Jupp Francotte

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Jupp Francotte

Wilhelm Joseph (Jupp) Francotte (born December 29, 1920 in Vaals ; † September 5, 1944 in Valkenburg aan de Geul ) was a Dutch resistance fighter in World War II .

The roofer Jupp (Dutch spelling: Joep) Francotte from the Dutch border town of Vaals near Aachen refused to go to Germany as a forced laborer and was sentenced to work in a camp for months. He had worked for the underground newspaper "Je Maintiendrai" in Amsterdam until the summer of 1944 , before he joined the resistance group " Knokploeg Zuid-Limburg" (combat force South Limburg) with his friend Sjeng Coenen . After the arrests in Weert , where on June 21, 1944 Almost the entire top of the aid organization for people in hiding ( LO) in the province of Limburg (Netherlands) had been arrested and the "strike of Wittem", in which ten people from the Gulpen district of the LO were arrested one month later, on July 21, 1944 , One of the results of the subsequent torture interrogation was that the Maastricht security police (Sipo), led by the sadistic interrogation specialist Richard Nitsch and his boss Max Strobel, broke into a house in Simpelveld on July 22, 1944 . There they hoped to arrest Francotte's friend Sjeng Coenen (pronounced: Scheng Kunnen). At that moment his uncle was buried. Coenen was able to leave the house on time.

Francotte and Coenen then joined the Knokploeg Zuid-Limburg . moved to the diver hostel of LO in Geulhem in de former town Valkenburg-Houthem . This extensive underground limestone pit served as a hiding place and later also as a prison for captured Germans and collaborators. They participated in the attack on the Maastricht prison on September 2, 1944. 80 prisoners were released in this attack.

On September 5, 1944 ( Dolle Dinsdag ), Coenen and Francotte were arrested by the Germans. They had just picked up vehicles from JFA Horsmans' farm in Ulestraten near Meerssen (this was NOT their headquarters, which was in the same place) and hid them in a forest because retreating German soldiers were to be housed there, but they were still not quite finished. When they came back, the Germans had already arrived. The latter became suspicious, despite confirmation from Horsmans that they were acquaintances, and found a pistol at Coenen's. They were shot on the Cauberg on behalf of the Valkenburg local commandant Bernhardt . FM Meulenkamp, ​​who was also present, had escaped because Coenen had diverted attention.

Memorial stone for Coenen and Francotte on the Cauberg in Valkenburg

The memorial to the fallen of the Limburg Resistance was erected on the site where Coenen and Francotte were executed. In 1958 a hexagonal chapel was built there, with the names of the Limburg resistance fighters who died in World War II on the walls. In front of the chapel there is a memorial stone for Coenen and Francotte directly on the street. In the chapel itself, on May 4th, as everywhere in the country, a commemoration ceremony takes place under the name Nationale Dodenherdenking for all those who died in the last wars. The next day, May 5th, is the national holiday, which commemorates the liberation of the whole country from National Socialism . Until 2005, a separate commemoration of the Association of Former Limburg Resistance Fighters (Voormalig Verzet Nederland, Limburg Department) took place in this chapel every year at the beginning of September, because large parts of Limburg were liberated in September 1944. The association has since died out.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ joep.francotte.nl
  2. ↑ Fred Cammaert (1994). Het hidden front: geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de Provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog (doctoral thesis). Leeuwarden: Eisma, chapter 6a p.563
  3. ↑ Cammaert, Chapter 6b, p.697
  4. ↑ Paul Weelen (1995). Limburg bevrijd .
  5. ↑ Cammaert, Chapter 6b, p. 699
  6. ↑ Interview with Pierre Schunck, local LO boss in Valkenburg, with the NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- and Genocidestudies , quotes memories of Pierre Schunck and other original texts on resistance in Valkenburg during the Second World War (website).
  7. ↑ MvD-CAD Doc. BS, inv. No. 1560: "De Zwerver", 14-6-1947. Stichting '40 -'45 Eindhoven (archive)
  8. ↑ Cammaert, Chapter 7, p. 782
  9. ↑ Website Nationaal Comité 4 & 5 mei
personal data
SURNAME Francotte, Jupp
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Francotte, Wilhelm Joseph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch resistance fighter in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Vaals
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1944
Place of death Valkenburg aan de Geul