(Aalten, 1926)

Member of the 1st Company DNB

n underground resistance fighter dies one month after liberation

Hans Wiggers was born in Aalten on 23 April 1926 as the second son of Gerrit and Riek Wiggers-Rhebergen. At trade school, he learned the craft of carpentry and, in the early years of the war, worked in the factory Luimes and Wiggers, of which his brother Jan was a partner.

In May 1943, Hans went underground. This occurred following the call-up for the Arbeitseinsatz (forced labour service), which he refused to obey. He became a member of the underground and later of the Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten (BS). In May 1944, nine Allied American pilots were housed for a time in the Luimes and Wiggers factory and subsequently picked up by members of the pilots’ escape line and transported further to their home base in England.

Mid-April 1945 – immediately after the liberation of Aalten – Hans volunteered for the Dutch National Battalion (DNB), the Achterhoek army that supported the Canadian army in the liberation of the Netherlands. On 16 April, the battalion stood assembled opposite the town hall on the Market Square in Aalten. Hans stood in the front row. He was assigned to the second company but later served as cook for the first company of the DNB, which provided assistance in the Veluwe region during the mopping-up operations against German resistance nests. He also served after 5 May 1945 guarding the check-line, which ran between eastern and western Netherlands, from Spakenburg-Bunschoten to Dodewaard.

On 11 June 1945, he was granted leave for the first time to return to his parents’ home in Aalten. A lorry took several men on leave to the Kaderschool in Hengelo, Overijssel, including Hans Wiggers. That day, he met with an accident near Bathmen when the left front tyre of the lorry burst and the vehicle collided with an English military truck. Hans Wiggers was only nineteen years old. His comrades-in-arms Peppelman, Ter Vrugt, and Wildschut were injured.

On 15 June 1945, Hans Wiggers was buried in Aalten with military honours. For many years, his helmet lay upon the grave. Later, it suddenly vanished without a trace. Grave robbery.

Hans Wiggers