VOL. IV, No. 6 FEBRUARY 12, 1944 NEWS FROM AND THE BELGIAN CONGO

BELGIAN INFORMATION CENTER 6 3 0 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK, N. Y. CIRCLE 6 2450

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One Story: Bataan and Louvain The Germans commit atrocities in Eu• It is scarcely believable that the lesson of rope. So do the Japanese in Asia. Why do the facts which resulted in atrocious suffer• they behave like this? Apparently there is ing for some members of mankind should no excuse. There must be an explanation, be lost on the rest of the race of men. The however, which does not diminish the re• Greek drama, which contains more solemn spective responsibilities of the culprits, but and solid human wisdom than any other which may tell us ivhere the roots of the evil writing, portrays almost without exception are, so that in a common effort the free the most horrible happenings of the mytho• peoples of the world may in the future erad• logical world, from the incestuous horror of icate this growth of evil, or at least circum• Oedipus to the nocturnal mass slaughter of scribe it. the 49 husbands of the 50 daughters of Da- What is an atrocity? It is an enormous nam (Zeus must have blessed the one and wickedness, an outrageous cruelty, an ex• only sentimental damsel who spared her tremely heinous deed. The Latin adjective groom). Why did the Greeks, who knew that ater, from which it is derived, means black. wisdom consists essentially in avoiding ex• For the Romans, an atrocity was a black cesses — and everyone should determine his deed, a fact to be considered a national cal• individual measure, — why did they indulge amity, and for many centuries ater and atrox in such horrible spectacles, such monstrous have been used almost exclusively in con• atrocities? They wanted, as Aristotle puts it, junction with war and warlike horrors. Ci• to "effect through pity and terror the correc• cero called war a "res scelesta, atrox, nefa- tion and refinement of our passions." ria," an accursed, atrocious and abominable Through pity and terror! Those are the thing. two sentiments which atrocities still evoke NEWS FKOM BELGIUM FEBKUABY 12, 1944 in all those who have already to a certain ternity ward in Berlin. She sees a crucifix extent corrected and refined their passions. and says: Of course the first reaction to the recently "Take that out of here. I do not want my released story of the treatment inflicted by son's eyes to rest on that Jew's face." It was the Japanese on the American and Filipino some time before the nurse and doctor could prisoners resulted, on the part of most pacify her. Hours later, when she was re• Americans, in very violent feelings. Such a turning to consciousness after the birth of reaction is a safety valve and quite justified, her child, her eyes again turned to that spot but nowhere has the disclosure of these hor• on the wall, and she cried in the strength of rible facts given rise to indiscriminate cries fury, "You have not removed it! Take that for reprisals, or for any action that may be Jew out of here. My son's eyes must not rest even remotely compared to the level of on that Jew's face!" With a wry smile, the beastliness the Japanese so naturally attain• doctor approached the bed. "Madam, you ed. It is even to be noted that only a week have had your wish. You have a son, but after the Japanese atrocities were revealed. there is no need to remove tlie crucifix. Your Life published a moving photograph of a son has been born blind." Nisei soldier who, fighting on Italian soil in In the etymological sense of the word this the American army, lost his eyesight. story is an atrocity tale. It is a story of ex• To a foreign onlooker the reserve and dig• treme cruelty. But furthermore, it is revolt• nity observed by American public opinion ing and evidently false. It will do far more on this occasion is a great lesson and ex• harm than good. This tale not only implies tremely comforting from the human stand• that the Lord objects to being called a Jew, point. It shows that in times of crisis Amer• which is rather amazing, but likens the Deity icans know how to correct and refine their to a barbarous, ignominious scoundrel who own passions. would strike a newborn child blind, in order During the first World War a good deal that its mother may be cured of her hit- of Allied propaganda had an emotional bias. lerism! Use was made of emotional material as an Those who write have a terrible responsi• incentive to patriotic indignation, and in the bility in war time. It is all too easy to stir madness of the hour some abuses were com• people's emotion under the pretext of pa• mitted. Third-rate journalists turned out triotism. When nurse Edith Cavell died, her stories simplifying the issues, dramatizing last words were, "Patriotism is not enough." to the extreme conditions which were al• Many people have carped about this phrase. ready horrible enough, and sometimes even They have explained that Miss Cavell refer• bluntly inventing "facts." The most cele• red to religion. In that supreme moment she brated incident is the story of the little girl may also have felt that above patriotism, whose hands had been chopped off by the even above religion and religions, there are Germans. They had not done this, but they a few universal human sentiments which had done far worse. On account of this one must be respected if we are to live in a de• falsehood, the entire crime record of the cent world. Those ivho invent atrocities or Germans in 1914 was discredited, and up to stories like the one cited above may consider the revelation of the Japanese atrocities, the themselves good patriots, but they are poor very term "atrocity" was rarely used by the writers and poor men. Patriotism is certain• average American without a connotation of ly not enough. unbelief or a mild distrust. The American public seems to have un• Again some people, giving free course to derstood this perfectly well. Its reluctance their imaginations, are getting out of hand. to accept the news of atrocities in Europe, A widely circulated monthly brings us the however painful for those who knew that story of a German woman who enters a ma• these stories were true, was justified to an

