Hendrikus Johannes Aerts

This memorial page is dedicated to Hendrikus Johannes Aerts, 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.

Additional information

Aged 21. Son of Hubertus Aerts and Maria Christina Hermans.

Hendrikus Johannes Aerts found himself in the woods between Blerick and Sevenum (Römer, Zaarderheiken), which were teeming with people in hiding. In the late evening of Monday 16 October, he set off with six others, including Gerardus Theodorus Johannes van Daal and the brothers Leonardus Antonius van der Zanden and Wilhelmus van der Zanden, heading for Deurne, in an attempt to break through the lines and reach the British. Between Griendtsveen and Zeilberg, at around three o’clock in the morning, the small group was spotted by a German patrol, which then fired a flare. Everyone took cover, during which Leonardus Antonius van der Zanden stepped on a plate mine. The four sustained life-threatening injuries. The remaining three people (Dutchmen who had been working on the tank trench) had been walking at the rear and remained unharmed.

Alerted by the flare and the explosion, the British had sent a patrol with a tank into the field. However, the tank hit a mine, so the patrol was only able to reach the wounded people in hiding at around seven o’clock in the morning. By then, the four had already died; they were Hendrikus Johannes Aerts Wilhelmus van der Zanden, Leonardus Antonius van der Zanden and Gerardus Theodorus Johannes van Daal.

Death Register

Memorial card NBS

View all persons in the category: Non-residents of Deurne who died in Deurne