Pierre Schunck

Pierre Schunck 1935

Pierre Schunck (born March 24, 1906 in Heerlen ; † February 2, 1993 in Kerkrade ) came from the Schunck family , who owned a department store in Heerlen. He was best known as a Dutch resistance fighter during World War II in Valkenburg, where he lived . After the war, he founded the first industrial company on the then still poor Antilles island of Bonaire in the form of a textile factory for work clothes for the oil industry in Venezuela and on the neighboring islands of Curaçao and Aruba . This was the first impetus for the economic revival of the island, where at that time there was still a large surplus of single unemployed women.

Youth and education

He was born in Heerlen as the eldest son of Peter Joseph Schunck and Christine Cloot. As a student, he gave tuition to Sinti children in the caravan camp on Heksenberg (in a fallow land near what is now the Heksenberg district of Heerlen). The Franciscan Justus Merks of the Woonwagenliefdewerk was the pastor in this camp and the driving force behind it. Schunck has been witness to the continuing discrimination against Sinti and other caravan dwellers, even long before the Nazis in the Netherlands prevailed ( 1940 - 1945 ). For example, the Woonwagenliefdewerk was accused at a session of the provincial parliament in 1931: The Liefdewerk unconsciously encourages people to live in caravans and - worse - move around.   These experiences were to have a significant impact on his future life.

After studying at the higher textile school in Enschede, he decided to become a Franciscan, inspired by Justus Merks, among others. He completed a priestly training in Megen near Nijmegen and Hoogcrutz on the southern edge of South Limburg , but left this training before the ordination.

Professional activity before and during the war

After leaving the monastery, he ran a laundry in Valkenburg on behalf of A.Schunck (owned by his father, Peter Schunck) from the 1930s . There he met his future wife Gerda Cremers. They married on October 3, 1936 in Valkenburg. They became members of the Catholic Action , which particularly in the Netherlands strongly warned of the (moral) dangers of National Socialism, similar to Erich Klausener in Germany. In the middle of the war, on January 1st, 1943, the clothing factory "De Molen" was founded. Partners were Pierre Schunck himself, who also became director, and his father Peter J. Schunck. A submerged Jew was appointed chief clerk. He got false papers that identified him as Jan Langeveld. His real and flashy name was Lex Israëls. Father and son Schunck planned to set up the production of work clothes for miners there, who had previously worked for Schunck sen. had taken place in the Glass Palace itself. The occupiers had threatened to withdraw his manufacturing license because he did not want to work for the Wehrmacht on principle. In addition, Peter J. Schunck bought a former steam grain mill on Geleenstraat from the Jew Max Salm, who probably wanted to finance his escape and prevent confiscation. During the German occupation, a lot of clothing was made there for people in hiding. The company name was changed to SKIL, Schuncks Kleding Industrie Limburg , in 1947 .

Resistance activities

Since the beginning of the German occupation, Pierre Schunck has undertaken a few isolated actions that cannot yet be viewed as real resistance, but rather as civil disobedience:

• On May 10, 1940, when the Wehrmacht marched in , he and some other men from the laundry provided civilian clothes to Dutch soldiers who did not want to be taken prisoner of war. Their weapons have been buried.
• In autumn 1941, he and a neighbor brought valuable Jesuit property to safety. This had been driven from their monastery because the SS there the Empire School of the Netherlands wanted to set up.
• In order to forestall the National Socialist winter aid , Pierre Schunck set up a soup kitchen for children in the attic of the laundry with the kitchen equipment of the expropriated Jesuit monastery. He was supported by the Catholic Action. Local farmers supplied food that they could withhold due to manipulated yield figures. In this way, Pierre Schunck made the first valuable contacts with farmers who might later be willing to do something for people in hiding.

The burying of the weapons had been reported by someone in need of money. Therefore, in the spring of 1942, a raid on his property was carried out under the leadership of a Dutch Nazi police officer. Thanks to the support of most of those present, including the police officer who was supposed to be digging and "couldn't find anything," it turned out just fine. But this was a turning point, and Schunck's resistance took on an organized form.