[46} NEWS FEOM BELGIUM FEBEUAEY 12, 1944 extent. When the unimpeachable testimo• stant and certain threats. At daybreak they nies of the victims of the Japanese in the were not executed but shoved on the road to Philippines were published, the reaction Brussels. This is only a minor incident in a therefore was all the stronger. Some people series of thousands of murders committed said, "Please, don't tell us such things. They by the Germans, but it demonstrates the sim• are too horrible. We should not dwell on the ilarity of their technique to that applied by horrors of war, any more than we want to the Japanese. read the details of lust murders in our news• They both believe that the only way to papers. Men behave sometimes in a beastly subdue a human being is to scare the day• way, but that is an exception and it doesn't lights out of him. If he is of no further use, prove anything." This kind of response you kill him. So believes Hirohito, so be• sounds strange to European ears. Europeans lieves Hitler, and so believed Wilhelm II. believe and have plenty of reasons to be• Is there a way to avenge these horrible lieve, notwithstanding Jean Jacques Rous• excesses? For civilized nations there is none. seau, that man is not good. Therefore they We can perhaps bring justice to bear on a are all too willing to accept atrocity stories. few individuals who committed the crimes, Some Americans, reflecting the basic opti• although we will be lucky if we find them. mism of American culture, believe that man But we must punish the nation which allow• is essentially good. If he goes ivrong in such ed such things to be done, whose moral a terrible way, that is an accident. The ex• standard was so abased that such beastliness planation for that accident is now Nazism; became part of its war tactics. We must treat in the Orient it is Japanese imperialism, or the vanquished as vanquished, and we what-have-you. However, those who studied should not consider them poor neurotics the events of the last war know that wanton who, unfortunately for us, escaped from the cruelty, extreme wickedness, is the logical hands of their international wardens. outcome of every philosophy based on the The martyrs of Bataan will watch our worship of force. The Japanese beat and statesmen. The martyrs of Louvain, Vise, killed American and Filipino prisoners. It Tamines, Aerschot, and many other places is a shameful thing to do. The Germans in have been insulted in their graves because 1914 herded together hundreds of innocent German propaganda has cast doubt on the civilians of Louvain, mostly priests, women story of their sufferings. In the invisible and old men, in the railroad station at night• background of this war they stand side by fall. All night long they kept them awake, side: those massacred at Deynze, at Rotter• to tell them with graphic gestures that they dam, at Lidice and at Bataan. They can't would be hanged or shot or beheaded. It was speak, but they judge us, you and me. They the particular pleasure of these pre-Nazis to want to know if we will fail them again, as frighten these people to death. It was the we foolishly did twenty-five years ago. extreme misfortune of the prisoners that none of them broke down under such con• —The Editor.

