My Mother's Biggest Fear

My mother, Yvonne, was a 16-year old when the Germans invaded Belgium (and the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France on May 10th). As so many in our parts, my family just tried to survive the war. They didn't love the Germans, nor were they in the resistance (although the husband of my aunt spent the war England, because he was in the merchant navy and they sailed to England instead of coming back).

One of the stories that she told me and which struck me most, was one where at the end she feared for her life. In the early years of the war a German soldier asked her the way. She was living in the South of Antwerp and the street he asked for was actually quite nearby. However in her confusion at being asked something by a German soldier, she became completely flustered and gave him the wrong directions, entirely by mistake. When she realised that she was mistaken, he was already gone, but she was so scared by what she had done that she didn't dare going to school for a week. Nothing ever came of it, but it just shows that the most innocent things could be mistaken for something more serious.

I don't have a digital camera, otherwise I could send a picture of an illegal newspaper that she got hold of at the end of the war. The punishment for possession of these little pieces of paper was prison or the death penalty.

One of the other things I always kept, is a letter one of her friends sent to her when the V-bombs were directed at the harbour of Antwerp. All the references to times and places where they fell are neatly cut out. As an avid letter writer myself I can't put into words what this made me feel the first time she showed me this letter.

Frieda Verbaenen
Originally from Antwerp, Belgium
Now Dublin Ireland

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