This memorial page is dedicated to Margaretha Bremmers, 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.

 

Margaretha Bremmers

Name: Bremmers
First names: Margaretha
Nickname: Martha
Date of birth: 2 June 1919
Place of birth: Valkenswaard
Residence: 320 Schoolstraat, Deurne
Rank / Occupation: L.L. Nurse
Identity tag: –
Unit: –
Date of death: 06-12-1942
Place of death: Roman Catholic Hospital in Eindhoven.
Cause of death: Bombing
Cemetery: St Catharina Cemetery in Eindhoven
Memorial site: War Memorial in Zeilberg

Additional information

Daughter of Christiaan Hubertus Bremmers and Maria Elisabeth Bremmers-van Meeuwissen.

On 6 December 1942, eight B. Mk IV Mosquitos from No. 105 Squadron and two from No. 139 Squadron were deployed during Operation ‘Oyster’. They were part of a formation of 84 other bombers, including Bostons and Venturas, which carried out an attack on the Philips Strijp Group, a factory producing tubes and lamps, on Emmasingel in Eindhoven.

It was also the first time that Eindhoven had truly experienced the devastating violence of war; an estimated 140 civilians lost their lives (in addition to seven Germans and sixteen Allied pilots: eleven British, two Canadians and three Australians).

Incidentally, it was not the Philips complex that was hardest hit, but the Demer, where British misfires claimed over twenty lives and, after that grim December day, exactly six houses remained standing.

Margaretha Bremmers also died during Operation ‘Oyster’ (also known as the ‘Sinterklaas bombing’) and was, buried, along with several sisters from the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity who also lost their lives during these bombings, at St Catherine’s Cemetery in Eindhoven, where she now rests in a communal grave.

Prayer card
Bidprentje
Death register
Overlijdensregister
Bomb damage to the Roman Catholic Binnenziekenhuis in Eindhoven.
Bomschade aan het R.K. Binnenziekenhuis te Eindhoven.

Photo: Stichting Eindhoven in Beeld
Below is an RAF report featuring, amongst other things, live film footage of the bombing in question.

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