Cycling route Death Valley De Peel - Deurne - Arnoldus van Gaal (#7)

Arnoldus van Gaal

During a raid in the forests of Vlierden, Nol van Gaal was probably wrongly 'eliminated' by an underground action because he was said to behave very pro-German and was seen as a snitch. His body was buried on the Baarschotse Heide in Vlierden. In a report dated November 14, 1944, G.M. van Loon, probably the then commander of the Council of Resistance in the Brabant district, wrote: "Van Gaal from Liessel was arrested by me, without an order, but with sufficient evidence, after first having taken him from home and with "We walked him into the woods, cleaned him up, after which we buried him at night."

The following excerpt comes from the letter that the widow Van Gaal sent to the Municipality of Deurne in 1947:
"I would just like to contact you about the corpse of my husband Arnoldus van Gaal, born on April 16, 1906 and murdered on September 19, 1944 by the underground and that he is buried in the woods, just like an animal without a coffin and that I have already done a lot to get him to the Roman Catholic cemetery, but that there is a lot behind this in Deurne because my husband was suspected of being an NSB but that he was never active when he was murdered, he was poaching in the Boschen and then took his life in an assassination attempt..."

Two months after receiving the letter, the mayor had the remains exhumed. After this, they were reburied in the cemetery next to the Willibrordus Church in Deurne, in unconsecrated ground.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Martin Damen