Figure 1.-- |
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Without father, my brother and I were on our own. We were all alone in the apartment. My brother, Bernard, decided that we had to go into hiding fast. They were making mass arrest of Jews. It was no longer safe to be inside our apartment. The authoritiews had addresses. We took a
chance. Actually we had no choice. What would you have done if the hunt had intensified? Stay in the apartment? Like sitting ducks? No You would fly. Bernard told me to wait on the stoop of the apartmen building. I stayed there while he searched for help from a local church. They led him to the monastery in Louvain, Abbey of Mont Cesar, where he found Pere Bruno Reynders. That was terrible time for me. I never felt so alone. My mind was racing. Imagine being on the hunt, the hunted, like animals. I looked around a lot for danger, that is all you do. if I saw a German uniform, I would walk the other way or not turn the corner in a street. On that stoop the sun was blazing hot. Once I walked up to the corner of the street and got a cold drink, something like KoolAid--an erzatz drink, a fake drink. Hours later, Pere Bruno appeared and I took his hand and went with him to the Abbey. This in 1943 was a crucial rescue, because the NAZI policy at the time was to arrest all the Belgian Jews and transport them to the death camps in Poland. If Bernard had not found Pere Bruno we would have been arrested in the roundups and killed for being Jewish. Isn't that astounding? We were so very fortunate to find Father Bruno who took us under his wings. He hid us with other families, the Lucky among them. He managed to hide 400 children. Pere Bruno thought it best to hide Bernard and me in separate places. I had an underground hideaway near Louvain where a rich family took me in (figure 1). Since I was not yet 12, before Father was arrested, I was not much involved in worshiping with father. I was only an observer. Ironically when I posed as a Catholic in hiding, I became a fervent follower. We used to wish we could get our own apparitions. There were many Allied air raids, both American and British. Louvain was an important rail junction with railroad repair yards. We both feared and welcomed the Allied bombing because we wanted the Germans to leave. The British bombed all night. Do you think they knew where they were dropping bombs? Total darkness. The Americans bombed duringvthe day. We were warned all day that this was the plan, from both the British and Americans. I visited a hideout with Pere Bruno who took me along with him into the forest, because he had to see some of the Resistance people. I remember standing outside a tent and even got to touch a Tommy gun. They were automatic weapons that paratroopers would jump out of the planes with. The British supporting the Resistance dropped these guns and other supplies into open fields in the dead of night.
Without father, my brother and I were on our own. We were all alone in the apartment. My brother, Bernard, decided that we had to go into hiding fast. They were making mass arrest of Jews. It was no longer safe to be inside our apartment. The authoritiews had addresses. We took a
chance. Actually we had no choice. What would you have done if the hunt had intensified? Stay in the apartment? Like sitting ducks? No You would fly. Bernard told me to wait on the stoop of the apartmen building. I stayed there while he searched for help from a local church. That was terrible time for me. I never felt so alone. My mind was racing. Imagine being on the hunt, the hunted, like animals. I looked around a lot for danger, that is all you do. if I saw a German uniform, I would walk the other way or not turn the corner in a street. On that stoop the sun was blazing hot. Once I walked up to the corner of the street and got a cold drink, something like KoolAid--an erzatz drink, a fake drink. Hours later, Pere Bruno appeared and I took his hand and went with him to the Abbey (July 7). This in 1943 was a crucial rescue, because the NAZI policy at the time was to arrest all the Belgian Jews and transport them to the death camps in Poland. If Bernard had not found Pere Bruno we would have been arrested in the roundups and killed for being Jewish. Isn't that astounding?
At the Church they told Bernard about the monastery in Louvain, the Abbey of Mont Cesar. There he found Pere Bruno Reynders. He took the train to Louvain and found Pere Bruno. He came immediatelt to Brussels to find me. I was still sitting on the stoop. He took my hand and walked me to the train station. We saw Gestapo and soldiers interrogating people on the street. You can imagine our reaction when Pere Bruno united us at the abby. We were so very fortunate to find Pere (Father) Bruno who took us under his wings. He hid us with other families, the Lucky among them. He managed to hide 400 children. Pere Bruno thought it best to hide Bernard and me in separate places. I have a book on Pere Bruno in which he lists all the people he hid. Minimum information, just a few lines on each. [Blum}
Henri Reynders/Pere Bruno (1903-81) is one of the heroes of the Holocaust. He was a Catholic monk who when Belgium mobilized its Army after the German invasion of Poland (September 1939) became a chaplain with the 41st Artillery Regiment. When the Germans invaded Belgium, the country was overan in a few weeks. King Leopold surrenderd the Balgian Army to the Germans while the battle for Dunkirk was underway. Pere Bruno was iniured. He was interned for 6 months in German POW camps at Wolfsburg and Doessel, Germany. He acted as a chaplain there. After King Leopold met with Hitler, the Germans relased many Belgian POWs. Pere Bruno returned to his Mont-César Abby and resumed teaching. His anti-NAZI beliefs led him to contact the Resistance which gradually organized in Belgium. At first they worked to save downed Allied flyers and getting them back to Britain. With the completion of the NAZI death camps in Poland, the NAZIs began rounding up Jews and deporting them (mid-1942). Pere Bruno received permission from the Abbot to work as chaplain at a home for the blind in the village of Hodbomont. After arriving, he quickly realised that the home was being used to hide several Jews, both adults and children. They had been brought there by a group attempting to save Jews. The group was led by Albert van den Berg. Pere Bruno soon became a friend and colaborator. NAZI authorities were actively hunting Jews and there were many Belgian informers. Berg and Pere Bruno realised that the home was not safe. They closed the hope and dispersed the Jews there to families, mostly rural families. Pere Bruno retuned to to Mont-César and undetook the dangerous task of organising higing places for Jews. He is believed to have saved 400 Jews, many of them children.
