Leonardus Maessen

This memorial page is dedicated to Leonardus Maessen, 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

Son of Jacobus Hubertus Maessen and Anna Lucia Timmermans, widow of Anna Kessels.

Grave location: The grave has already been cleared. * Although, according to the report on the transfer and identification dated 20 July 1951, the body of Leonardus Maessen was transferred to the Roman Catholic Cemetery in Helmond, there is a gravestone bearing his name and details at the Ehrenfriedhof Salzgitter-Lebenstedt “Jammertal” (see photo below).

On Sunday 8 October 1944, during the 7.00 am Mass, German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger) surrounded the two Rijkswerkkampen I and II in Mariaveen. The people were driven out of the chapel during Mass. The Germans cordoned off the roads and searched the church and all the houses. All the men and boys were herded together and taken away in a long, sombre convoy. Without food or drink, without extra clothing. Some are still in their nightclothes. According to the Germans, they are to go to work in Maasbree or Helden, but in reality they are being deported to Germany for forced labour (Arbeitseinsatz).

From 13 October 1944, Leonardus Maessen was put to work at the ‘Zuckerfabrik’ sugar factory ‘Gross-Mahner Achilles & Co.’ and, from 16 December 1944, at the firm ‘Reichswerke AG, Hermann Göring’ in Salzgitter. He later became unfit for work there and was consequently sent to the Reppner death camp (Camp 24), where he also died; this camp housed, amongst others, sick and unfit prisoners. Most died as a result of inadequate care or were given a lethal injection. The official cause of death was ‘general physical weakness’, and he was buried on 22 March 1945 at Jammertal Cemetery, grave section VII (row 1, grave number H).

“Wim van Dam from Someren-Eind did not hesitate for a moment when he read an announcement in the *Peelbelang* about a trip to Germany organised by the North and Central Limburg Deportation Foundation. He signed up immediately. All Van Dam knew about his grandfather Willem van Kessel and his great-uncle Nard Maessen was that they had died as forced labourers during the Second World War. During the trip, in which 62 people took part, he hoped to find out more. That hope was not in vain.

Wim van Dam’s mother is 92 and lives in Deurne. She often spoke of her father, Willem van Kessel, who had been arrested during the church raid in Helenaveen. She never saw him again. Her brother Grard did return from Germany, but never spoke of what had happened to him there. All the family knew was that, as a 19-year-old, he had survived the concentration camps because his father and uncle Leonard Maessen had shared their rations with him. The men were put to work at the Reichswerken Hermann Göring in Watenstedt.

During the coach trip from 4 to 7 September this year to Salzgitter and Hildesheim, Wim van Dam learnt more than he had dared to hope for. Back home, he recounts his findings. On the very first day on the coach, one of Van Dam’s fellow passengers found the name Willem van Kessel in a book he was carrying. The person in question had been seriously injured during a bombing raid on Hildesheim in March 1945 and taken to a small school, where he is said to have died. The date and place name matched an obituary that Van Dam’s mother had in her possession.

On the second day, a visit to the Jammertal cemetery in Salzgitter was on the programme. Five thousand forced labourers were buried in the cemetery, many of whom were later reburied, either at home or at the Dutch war cemetery in Hanover. Three Dutch nationals are still buried in Jammertal. In a register – which has recently been made public – Van Dam found the name of his great-uncle Leonardus Maessen. Wim van Dam: “I immediately lit a candle on his grave. I never knew Nard Maessen, but it was still an emotional moment.” Van Dam learnt that his great-uncle had died in appalling conditions in Lager 24. “In that camp, the wounded were housed and left to fend for themselves without any further care,” said Van Dam. 

The following day, at the cemetery in Hildesheim, Van Dam found his grandfather’s name on a memorial to those buried in a mass grave. “But I learnt even more that day,” he says. In Germany, too, people are working to document events during the Second World War. This included an elderly lady who happened to be at the cemetery and met the Dutch visitors there. It turned out that her father had been tasked with recovering victims in the chaos following a heavy bombing raid on Hildesheim on 22 March 1945. She promised to look into the matter.

Wim van Dam: “That evening, she told me that my grandfather had not died in the little school, but that he was still alive and had been taken to a church on the Moritzberg in a suburb of the city. It was in that little church that he died.”

A large number of victims of the bombing, including Willem van Kessel, were buried in a mass grave. An old stone bearing the inscription ‘208 unbekannte’ still bears witness to that grave.

The tour operator immediately arranged a visit to the church. That, too, was an emotional moment for Van Dam. “My grandfather was a devout man. I lit a candle and the priest, who had come especially to let us in, promised to say a Mass intention for him that Sunday. I was glad to be standing in the place where my grandfather had passed away and that I could take that news back to my mother. For her, too, it is a fitting conclusion,” Van Dam concludes his story.

A transfer report containing identification details, drawn up by the Identification and Recovery Service, may be available for inspection from the author.

Certificate of registration of a death

Cemetery index card

Death certificate

Gravestone at the Ehrenfriedhof Salzgitter-Lebenstedt

View all persons in the category: Died in concentration camps and as a result of forced labour