By Mary Dodge Allen
On May 10, 1940, the German army began its invasion of Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The Dutch and Belgian armies rose up against the invaders but were overwhelmed by the German Blitzkrieg (“Lightning War”), and by May 28th all three countries had surrendered.
German troops marching into an unnamed Dutch city (Public Domain)
Eugene van der Heijden, a 24-year-old teacher in the Netherlands, recalls his shock at the swiftness of the invasion:
“The memories of those first weeks of the war have stayed etched in my mind as when the stream of German troops marched on the country road past our house on their way to the front in Belgium and France... I still see my father running after a German who had pinched his bicycle from behind our house. Luckily, he [my father] had the forethought to let the air out of the tires. The German angrily threw the bike into the ditch. Triumphantly, my father returned with his bike.”
Eugene van der Heijden (Public Domain)
The surrender of France on June 14th came as an even larger shock, along with the tyranny of occupation that followed. As the shock wore off, anti-Nazi resistance grew. Ordinary people began risking their lives to defy, harass and outwit the Germans.
Resistance Groups Form:
Undated photo of anti-Nazi graffiti (Alamy)
Individual acts of resistance, like writing anti-Nazi phrases on walls, or ringing church bells to drown out a Nazi rally in a town square, soon led to the formation of Resistance groups. Some groups focused on specific goals, like sabotage, gathering intelligence to pass onto the Allies, or publishing underground newspapers.
One of the most daring examples of an underground newspaper was the November 9, 1943 counterfeit edition of the Brussels newspaper, Le Soir. This newspaper, known as “Fake Le Soir,” looked like a regular issue, but contained anti-Nazi articles, along with illustrations and classified ads ridiculing the Germans.
Resistance members hijacked Le Soir’s delivery trucks that morning and delivered the fake issue to newspaper stands across the city. It was a sellout! The upper corner of the front page showed a B-17 with its bomb bay doors open. And in the lower corner, a photo of Hitler with his hands on his chest, saying, “I did not ask for this.”
"Fake Le Soir" November 9, 1943 (Public Domain)
Resistance Expands – Escape Lines:
The Resistance groups that held the most danger for members were escape lines, and yet many ordinary citizens risked their lives to assist POWs, Jews and Allied airmen. Those arrested by German authorities were tortured for information about other members and then killed or sent to death camps. Many used code names to protect their true identities.
The largest, well-known escape lines were: The Comet Line, The Pat O’Leary Line and the Shelburne Line. But other escape lines existed and even intersected with the larger lines, including the escape line organized by two men in the Netherlands, Karst Smit and Eugene van der Heijden.
The Smit-van der Heijden Escape Line – Beginning:
Photo of Jagers Regiment, during Dutch Army mobilization, 1939; Karst Smit is seated in the center, third person to the right of the sign, wearing a white shirt. (Public Domain)
Karst Smit, age 24, served in the Jagers Regiment of the Dutch army during the German invasion. When the occupation took hold in 1940, he joined the Marechaussees, the Dutch police responsible for patrolling the country’s borders, under control of the Germans. In January 1942, Smit was stationed in Hilvarenbeek, a Dutch village near the Belgian border.
Karst Smit, in a Marechaussee uniform, circa 1942 (Public Domain)
In April 1942, Smit encountered two French army POWs, who had escaped from Germany. They had already crossed the Netherlands on foot and were weary and half-starved. But they were determined to continue across Belgium and return to France. Smit was moved to help them. He knew about a local family with a reputation for kindness to others, so he met with local teacher, Eugene van-der-Heijden (mentioned earlier in this blog) and enlisted his family’s help.
The large van der Heijden family had already been helping local men to avoid forced labor, by providing food and a hiding place in a chicken coop. (A 1941 German ordinance required Dutch men aged 18 to 24 to work as laborers in German factories.)