We did not not know what the Germans were doing to Jews. The details of the Eisatzgruppen in the Soviet Union and the death camps and gas chambers were not known. The German told us that Jews were being 'resettled' in the East. We assumed, however, that Jews were being tortured and killed. Still we hoped that father might somehow survive. Only AFTER THE WAR did the details of the Holocaust surface. Documentaries came out and some people talked about it. It was hard for all of us to understand it or believe the Germans went so far .... And chilling to think of what father ecxperienced.
One thing Pere Bruno said that he was worried that Bernard would be hungry so he had him hidden on a farm. Of course I was not suppose to know where. And he did not know where I was.
I was mostly hid with families and some summer schools, pensions, etc. Do you remember the movie 'Au revoir Les Enfants'? I was in one of those places at one time. Anther anecdote. I love history but we did not have conventional schooling. So in this place near Dinant, I was in a makeshift classroom doing a test. I got really into it. It was all about Alexander the Great and the Gordian knot and how he sliced it open with a sword. And the one about Diogenes who lived in a barrel. Suddenly the teacher asked me how much more I had to tell. I looked up and everyone was gone. I said more, much more. And he said, why not just tell it to me. And I did. Of course he gave me an A. but to this day I am like that with history, including my own. I find it all fascinating.
I had an underground hideaway near Louvain where Jacques Wittmann and his family at great risk hid me in their chateau. The photograph on the previous page was taken there. They lived in a chateau in Nederrockerzeel. His wife went to college with Madame Luyckx. My protector was recently honored by Yad Vashem for letting me hide in the chateau. I visited with his three daughters when I traveled back to Belgium to see them and went back to the Monastery and the Chateau in December 2012. At the time I was taken in by them I was not yet 12 years old, before Father was arrested, I was not much involved in Jewish worship. I was only an observer when I accompanied father. Ironically when I posed as a Catholic in hiding, I became a fervent Catholic devote. We used to wish we could get our own apparitions. There were many Allied air raids, both American and British. One night we were in the basement of the University of Louvain and had bombs falling right near us, so that windows imploded. The bombing went on all night.
Louvain was an important rail junction with railroad repair yards. While I was safe from the NAZIs, but what I did not know at the time was that the Allies had targeted Louvain. The Allies in 1943 had begun preparations for the D-Day landings and the liberartiion of NAZI occupied Europe. To accomplish this, the Allies had to make it difficult for the Whermacht to bring men and equipment into France. The Wehrmacht primarily used the railways to move men and equipment. Thus the Belgian and French rail network became prime Allied targets. And Louvain became an important target. Not only was it a rail junction, but there were important yard repairing locomotives. Thus my hideout was close to an important Allied target. The first raid was on April 5, 1943, but the Allies returned several times in an effort to disrupt German rail traffic and to make it difficult to repair locomotives. We both feared and welcomed the Allied bombing because we wanted the Germans to leave. The British bombed all night. Do you think they knew where they were dropping bombs? Total darkness. The Americans bombed during the day. We were warned all day that this was the plan, from both the British and Americans. we had ample warnings for days. Ssometimes planes flew real high
making a V sign with contrails. This told us to go into hiding because of the upcoming bombings. And the BBC warned us also. It was illegal to listen to the radio, but Mr. Luyckx had a secret place where we could listen.
HBC has an extensive section on the Allied strategic bombing campaign. Our general assessment is that while the British resorted to area bombing extensively for strikes within the Reich, that the RAF and USAF generally avoided this in the occupied territories. Some exceptiojs were the French Atlantic ports with U-boat pens and after D-Day, Caen and St Lo to break through the German defenses. Louvain appears to be another exception. The USAF after the War conducted the Strategic Bombing Survey. This included a report on Louvain. [USAF] Unfortunately we have not yet been able to access the report.
I visited a hideout with Pere Bruno who took me along with him into the forest, because he had to see some of the Resistance people. I remember standing outside a tent and even got to touch a Tommy gun. They were automatic weapons that paratroopers would jump out of the planes with. The British supporting the Resistance dropped these guns and other supplies into open fields in the dead of night.
The author here is Charles Rotmil. Charles provided the information in a series of eMails during July 2010. The page was edited by Dennis Weidner.
Blum, Johannes. Compagnons de la Memoire in Brussels.
USAF. "Railroad Repair Yards, Louvain, Belgium," U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey Report No. 137 (1947), 18p. Library of Congress call number: D785.U6 No. 137
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