Stumbling Stone Joseph Partounsstraat

This stumbling stone commemorates resistance member Jef Partouns.

Jef Partouns was a lab technician at the Zinkwit factory in Eijsden and joined resistance group 'Luc'. Also involved in this resistance group were the brothers Alphons and Hubert Smeets and Count Raphaël de Liedekerke de Phailhe from Eijsden.

He lived on the Paralelweg (now Joseph Partounsstraat) close to the railroad station of Eijsden, and was therefore excellent at spying undetected on the train and shunting movements of the Germans. He observed and noted all train movements. The movement of horses, tanks and guns and trains carrying building materials. Everything he noted he passed on to Hubert Smeets.

Eventually, the German SD (Sicherheids Dienst) led by Max Strobl and Richard Nitsch would dismantle the resistance network in 1942 through counterintelligence, and several individuals were arrested on Oct. 7th, 1942.
Among them doctor Jules Goffin Hubert and Alphons Smeets and Count Raphaël de Liedekerke. Another resistance group, group Erkens, of Nic Erkens, who they worked with, was arrested in Sittard on Nov. 11th, 1942. They were imprisoned at Fort Rhijnauwen in Utrecht and executed there on Oct. 9th, 1943.

Jef Partouns was put on transport to Natzweiler concentration camp (Alsace, France) after his arrest. He eventually died from illness, exhaustion and deprivation in the concentration camp at Vaihingen (D) on January 13th 1945. This was a labor camp that was part of Natzweiler.

Stolpersteine are an initiative since 1997 by German artist Gunter Demnig. He began by placing the first Stolperstein in the Berlin's Kreuzberg district. Since then, there have been placed Stolpersteine in many countries.

The stones are a reminder of the Holocaust in World War II.
A Stolperstein is a 10 x 10 cm concrete stone, brass at the top in which the name, date of birth and death and place of death is stamped. The Stolperstein is placed in the sidewalk in front of the victim's former home.

Gunter Demnig in that way provided each victim his own monument. His motto is: "A HUMAN BEING IS FORGOTTEN ONLY WHEN HIS OR HER NAME IS FORGOTTEN".

The village of Borne was the first place in the Netherlands where Stolpersteine were placed on November 29th, 2007.

This one was laid March 13th, 2019.

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski
• Het Hannibal spiel, J. van Lieshout