Fr. Kristiaan Hubertus Muermans (1909 - 1945)
Little Known Resistance Fighter
"He was busy with the resistance press and helped many young people to go underground in order to prevent the Gestapo from arresting them and sending them off to labor camps. When the Gestapo learned of this, he was arrested right in front of his pupils’ eyes! After several days incarceration in Brussels he was successively transferred to various concentration camps: Buchenwald, Ellrich, Harzungen and Dora where he died on February 12, 1945, only a few weeks before the camp was liberated by the American army."
" Responding to a call rooted in the humiliation of his homeland, he operated in several resistance groups. In May 1944 he fell into the hands of the Gestapo, who took him away forever." (Sint Unum, 1947)
Born on March 9, 1909 in Hees Bilzen, Beligum, Kristiaan Muermans made his first profession in 1928 and was ordained a priest in 1933 at Louvain. The following year he was teaching in our school at Tervuren and remained there for several years. At the outbreak of World War II he was called up to active military duty.
According to a letter sent to Fr. Bothe by his brother, Wim Muermans, when Fr. Kristiaan Muermans returned to Beligum he became active in the resistance.
"He was busy with the resistance press and helped many young people to go underground in order to prevent the Gestapo from arresting them and sending them off to labor camps. When the Gestapo learned of this, he was arrested right in front of his pupils’ eyes! After several days incarceration in Brussels he was successively transferred to various concentration camps: Buchenwald, Ellrich, Harzungen and Dora where he died on February 12, 1945, only a few weeks before the camp was liberated by the American army." (cf. Bernd Bothe, SCJ Martyrs of the XXth Century, p. 31).
We now know that Fr. Muermans died near Blankenburg in one of the 40 sub-camps of the Mittlebau-Dora Concentration camp. From 1943 to 1945 Dora produced arms for the Germany Army, especially rockets. These arms were produced in an immense underground factory, the largest of its kind up until then. The size of this underground factory is hard to comprehend. An enormous tunnel stretched for 20 km (12.43 miles) and was 30 m (98.43 ft) high. There some 60,000 prisoners from Mittlebau-Dora camps worked as slaves, some 20,000 of whom died, including Fr. Muermans. The circumstances of his death remain obscure.
Fr. Muermans left us no writings. There was only his commitment in the resistance to young people which cost him his life, as these words by André Jarlan, himself murdered in Chile in 1984, describe:
"Those truly alive are those who offer their life, not those who take it from others. For us the Resurrection is not a myth but a reality. This event we celebrate in each Eucharist encourages us in the conviction that the giving of oneself is worthwhile, and it challenges us to do so!" (cf. 20thCentury Martyrs, Riccardi, p. 23; Cf. Bernard Bothe, SCJ Martyrs of the XXth Century, p. 29-35)