Resistance Memorial Lemelerveld

During the Second World War, weapons were hidden in this church by the resistance. This was discovered and on November 25, 1944 the church was closed. The pastor was able to escape during the raid and he survived the war.

Text at the monument:
An ordinary church... in wartime?

However criminal the German occupier was, he preferred not to misunderstand one thing. That was the church. Apart from the acts of war in the May days of 1940 and the weeks leading up to the liberation
a church service was seldom forbidden. That was the case when on November 25, 1944 a shield made by the SS was placed on the door
of the reformed church of Lemelerveld was posted, which stated that church services were prohibited.

Weapons were dropped for the resistance. But where were they supposed to be? Rev. Vogelaar discussed the possibility of using the church attic for this purpose with a trusted police officer. It was not an actual attic, more like an empty space between the attic and the church roof.

The first night that the attic was full of English weapons, the minister slept in a secret room in the great presbytery. Hardly asleep, he was awakened by boots climbing onto the church roof. The secret loot had been discovered. There was little left for the Reverend to do but flee.
Later he heard from one of the helpers, who had been arrested for something else, had gone crazy.

The Sicherheitspolizei painted an announcement board and nailed it to the nailed door of the church. There the inhabitants of Lemelerveld read the German prohibition, with only one Dutch word: dominee. Because that was the main culprit.

The text on the board read: After with the Reverend's knowledge
terrorists had concealed an English armory in this House of God, I order the immediate closure of the church for misuse of a religious purpose. The higher SS and police leader Nordwest, 25 November 1944.

Lemelerveld then escaped the great danger of reprisals!

When Hardenberg was liberated Rev. Vogelaar could return to the presbytery. On the first Sunday without the sign in front of the church, the congregation was touched to see its own pastor again, as the tension eased. He opened the Bible and read its text, from Exodus, the song of praise of Moses.

The attic has since disappeared. The building is left after the schism in 1945
went to the court. Church Liberated. The so hated sign still hangs in the vestry.

Since this church played such a crucial role in the underground resistance, this monument was unveiled here on 4 May 2010, thanks to the church council, in memory of the victims of war violence in and around Lemelerveld.

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Source

• Text: Stefan Hendriks & Historische Kring Dalfsen
• Photos: Stefan Hendriks & Historische Kring Dalfsen