The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Mathieu Fonteijn
(Mathias Andreas)

Mathieu Fonteijn lived in Roermond. [1#6]
He was a member of the OD, later of the N.B.S. (Dutch Domestic Forces) Comp. Roermond.
In January and February 1945, the Germans evacuated almost all the towns and villages on the eastern bank of the Meuse in the districts of Venlo and Roermond. Insofar as they did not evacuate with them, this was the signal for the O.D. people to try to reach liberated territory on their own. [2]
The rivers Maas and the Roer (fließt bei Roermond in die Maas, also nicht die Ruhr!) were front line, on the other side were the Allies. Roermond hardly had its own KP; the role of armed resistance there was filled by OD men. In liberated territory they were assigned to the NBS forces and returned to the empty city with the Allied troops.
They were charged with clearing debris, locating land mines which sometimes involved serious accidents, building emergency bridges and sometimes picking up political offenders. Patrolling through and guarding the depopulated city was the responsibility of a company of Guard troops from the Horn region. Roermond did not have the people for it. [2]
His widow wrote to the OGS: Died as a result of a mine explosion on the liberation day of Roermond, March 1, 1945. [1#4].
But Mathieu did not die while tracking landmines, but:
On March 1, 1945, the day Roermond was liberated, the then 28-year-old Mathieu Fonteijn was severely wounded when he stepped on a landmine lying in the Pollartstraat, which exploded. He died as a result in the Laurentius Hospital. [3]
Mathieu was in the municipal cemetery Kapel in ’t Zand in Roermond, catholic part II. class, grave 3 B 28 B [5]
Mathias Andreas ( Mathieu ) Fonteijn is listed in the Erelijst 1940-1945 (Honor Roll of the Dutch Parliament). [4]

Footnotes

1. Archief Oorlogsgravenstichting (@ Nationaal archief),
   Dossier Mathieu Fonteijn • #4 • #6
2. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   8. De Ordedienst, p.901
3. Gemeentearchief Roermond Achtergebleven intact oorlogstuig
4. Erelijst 1940-1945
5. Oorlogsgravenstichting.nl