Cycling route Death Valley De Peel - Corporal Erich Rädel (#8)

Corporal Erich Rädel

During the first liberation of Liessel on Saturday, September 23, 1944, heavy fighting took place in the Loon area in Liessel. During those battles, the German soldier Erich Rädel was hit in the abdomen by a bullet. He managed to get to the back door of the Slaats family and cried for pity. The family heard the soldier, let him in and cared for him.

The next morning, Hendrik Slaats went to the parsonage, where a Red Cross post was located, to get help, but was stopped by an acquaintance who shouted at him, "Fuck, damn it." Hendrik replied with "it's not a man after all" and walked on. Doctor Schellekens, a general practitioner from Liessel who was present at the post, immediately came along. He gave the wounded soldier a morphine injection for the pain and advised him to have him operated on, which happened.

Only after the war did the Slaats family find out that Rädel was buried in the military cemetery in Ysselsteyn. After being picked up by Scottish Red Cross soldiers, he was taken to an Allied field hospital where he died two days later.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Martin Damen