Foundation of the LO district of Heerlen

At the beginning of 1943 he had hired a Jew from Amsterdam who had gone into hiding at the De Molen company in Heerlen, of which Pierre Schunck was director, who could live and work there under a false name. Shortly afterwards, Schunck was approached by Kaplan [Jan Willem Berix | Giel Berix] from Heerlen, who had been resisting for some time and was looking for work clothes for people in hiding. In return, Schunck would get better papers for his hiding. They became friends and on one of the first days in September 1943 they were co-founders of the Heerlen district (LO-H18) of the Landelijke Organizatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers , the national organization for help to people in hiding, abbreviated LO. The establishment took place in the official apartment of the pastor of the Heerlen hospital, Rector Nic Prompers. This hospital became the resistance center in the Heerlen district. The chief doctor was Karel van Berckel , who did not survive the war. In Heerlen, help for people in hiding was given beforehand by some groups and individuals. All groups gradually joined together. Father Beatus van Beckhoven OFM played a central role in bringing these groups together .

Duikherberg (hostel for people in hiding )

Pierre Schunck came from Heerlen and worked there, but he lived in Valkenburg. In 1942 he heard from Berix that not far from his apartment, on the Meerssenerbroek between Geulhem and Meerssen, the chaplain Theo GH Geelen was hiding people in an underground tunnel system. It was a former limestone mine that belonged to the open limestone quarry of Schunck's father Peter J. Schunck. According to Geelen, the entire staff was absolutely reliable. All but one: the mining engineer Heinrich S., a son-in-law of Schunck Senior, who was director there. He was German and the local group leader of the German NSDAP in Heerlen. Berix thought it was a plus that a party member was a director. The occupation authorities would never distrust this place. In addition, the staff made further inquiries about S's activities: "He never goes into the underground caves and doesn't know his way around." Schunck Senior, the owner of the cave, was supposed to show a group of German officers around. After a while he hit the ceiling with his stick, a few limestone chunks fell down and he said, "We'd better go back, because from here the cave is about to collapse!" The gentlemen agreed immediately. Peter Schunck never asked his son Pierre why he was so interested in this cave, but without hesitation accepted his request to appoint a brother of the resistance chaplain Horsmans from Valkenburg as Heinrich S.'s deputy because he would have so much to do elsewhere. They started building a second underground shelter. (The three boys from Kaplan Geelen were already sitting in the first.) A power line was secretly laid by employees of the provincial electricity company. Using the knowledge of the nuns working there, Schunck and Berix obtained mattresses from the hospital in Heerlen.

In the course of 1943, the passage hiding place for around 20 people was completed and named Duikherberg (diving hostel). Food was provided in the children's soup kitchen in the laundry attic. There the food was delivered by local farmers, bypassing the rationing system. Gerda Schunck-Cremers (Pierre Schunck's wife) cooked the food for the people in the cave. During the week it was picked up by someone from the lime company, on the weekends Pierre Schunck brought it there by bike. Other women also cooked for the “onderduikers” in the cave.

People in hiding could be temporarily accommodated here until a permanent place was found for them. Later, after contact was made with the national organization LO, crew members of crashed Allied aircraft were added until they were able to continue via the pilot line (one of the names for the escape routes back to England). Through the LO, Pierre Schunck had contact with the Franciscan Father Beatus (Gerard van Beckhoven), for whom he had tailored civilian clothes. Among other things, he had organized a route across the Belgian border for the French-speaking prisoners of war, Jews and others who had fled.

The "diving hostel" remained in operation until the summer of 1944.
In the spring of that year, the Germans began to set up the nearby underground Bronsdalgroeve as a bomb-proof repair shop for BMW 801 aircraft engines. Work started there in August. But then the war in Valkenburg was almost over.

Valkenburg Rayon

After a test run, the "diver's hostel" started operations in 1943 before it was connected to a higher-level structure. This also meant the establishment of the Rayon (sub-district) Valkenburg. It was necessary due to the establishment of the Heerlen district and in particular due to the connection to the state-wide LO and the growing influx of people in hiding. When the Rayon Valkenburg was founded, Pierre Schunck took the code name Paul Simons . Many took a pseudonym whose initials corresponded to those of the real name, because at that time people often carried things with their own initials, often as gifts or the like, for example a cigarette case or a handkerchief. A famous example: the organizer of the French resistance Jean Moulin used the pseudonyms Joseph Mercier and Jacques Martel .

