Episode 5: Former Sacré Printing House

PODCAST - Merchtem during the Second World War: between collaboration and resistance.
Episode 5: The Sacré printing house (symbol on the map: Korte Ridderstraat 5 - collaboration) Voices: Victoria Huaux and Lucas Urban (6 LaWi)

5.0: Intro: August De Boeck – Piano Concerto

5.1: Welcome to part 5 of our podcast Merchtem during World War II between collaboration and resistance. In this part, we talk about the Sacré printing house.

5.2: In a 2018 online article of Het Laatste Nieuws, we read ... 'The printing house of the late Maurice Sacré in Korte Ridderstraat has been a protected monument since 2004. The 1888 building still contains the original print shop that was used, among other things, during the filming of Stijn Coninx's film Daens.'

5.3: We all know from Year 5 the scene from the film where priest Daens puts an article in his brother Pieter's printing office entitled 'Enough dead children in Aelst'. However, many Merchtem residents do not know that that iconic film scene was shot here near our school. A piece of forgotten history, so to speak.

5.4: We digress and read further in the newspaper article: 'In Merchtem, not only the printing house but also [Maurits] Sacré himself is a monument. Born in 1883, the man goes down in history as a printer, publisher and historian. "He was interested in everything to do with local history," Pol Feytens tells us.

5.5: Just a quick in-between, Pol Feytens, the former chairman of the Heemkundige Kring, we would have liked to interview him ourselves, but because of his advanced age, we refrained from doing so. This is also because one of our students from 6 WeWi looked after him during her holiday job at the WZC Ter Stelten and advised us against it.

5.6: However, we read Mr Feytens' words in the newspaper article: 'But Sacré also went through difficult moments. Indeed, one of his daughters was married to August Borms, a Flemish foreman who collaborated with the Germans during World War II. "The Sacré family was very Flemish." “After the war, resistance fighters entered the printing house and smashed much of its contents and machinery," Pol Feytens tells us.

5.7: Via a list of names of (possible) Merchtem collaborators obtained from Prof Bruno De Wever, who came to give a guest lecture on oral history in our class, we looked up the Belgian Official Gazette that Frans, the son of Maurits Sacré, was indeed sentenced to, among other things, eight years of imprisonment and a lifetime deprivation of his civil rights. Why this happened is unclear, but 'maliciously' 'facilitating' the politics of Germans and being part of an organization 'wanting the end of Belgium's independence' already reveals some info about the printer's family's past. From Corneel Sacré - a member of the collaborating VNV - we also find details of the temporary loss of civil rights.

Of course, we find nothing of a marriage between the Borms and Sacré families.

5.8: August Borms was a Flemish nationalist leader. He is a controversial figure in the history of the Flemish Movement because he collaborated with the German occupiers during the First and Second World Wars. In 1946, he was executed for this collaboration.

August Borms - did not marry a daughter of Maurice Sacré - but Cesarina Smet. The violation of their grave has been in the news regularly in recent times. The couple had six children during their lifetime. With his daughter Anita, Borms visited war industries at Auschwitz during World War II [III] (but not the extermination camp itself). Which of the Borms married one of the Sacrés remains unclear to us as yet.

We did find from Frans Sacré in the archives of the Merchtemse Heemkundige Kring that the eight years referred to was reduced to five.

The Ministry of Justice addressed a letter to the mayor in May 1947 asking whether he thought that the return of Frans Sacré to the municipality would provoke regrettable reactions. Mayor Vanginderachter let it be known in advance that he saw no problem in that.

5.9: Pol Feytens, the former president of the local Heemkundige Kring, whose name also appears on the list we got from Prof De Wever, and whom we found online in the Official Gazette. It states that he was a member of the 'Dietsche Blauwvoetvendels' and he also lost his civil rights for 20 years due to 'spreading propaganda'.

