Sjeng Coenen

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Sjeng Coenen

The printer Jan Hubert (Sjeng) Coenen (born January 10, 1915 in Simpelveld , † September 5, 1944 in Valkenburg ) was a Dutch resistance fighter in World War II . He was Rayonleider (subdistrict head) in Simpelveld and deputy Districtsleider in Gulpen of the Landelijke Organizatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers (National Organization for Aid to Submerged People, LO). A few days before the liberation of Valkenburg he was shot by German soldiers on the Cauberg . Its vernacular nickname Sjeng is derived from the French Jean and is pronounced Scheng. His surname Coenen is pronounced Kunnen , i.e. 'kun'n , and not ' køːnən in the Netherlands .

Before the war

He was born to Nicolaas Jozef Coenen and Maria Hubertina Houben and the fourth of ten children. The mother died in 1933 and his father had two more children, Maria Hubertina Luly. The father was very versatile: sexton, printer, sold smoking and writing articles and alcoholic beverages and made candles. Sjeng was supposed to be his father's successor in the print shop and learned the trade there.

Father Coenen was the leader of the Harmonia church choir in Simpelveld, in which Sjeng also sang. His two brothers, Pieter Johan (Pierre) Coenen and Josephus Hubertus (Huub) Coenen also played a role in the resistance, see below. Approx. In 1935 Sjeng served as a conscript in the Dutch army.

Refugee aid

Sjeng and his brother Hub. Coenen in Simpelveld initially got Walloon and French prisoners of war who had fled Germany, and later also others, from Paul Horbach from Gulpen, from a group of Mingelers in Kerkrade and W. Rutten in Simpelveld. They used Mrs. A. Lerschen-Houben's hotel as a through house. Her brother PJ Coenen was a sexton in Banholt and Mheer . He temporarily accommodated them in the parish hall, after which they came with the help of a group of smugglers in Slenaken - Noorbeek in the Belgian Voeren villages to a group called themselves Jean and one of them around Theo Brentjens, gendarmerie commander in Sint-Martens- Voeren . There are various details as to when the Coenen brothers were involved in this route for escaped French prisoners of war: at the end of 1941 or at the end of 1942

In autumn 1943, the District Gulpen (Z19) became the Landelijke Organizatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers (National Organization for Aid to People in Hiding , LO) in the Coenen house . founded. In the provinces, the LO was divided into districts and those in turn into rayons. Sjeng became district chief in his hometown of Simpelveld and deputy Districtsleider .

After the arrests in Weert , where on June 21, 1944 almost the entire top of the above-mentioned LO was arrested in the province of Limburg (Netherlands) and the "blow of Wittem", in which exactly one month later, on July 21, 1944 , ten people of the district Gulpen the LO were arrested, was one of the results of the subsequent torture sessions that the security police (Sipo) from Maastricht, led by sadistic interrogators Richard Nitsch and his boss Max Strobel in a house in the July 22, 1944 Simpelveld invaded . There they hoped to arrest Sjeng Coenen. At that moment his uncle was buried. Coenen was able to leave the house on time. His father, sexton Nicola Coenen, was brought out of the church by SiPo for a house search. But Dar had taken precautions and had a Hitler speech in his safe. He also pleaded Nazi sympathy and claimed that he could not say anything about his son's whereabouts.

To combat group KP

He left the LO and then joined the Knokploeg Zuid-Limburg (Combat Group South Limburg) in the summer of 1944 with his friend Jupp Francotte from Vaals . They moved to other stays in the divers 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.

Arrest and execution

On September 5, 1944 ( Dolle Dinsdag ), Coenen and Francotte were arrested by German soldiers. 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 . Dick Meulenkamp, ​​who was also present, had escaped because Coenen had diverted attention.

monument

Valkenburg an der Göhl - Resistance monument of the Limburg province on the Cauberg
Memorial stone for Coenen and Francotte in front of the resistance monument

The memorial to the fallen of the Limburg Resistance was erected on the site where Coenen and Francotte were executed. On May 18, 1958, a hexagonal chapel was opened 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. ↑ Burgerlijke stand in Limburg: Simpelveld, 12.099-10
  2. ↑ Luc Wolters ea Houd Moed! Personal details uit Simpelveld en Bocholtz . Heimatverein De Bongard , Simpelveld 2019, ISBN 9789080588387 . Dutch. In it: Sjeng Coenen, Roerige oorlogsjaren van een voorvechter van het verzet , p. 1
  3. ↑ Simpelveld in old postcards
  4. ↑ Houd Moed! In it: Luc Wolters, biography Sjeng Coenen, p. 1
  5. ↑ Cammaert Chapter 3, p. 218
  6. ↑ Houd Moed! In it: Luc Wolters, biography Sjeng Coenen, p. 2
  7. ↑ Fred Cammaert (1994). The hidden front: geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de Provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog (The hidden front: History of the organized underground in the province of Limburg during the Second World War. Doctoral thesis). Leeuwarden: Eisma, Chapter 6b p. 691
  8. ↑ Cammaert, Chapter 6a, p.563
  9. ↑ Cammaert, Chapter 6b p. 697
  10. ↑ Paul Weelen (1995). Limburg bevrijd .
  11. ↑ Cammaert, Chapter 6b, p. 699
  12. ↑ 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).
  13. ↑ MvD-CAD Doc. BS, inv. No. 1560: "De Zwerver", 14-6-1947. Stichting '40 -'45 Eindhoven (archive)
  14. ↑ Cammaert, Chapter 7, p. 782
  15. ↑ Website Nationaal Comité 4 & 5 mei
personal data
SURNAME Coenen, Sjeng
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coenen, Jan Hubert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch resistance fighter in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Simpelveld
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1944
Place of death Valkenburg aan de Geul