Willi Paul Fritz Dorn

This memorial page is dedicated to Willi Paul Fritz Dorn, 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

Grave location: Section P, Row 8, Grave 189

Son of Fritz Heinrich Klaus Dorn and Marie Christine Sophie Dorn-Möller.

In 1942, Willi Paul Fritz Dorn undertook ‘Schießausbildung’ (marksmanship training) with the Hitler Youth, after which he attended a ‘Panzer-Lehrgang’ (tank training course) in Putlos, Holstein, in 1943. In 1943, he undertook training as a ‘Marine-Helfer’ (naval assistant) with the anti-aircraft artillery; alongside this military training, he also continued his school education.

In 1944, Willi Paul Fritz Dorn wanted to join the Waffen-SS, but one of his brothers, a lieutenant in the Wehrmacht, told him that he would no longer be his brother if he enlisted in the Waffen-SS. As a result, he ended up in the Wehrmacht, where he was trained in Oldenburg as a grenadier and a ‘Maschinengewehr Schütze’ (machine-gunner). After a short period of training, he was sent to the front, where he was killed in action four weeks later.

The author has a few photographs from the period 1943–1944 available for viewing; after seeing the first photographs, his mother wrote: ‘We shall probably never see the boy again.’  ‘We will probably never see this boy again.’ Her suspicion was confirmed a year later when her son was reported missing. For the family, this period of uncertainty lasted two years, as it was not until 1946 that they received a message from the Swiss Red Cross stating that Willi Paul Fritz Dorn had been killed in action near Venlo.

Willi Dorn’s field grave was situated near the NAD camp at Wasberg, also known as Camp Wasberg, located between Langstraat and Suezlaan in Deurne, from where his remains were reburied by the Allies at the German military cemetery in Mierlo (Plot 2, Row B, Grave 15). On 8 October 1948, his remains were transferred to Ysselsteyn.

Willi Paul Fritz Dorn, a 15-year-old member of the Hitler Youth (September 1942)

Willi Paul Fritz Dorn, aged 16, a Hitler Youth Marine Helper in Brünsbüttel-Koog

Willi Paul Fritz Dorn, as a Grenadier (Hagenstraße 15 in Bad Oldesloe, summer 1944)

Death certificate (this states the Date of death as 19 October 1944 instead of 17 October 1944)

View all persons in the category: German soldiers killed in action