The above-mentioned soup kitchen for children played an important role in recruiting "diving parents" among the farmers and, as mentioned, in feeding those in hiding. The first people in hiding were young men who did not want to go to work in Germany, as were the three by Kaplan Geelen in the cave. "We know 143 names that were forwarded to us. With the strangers there are even more, boys who have roamed around there before and whom we then officially employed with farmers and in companies in Valkenburg, Especially in hotels. "Despite the war, tourism still played a role in the community. As a result, unfamiliar faces were not noticed. In the hotels, as with the farmers, there was always enough food. In the hotels confiscated by the Wehrmacht Moreover, raids were not to be expected.

Schunck was looking for a contact person for each parish. In urban areas these were referred to as "district bosses", in rural areas like Valkenburg Duikhoofden "diving bosses". They provided addresses in hiding and remained the contact persons for them in the rayon. In the town of Valkenburg itself there were two diving bosses, Harry van Ogtrop and the aforementioned chaplain Horsmans.

Valkenburg lies between the cities of Maastricht and Heerlen, but the Valkenburg resistance had more to do with Heerlen in many ways. The Valkenburg Rayon initially remained autonomous. Only in January 1944, after difficulties with Maastricht, where the resistance had enough to do with itself, did he join the Heerlen district.

Jews and Sinti in Valkenburg

• Before the war there were some Sinti families traveling through South Limburg. They were mostly assigned to locations far outside the built-up area, such as the Heksenberg in Heerlen mentioned above. From July 1, 1943, an absolute travel ban for caravans was in force in the Netherlands, without any ethnic distinction being made. Before the war, the plan had already emerged to concentrate all caravans in a small number of assembly camps. In South Limburg there were 44 in total, they were supposed to go to Maastricht. As a result, no Sinti were deported from Valkenburg.
• In 1940, the Valkenburg Jewish community consisted of 19 families with 64 members. In some places in South Limburg attempts were made to hide as many Jews as possible, for example in Brunssum from Pastor H. Bouma, in Beek from the community official Willy Sangers, in Nieuwenhagen from the general practitioner PJ Snijders and in Valkenburg from Pierre Schunck. As far as Valkenburg is concerned, it hardly worked, although hiding places had been set up, including in Heerlen's hospital. You just couldn't or wouldn't believe that the rumors about the extermination camps were true. Many Jews thought that a new kind of Babylonian exile was imminent, but not industrial mass murder. For example, the elderly Soesman-Horn couple, former neighbors of Gerda Schunck-Cremers. She and her husband Pierre begged them to take the opportunity to go into hiding. In Valkenburg there were two major waves of arrests against the Jews. The first on August 25, 1942 (32 people received an appeal, to which 16 responded). On November 10, 8 people were arrested at home without warning. There were also individual arrests. Of the 43 deportees, only one survived. 44 of the Jewish people from Valkenburg survived the war in hiding. In the database on people in Valkenburg 40-45 , 45 surviving Jews are counted, including the above-mentioned hiding person in Heerlen, who was hiding with a Valkenburg.

The cooperation with the Knokploeg Zuid-Limburg

The LO clearly had a different, more decentralized structure than the earlier resistance groups founded by the military, such as the Erkens group. In the meantime, almost all of these early resistance groups in South Limburg had been exposed as part of the Hannibal Game , an infiltration by the Groningen naval defense post in the border area of ​​the Dutch province of Limburg and the Belgian province of Liège . The time was ripe for more civil resistance. Because Valkenburg had no military targets, so that effective resistance should and could mainly consist of help for the persecuted. Sabotage and the like made less sense at first. That was only to change again when the liberators approached, see section on secret services. Until then, the Knokploeg Zuid-Limburg , as the armed wing of the LO was called there, was mainly there to support people in hiding in Valkenburg.