The van der Heijden house (recent photo by Bruce Bolinger)
The van der Heijden home sat in a perfect location for a safe house – in a remote area surrounded by trees and fields, and only a short walk from Smit’s police barracks in Hilvarenbeek. The family agreed to provide food and shelter for the French POWs, until Smit helped them to safely cross the border into Belgium.
This experience prompted Smit to form a group to help other escaped POWs. He organized a network of friends to watch the Dutch-German border, looking for escapees. They would provide food and clothing for the POWs and arrange train transportation to Hilvarenbeek.
The region south of Hilvarenbeek was heavily-forested. Smit, along with fellow border officers he’d recruited, knew hidden paths they could use to guide the POW’s across the border. They also provided them with false ID documents confiscated from black market smugglers.
The Network Expands:
In a matter of weeks, the escape line began encountering Jews and Allied fliers needing help. Karst Smit and Eugene van der Heijden found more local safe houses, but they soon realized that helping escapees across the border into Belgium was only the first step. They needed to establish contacts with trusted Resistance members in Belgium, to provide shelter and place Allied fliers into the hands of larger escape lines that could guide them to freedom, most often through France and Spain.
The van der Heijden family. Upper left: Josephus - father, Eugene, Gustaf, Marcel; Lower left: Jef, Elisabeth, mother. (photo array by Bruce Bolinger)
Eugene’s father, Josephus van der Heijden was born in the Netherlands and worked as a tobacco wholesaler. His mother, Elisabeth was originally from Belgium. Many family members and friends on the Belgian side of the border could be relied on to provide help in the form of food, shelter and other services.
#4 Rue Jules Lejeune - A Blue Arrow points to the safe house apartment on the third floor.
(recent photo by Bruce Bolinger)
A safe house at #4 Rue Jules Lejeune was established in Brussels, and escape line guides were recruited to escort Allied fliers there. Eugene van der Heijden had both Dutch and Belgian ID documents. He worked as a guide, escorting Allied fliers through Belgium to this safe house in Brussels. Eugene used the alias “Vox” (translation, “Fox”), to disguise his true identity.
Smit often needed to send mail to his contacts in Belgium, but letters sent across the border from the Netherlands risked being examined by the Germans. He enlisted help from the wife of a local shipping agent. Her sister, Octavie lived on the Belgian side of the border and regularly came across to work as a housekeeper. Octavie agreed to hide Smit’s letters in her undergarments before crossing back into Belgium, where she could safely mail them.
Other Hilvarenbeek villagers offered their services:
Jacques Naaijkens, publisher of the village’s weekly newspaper, used his printing press to produce false ID papers. The Putters brothers, who worked in a tailor shop with a view of the road entering the village, alerted Smit when Germans were approaching. Mr. Hendriks, the village baker, made bread for the Allied airmen and other escapees.
As the members involved in the escape line grew, the danger also increased – not only from imposters sent by the Germans to infiltrate the line, but also from local Nazi collaborators, who reported any unusual activities.
Smit needed additional guides to escort Allied fliers to Brussels, and he began recruiting Dutch men he trusted, who were in hiding to avoid forced labor in Germany. Smit would eventually regret recruiting one of them - Willem Schmidt, a university student from Utrecht.
Stay tuned for the second installment of my four-part blog series on May 5th; The WWII Smit-van der-Heijden Escape Line: Part Two - German Infiltrators; An American Airman’s Experience.
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Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers.
Recent release, anthology devotional: El Jireh, The God Who Provides
Mary's story, entitled:
A Mother's Desperate Prayer, describes her struggle with guilt and despair after her young son is badly burned in a kitchen accident. When we are at the end of all we have, El Jireh provides what we need.
Click the link below to purchase on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/El-Jireh-God-Who-Provides/dp/1963611608
Mary's novel: Hunt for a Hometown Killer won the 2022 Christian Indie Award, First Place - Mystery/Suspense; and the 2022 Angel Book Award - Mystery/Suspense.
Click the link below to buy Hunt for a Hometown Killer at Amazon.com: