Charles Bongaerts

Charles Marie Hubert Joseph Bongaerts (August 7, 1909 - November 23, 1944) was a Dutch resistance hero during World War II. He worked as a police inspector and fireman in Heerlen and was a member of the KP-Heerlen resistance movement, where he was active in pilot aid. On November 6, 1945, he was betrayed to the Nazis, presumably by an NSB-member, and deported first to Kamp Vught and then to the Ladelund concentration camp, a satellite camp of Neuengamme, where he died on November 23, 1944. He was posthumously awarded the US Medal of Freedom on January 18, 1947 by US President Harry S. Truman, as well as the Dutch Resistance Memorial Cross.