The use of such armed groups began very late in Limburg. Because in Valkenburg, too, it was possible to establish a network of connections to officials. In the allocation office and town hall to Hein Cremers, Guus Laeven and especially Willem Freysen, to Lambert Brands of the Centrale Crisis Controle Dienst (CCD) and the local food agency , to some police officers and other officials. As a result, it was not necessary to use force to obtain the required goods and documents. In addition, many people in hiding found shelter in hotels and in the country and therefore had enough to eat, even without food vouchers.

Raids were therefore not a priority for the time being. However, when a need arose in 1944, this was done in consultation with two local officials. This help from within made it possible to limit the risks. See “Assault on the Allocation Office”.

Assault on the allocation office

Many people went into hiding in Valkenburg. Exact numbers are not known. The resistance helped those they knew to hide in the form of food vouchers and other rationing documents and, if necessary and possible, with identification papers and money. An unknown number hid with the help of neighbors and family, without outside help. These cases were also tried to find out in order to provide support if necessary. In order to be able to provide the necessary coupons and other documents for the people in hiding, a large amount of it was diverted monthly in the allocation office of the Valkenburg distribution area . So much so that other rayons could also be supplied. When this threatened to be discovered, the officer Willem Freysen contacted Pierre Schunck, who in turn contacted the Knokploeg Zuid-Limburg (South Limburg combat team). The intention was to break into the allocation office and wreak such havoc that the activities of Freysen and his colleague Willems went unnoticed. On June 22nd, the KP-Zuid-Limburg drove up with an inconspicuously armored fire engine of the KP Sittard and a car that they had "borrowed" from one of the Oranje-Nassau collieries. Of course, a fire engine was not affected by the night curfew. They were fortunate that a two-month supply of rationing documents had been delivered the day before.

“All of this worked and the NSB member who was employed as a night watchman was knocked out and locked in the toilet. The vouchers were kept overnight by Mrs. Jaspers in a house in Klimmen. ”The next day, Pierre Schunck's sacks were carried on under a load of straw“ for the horse ”with some of his children on them.

Intelligence service

Pierre Schunck was a member of the ID18 intelligence group, which took action when the Allies approached. As can be seen from number 18, this group belonged to the district of Heerlen (Z18) of the LO and was founded by Theo Goossen (code name Harry van Benthum), district leader of Kerkrade and, after the betrayal of Weert, temporarily district leader of Heerlen. Cammaert pointed out the great effectiveness of this secret service, which he explains by saying that it came from the local resistance and was not introduced from outside. A simple example: “From time to time they went through the front to inform and guide the Americans. Brouwers told the Americans, among other things, that the church tower in Klimmen ( near Valkenburg ) served as a lookout point. The tower was attacked immediately. ”Schunck was Goossen's contact in Valkenburg.

During the liberation

When the Americans ( 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory" ) approached, he immediately made contact and made an appointment to guide them into Valkenburg. He was placed on the hood of the first jeep in the advance group and so they rolled quietly, with the engine off, down the valley into the city. The goal failed: the German rearguard blew up the last intact Göhl bridge . The southern part of Valkenburg was thus liberated. Due to supply problems, the Allied deployment came to a standstill. During the day-long artillery duel between the American and German troops, the front ran between September 14 and 17, 1944 along the Göhl through the middle of Valkenburg.

The evacuated population is in need

Most of the Valkenburgers were now accommodated in the already liberated historical tunnels of the underground limestone quarries, which are usually regionally called marl grottos. There was an acute shortage of everything, so that Pierre Schunck received a jeep and a driver from the American commander to drive through the newly liberated area to the military authority in Maastricht. There he got help: “The transporter turned out to be a large truck from the ENCI cement plant. Bread came from the “Maastrichtse Broodfabriek” in a delivery van belonging to a local chemist. So that was how the food issue was settled. After a few days the Red Cross came with a doctor, a nurse, a few officers and a handful of journalists. "

Officer for personnel matters of the Limburg Stoottroepen

South Limburg was only half liberated when the leader of the Limburg knokploegen, Jacques Crasborn , sent his adjutant Bep van Kooten to the headquarters of the newly founded inland sea Strijdkrachten . He was received there by the commandant Prince Bernhard and appointed the organizer and commander of the Limburg command of the new infantry unit of the BS, Stoottroepen . On September 19, 1944, Van Kooten was back in Maastricht, where he immediately began recruiting.

