Jan Thijssen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jan Thijssen, called the "Long Jan" from Bussum
The Lange Jan van Bussum , as it was called by his friends and colleagues, was with military honors in the Ehrenfeld in Loenen ( Dutch Nationaal Ereveld Loenen embedded) in Apeldoorn to eternal rest.
Memorial for those shot at Woeste Hoeve
The name "J. Thijssen ”(bottom left) together with the names of the other victims on the glass plaque of the memorial near Woeste Hoeve

Jan Thijssen (born  December 29, 1908 in Bussum , †  March 8, 1945 in Apeldoorn ) was a Dutch resistance fighter during the Second World War . His code names were Lange Jan and Karel .

Life

Jan Thijssen came from a social - democratic family . His father was a partner at the auditing company "Thijssen & van de Kieft". His uncle was the writer and former SDAP - MPs Theo Thijssen (1879-1943). Jan graduated from the Hogereburgerschool in Bussum. There was not enough money for a subsequent university course, preferably electrical engineering . Instead he built and repaired two-way radios and earned the money to study at the Middelbare technical school ( technical college ). After his military service, he went to the PTT , the then state-owned company for post , telegraphy and telephony , and from 1938 was responsible for radio location and detection of illegal transmitters . During the Wehrmacht attack on the Netherlands in May 1940, he served as an infantry officer . After the Dutch surrender , he married and settled in Rijswijk .

Now he had the idea to join the Dutch resistance against the German occupiers and to help set up a nationwide radio network. In 1942 he contacted the Ordedienst ( German  literally "Ordnungsdienst" ), one of the most important underground organizations at the time . The wireless network was ready for use at the end of the year. On April 20, 1943 he founded the "Resistance Council" Raad van Verzet with seven like-minded people, Willem Santema , Johan Doorn , Gerrit Kleinveld , Dick van der Meer , Jan Brouwer , Andries Graafhuis and Johan Engel . For this, too, he built up a radio service (radio service van de Raad van Verzet) and became its head. On November 1, 1944, Colonel Henri Koot (1883-1959), the commander of the Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten (German "Inlands-Armed Forces") officially founded by royal decree , relieved him of his function due to internal rivalries between the various resistance groups. Only a few days later, on November 8th, Jan Thijssen was arrested by the security police and the SD on the highway between The Hague and Rotterdam during a car control.

Just two months before the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht , he and 116 fellow soldiers were shot by Germans on March 8, 1945 at Woeste Hoeve in Apeldorn as a " retaliation " for the assassination attempt on SS-Obergruppenführer Hanns Albin Rauter (1895-1949) . As the only one of the group, he tried to escape by fleeing at the last moment and thus proved his unbreakable will to resist to the bitter end.

Posthumous honors

There is a memorial  today at the site of the shootings (picture) .

On December 14, 1949 Jan Thijssen was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit Bronzener Löwe (Bronzen Leeuw) by Queen Juliana , an award of the armed forces that was donated by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1944 for military personnel who showed themselves to be courageous or determined in times of war against the Had distinguished enemy.

On April 8, 1953, he was posthumously awarded the American Medal of Freedom ("Freedom Medal") with a silver branch for bravery.

Web links

Commons : Jan Thijssen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jan Thijssen at oorlogsgravenstichting.nl (Dutch), accessed on March 22, 2019.
  2. ^ Jan Thijssen at Meertens Instituut (Dutch), accessed on March 22, 2019.
  3. ^ Raad van Verzet Amersfoort badge (Dutch), accessed on April 15, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b Thijssen, Jan at tracesofwar (English), accessed on March 22, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Thijssen, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lange Jan (alias); Karel (alias)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Bussum
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1945
Place of death Apeldoorn