Well here it comes:

My grandfather was born on 22 December 1917 in Mechelen, Belgium. He also grew up there. Then in 1940 he was stationed at the Albert Canal (I’ll ask the division). But when the Germans came, he fled.

He was arrested and became a POW for a few weeks. Then he was sent to the port of Antwerp where he had to help with the administration – not with the loading/unloading of the ships because he hadn’t such strong longs and heart.

Before he left he married my grandmother in November. They are still together and celebrated their 60th wedding birthday a few months ago.

Around 1942 he was sent to Berlin to work for the Germans to make clothes. He was after all a tailor. There he was given command of a lot of people who had to made uniforms for German soldiers.

In the winter it was very cold in Berlin and they had to collect wood to keep the stove burning. Fortunately not many POW’s did this and so only a few people had to collect all the wood to keep the stove burning.

In 1943 he was sent to the Saarland where – again – he worked in a textile factory.

At the end of the war he was liberated by the Americans in the neighbourhood of Speyer. When he arrived back in Belgium in 1945, he wastn’t seen as a real victim of the Germans. People simply didn’t seem to care.

Maybe a small detail to conclude. My aunt – daughter of my grandfather – married the son of the woman where my grandfather stayed before the Americans could liberate him. So in fact he hid himself for a few days.

So if my grandfather never hid with this woman, then I wouldn’t have German family.

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