For this purpose he appointed Pierre Schunck as officer for personnel matters of the Limburg Stoottroepen. In contrast to, for example, Van Kooten and Crasborn, however, he did not opt ​​for a career as a professional soldier and after some time returned to his family and company.

Interviews and other memories after the war

After the war, Pierre Schunck gave interviews and wrote down memories of that time. These documents formed the start of a website about the resistance in and around Valkenburg. It has been supplemented with information from other sources.

Bonaire

In 1948 Pierre Schunck traveled to Bonaire , where he built a factory for work clothing, mainly for the oil industry in Venezuela and on the neighboring islands, on behalf of several family members, including his father. The biography of Pierre Schunck is thus an inseparable part of the history of Bonaire, which was still very precarious at the time.

The idea arose in a conversation between a director of Shell on Curaçao named Bloemgarten and Pierre Schunck's father: Coincidentally, a Shell director Bloemgarten came to his hometown Heerlen and asked papa about a Jewish fellow believer Salm (from whom papa bought the moles would have). So the conversation turned to the mill and to me. Bloemgarten gave Papa the idea of ​​a settlement in the Antilles. At the time, many people in Western Europe were deeply concerned about the plans of Joseph Stalin , who was believed to want to bring Western Europe into his sphere of influence. Some family members of Pierre Schunck argued that Pierre had to be sent to the Caribbean part of the kingdom in order to build up an economic foothold there.

New jobs

In 1948 there was still great poverty on the island: there was hardly any tourism, many men worked elsewhere, mainly in the oil refineries on Curaçao and Aruba or as sailors. Therefore, a new company that intended to offer jobs specifically for women and also to train them for this was a great step forward for Bonaire. Because the women also tried to earn money on the other islands. In the words of Pierre Schunck: The Curaçao authorities had the following motives to point us to Bonaire. The island is in a precarious position and a pretty big negative item in the Curaçao budget. Women are trying to find work in Curaçao and Aruba and are exposed to moral dangers that can create difficulties for the government.

There was only electricity for a few hours a day. One consequence of this company settlement was that the power supply was brought to 24 hours. Pierre Schunck writes: “The only disadvantages with our settlement were: the lack of a suitable building and a power supply during the day. There was a power station that was operated by a private company. Technically, this system could provide us with electricity, but only for one company they could not work profitably. Due to the economic aspect of creating small industries for Bonaire, the government, in the person of His Excellency Governor Dr. P. Kasteel to give this power plant a deficit guarantee for the daily power supply. ”It goes without saying that this full 24/24 power supply was a prerequisite for the onset of tourism.

At first it went well. Even the Java Bode writes from the other end of the world on June 14, 1950 about the establishment of an office in the state of Aragua , west of Caracas , to promote sales in Venezuela.

insolvency

He had started with 70 people on Bonaire, but the intention was to expand that to 120. However, the initial flowering lasted only a short time. Significant problems arose after two years.

• There was almost no qualified staff, which led to considerable training costs over the years.
• Money was invested in a social project that was absolutely new for this time and place. When setting up the branch on Bonaire, Pierre Schunck was primarily concerned with the development of the island, while at the beginning of the Cold War , the shareholders primarily wanted to keep their capital safe. It wasn't always the same. The Amigoe di Curaçao reported on July 28, 1951 that a pension fund was set up for the staff in the form of a foundation for old-age and death insurance that they had to administer themselves. " NV Schunck's Kleding Industrie Bonaire bears all the costs associated with this social provision."
• The company was developing and urgently needed investment. The A.Schunck company , which was in the sole ownership of Pierre Schunck's father, had been converted into a stock corporation in 1948. Some board members of this NVASchunck had doubts about the viability of the project. As a result, the much needed money from Schunck Sr. for these investments has been blocked or delayed. In the second half of 1944 innumerable letters went back and forth between Bonaire and the Netherlands. This shows that both the company on Bonaire and SKIL in Heerlen were no longer profitable, but also that the views on the path that the management of the NVA Schunck should take were too different.

