'fall in line'. But then the Germans started imposing their ideology on the people, limiting people's rights, forcing people into involuntary labour internment (Arbeitseinsatz), and deporting Jews and others. These and other factors caused a growing group of people who wanted to resist the occupation, at first through individual acts like non-cooperation.
But activities such as helping people who had gone into hiding (e.g. to escape the Arbeitseinsatz), shot down pilots and escaped POWs needed more organisation. Small groups united into the Landelijke Organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers (LO, National Organisation for help to people in hiding), which divided the province of Limburg in ten districts under Jacques Crasborn. Another organisation was the Knokploeg (assaultgroup) or KP. The KP would obtain goods needed for the people in hiding and the LO would then distribute them. In spite of the name the KP was not necessarily violent, but violence was sometimes needed in (mostly nocturnal) activities like obtaining identification carnets and ration cards and sometimes even German uniforms, which were used for raids.
The LO in Limburg started in Venlo in February 1943 under teacher Jan Hendricx (pseudonym Ambrosius). Another important figure was L. Moonen (pseudonym Ome Leo – Uncle Leo), secretary to the bishopric, who used his episcopal contacts to make the Limburg resistance an ordered organisation.
Head of the Valkenburg LO was Pierre Schunck (pseudonym Paul Simons). Notable members were Harry van Ogtrop and Gerrit van der Gronden. But many more people helped, more or less frequently, such as civil servants Hein Cremers and Guus Laeven, who, at the end of the war, 'lost' the population records when the Germans wanted to put all men between 16 and 60 at work digging trenches.
Pierre Schunck came into contact with the resistance because he lived across the street from a cave where people hid. When chapelain Berix Schunck visited there, he asked Pierre if he could get some clothes for the people in hiding. Which he did. But he went further by improving the living conditions (electricity and food). And in the end he decided to get more people involved and set up a resistance organisation, which hid a total of 150 people. At one point there even arrived a group of 100 people from the district of Maas en Waal, where there had been problems. Most of these could be hidden at several farms. Pierre Schunck's pseudonym 'Paul Simons' was a result of the at the time rather common custom to stitch one's initials into clothing and handkerchiefs, so the initials had to match. The fact that he chose a Jewish name is rather peculiar, though.
Apart from helping people in hiding, other activities took place, like raiding a store of radio equipment in Klimmen, a train full of eggs, and a dairy plant in Reijmerstok for a ton of butter. And hiding valuables from the Jesuit cloister in Valkenberg. One of the people who did this was Pierre Schunck, who owned a laundrette and simply hid the goblets and such under the laundry and put his children on top. At a hospital in Heerlen a whole floor was 'hidden' from the Germans to hide (and treat) crashed pilots and other people in hiding.
The many marl mines in South Limburg were also ideal hiding places because they needed a guide to navigate them (especially the ones in Maastricht have a very extensive system of corridors than has been used throughout history for this purpose). When Pierre's father Peter Schunck, who owned some land with entries to mines, where he knew people were hiding (which he chose to ignore), was asked by the Germans to lead them into the caves, he took them to a section he knew was dangerous and poked his walking stick in the ceiling, causing part of it to come down. Upon which he said he would not enter there. To which the Germans agreed. The caves were also used to hide guns (provided they weren't too damp) and as shooting ranges. And to imprison (possible) traitors.