Drawings b/ courtesy of Cor/ Rose and The Atlantic Monthly Co, NEWS FBOM BELGIUM FEBEUAEY 12, 1944

ageries, but we have more convincing evidence 1. Belgium still: victims tortured by the German police have succeeded, by one chance in a thousand, in es• caping from their tormentors and finding their A. The War way to free territory. They have brought to us, Belgian Government Issues Solemn Warn• in their very flesh, irrefutable proof of the ing to Nazi War Criminals — The following methods which an allegedly highly civilized peo• is the text of a protest by the Belgian govern• ple employ to extract confessions of guilt or de• ment against the German atrocities in occupied nunciations of others. We know with what stoi• Belgium. It was broadcast by the Belgian Na• cism the patriots maltreated in this way resist tional Broadcasting service, from London, on the horrible persecutions to which they are sub• Tuesday, January 18, at 10:30 p.m.: jected; but there are limits to human strength. "Throughout the years of their merciless oc• "This situation compels us once more to warn cupation of Belgium, the Germans, violating in• the German authorities, in the most solemn man• ternational law and the most elementary princi• ner, that the brutalities inflicted on Belgians ples of humanity, have been carrying out arbi• while they are in prison or being questioned, as trary arrests, deportations, massacres of hos• well as the unjust sentences and arbitrary de• tages, and executions. tention of which they are the victims, will be "In the last few weeks the reports that have the subject of adequate penalties when the hour been reaching us from Belgium have confirmed of liberation and the settlement of accounts ar• that the Germans, though they must know that rives. Leaders and subordinates, the agents of the hour of reckoning is drawing near, are in execution and the authorities who have given the no way applying a more humane conception of orders, all will pay in person for the violations warfare, but are on the contrary increasing the of international law which we here denounce to number and the cruelty of their crimes. an outraged civilized world. "Large numbers of Belgians in all parts of "The enemy's defeats which are accumulating the country are being brought before German on every front justify the declaration that this courts, for no valid reason, and condemned to is no idle and distant threat: for the enemy, as death after a summary trial and a pretense of well as for the unworthy Belgians who have judicial procedure. Many hostages are shot with• served his policy, the hour of punishment is fast out even a parody of a trial. approaching." "The most varied pretexts are put forward in an attempt to justify these abominable execu• American Soldier Bailed Out Over Bel• tions: sabotage, possession of firearms, activity gium — The story of how Sgt. Jarvis Allen, 27, on behalf of the enemy, attacks against mem• former rural schoolteacher, eluded the Nazis is bers of the 'New Order' movement, terrorism, told in the Iron ton, Ohio Tribune J anuary 19: Bolshevist action, and so forth. "Sgt. Allen is a gunner on an army bomber and "Often in violation of conventions subscribed during August 1942 three engines were shot out to by herself, Germany arrogates the right to during a flight over Belgium. Three crew mem• deal in this way with offenses alleged against bers were killed, but he bailed out and escaped our compatriots; and in no case do the persons injury. He hid in Belgian woods until dark• against whom proceedings are taken enjoy any ness, made his way to a Belgian home and was of the guarantees which every civilized country fed and protected. His clothing was destroyed, is bound to afford to those who are brought be• he was given a new outfit and was concealed for fore repressive tribunals. Moreover, the German six weeks. ... He was supplied a guide and they police authorities, the Gestapo and the Geheime started a four-month overland trip through Bel• Feld Polizei (Secret Field Police) have re• gium, France and Spain. His shoes were in course to practices of unimaginable cruelty in tlircads, and dry bread formed the meal on many conducting the enquiries which they carry out days during his escape trip, he says." in the quest for alleged perpetrators of crimes against Germany. Typhoons Clear the Air — During a re• "We have received in London precise infor• cent operation by Allied aircraft, in which Fly• mation, both written and verbal, on these sav• ing Fortresses and Liberators bombed targets in

[48} In Memoriam

Albert I, King of the Belgians. (1875-1934). the Fatal Rock. On February 17, 1934, King Allx-rt fell and lost his life i n an attempt to scale the Rocher de Marche-les-Dames, a peak about 35 miles southeast of Brussels. The cross marks the spot where the body of King Albert was found.

"Hardly a year ago, I had the privilege of visiting the Belgian front and of encountering there this King-General of inspiring determination, this man, who from the day of his great resolution in the month of August, had clung to a narrow strip of Belgian soil with a tenacity ivhich gave renewed strength to the Allies in their colossal task of restoring the world." Spoken by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Oc• tober 3, 1919, on the occasion of King Albert's visit to New York. The Belgian Congo at War, as seen !>> Andre Caii\in. A section uf the exhlhition ul' |>liutograiih!> un \iew recently at the Bigiiou Gallery, New York. "The creative camera of M. Cauvin demonstrates the shape of the Belgian Congo. Here are representative faces of its millions who are moving out of a chaotic past, into the di• mensions of a new unity."