Bankruptcy was inevitable and was pronounced on October 11, 1955.

Pierre Schunck left Bonaire at the turn of the year 1954–1955. The government on Curacao took over the factory and turned it into an employment project under the name Bonaire Confectiefabriek . The rationale was that a loss-making employment project would be less costly than the benefits that would otherwise have had to be paid for.

Accountability

• The aforementioned acts of resistance are of course not only the work of Pierre Schunck, but the entire sub-district of Valkenburg and more. Since there has not yet been an article on the resistance in the Valkenburg Rayon , these are also discussed in detail here. The above article is therefore not just a biography.
• As a rule, the LO's humanitarian aid did not offer any sensational resistance in Valkenburg either, except for the raid on the allocation office mentioned above, but worked more covertly, as everywhere. As a result, there are hardly any official sources on how police reports, etc., unless, as an exception, a combat group had to move. Because assaults, sabotage, liquidations and liberation measures only attracted unwanted attention. That is why we have to be content with such autobiographical data in most cases when describing humanitarian resistance. In Pierre Schunck's own words: "... I thought it was wrong to take notes, too much was written."
• Most of the information about the history of Pierre Schunck on Bonaire can be found in newspaper reports. But partly also in the private archive he left behind, owned by the family. This has so far only been partially inventoried and is not yet publicly available. At some point it should be brought to a publicly accessible archive, as has already happened with the archive of his brother Leo HM Schunck.

