Postwar tragedies
Just outside Roermond in 1945, 11 children were killed by explosions of leftover war gear. The two tragedies occurred shortly after liberation. Formally, therefore, they were not war victims and did not count; not even decades later. Not when memorials were erected, not in war publications and, apart from a few, not at all in the collective memory of the people of Roermond. Virtually nothing in the city recalls these two post-war tragedies. What had happened in August and October 1945, few knew until even 70 years later.
The tragedies of Spik and Maalbroek
At Maalbroek, a hamlet under the smoke of Roermond, on Tuesday afternoon 14 August 1945, two boys were killed and a mother with two small children seriously injured. While trying to remove the powder with an axe from an abandoned German grenade, the projectile exploded, with fatal consequences for:
- Jan Diels (11)
- Jan Lamers (13)
Near this monument, on Sunday afternoon 7 October 1945, nine boys from De Spik were killed and two were wounded. Although the area had been cleared by German deminers shortly before, the boys still discovered a straggling German anti-tank mine. When they tried to open the projectile, an explosion followed. Seven boys were killed instantly and two others succumbed to their wounds during the afternoon:
- Jan (14) Stox
- Har (10), Sjra (13) and Piet (14) Coenen
- Cor (9), Bair (12) and Sjra (14) van Cann
- Harrie (8) and Lei (14) Sanders
Monument Children of Spik and Maalbroek '45
Thanks to the creation of a monument and several publications that included friends, brothers and sisters of the victims' children who were able to tell their stories about the drastic events after so many years, the long silence came to an end in 2015. Their stories, photos and video footage of the unveiling can be found on the website www.spikmaalbroek.nl