Straelen, Johannes Aloysius “Jan” van, born 26-08-1915 in Bussum, 
Netherlands, the eldest son of Antonius Philippus Jacobus van Straelen and Maria Geertruida, born Blom. His parents married in 1913. He came from a family with eleven children. Their mother passed away in 1941. who became orphans early in 1941 after the death of their mother. He is an intelligent and musical young man, who is rarely seen without a pipe.
Frans and his friend Willy Visser were called up for military service in 1936. At that time, they were both office clerks. They were trained for motor artillery and then enlisted in the 12th Motor Artillery Regiment. Because this regiment moved from Naarden to Ede, they went there. The move of Frans and Willy and the ban on Scouting on 02-04-1941, did not put an end to their mutual friendship. The contacts remained and they found each other again in the resistance.
Early in the war, Van Straelen resists the German occupier. He is not afraid of an adventure and sometimes acts recklessly and impulsively. His brother-in-law Willy is shocked when he once encounters him in Wehrmacht uniform: Van Straelen spoke German so well that he casually attended a meeting of Wehrmacht officers as an infiltrator. No one became suspicious. Van Straelen also regularly steals firearms. For example, he hangs his coat over a belt with a weapon that Germans have hung on the coat rack to secretly take both the coat and the belt with him when he leaves. Brother Ed once sees him pull hand grenades out from under a plank on the attic floor and wrap them in Sinterklaas paper.
Van Straelen joins the renowned Ordedienst, 
one of the first overarching resistance organisations in the Netherlands. Many members are cadets or naval cadets, army or navy officers in training. They initially have a long-term goal: maintaining order after the departure of the Germans. But soon, the Ordedienst develops into an intelligence service. However, the occupier swiftly dealt with the members due to their close-knit connections. On 03-05-1942, following the first OD trial near Camp Amersfoort, 
68 OD members and other resistance fighters were already executed in Sachsenhausen.
He became one of the leading figures within the Order Service. The top of the OD regularly met at café Rademaker in Hilversum, led by Willem Rademaker. 
Until recently, little was known about this, until recently secret notes emerged that had been smuggled out of the prison in Utrecht in 1943. There, the now imprisoned Van Straelen gave the order to eliminate the provocateur Johannes Mattheus (Johnny) de Droog. 
who was during World War II, one of the most notorious V-Männer and as such responsible for the arrest of hundreds of resistance fighters. The resistance fighter Theodorus “Theo” Dobbe 
attempted to liquidate De Droog in September 1944. Instead, Dobbe was captured himself and shortly thereafter executed, age 43, in Dieren, 05-09-1944. Johannes Mattheus (Johnny) de Droog was killed by an other resistance man, age 53 in 19-02-1945 in Gorssel.
On 07-09-1942, Van Straelen is arrested. After two weeks, he is transferred to the prison in the Orange Hotel Scheveningen. 
From November 6, he will spend two months in Camp Amersfoort. The camp is a hell of hunger, mistreatment, and terror compared to the cells in the ‘Oranjehotel’. Due to the temporary evacuation of Camp Amersfoort for the purpose of an expansion, after two months he is transferred to Camp Vught 
and later to Haaren, where the second OD trial takes place. On 27-04-1943, a German court sentenced him to death, after which he was transferred to the prison in Utrecht. The letters that Van Straelen sends and receives there are a pleasant distraction from the monotonous prison life, which is literally and figuratively hopeless. From his cell, he advises his younger brothers and sisters on their studies. Furthermore, Van Straelen often feels useless and powerless. Yet he usually begins his letters hopefully with the word PAX! Van Straelen wants to become a priest after the war. He combines an enormous dose of courage with an unwavering faith in God. Regarding the impending execution of the death penalty, which he calls ‘the transition to Eternity,’ he writes: ‘If it must happen, then I am ready; if it does not happen, then I am very grateful.’
Death and burial ground of Straelen, Johannes Aloysius “Jan” van.
On 29-07-1943, at half-past two, shots are heard on the Leusderheide. The 13-year-old Ed van Straelen doesn’t even know that his brother has been arrested and learns from the newspaper that he has been executed along with fifteen others for ‘espionage and sabotage.’ Only 51 years later does he get his hands on the letter his brother wrote to him. For journalist Herman Post, it is the reason to dedicate a book to the executed resistance fighter: I am Completely Calm, Resistance Letters from the Death Cell. After the war, Van Straelen’s body is found in a mass grave. The area around Camp Amersfoort turns out to be the largest execution site in our country. On 21-11-1945, he is reburied to the Municipal Cemetery Rusthof in Amersfoort, Grave 1073, Dodeweg 31, 3832 RE Leusden, Netherland, with comrades after an impressive ceremony.
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