Episode 1: Sint-Donatus Campus Markt

PODCAST - Resistance, Collaboration and Repression during WWII in Merchtem. EPISODE 1: The Beginning and the End.
(symbol on the map: resistance and collaboration) - voices: Laura Dierick and Jade Deterville-François (6 LaWi)

1.0: Intro: August De Boeck – Piano Concerto

1.1: Welcome to part 1 of our podcast on the theme of Merchtem during WWII, between collaboration and resistance.

We, pupils of 6 WeWi and 6 LaWi of Sint-Donatus Merchtem, made this audio walk as a contribution to the History Olympiad of UGent 2023.

Whether following it at home from behind your PC or walking through the village, it starts on the Marktstraatje. This first part is about the war's beginning and end in Merchtem. We briefly touch upon collaboration, resistance and repression. If you still need help distinguishing between these terms, click 'view terminology'.

Happy listening!

1.2: Transition: The invasion of the Germans in Belgium - YouTube fragment (transcript -> 1:07-1:30) Dear listeners This night, Germany's air and land forces launched an attack on the Netherlands. On top of that, some offensive moves by the German air force broke loose against Belgian airfields. A German attack also appears to have been directed against the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

1.3: The German invasion of Belgium began on 10 May 1940, and after the Eighteen-Day Campaign, our country capitulated on 28 June. The Germans occupied Belgium for 4-years.

We found a German leaflet in the Archives of the Heemkundige Kring of Merchtem. It is still being determined how it ended up there, but it was probably donated to the non-profit organisation Soetendaelle by a Merchtem inhabitant. The note is written in Dutch and serves to convince Merchtem residents - unlike during the village invasion during World War I - not to oppose German supremacy.

In it, we read: 'Be wise and give up resistance: the German supremacy is far too great! The sooner the war ends, the sooner peace and labour will enter your country. [...] Clear the way to deal with the English. Lay down your arms.' Despite the relatively quick capitulation of Belgium and the smooth passage of the German army towards France, the Germans - we now know - would never manage to occupy England. Much to the annoyance of the Germans, many people in occupied Belgium and elsewhere would soon join the resistance against the Germans or become members of the 'resistance' as it was then called. At the risk of their lives, resistance fighters in Merchtem also passed on information to British allies and helped people go into hiding or committed acts of sabotage on German targets.

1.4: World War II lasted in Belgium mainly until the autumn of 1944. The first British tanks appeared in Merchtem on 4 September 1944.

At the real end of the war in Europe, 8 May 1945, 'freedom marches' were held everywhere, including in Merchtem on 10 June 1945. One photo, found in the archives of the Heemkundige Kring, shows a child Hitler sitting on a donkey. The hated dictator was mocked and thus definitely knocked off his pedestal in Merchtem as well.

But this did not end the war altogether. Some Merchtem residents not only went into resistance during the war, but others collaborated or cooperated with the Germans, partly out of conviction but also to gain material advantage from this.

Many of these things were concealed after the war and, thus, partly forgotten but often only partially coped with. We noticed that this was not only the case in Merchtem during one of our first interviews with Nicole Keymolen. She was born in 1944.

1.5: Transition: Liberation of Belgium 1944 -1994 - YouTube Transcript: They have arrived, and later they will claim that riding unscathed through the maddened crowd was the most challenging moment of the battle in Flanders. Some hardened, allied soldiers could not hold back their tears. In France, comrades and civilians were killed. […] Everyone smiles, cries and talks. People who have not spoken to each other for a generation fall around each other's necks. Resistance fighters are always in the spotlight.

1.6: During one of our first interviews with Nicole Keymolen [Kyara Deliën's grandmother from 6 WeWi] born in 1944, we noticed this was not a celebration for everyone.

In doing so, we immediately came up against some of the limits of working with oral sources in research into resistance and collaboration. By now, eyewitnesses of the Second World War have either died, their advanced age makes it impossible to interview them, or they were too young - like Nicole - to have experienced it all consciously.

Add to this the fact that 'collaborators', the Blacks, and 'resistance fighters', who were generically called the Whites, preferred to conceal certain deeds or experiences after the war. In addition, many collaborators moved after the war because they were no longer always welcome in the village where they performed their deeds.

