Cycling route Death Valley De Peel - Kerkrazzia (#21)

Church raid

As early as the 1930s, the Nazis built concentration camps in Germany in which they locked up their opponents and forced them to do forced labor.
Once at war, German able-bodied men were called up for military service as much as possible and the occupied areas had to supply replacement workers. In our country, former soldiers and students first had to deal with this, then people who were labeled enemies of the public (Jews, Gypsies).

As the war progressed, the repression became more coercive.
During raids, workers were taken from factories to be employed in the German war industry. Mayors also had to appoint 'volunteers' for forced labor in Germany.
At the end of the war, this was no longer enough and the Germans randomly rounded up people to work for them. One of the things that became famous was the Great Church Raid in Limburg on Sunday, October 8, 1944, during which thousands of boys and men were arrested. Helenaveen met that fate in Brabant. 143 men were arrested. The majority were employed at the Hermann Göring-Werke. Of these, 26 men did not survive the war.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Martin Damen