Baptismal Ceremony of the Mwami (Paramount Chie^) Mutara Rudahigwa, of Huanda, at Kab- gaye, October 17, 1943. At the left, M. Pierre Ryckmans, Governor General of the Belgian Congo, stands as god• father to the Mwami. At the right, Monsignor Classe. In the center, the Mwami Mutara Rudahigwa. r /

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The Bogus Newspaper. From page of a faked copy of Le Soir, dated November 9, 1943, which the "Inde• pendence Front," a secret patriotic organization, contrived to print and have distributed by the newsdealers of the German-controlled paper. This false version has all the appearance of the original. Everything odious and ridiculous in the ordinary arguments of German propaganda is cleverly and cruelly emphasized. It is the keen• est blow that the patriots have ever dealt to Goebbels's publicity services. 1N"EWS FEOM BELoruM FEBEUAEY 12, 1944

the Ruhr, squadrons of Typhoon fighters which very hard hit and freight trafiic in that region had been "clearing the air" in front of the is forced to rely on road transport, which entails bombers encountered a number of German air• a heavy consumption of gasoline. craft over Holland and Belgium. The three most important factories of Schwe- Over Belgium, a Belgian pilot, Flight Lieu• iufurt are destroyed. Only one engine-room is tenant V. L., holder of the D.F.C. and the Bel- still standing in the Krugel-Fischer factory. :gian Croix de Guerre with four palms, shot This factory, which used to keep 8,000 workmen down a Messerschmitt 110, which crashed in busy, now employs only 400. flames after a two-second burst from his guns. According to the same informant, there are Other fighter pilots surprised a squadron of at the present time more than a million Italian Focke-Wulf 190's which were about to land at prisoners of war put to work in Germany. Their their base in Holland. As the Germans circled situation is very unfortunate, as the Geneva Con• round the airdrome each Typhoon selected a vention is not observed with respect to them and victim, and in less than five minutes four Focke- they cannot receive packages. Wulfs and a Junker 188—the new type of Ger• The same person states further that one no man light bomber—which was also about to longer sees any maps in Germany. Fifteen land, were destroyed. months ago the display of maps of the Russian "We caught them on their last circuit," said front was obligatory; today these maps have all a Squadron Leader. "As we came over the air• disappeared. field one of my Flight Commanders spotted the At the moment there is hardly a German cit• Junker 188, gave it a short burst, and sent it izen who does not realize, at least vaguely, the down in flames. atrocities committed with regard to the Russians "Then we saw the Focke-Wulfs just about to and who does not dread the hour of punishment. land. I chose the leader, who had his wheels down ready to come in. After a three-second B. The Occupation burst he exploded in the air." A New IZealand pilot got on to the tail of one Administration of the Focke-Wulfs, which vainly tried to climb Germans Seize 20 Hostages for Murder out of danger. Two Canadian pilots got the of One Traitor — The Germans in Liege have third and fourth of the Focke-Wulfs. A fifth issued a notice in the following terms: was attacked as it finished its landing run, and "In consequence of the murders committed was left with smoke pouring from it On their recently against inhabitants of Belgium, and way home, other pilots of the squadron shot up particularly the murder of Joba, assistant chief two tugs and two barges. of police in Liege, 20 persons have been arrested in communist and terrorist circles and deported. An Unexpected Pleasure —Three Belgian If there is any recurrence of such attacks on the pilots were separated because of heavy cloud for• lives of the inhabitants, other severe measures mations during a raid over occupied Belgium. will be taken." One of them, a Flying-Ofiicer piloting a Ty• The German-controlled newspapers state in• phoon, proceeded toward Brussels, his birth• dignantly that no representative of the magis• place, and shot down a Junker 88 over the sub• tracy or of the judicial police was present at urbs of the capital. "It wasn't in the program," the traitor Joba's funeral. he said, on returning, "but the result is very sat• isfactory." Economic and Social Life Food Control in Belgium — A dispute has Eyewitness Account of Conditions in Ger• arisen again between the General Secretaries many — An informant recently returned from and their German masters, who would like to Germany has confirmed the reports that the reduce appreciably the food ration of the popu• heavy daylight raids on Germany are very effec• lation. tive. He has pointed out in particular that the city of Hanover is practically ruined. Trains are Livestock Must Be Counted Again—A. new as much as seven hours late because of the de• livestock census has been ordered in occupied tours made necessary. Manufacturing plants are Belgium. The Germans have announced that the

