Bekers, Franciscus Johannes, “Frans”.

Bekers, Franciscus Johannes “Frans”, born 13-06-1919 in Boxtel and lived in Veldhoven, where the webmaster is living for 53 years after marrying a girl from Veldhoven, .where Frans works as a laborer in the textile factory De Groof.

In 2020/2021 we were bullied a lot by the Coronavirus SARS2. One of the many diseases that plagued our ancestors was the Plague or “Black Death.” In the 17th century, Veldhoven was hit several times by the plague. According to legend, new deaths from the plague in Veldhoven were heralded by the appearance of the white horse in ‘t Broek, the swampy grounds along the Gender between Veldhoven and Meerveldhoven. The dead were buried as quickly as possible to prevent contamination. The plague cemetery was located where the apartment complex De Paladijn now stands, on the corner of Dorpstraat/De Run.

During the German occupation Frans is called up for the German Arbeitseinsatz/ work assignment in Germany for Dutch workers and is put to work in Kassel, Germany from September 1942. A year later he manages to escape and go into hiding in the Netherlands. Subsequently, he became involved in the active resistance and was involved in, among other things, sabotaging railway lines and obtaining distribution coupons for people in hiding and refugees.

The first assassinations of German soldiers and collaborators by members of the resistance took place in 1941. The number of liquidations rose sharply, particularly in the last two years of the war. In general, there was a certain reticence within the resistance with regard to carrying out liquidations because of possible reprisals by the Germans. For example, 117 people were executed after the failed attack on Johan Baptist Albin “Hanns.    Rauter, the highest SS officer in the Netherlands. Perhaps even more famous is the Putten Razzia, ordered by Friedrich Christian Christiansen  After an attack by the resistance in which a German officer lost his life, almost the entire male population of the Gelderland village of Putten was deported. 552 of them did not survive the war. Despite this reticence, there are enough examples known of liquidations in which resistance members proceeded to liquidations on an individual basis or within a small group. Especially in the last year of the war, many thugs took little notice of the guidelines issued by the national top of the Interior Forces. a kind of homeguard. Usually they did not contribute to the intended goal: saving human lives. Even after the liberation, several murders took place by members of the resistance.The number of liquidations by the resistance was estimated at a minimum of over six hundred. Together with Albert Oosthoek,  this journalist published the book Recht op vengeance, containing an overview of all known liquidations by the resistance. A separate category is formed by the group – mostly Jewish – of people in hiding who were killed by the resistance. More than twenty cases are known. Usually it was decided to kill them because they posed a danger to their environment. Sometimes they could not cope well with life in hiding and threatened to go to the occupier. Because they often had a lot of sensitive information, the only option was to kill them. There are also known examples of a person in hiding – rightly or wrongly – being mistaken for a traitor, after which it was decided to liquidate.

Jannetje Johanna “Hannie” Schaft (Haarlem, 16-09-1920 – Bloemendaal, 17-04-1945)  was a Dutch communist and resistance fighter during World War II. As a resistance fighter she used the pseudonym Hannie, her actual nickname was Jo or Jopie. On 08-06-1944, together with resistance fighter Jan Lambertus “Little Jan” Bonekamp, with whom she had a relationship, she committed an attack on the NSB member and confectioner Pieter Johan Faber in Heemstede. Faber died six days later. The brother of Pieter also was criminal was Klaas Carel Faber. He involved in the execution of dozens of detainees in Exloo, Westerbork and Norg, was sentenced to death for this in 1947, Klaas escaped spectacularly out of dome prison in Breda in 1952 and fled to Germany. The German judges, decided then that he would no longer be tried. On 26-05-2012 Faber’s wife announced to Arnold Karskens that he had died on 24-05-2012, age 90, of kidney failure in the hospital of Ingolstadt, Germany. Klaas was involved in the execution of dozens of detainees in Exloo, Westerbork and Norg.

The NSB was founded in 1931 by Anton Adrian “Ad” Mussert in Utrecht, and in the 1930s, when unemployment was high, it responded to dissatisfaction among the Dutch population. The existing government hardly did anything to change the situation (social benefits amounted to 1 guilder per day) and the NSB promised better times. In Germany, such a party, Adolf Hitler‘s NSDAP , was already very successful. But in the Netherlands things never worked out with the NSB; the party won only 4 seats in the then 100-seat parliament.

