This memorial page is dedicated to Antonius Josephus Janssen, one of more than 725 war victims connected to the municipality of Deurne documented by Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers. The municipality of Deurne and the surrounding villages of Liessel, Vlierden, Helenaveen, Neerkant and Zeilberg were liberated in the autumn of 1944 during heavy fighting. Victims fell on all sides: Allied soldiers from countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and New Zealand, and German soldiers.

But the archive covers more than just the combat victims on Deurne soil. Residents of Deurne who lost their lives elsewhere are also commemorated: civilians who were murdered in concentration camps, forced labourers who died in Germany, people who were executed or succumbed to the effects of persecution and oppression. In addition, residents of Deurne who entered German military service and were killed elsewhere are also included.

Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers has been documenting the story of all these people since 1995, without distinction of nationality, side or background. The goal is to give every person a name and a face, and to keep their memory alive.

 

Antonius Josephus Janssen

Name: Janssen
First names: Antonius Josephus
Nickname: Toon
Date of birth: 19 March 1923
Place of birth: Liessel
Residence: –
Rank / Occupation: Labourer
Identity tag: –
Unit: –
Date of death: 22 July 1945
Place of death: Groningen
Cause of death: as a result of inflammation of the thigh and general weakness
Cemetery: –
Memorial site: War memorial in Liessel
: War memorial at St Willibrord’s Church in Liessel

 

Additional information

Son of Mathijs Janssen and Antonia Francisca Aarts, brother of Johanna Petronella Janssen.

Although Mayor Lambooy’s efforts had ensured that the municipality of Deurne was exempted from providing labour for the Atlantic Wall in Zeeland, a few workers from Deurne did end up working there. As shown in the photograph below from 1942 (from the book “War Years 1940–1945: the municipality of Deurne | on the brink of oblivion”), taken by an amateur photographer at a primary school in Souburg on Walcheren. It shows several men from Deurne, such as Antonius Josephus Janssen (third from the left), who were working for the Organisation Todt (OT), which oversaw the construction of the Atlantic Wall. Most of them were sent to work in Germany not long afterwards.

Antonius Josephus Janssen (afbeelding 2)

He then worked from 24 May 1944 to 22 April 1945 as a ‘Zivilarbeiter’ (civilian labourer) at the ‘Marine-Gemeinschaftslager Bremen-Farge’, employed by Arge-Süd. From 27 April 1945 to 9 June 1945, he was admitted to the Evangelical Hospital in Neuenkirchen and treated for ‘Oberschenkelfurunkel’ and ‘Schwache’ – an inflammation of his thigh and general weakness. Following this period of forced labour and his hospital stay in Germany, he arrived in Groningen malnourished and exhausted, and died there.

Overlijdensregister
Death Register

View all persons in the category: Residents of Deurne who died outside Deurne