[49} NEWS FEOM BELGIUM FEBEUAEY 12, 1944

burgomasters and the farmers of communities Germany's war machine. The following is a which do not furnish the required number of selection of instances, taken at random, in which heads of cattle will be arrested. stacks of flax were set on fire, causing the de• struction of about 3,000 tons of flax. Use of Automobiles Prohibited — Because At Vive St. Eloi, West Flanders, six tons of of the use of automobiles in sabotage activity, flax, belonging to Hector Demoulin. the German military commander for Belgium At Hermalle-sous-Huy, Province of Liege, 11 and northern France has just issued a new de• stacks weighing altogether 55 tons, belonging to cree in regard to motor vehicles, under the terms a farmer named Wery. of which "the use of automobiles is permitted At Hodeige, Province of Liege, the yield of only when it is absolutely essential for the main• 2 acres of land, belonging to a man named Flo- tenance of order and there is no other means of rent Halleux. transport. Every other use of automobiles is At Fleurus, Hainaut, a stack belonging to a forbidden. Night driving is prohibited. Excep• woman named Marguerite Genevrois. tions can be made in the case of doctors, veter- In the villages of Donstiennes, Stree, Fon• inaries and midwives, but they must obtain per• taine-Valmont, and Leers-et-Fosteau, all in Hai• mission from the local Kommandanturs." naut, 89 stacks representing about 500 tons. At Ophain Bois-Seigneur-Isaac, Brabant, 7 Political Life stacks, the yield of over 8 acres, owned by Alois Ghude, of Courtrai. Belgian People Support Official Govern• At Gaurain-Ramecrois, Hainaut, flax from ment Stand on War Guilt — In an article on IV2 acres of land. the punishment of war criminals, the secret In the Brussels area, the yield of 9 acres of newspaper La Libre Belgique expresses approval land, belonging to Rene Colpaert, of Ingoyghem. of the measures taken by the Belgian govern• At Framont, Belgian Luxemburg, 16 tons of ment in London, especially with regard to the flax, the property of Gaston Schoote. strengthening of the penal code. The paper At Blaton, Hainaut, six tons belonging to Mo- states: deste Devos, of Bavichove. "The Belgian people will demand swift pun• At Antoing, Hainaut, a stack of flax owned ishment, and of the real culprits. As the traitors by Charles Mahieur. have been recruited almost equally from both At Fontaine-Valmont, Hainaut, 14 stacks be• sides of the language boundary (Flanders and longing to Bedoret Freres, and 9 stacks belong• ), politicians cannot confuse the issue ing to Marcel Semal. of the traitors with that of the just claims of a At Vezon, Hainaut, nearly 33 tons of flax, linguistic group. belonging to a man named Van den Driesche. "As soon as victory is won, not only must the At Gaurain-Ramecrois, Hainaut, a stack legal Belgian government proclaim its firm owned by Ad. Van den Hemel. resolve to bring the traitors to trial, whoever At Bierwart, Province of Liege, 13 small they may be, but action must follow swiftly, so stacks, the yield of 17 acres. that the political atmosphere of Belgium shall Sabotage is carried on at an ever-increasing aot be charged for months, or even for years, rate. Every night, the glare of new fires can be with burdensome political trials. We must not seen. Even in broad daylight, stacks and sheds wait till the Belgian people, wearying of the are being set on fire. Wheat is also being burned slowness of the legal machine, try to take the down, as a reprisal against certain farmers, and law into their own hands, thus opening the door many farmers receive threatening anonymous to all manner of excesses and acts of personal letters. revenge." Flax is destroyed not only in the country but even in the railway stations. The following are Resistance to Nazi Occupation typical cases of flax burned on the railways: Militant Patriots Increase Sabotage — An• At Perwez, Brabant, one truck-load; swering the call of the resistance organizations, At , , three truck-loads; the militant patriots of occupied Belgium are At Mont-St. Guibert, Brabant, two truck- increasing the number of acts of sabotage against loads ;