Thus Kyara's grandmother from 6 WeWi, still living in Merchtem, tells about her husband - Jaak Deliën - and, more specifically, about the war past of his brother Noël Deliën from Lier, which partly comes to the surface during a family quarrel.

1.7: interview – 14/03/2023 – met Nicole Keymolen: afgenomen door Kyara Deliën en Marthe Deveen (6 WeWi) – Frederik Van den Broeck (leraar):

'Once I asked: Did something happen there or something? And once he told me in short words. 'That one has been with 'the Blacks'. He was arrested after the war. He had apparently been detained somewhere. But where? But that was a susceptible topic. His mother wouldn't let him talk about it. He had no pictures of that. And so he always talked about it bit by bit. And that's really the only thing. And he died there. But how? I knew it was very delicate. And I never asked about it. I resolved for myself: if he doesn't want to tell me about it, I won't ask. And then he died. But apparently, that must have been through betrayal or something. He was detained. And then he died in prison. But how? And under what circumstances? I don't know.'

1.8: So many questions arise: Who was this mysterious Noël? What did he do? Who betrayed him? Are we also investigating acts of collaboration from other municipalities or towns? What about the Merchtem people who moved to other cities after the war? A glance at the Belgian Official Gazette, which can be consulted online, quickly brings us to Noël Deliën, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and "deprived of his civil rights for life" for allegedly "taking up arms against Belgium" and serving the "enemy". Is it really what Kyara's grandmother Nicole believes? Does that today's mentality differ from then? That today this topic can be discussed more openly? How open will people in Merchtem be about their own war past?

1.9: At the end of the war, the repression followed, the persecution of collaborators by actual resistance fighters or resisters - often generalised as the White Brigade - of the last hour - who now took the law into their own hands.

Through one of the sympathizers of the Heemkundige Kring [Hilde Doms], we got hold of the handwritten memories of Gaby Biesemans, former Dutch teacher at our school.

So reads Gaby Biesemans, a former Dutch teacher at our school, whose handwritten recollection - written down on 6 September 2019 - 75 years after he, as a 6-year-old child - had witnessed the retreat of the Germans and the liberation of Merchtem - we got hold of through one of the Heemkundige Kring's sympathisers: 'The White Brigade was solid. Many were of the last hour. Opponents if no danger was involved. There were even war profiteers among them now! I've seen people taken out by those. Nest Pijp VanDerstappen a good flamingant in 'Martstraatje. Fred George (garage Krekelendries) with 'a German.' [...] in Koning Alberstraat, 'a villa-like house off the road, right opposite Dr Sergogne. There, furniture and a heap of paper flew into the street. Others too, but I don't know who they were. And the brother school in the Market Square was shut tight.'

Did the former brothers, who used to teach in our school, fear from our school that street repression would turn against them too? Were they taking the safe approach? Who will say?

1.10: Each podcast ends with a short literary excerpt. Will you listen in for a while? Literature excerpt no.1 - Wil by Jeroen Olyslaegers by Jade from 6 LaWi

She says, "I had to come here from our father to tell you that you don't have to worry, that I'm going back to study, that I'm going to be good, and so I'm enrolling in college. Good, right? And which of you is most content now?'

'As long as you get happy,' says my wife, as content as possible.

"What are you going to study?" I ask.

"History!" cheers Hilde.

You know why, you think it has to be this way, you tell yourself that in fact you should be proud. But she doesn't call anymore, she just doesn't answer. 'She's on a good pasture,' says Yvette, 'she probably has a sweetheart. She's busy with her studies. She's finding her way.'

'Yes,' I say. But I almost eat my greenhouse with colère. Because meanwhile I know from Lode that he does see her, regularly even. I hear that during our weekly chess appointment.

'She wants to know about anything and everything.' 'About what?' 'About before. Does she do that to you too?' 'Sometimes,' I say measuredly, placing my token as bait within reach of Lode's queen. The bastard doesn't fall for it, of course.

1.11 Outro: August De Boeck – Piano Concerto