Subsequently, Hannie Schaft  with dyed black hair and window glasses. Photo on her fake ID, in the name of Johanna Elderkamp, born in Zurich, together with Bonekamp killed the collaborationist Zaandam police commissioner Willem Marinus Ragut, age 46  on 21-06-1944. Schaft shot Ragut, who was on his way from his house to the police station, in the back. Ragut considered an attempt on his life and carried two pistols. He managed to return fire before dying of his wounds. Bonekamp was mortally wounded, after which Schaft went into hiding. On 25-10-1944, together with Cornelis Maria “Cor” Rusman, she committed an attack on police officer, and Dutch collaborator Willem Meindert Willemsen, which he survived. Schaft and Truus Oversteegen planned to liquidate Fake Krist

and they followed him with that aim on 25-10-1944 on the Westergracht in Haarlem, but due to a misunderstanding, a police squad from Halfweg was just too quick for them and Krist was killed. height of a park from his bicycle. Shortly after the Second World War, part of the text on Fake Krist’s tombstone was removed by unknown persons. Above is the text that was removed,

Cornelis Maria Rusman survived the war and died age 63 mei 1970  The judgment shows that the Dutch collaborator Willem Meindert Willemsen arrested more than 100 people, of whom 56 were killed  It is unclear when Willemsen was released and when he died.  Hannie’s girlfriend Truus Oversteegen, during the Second World War was a resistance fighter in the Council of Resistance (RVV) and she carried out many resistance activities together with her sister Freddie Oversteegen and her friend Hannie Schaft. 2014: Truus Menger-Oversteegen between Freddie Dekker-Oversteegen and Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Truus died age 92 on 18-06-2016. Her eldest daughter was named after Hannie Schaft and Freddie died one day before her 93 birthday on 05-09-2018, in Driehuis.

Hannie Schaft was arrested on 21-03-1945 at a roadblock on the Jan Gijzenkade (near the Mauermuur) when she turned out to have illegal magazines and a weapon with her. At the Haarlem police station, the Germans discovered who they were dealing with. It was Emil Rühl who brought Schaft from Haarlem to the Detention Center on the Amstelveenseweg in Amsterdam. Although at the end of the war there was an agreement between the occupiers and the Domestic Forces (BS) not to kill women, Hannie was commissioned by SS-Untersturmführer Willy Lages on 17-04-1945 – three weeks before the end of the war. shot dead in the dunes near Bloemendaal. At the execution, Schaft is said to have said after a grazing shot: “I shoot better”, after which SD officer Maarten Kuiper is said to have fired his submachine gun at her. After the war, Maarten Kuiper, age 49, was sentenced to death. On 30-08-1948 it was carried out in Fort Bijlmer. Willy Lages was interned in Breda prison on 24-02-1955. Due to serious illness, Lages was admitted to the Central Hospital of the Prison System in Vught on 18-05-1966. A heart condition was diagnosed, after which serious complications arose. Justice Minister Ivo Samkalden granted him a suspension of ‘maximum three months’ on humanitarian grounds. On 09-06-1966 he was taken by ambulance to the Federal Republic of Germany in the expectation that he would die during that period. This led to great outrage from many in the Netherlands. The Dutch doctors suspected that Lages had colon cancer, but had not dared to operate on him. He underwent surgery in Germany. During the operation it turned out that he did not have colon cancer, but an intestinal blockage (which, if Lages had not been operated on, would also have been fatal. In November 1966 Lages left the hospital. Because he could not be extradited under the German constitution, he was a free man as long as he refrained from traveling outside Germany. He settled in the spa town of Braunlage, where he moved into the villa of Rudolf Ehrhart, a well-known Nazi during the war. Lagus lived almost five more years. In April 1971 he died of a brain tumor at the age of 69.

In September 1944 Frans Bekers joins the Internal Forces who participate on the Allied side in the liberation of the Netherlands and is assigned to the Stoottroepen Commando Brabant. The shock troops form the ‘combatant part’ of the BS/Interior Forces and are recruited from the armed resistance. Frans advances to Best via Eindhoven and is instructed, among other things, to warn civilians about minefields.

Death and burial ground of Bekers, Franciscus Johannes “Frans”.

That task ultimately proved fatal for him. On 28-10-1944, Frans died when he himself stepped on an explosive device in a minefield in Best. Best is then liberated for four days. Frans turned 25 years old and finds his final resting place at the National Field of Honor cemetery in Loenen, Section C.354..

In memory of this, a street between the Dorpstraat and the Kerkakkerstraat has been given the name Frans Bekersstraat.

There was an temporary English cemetery on Veldhovense Van Vroonhovenlaan. The 106 men between the ages of 17 and 36 buried in Veldhoven died in just over a month. “As part of Operation Market Garden, they had to go to Wintelre in that period to reach Best, in order to make contact with the Allied troops there to take control of the entire airfield. However, towards the Hoogeind there was a blockade of Germans, so they had to put up a big fight.”70 English soldiers were treated and died in the hospital. ,, Quite apart from the men who were ‘killed in action’ and were buried in the cemetery of Oerle. Can you imagine that those men went ashore in Normandy and had therefore already fought a lot.”

A second soldier from Veldhoven lost his life in this period Hagelaars, Adrianus Josephus “Janus”. Janus was found dead laying in the fields.