Memorial Members Secret Army

On the outside wall of Hasselt's old prison hangs a plaque that commemorates five members of the Secret Army who died during a jailbreak of family members of the local Limburg leader of the resistance group on the 10th June 1944.

The largest resistance group in Belgian Limburg was the BNB ( Belgian National Movement/Belgisch Natinale Beweging ) aka Secret Army, which was founded in this province by Robert Lefevre in 1941.Unfortunatley , he is soon to be arrested and Tony Lambrechts takes over as provincial commander .Many ex-soldiers are members of this resistance group.

Trust was a premium, and many members of Tony Lambrechts family are also members of the group .While there was a high price tag on Tony Lambrecht's head, the family house in Wijer was raided by members of the SD(Sicherheitsdienst : SS tasked with intelligence gathering in the Reich) on the 3rd May 1944 and his father Theofiel and sister Augusta ( Gusta ) were picked up and imprisoned in Hasselt.

A prison guard who takes Gusta to her cell whispers :"don't say anything and don't trust anybody".After D-Day the Germans are on high alert and there was great concern that they would move Theofiel and Gusta to a concentration camp in Germany.The prison break was aided to a certain degree, as one of the senior members of the resistance group Georges Vanistendael had been imprisoned in the Hasselt Prison and knew his way around.

Gabriel Dupain and Charlie D'Hose found Gusta in her cell ,and both she and her father managed to escape. However , the group was betrayed and the German guards locked up were released and five members of the group were killed in the ensuing firefight which also took a heavy toll on the Germans as well.

Of the two freed members of the resistance and Lambrechts family only one would survive the war and tell the story. As, on the 29th June 1944 the headquarters of the Limburg Secret Army at the villa Claes in Zelem, where both Theofiel and Gusta had been given refuge, was stormed by Wehrmacht soldiers and members of the SD co-ordinated by the Belgian collaborator Emiel Van Thielen .And so Theofiel became the first resistance group fatality here, after he was shot while in the villa during the firefight .Whereas, after those who had to surrender outside the burning villa, Gusta was taken to Ravensbruck then it's subcamp Belzig.She was able to return home to Wijer on the 18th June 1945.

The five commemorated are :

Rene Lambrechts ,brother of Gusta and son of Theofiel from Wijer
Georges Vanistendael from Herk-de-Stad
Jean Melot from Namur
Gabriel Dupain from Heks
Charlie D'Hose from Nederbraehel

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Source

• Text: Ian Paterson
• Photos: Ian Paterson
• https://www.heemkringzelem.be/thema.html
• Roger Rutten; Oorlog & Zwijgen