Frans Johannes Feller – Frans

Belfeld February 2 1927 – Amsterdam May 7 1945

Paspoort-FJ-Feller2wwwFrans Johannes Feller was only 18 years old. He died, after being shot at the Dam, in the Binnengasthuis, several hours later at 08:30pm. The death certificate mentioned bullet wounds and bowel perforations.
His parents were Johann August Feller(Viersen 1885-Amsterdam 1955), married in 1908 with Katharina Heuser(1888-1966).
At the moment that Frans was hit by German bullets, his father August Feller, had been sentenced for 3 years in a German prison for ‘Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat’. He assisted from his residence on the border by Belfeld (a village in Limburg) German communist by smuggling anti-nazi papers and he got arrested in 1943 in Amsterdam.
The family had moved from Limburg to Amsterdam early 1940 because of fear for the Gestapo. Also the elder brother of Frans Feller, Hein, was arrested by the Germans, when he guided German communist through the woods over the border, he was already sentenced for 3 years in a German prison. After his release, mid ’44, he ended up by the Council of Resistance of Amsterdam and became one the greatest saboteurs of the Resistance of Amsterdam.

Source: Jan Brauer
The story of the war of the Feller family and their contribute to the resistance is published by Jan Brauer in Venlose Katernen 21, an edition of the Community Archieves of Venlo.

40 jr huw Feller-Heuser, de Waarheid 27-2-1948

40 year marriage of J.A.Feller and C.Heuser, from the Waarheid, February 27 1948.

Father was furniture maker. Four children were born in Germany, six children were born in Venlo/Belfeld. Frans was the youngest of these ten children and he was 19 years younger then his eldest sister. Frans was official registered as skipper, but he worked as furniture maker with his father until his father was arrested.

His cousin Barend:
“His sister Marie found the situation insecure, maybe it was to dangerous, but Frans wanted to go and went to the Dam.
When he didn’t came home, she looked for him and found him in a mortuary, there laid all the people who were overrun or killed by bullets”.

His cousin Corry:
My mother told me that Frans went to the Dam with a girl-friend, I don’t know her name anymore. She survived. When Frans didn’t came home, the family started to look for him and he was eventually found in the Westerkerk”.

His cousin Annie:
My mother never spoke about it. In a book, a photo was published from a fallen pram, of that specific day. My mother said: ‘You laid in there’. I was only 2 months old and fell out; my mother also pulled another child behind the pram to protect her against the bullets. Right behind here Frans was hit. That’s what my mother told me.

Frans was employed in Amersfoort; the compensation over the period April 1 until April 21 was an amount of fl.118,80, after his death it was paid out to his parents. On April 26 he came in contact with the police but has been released:
Police report of April 26 1945
03:45am German soldiers strike in a depot for potatoes, situated at the Houtkade close to the Nova Zemblastraat, 7 persons in a shed, who wanted to steal potatoes. Next, about 30 people, were gathered at the Nova Zemblastraat for the same reason.
The soldiers have been shot at the crowd, at which one person got wounded in the right shoulder. First aid was offered by a member of the First Aid and he used for that bandage 2 and 2 rolls of gauze, after which the person was put under medical care.
Three policemen were send to the spot, and on indication of the German soldiers, the 7 persons who were there with the potatoes, they returned them. Frans Feller was one of them. All persons, name and address in the report, remain in custody, at the request of the German soldier who brought them in, waiting for a further decision of his commander.
 A telex was send in fourfold to the head office. In the afternoon at 02:00pm the 7 persons were released at the orders of Kniest from the NSDAP.


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