Valkenburg mayor played “essential role” in persecution of Jews during WWII: study

Piet Hens, mayor of Valkenburg during World War II, played a central role in the persecution of Jewish residents, according to a report released Sunday commissioned by the municipality.

The research concluded that Hens was an “indispensable link” in the deportation and murder of local Jews. “He carried out the occupiers’ orders meticulously,” the investigators wrote. “At times when he could have deviated or helped Jewish residents, he chose to enforce anti-Jewish measures rigidly at the expense of his Jewish citizens.”

Before the war, Valkenburg had 80 Jewish residents. Of these, 45 were deported and killed. Only two survived the concentration camps, while others went into hiding. Survivors who returned to Valkenburg were treated with distance and indifference. Like other municipalities, they had to pay overdue municipal taxes for the time they were in hiding or in camps.

Hens had been mayor of Valkenburg and Houthem since 1917. In 1935, he also became mayor of the neighboring municipality of Oud-Valkenburg. The three municipalities were merged in 1940 into Valkenburg-Houthem under Hens’ leadership. He remained mayor after the war, serving until 1953.

The municipality said the investigation aims to understand what happened and the role local authorities played, contributing to acknowledgment, awareness, and preservation of memory.

At a presentation of the findings on Sunday, Mayor Daan Prevoo called for nationwide studies. “It is our moral duty to confront this history. The stories of disenfranchisement and difficult restitution remind us that freedom and tolerance are never guaranteed,” Prevoo said.

He added, “I call on the national government to allow all municipalities in the Netherlands to conduct this research. The role the government played has not yet been fully investigated everywhere. The collective negligence in the Netherlands toward the Jewish community, both during the persecution and destruction and in the years after the war, is still not fully acknowledged," the mayor added. He urged to "name the mistakes that were made, and let’s ensure that this part of history is remembered and not repeated."

Since 2020, the Netherlands has conducted broad investigations into the confiscation and resale of Jewish property during the Second World War. The municipality of Valkenburg aan de Geul commissioned an independent study into the disenfranchisement of Jewish residents in the former municipalities of Valkenburg-Houthem and Berg en Terblijt.