5.10: Each podcast ends with a short literary excerpt. Will you listen in for a while?
Literature excerpt no.5 - Scheisseimer by Koenraad Tinel by Lisa (6 LaWi)

5.11: Voor mijn vader was Hitler God de Vader. Hij kapte zijn portret in hout.

Toen de Duitsers België binnenvielen, was mijn vader in de wolken.

[…]

Al wat papa zei was juist. Zelfs na de oorlog kon hij het niet geloven dat het niet juist was. Pas veel later ben ik me gaan afvragen waarom. Mijn eigen vader … Hij was zo vriendelijk, zo eerlijk en correct. Ik heb het hem nooit durven vragen. Dat is zo pijnlijk, afschuwelijk pijnlijk. Mijn broers ook, ze zien daar zo van af. Ik zou er misschien ook ingetrapt zijn, maar ik was gelukkig tien jaar jonger. Ik was pas zes toen de oorlog uitbrak.

[…]

Ik speelde soldaatje. In de regen stond ik met een casserole op mijn kop en een stok als geweer. Mijn moeder riep me binnen. Ik bleef onbewogen. Op wacht. Ik had dat dus óók in mij.

5.12: So our walk through Merchtem's wartime past is over - for now. Hopefully, this story will only expand later and thus be preserved for future generations of Merchtem residents. Did you find this fascinating? Do you have any comments related to the content of the walk or website? Then feel free to leave a comment under the 'Comments' section. We will definitely follow up on this. Thanks in advance for listening!

5.13: Outro: – August De Boeck (Merchtems componist – 1865-1937). Piano Concerto (1929) (Jozef De Beenhouwer, 1982).

Achternaam	Voor naam	Gemeente	Geboortedatum	Adres	Nummer	Uitleg
Sacré	Frans	Merchtem	10/11/1920	Korte Ridderstraat 451	SB1946/01783	Zoon van Maurits, korporaal geneeskundige dienst te gend, ‘hoofdens verraad om Belg en militair zijnde a) te Merchtem of elders (…) tusschen 10/5/1940 en 29/1/1943 met kwaad opzet ’s vijands politiek of plannen in de and te hebben gewerkt, b) te Merchtem of elders (…) tusschen 28/1/1943 en 3/9/44, deelgenomen aan het vervormen door den vijand van wettelijke instellingen of inrichtingen, de trouw der burgers jegens Koning en Staat  in oorlogstijd aan het wankelen hebben gebracht of wetens ’s vijands politiek of oogmerk te hebben gediend c) te Merchtem of elders (…) tusschen 1/1/1943 tot 1/9/1944, werkdadig deel te hebben uitgemaakt van een organisatie die de vernietiging nastreeft van Belgiës onafhankelijkheid, van de vrijheden of instellingen van het belgisch volk, veroordeeld tot 8 jaar gewone hechtenis, de militaire afstraffing en de kosten. Daarnaast ontzet uit alle titels, graden en openbare ambten end diensten. levenslange ontzetting van burgerrechten, verbeurdverklaring van alle univormen e.d. (…) De kosten van eersten aanleg beloopen 44 frank en die van beroep 110 frank. Is drukker Sacré Corneel Merchtem 1/05/1913 Korte Ridderstraat 451 SB1947/07325 Beroep is ongegrond verklaard. Was lid van het VNV Verlies burgerrechten Sacré Corneel Merchtem 1/05/1913 Korte Ridderstraat 5 SB1953/06308 Lid van het VNV, verloor burgerrechten Is vanaf 13/1/1953 “geschrapt van de lijst opgemaakt door de heer krijgsauditeur.”

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Achternaam	Voor naam	Gemeente	Geboortedatum	Adres	Nummer	Uitleg
Feytens	Leopold-Emile	St Gillis-Dendermonde	3/12/1925	K. Albertstraat 42	SB1949/6640	Verlies burgerrechten voor 20 jaar wegens lid van DBV en wegens propaganda.

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