The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Jakob Hamers

Jakob Hamers was born in Breinig near Aachen (Germany) as a son in the Hamers-Claessens family. He was a miner. Because coal mining was important to the occupying forces, the miners were mostly exempt from forced labor in Germany, called Arbeitseinsatz, which was invented to replace German men as they had to serve at the front. But after refusing work, Jakob still had to go to Germany. On this website, work refusal is considered a form of unorganized resistance.
He did not shy away from protesting the lack of food there, and when he was exhorted to work harder, he let it be known that Hitler had not yet won the war. It earned him a beating. After serving in Germany, he returned on foot in March 1945, emaciated and exhausted. He was nursed in the sanatorium at Bloemendal House in Vaals. Initially the chance of recovery was still considered realistic and an application was made for a benefit for war victims since the parental family with a sickly father who was a bricklayer no longer had any income. The cost of nursing care was borne by the State, but the cost of living for the family was not. Jakob Hamers died in Vaals on August 9, 1946 from the effects of the contagious disease tuberculosis. [1]

The former castle called Bloemendal in Vaals mentioned above is now a hotel.
Anna Maria Josepha Hamers, his eldest sister, was a nun. She too was forced to work in Germany towards the end of the war. She had to nurse wounded German soldiers at the front.

Footnotes

1. https://www.simpelveld.nl/oorlogsslachtoffers 11. Gestorven door uitputting