Salve, Jozef, born:23-04-1924, in Vaals Vijlerberg 10, Limburg, 
to the miner Willem Saive (12-02-1893 Vaals) and Maria Jozefina Hubertina Heijenrath (03-02-1893 Vaals). Jozef was an unmarried. Roman Catholic. Member of the resistance of the Internal Forces,
soldier in the security forces.
In the last phase of World War II, Reichsleiter Heinrich Himmler 
came up with a new strategy called ‘Unternehmen Wehrwolf’
. 
An organization of fanatics received SS training, which would enable them to rekindle the fighting in the areas already conquered by the Allies by putting up permanent resistance. One of the first victims of this group of ‘werewolves’ would be 21-year-old Jos Saive from Vijlen. He served in the security forces. On 20-03-1945 he stood guard at the Wolfhaag border post, close to Vaals. At one point he left the post for a check-up round to boundary stone four. He walked into the woods between 5 and 6 am, where he also met his girlfriend (a daughter of the mayor of Gemmenich).
At about the same time, six members of the ‘Werewolf’ organization had jumped out of an American B-17 bomber captured by the occupying forces over the border area. The German invaders had the task of liquidating Dr. Franz Oppenhof,
who had been appointed mayor by the Americans. Between the Malensbos and the Schimperbos, the six jumped out of the aircraft: the 23-year-old leader IIlse Hirsch , 
23-year-old, a Hauptgruppenführerin in the BDM (League of German Girls) or the ‘Bund Deutscher Mädel’ (the female branch of the Hitlerjugend), 
a young SS lieutenant, an Austrian ‘Feldwebel’ of the SS, a Hitler Youth soldier from Merkstein and two other SS men, both ‘Oberscharführer’. They wore civilian clothes under their parachutist coveralls. The six knew the environment where they landed like the back of their hand.
The group were: Untersturmführer/Leutnant Herbert Wenzel, Austrian SS Unterscharführer/Sergeant Josef “Sepp” Leitgeb, former border patrolman Karl Heinz Hennemann, former border patrolman Georg Heidorn, Werewolf trainee 16 year old Erich Morgenschweiss and Werewolf Hauptgruppenführer/Hauptman Ilse Hirsch.
Death and burial ground of Saive, Jozef “Jeu”.
Border guard Jozef Saive was talking to his girlfriend when he discovered the six. The border guards had been warned by the Americans about German saboteurs, so he asked his girlfriend to quickly get help. The girl ran as fast as she could to the Wolfhaag border office. Saive aimed his rifle at the six. This was immediately answered with a hail of bullets. Saive returned fire but was hit in the abdomen. Moments later, his colleagues rushed over. ‘They were about seven men. They were Germans and they fired from a submachine gun,’ Saive groaned. He appeared to be hit in his left knee, right side of the chest and groin. At 9 o’clock in the evening Jos Saive died of his wounds in the border office.
The werewolves were gone. They indeed succeeded in finding the newly appointed mayor Oppenhof of Aachen. The ‘werewolf girl’ Ilse asked the mayor’s maid for a glass of water, which was quite normal in the chaos of that time. As she quenched her thirst, she surveyed the area. Then she returned to her comrades, who camped in a nearby forest. In the twilight of Palm Sunday, the six headed for Eupenerstraat, 
where the mayor lived. Telephone wires were cut at the house. The ‘werewolves’ entered the building through a basement window. They woke up the maid and learned from her that the mayor was with his wife next door. The girl had to fetch the mayor. When the mayor came out, he saw three figures. ‘We are German pilots and were shot down near Brussels four days ago. We’re trying to get back to the German lines. Can you help us with Ausweise, mayor?’ asked the three. The mayor replied that they had to go to the Americans for that. When the three asked for a sandwich, the mayor descended the basement stairs to get bread. When he returned, the Austrian snatched a silenced pistol from his hesitant colleague and shot Mayor Oppenhof in the left temple. As he lay on the ground, the “werewolves” tore off the tape of “Townmayor” and took it as evidence. One of the “werewolves” stepped on a mine while fleeing and was killed. Three others, including the girl, were also injured by mines. The other two escaped.
In March 1945, a memorial was erected near the place where Saive was shot. The monument 
to Jos Saive in Vaals is a memorial stone. On top of a block of coarse cement and gravel with a recessed center piece is a tapering column with a cross. A plaque is attached to the block. The memorial is 2 meters 50 high and 2 meters wide.
Jozef Salve is buried at the Roman Catholic Cemetery in Vijlen. Vijlenberg 119, 6294 AS Vijlen.
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