Louis Beel

Life during World War II

At the time of his resignation as a municipal civil servant in 1942, Dr. Beel was Director of Social Affairs and Deputy Town Clerk. Dr. Beel resigned because he opposed with the German Occupation of The Netherlands. To avoid being taken prisoner by the German occupational forces he frequently had to go in hiding. Eindhoven was liberated on September 18, 1944 at the time of the World War II military offensive known as Operation Market Garden. Dutch resistance fighters, massively manifesting themselves immediately after the Germans had gone, saw Dr. Beel as one of them. He became the spokesman of a group of prominent citizens in Eindhoven, who had resisted the Nazis during the war. The group was not in favour of a continuation of the pre-war political party-lines, with the ever-dominant Anti Revolutionary Party. In this vein they sent an Address, drafted by Dr. Beel, to Queen Wilhelmina, who still resided in London. Dr. Beel was urged to accept the function of advisor to the Military Administration (Militair Gezag), the temporary government in the liberated southern part of The Netherlands under Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). In this capacity Dr. Beel was invited by the Dutch government-in-exile to travel to London and to advise on dealing with the war victims. He arrived in London on January 1, 1945. On January 10 he visited at her request Queen Wilhelmina in her English mansion Mortimer. This visit gave a decisive turn to Dr. Beel's life.

Related Topics:
Civil servant - 1942 - German - September 18 - 1944 - World War II - Operation Market Garden - Nazis - Anti Revolutionary Party - Queen Wilhelmina - London - SHAEF - Government-in-exile - January 1 - 1945 - January 10

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The Queen inuitively saw in Dr. Beel, a Roman Catholic from the South who ostentatiously had rejected Nazism, the prototype of the patriot and of the sort of "renewed" person she was looking for to replace the members of her war-cabinet, of whom she no longer wholeheartedly approved. Dr. Beel was promptly appointed Minister of the Interior in the third Gerbrandy cabinet. This cabinet resigned immediately after the end of the war, in May 1945, to free the path for a new one to be formed by two a liberal, Willem Schermerhorn, and a socialist, Willem Drees. They invited Dr. Beel to remain as Minister of the Interior in their cabinet (the cabinet Schermerhorn Drees). According to his own words, Dr. Beel reluctantly agreed. He moved with his family from Eindhoven in the South to Wassenaar in the West, a villadom close to The Hague, the government's residence.

Related Topics:
Queen - War-cabinet - Minister of the Interior - Third Gerbrandy cabinet - 1945 - Liberal - Willem Schermerhorn - Socialist - Willem Drees - Cabinet Schermerhorn Drees - Wassenaar - The Hague

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