The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Antje Bensen-Offermans
(Anna Maria)

www.rijckheyt.nl …

Antje Bensen-Offermans said at her farewell as a midwife, resistance work had been for her a phase in her life. She did not like to be reminded of it. See quote below. She was a sister-in-law of Giel Bensen, one of the founders of the Heerlen knokploeg (combat group), which would later become the knokploeg Zuid-Limburg. During her home visits, she naturally also frequented families of National Socialists. There she kept her ears open and passed on her findings to Giel. And she stole food for the people in hiding.
An extended version of her life story can be found on the website of the center for regional history, centrum voor regionale geschiedenis, rijckheyt.nl. [1]
The following short version comes from the website ouweleem.nl, Heerlen stories.

In the forty years that Antje Bensen-Offermans was a midwife, she assisted in more than 10,000 births. During World War II, she used her profession as a cover for acts of resistance. With her car, she brought Allied pilots in security and while visiting German and NSB families, who were less affected by the food shortages, she let food disappear unnoticed in her bag for the people in hiding in her house. In the spring of 1944, she and another member of her commando group, Rooyackers, were rounded up by the occupiers, interrogated and imprisoned. The resistance freed her just in time. Rooyackers was executed a day later. Perhaps that is why she later said that resistance work was only a phase in her life and that her work as a midwife was a bigger and more important part. [2]
The story of the arrest of her and Wim Rooyackers can be found in chapter 7 of Het verborgen front. [3]
You can read more about her liberation on Mad Tuesday [4] in our article The raid on the Maastricht prison.

After the war, Antje received an award from General Eisenhower. In 1965 two more followed: the medal of honor in gold, attached to the Order of Orange-Nassau and the papal decoration Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. She received both medals for her hard work in the underground resistance during the war. In 1959 she gave up her work as an midwife after almost forty years, mainly for health reasons. Antje died in 1970 at the age of 67. [1]
When she ceased to work, reports about her naturally appeared in the regional press, such as Midwife Antje from Heerlen: a forgotten resistance hero, who helped stranded pilots and took victuals from the NSB. [5]
The Center for Regional History has collected other newspaper clippings published about her. [6]

Footnotes

1. rijckheyt.nl, Bensen-Offermans, Antje (vroedvrouw)
2. ouweleem.nl, Heerlense verhalen Oorlog
3. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   Hoofdst. 7: De knokploegen en de geschiedenis van de stoottroepen tot de zomer van 1945, p.772
4. Dolle Dinsdag, Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch • Mad Tuesday • Français • Español
5. Vroedvrouw Antje uit Heerlen: een vergeten verzetsheld, die gestrande piloten hielp en proviand pikte van de NSB’ers
6. rijckheyt.nl, persoonsdocumentatie Bensen-Offermans, mevr.A.
7. https://www.rijckheyt.nl/sites/rijckheyt/files/styles/token-image-small/public/Bensen-Offermans-1.jpg