Stumbling Stone Kapelkesstraat 14

This stumbling stone commemorates resistance member Alphons Smeets.

Hubert Smeets, age 50, was town clerk of the municipality of Eijsden and joined resistance group 'Luc'. This resistance group also included his brother Hubert Smeets and Count Raphaël de Liedekerke de Phailhe from Eijsden.

He lived near the station and therefore had a good view himself of train and shunting movements of the Germans. He passed on the information gathered by other members of the resistance to the resistance network on the other side of the border, in Visé (B). The resistance group would be particularly involved in smuggling people (pilots, escaped prisoners of war, refugees) and goods across the border.

Eventually, the German SD (Sicherheids Dienst) led by Max Strobl and Richard Nitsch would dismantle the resistance network in 1942 through counterintelligence, and several people were arrested on October 7th, 1942.
Among them Jules Goffin, Alphons and Hubert Smeets and Count Raphaël de Liedekerke. Nic Erkens was arrested at his hidingadres with his sisters in Sittard on Nov. 11th, 1942.

After his arrest, Hubert was put on transport to fort Rhijnauwen in Utrecht ) and was executed allmost one year later on October 9th, 1943. On the same day, several members of the resistance including his brother Alphons, doctor Jules Goffin (Voeren, B) and Nic Erkens were executed here.

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 Hannibalspiel, J. van Lieshout