[50] NEWS FEOM BELGIUM FEBEUAEY 12, 1944

At Marche-les-Dames, Namur, four truck- Williaert, has been seriously wounded by re• loads. volver shots. One evening, at about 5.30, a freight train At Hever, Brabant, a rural guard who had leaving Clavier station, Province of Liege, for denounced members of the secret patriotic asso• Modave-Statte, was stopped in a wood by a man ciation known as the "White Brigade," has been waving a red flag, who had previously placed shot dead. stones on the rails. Two masked men armed with A time bomb has exploded in the house of revolvers appeared, and kept the two guards im• a man named Maertens, on the Boulevard des prisoned in their car while other saboteurs were Arbaletriers at Mechlin, causing serious dam• setting fire to five carloads of flax. age. This person, who is attached to the Ober- These acts of sabotage sometimes lead to feldkommandantur at Anvers, has specialized in bloodshed. On one occasion, about midnight, rounding up labor recalcitrants. unidentified men fired at two gendarmes and Volk en Stoat, Nazi-controlled Flemish pa• four members of the rural guards who were per, reports: "On October 1, 1943, at about 1 watching over stacks of flax in the villages of p.m., Leo Loss, a faithful member of the ZB Lavoir and Huccorgne, Province of Liege. One (Black Brigade) was shot dead by two unknown gendarme was killed and the other seriously men of Termeulen on the Genk-Zenhoven Road. wounded. The assailants carried off the gen• The assassins escaped." darmes' rifles. Le Pays Reel, published under German con• All the incidents mentioned above occurred trol, reports: "M. Erasme Gillard, manager m less than a month. of the Perron Sawmill at Stavelot, had re• ceived several threatening letters but paid no Rexist Paper Warns Traitors Against attention to them. At 11 p.m. on December 2, Trap - Collaborators with the enemy in occu• 1943, an unknown man asked to see him at his pied Belgium have received forms containing home. As soon as the man entered the room, he various questions relating to their activities. To fired his pistol and hit M. Gillard in the head, judge from a notice published recently by the killing him on the spot. Gillard was 37. The as• Pays Reel, the Rexist party journal, this is an sassin made an easy escape in the darkness." ingenious trap laid for the traitors by patriots. Pascal Hamal of Waltwilder, aged 39, clerk In fact, the paper advises party members not to in the food office of Munsterbilzen, Limburg, reply to any questionnaires other than those sent was killed in his kitchen by an unknown man. out by the central office of the Rexist party. He was a member of a Germanic Pan-Nether• lands movement, and his son is serving with the More Traitors Struck Down — A Flemish German army on the Eastern front, National-Socialist named Leo Vindevogel, Ger• A member of the Flemish National-Socialist man-appointed burgomaster of Ronsse, East Black Guards, Gerrit Johan Nauman, was killed Flanders, has been killed by a revolver shot fired by a patriot. at him by an unknown assailant as he was leav• A series of attacks against enemy collabo• ing his house. Some time ago the ground floor rators has taken place in the Campine area, of Vindevogel's house was damaged by a bomb namely: thrown by patriots. Leo Vindevogel was a mem• At Lanaeken, Jan Van Stipelen, member of ber of the Belgian House of Representatives. the Flemish National-Socialist Party, was mor• The day after this attack the Germans demon• tally wounded by a revolver shot. strated their great affection for "their" burgo• At Beverloo, Cornells Levebre, accused of hav• master by imposing a fine of three million francs ing dealt with traitors, was shot down in his on the city of Ronsse, as their first measure of house. reprisal, and by advancing the curfew hour to At Lindon, D'Haen, member of the Flemish 8 o'clock. National-Socialist Guard, was severely wounded Karl Hysmans, aged 40, director of the Na• while trying to prevent unknown persons from tional Corporation of Agriculture and Food, at approaching the mail car of the Louvain-Diest Wasmes, Hainaut, has been shot dead by un• trolley. known persons. At Uyckhoven, Jozef Calsius, a postman, also The head of the control services of the food a member of the Flemish National-Socialist office at Mouscron, West Flanders, named Louis Guard, was mortally wounded.

