Klingen, Mathilda Theodora

Date of birth:: May 18th, 1918 (Gilze en Rijen, the Netherlands)
Date of death:: September 24th, 1944 (Alem, the Netherlands)
Nationality:: Dutch

Biography

Tilly was born on May 18, 1918 in the municipality of Gilze en Rijen and lives in Alem. She is a daughter of Jan Klingen and a sister of Leo and Jan junior, who is active in the resistance as brother Josef Albertus and is shot in Wassenaar in 1942 for that purpose. The tremendous distress in the family at the loss of Joseph soon gives way to determination; from that moment on, the Klingen family will devote themselves even more resolutely to the resistance.

On 23 September 1944, mother Klingen and her daughters Tilly and Tonny were at home with Louis Boelen in hiding from Zaltbommel, when suddenly the Germans invaded and arrested all those present. Mother and youngest daughter Tonny manage to escape and flee in time in the consternation, but Tilly is arrested with the person in hiding and driven into the street, where father Jan is already being held. A few moments earlier, he had been set up by two Germans in English uniform. The Germans appear to have been keeping an eye on the family for some time, partly as a result of Josef Albertus' resistance work; Leo is also wanted, but he is not present in the house.

Neighbor Jan Kling comes to take a look and is shot without further ado and left seriously injured on the street. Tilly, her father and Louis are then taken to Rossum, where they are held in the basement of the town hall.

The next morning, September 24, father and daughter Klingen and Louis are taken to the entrance road of Alem and there violently murdered. Tilly has turned 26 and finds her final resting place in the Roman Catholic cemetery in Zaltbommel.

In February 1945, Leo, Jan's younger son, would drown in sight of the liberation while crossing the Waal.

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