Web links

• Resistance in Valkenburg during World War II . The core of this website are interviews and notes about the resistance by Pierre Schunck. With a list of people who played a role in Valkenburg during World War II.
• All chapters of Fred Cammaert's dissertation, Het Verborgen Front , History of Organized Resistance in the Province of Limburg during the Second World War (in Dutch, with an English summary)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Report of the Gedeputeerde Staten van Limburg (provincial government), Limburgsch Dagblad, December 24, 1930
2. ^ Resistance in Valkenburg during the Second World War Jan Langeveld
3. ^ Pierre Schunck private archive, business correspondence.
4. ^ Resistance in Valkenburg during the Second World War - redistribution
5. ↑ Article in the commemorative edition (35 years Auschwitz free) of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee, Volume 24, No. 1, 1980. It is based on an interview with Pierre Schunck. Je koos niet voor het verzet , the decision was not made in favor of the resistance ”, from page 27
6. ↑ Farewell speech by his resistance comrade Theo Goossen (code name: Harry van Benthum), head of intelligence of the district, at the funeral of "Paul"
7. ↑ Herman van Rens Vervolgd in Limburg - Joden en Sinti in Nederlands Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog (Jews and Sinti in Limburg in the Netherlands during the Second World War), 2013 Hilversum (dissertation University of Amsterdam) p. 236
8. ↑ Interview Auschwitz Committee
9. ↑ Oral transmission from Carla, the youngest daughter of Peter J. Schunck.
10. ↑ Fons Leunissen SOK mededelingen 39. - De kapel van de Leraarsgroeve = The chapel of the Leraarsgrube. This article contains errors about the family situation and the motivation of Pierre Schunck. Otherwise he gives an interesting insight into the life of the people in hiding.
11. ↑ Cammaert, APM: Het hidden front: geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog , Eisma, Leeuwarden. Edition 1994. (Dissertation) Chapter 6b , De Landelijke Organizatie voor hulp aan onderduikers, Part 2, p. 683
12. ↑ Article in the commemorative number Herdenkingsnummer (35 jaar Auschwitz vrij) of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee, Volume 24, No. 1, 1980, based on an interview with Pierre Schunck
13. ^ Resistance in Valkenburg during the Second World War Mail from Victor Grotaers of Australia about his parents. He writes in English but uses the Dutch word "onderduiker".
14. ↑ Pierre Schunck on the clothing problems of people in hiding: “I had to deal with almost insoluble problems myself, e. B. a very fat Franciscan, Father Beatus. " Resistance in Valkenburg Chapter Foundation of the LO district Z18 (Heerlen) ]
15. ↑ Fred Cammaert, Het Verborgen front Chapter 6b , De Landelijke Organizatie voor hulp aan onderduikers, Part 2, p. 683
16. ↑ Platform Wereldburgerschap, Valkenburg 2019 - 75 jaar bevrijd. 75 stories about the 1940 invasion, occupation and liberation September 1944. Photo route 20B
17. ↑ Resistance in Valkenburg Chapter The diver's hostel in the caves of Meerssenerbroek (website)
18. ↑ Interview with the NIOD
19. ↑ Cammaert, Het Verborgen front Chapter 6b , De Landelijke Organizatie voor hulp aan onderduikers, Part 2, p. 684
20. ↑ Cammaert, Het Verborgen front Chapter 6b , De Landelijke Organizatie voor hulp aan onderduikers, Part 2, p. 657
21. ↑ Herman van Rens, Vervolgd in Limburg - Joden en Sinti in Nederlands Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog , Jews and Sinti in Limburg in the Netherlands during the Second World War, Hilversum, ISBN 978-90-8704-353-7 , p. 291
22. ↑ Vervolgd in Limburg , p 221
23. ^ Resistance in Valkenburg Chapter Vultures after the Second World War - How a small country can be even smaller . (Website)
24. ^ Jan Diederen, 42 Jewish Valkenburgers arrested and murdered , ISBN 978-90-805499-3-7 . Can be ordered from the author , see link.
25. ↑ Cammaert, Het verborgen front Chapter 7 , De knokploegen en de geschiedenis van de stoottroepen tot de zomer van 1945 , p. 766
26. ^ Resistance in Valkenburg , chapter De stroom onderduikers komt op gang
27. ^ Resistance in Valkenburg during World War II , chapter The attack on the allocation office in Valkenburg (website)
28. ↑ Gerda Schunck-Cremers in an interview with school children .
29. ↑ Cammaert, Het Verborgen front Chapter 6b , De Landelijke Organizatie voor hulp aan onderduikers, Part 2, p. 673
30. ↑ Cammaert, Het Verborgen front Chapter 6b , De Landelijke Organizatie voor hulp aan onderduikers, Part 2, p. 683
31. ^ Farewell speech by Theo Goossen at the funeral of "Paul"
32. ↑ Resistance in Valkenburg during the Second World War , chapter chapter Food for the caves (website)
33. ↑ Cammaert, Het Verborgen front Chapter 7 , De knokploegen en de geschiedenis van de stoottroepen tot de zomer van 1945, p. 797
34. ↑ Het Koninkrijk_der Nederlanden in de tweede wereldoorlog , (The Kingdom of the Netherlands in World War II), Volume 10a, Het laatste jaar I, second half, p. 556
35. ↑ Appointment as officer by Pierre Schunck
36. ↑ Resistance in Valkenburg during the Second World War (website)
37. ^ Note “Begin Bonaire”. This and other quotes by Pierre Schunck come from his private archive. See the note in the Accountability section
38. ↑ Pierre Schunck private archive.
39. ↑ Dr. Christine WM Schunck, thesis 1966, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen.
40. ↑ Pierre Schunck private archive.
41. ↑ Pierre Schunck private archive.
42. ^ Handel richt zich op de West in: Java-bode - nieuws, handels- en advertentieblad voor Nederlandsch-Indië (newspaper article)
43. ↑ Amigoe di Curaçao BONAIRE Schunck's kledingindustrie blijft 16-06-1953 (newspaper article)
44. ↑ BONAIRE Belangrijke verbetering . Newspaper article from July 28, 1951 in the Amigoe di Curaçao weekly newspaper for the Curaçao Islands
45. ↑ Pierre Schunck private archive.
46. ↑ Schunck's kledingbedrijf failliet Amigoe di Curaçao 11-10-1955 (newspaper article)
47. ↑ Rodger Gijsbertha Textielfabriek van groot belang voor werklantheid Amigoe 11-01-1992 (newspaper article)
48. ↑ Fred Cammaert, Het Verborgen front Samenvatting (summary), p. 1175.
49. ↑ Interview with the NIOD, quoted in Resistance in Valkenburg during the Second World War , see web link.
50. ↑ This private archive is located in the Center for Regional History Rijckheyt (formerly Stadsarchief Heerlen )