BERGMANS Andre,  Breendonk 11 April 1944, one of the 24 Partizans that were killed in Fort Breendonk on 11 April 1944.

André Bergmans, born in 1923, lives in Waterschei. His father is a police officer in Genk. André is not yet conscripted in 1940, but he still reports as a recruiting reservist. After the capitulation of Belgium, he found work in the Zwartberg coal mine. He was arrested as an accomplice on the night of January 10 to 11, 1944. His younger brother Paul witnesses André's arrest: “At 5 o'clock in the morning, Feldgendarmen and Flemish guards entered and searched the entire house. My brother was thus arrested on his bed and led downstairs. He was handcuffed in the kitchen.” He is also accused of a dynamite attack on the high-voltage grid in Waterschei and of a shooting on the Langerloo bridge near Genk.

GROMMEN Jules,  Breendonk 11 April 1944, one of the 24 Partizans that were killed in Fort Breendonk on 11 April 1944.

Jules Grommen, born in 1920 in Bilzen, was taken as a mobilized military prisoner of war in May 1940 and stayed in a German camp until February 1941. Afterwards he goes to work at the Waterschei coal mine. He continued to work there until he had to go into hiding in February 1943 because he was affiliated with the PA, the armed partisans. He is involved in the liquidation of the operators of Café Scherpenheuvel and is arrested in his home the same night. His sister-in-law testifies: “He was wearing nothing but a shirt and trousers and was wearing socks, but had no footwear on his feet. He was dragged to the car and horribly beaten and abused.”

JORDENS Emiel,  Breendonk 11 April 1944, one of the 24 Partizans that were killed in Fort Breendonk on 11 April 1944.

Emiel Jordens, born in 1920, and his brother Jozef also participate in the liquidation of the operators of Café Scherpenheuvel. They are also arrested that same night. His wife Jeanne Colson testifies that her husband has been a member of the Independence Front since the end of 1942 and that together with his brother Jozef he exploded an ammunition train at the coal port of Genk-Langerlo. She herself was involved in hosting and 'helping' at least three Allied airmen. Emiel is a member of an intelligence service and he has a broadcasting station to maintain contact with Belgian counterintelligence in England.

JORDENS Jozef,  Breendonk 11 April 1944, one of the 24 Partizans that were killed in Fort Breendonk on 11 April 1944.

Jozef Jordens, born in 1921, joined the partisan army. He is an employee at the mine and with his glasses he does not look like the average Limburg partisan. He was arrested on the night of January 10 to 11, 1944 and accused of the liquidation of the owners of Café Scherpenheuvel in Waterschei. The Kriegsgericht also convicted Jozef for “an act of violence against a German Wehrmacht army group.” He is said to have shot dead a German soldier. Joseph's execution is therefore not carried out with the bullet, but with the noose. This method of execution is considered particularly dishonorable by soldiers. He is the last convict to be hanged in occupied Belgium because on May 6, 1944, the occupying forces evacuate the Breendonk camp.

There is a large plot of veterans from the First and the Second World War.