[61} NEWS FEOM BELGIUM FEBRUARY 12. 1944

Ardennes "Mopping Up" Results: 23 were carried out within 48 hours. The names, Death Sentences — The /oumal de Charleroi, of the victims were: Versluys, gymnast; Rood- an organ of the Nazi press, published Novem• hoofd and Van de Brande, diamond cutters; ber 30, 1943, the following announcement issued Wauters and Verhaegen, locksmiths; and Mau• by the military authorities: "The Court Martial rice, laborer. of the Liege OFK has passed sentence of death upon the Belgian citizens Andre Holler of Her- Unexploded Bomb Salvaged by Patriots ve and Fernand Noe of Waeshouten and upon —It is reported from occupied Belgium that se• Cornelius Appelmans, a Dutchman of Villers- rious damage was eifected on an important line le-Bouillet. The three men were all living in hid• of communications with explosives extracted by ing in the and were in illegal posses• saboteurs from a two-ton British bomb. The sion of weapons, ammunition and explosives. bomb penetrated deep into the ground in the They were also guilty of attempted murder and committed various serious acts of banditry. They immediate neighborhood of a German camp on had twice attacked a man named Pompleux, a the outskirts of a Belgian town. Undeterred by former member of the Walloon Legion. the danger that they might be spotted by the Germans, or be blown to pieces by the huge un• "The same Court Martial has passed sentence exploded missile, the patriots dug down to it of death upon six former Polish citizens; Ar- and carried off the precious explosive filling. mand Wlodarczyk, Jean Kwinta, Gelaw Bed- narz and Sigmund Kormacki, all of Liege, Stan• islas Publislack of Jupille and Antoine Gerzy- No Navigation on Brussels-Charleroi Ca• but of Jelivaix. They had all evaded compulsory nal — The following details have been received labor and were living on the black market and from occupied Belgium with regard to the dar• were in possession of weapons and ammunition. ing act of sabotage which caused the Charleroi- Brussels canal to run dry: The saboteurs placed "The Charleroi Court ^Martial had passed sen• a charge of explosives in a brook which passed tence of death upon the Belgian subjects Calixte under the canal by siphon, near lock No. 13. Bearaing of and Oscar Goovaern of Se- The explosion occurred about 10 p.m. The water roux and (by default) upon Emile Brichard of of the canal rushed into the siphon, which is Winenne for illegal possession of weapons and about 11^2 feet in diameter, and flowed over the for having belonged to a gang in the Ardennes neighboring meadows. At Seneffe, Hainaut, the living on brigandage, and theft. railway station and part of the locality were "The same Court Martial has passed the death flooded. The reaches of the Brussels-Charleroi sentence upon Karl Winkler (by default) and canal between locks No. 12 and No. 13 are com• upon the Belgian subject Jean Baptiste Dan- pletely dried up. Barges ran aground and were kers, of Chatelineau, and Ernest Chaerels of smashed. The "Canal du Centre" and the small Brussels. All three were members of a gang canal leading to Colarville are also dry. It is operating in the Ardennes. estimated that no navigation will be possible for "The same Court Martial has passed sentence a month or two. of death upon the Belgian subjects Leon Gavrot of Houdeng-Geognies and Henri Nicaise of , who also belonged to a gang in the Ardennes. 2. Belgian Congo "Six members of a gang operating in the Bie- Belgium's Job in the Congo—Reviewing vre Forest, two Belgian subjects, Bomain Albert a book published in England, The Protestant of Bievre, and Henri Albert of Haut Fays, two Missionary, published in Africa, states that Bel• Ukrainians, Ywan Joseph Gediovic and Adam gium has done excellent civilizing work in the Pesheruwitz, were also sentenced to death by Belgian Congo. The comment mentions "Bel• this Court Martial." gium's kindly and sympathetic administration of the native population, especially in recent Six Sentenced in Antwerp —Six inhabi• years, . . . her health services . . . the increased tants of Antwerp, charged with being accessories happiness, prosperity and progress that has come in acts of sabotage, have been condemned to to so many through the development of the death by a German military court. The sentences Congo by Belgium."

[52]