(Ulft, 1911)

Member of the 2nd Company DNB

Baker from Ulft fights in the Canadian Army and subsequently clears German mines

Bernardus Johannes Aalders was born in Ulft on 15 January 1911, the son of Petrus W. Aalders and Paula A. Weideman. He was the seventh of ten children. His father was a shoemaker; Bernard himself became a baker. It is highly likely that he received an exemption from German forced labour during the war because he worked in the food supply sector. However, Bernard did join the local resistance. His alias was Piet. Together with three resistance friends in 1944, he planned an assassination attempt on Willy Marcus, the spy for the Sicherheitsdienst who was responsible for the arrest and subsequent death or murder of more than 50 resistance fighters that year. The plan was called off; the execution in Arnhem was deemed too difficult and dangerous, especially considering potential reprisals by the occupiers.

In the autumn of 1944, Bernard became a member of the Interior Forces (Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten), combat section. In mid-April 1945, he joined the second company of the DNB, which marched alongside the Canadian Army. In July 1945, he signed on for a year of service in the Dutch Army. His unit assisted in exhuming the remains of executed resistance fighters near Kamp Amersfoort. These recovered bodies were to be reburied. It left a deep impression on the men. Bernard received a month of training in Brabant regarding mine clearance. He subsequently worked for the Mine Disposal Service. During this period, he had an accident in which phosphorus got onto his legs. It caused a burning, intense pain that he had to endure for three days. Thereafter, the pain subsided and he underwent surgery involving a skin graft. Due to this accident, he could no longer work as a baker, as the job required too much standing. He eventually found a fulfilling career as a caretaker at the Lower Technical School (LTS) in Ulft.

Bernard Aalders married Annie van Amelsvoort. During the war, she had come to the Achterhoek from Boxtel in Brabant. Her brother was a parish priest in Varsselder and had asked her to help a local family where both parents were ill. Bernard and Annie had nine children (the second and third of whom died shortly after birth). In later life, Bernard spoke very little about the war. Bernard Aalders passed away on 7 April 1984.

Bernard Aalders