Cycling route Death Valley De Peel - Liberation fever (Willemsveen) (#24)

Liberation fever

Around Mad Tuesday, September 5, 1944, liberation fever spread and large numbers of German soldiers fled home in panic. Many NSB members and Dutch SS members also fled.
On the way to Germany they looked for shelter here and there.
This also applies to the Hannes Berkvens farm on the Meijelseweg. An overheated young man who was hiding in the nearby Sleutels farm (Buizerdweg) could not tolerate this; At an unexpected moment he stabbed an SS man in the back and fled into the fields.
The wounded SS man appropriated a bicycle and managed to complain to the Germans in Meijel. Barely 20 minutes later, eight German soldiers came to take action. They arrested two Berkvens brothers who had nothing to do with the incident. Nevertheless, they were terribly beaten. The soldiers also threatened to set the entire hamlet on fire. Ultimately, that fate only befell the Sleutels farm, the home of the fugitive in hiding. Berkvens Farm went up in flames two months later when fighting took place over every meter of land in the Groote Peel.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Martin Damen (1, 4), G.J. Wouters (2, 3, 5)