Borderless Resistance: On Spying Monks, Escape Lines and the Hannibal Game. 1940-1943

Grenzeloos Verzet is a unique case study of the resistance during the Second World War on both sides of the Belgian-Dutch border.

Borderless Resistance is a unique case study of the resistance in the Second World War on both sides of the Belgian-Dutch border. March 18, 1943. The German Geheime Feldpolizei surrounds the abbey of Val-Dieu in the province of Liège. Two priests are arrested for acts of resistance: Hugo Jacobs from Antwerp and Stephanus Muhren from Bergen op Zoom. More than eighty arrests follow, both in Belgium and the Netherlands. Nine of those arrested are executed six months later in Rhijnauwen near Utrecht, including both priests. In Borderless Resistance the author unravels the resistance groups in which the priests were involved. What drove them to the resistance? Paul De Jongh maps out the organization of the resistance groups in great detail. He exposes their daring activities across borders and language barriers: espionage, evacuation routes for pilots, aid to Jews, etc. The author investigates how German counterintelligence infiltrates the groups from Groningen and Liège. The outcome is dramatic. What was the attitude of the church in this case? What role did the German abbot of Val-Dieu play? Why did Father Hugo join the resistance, while his brother collaborated with the Germans? Was there a secret radio station in Val-Dieu? How were the arrested treated in the prisons of Maastricht, Camp Haaren and Utrecht? How did the court-martial hearing and the eventual execution proceed?