Interview with André Charon, son of André Charon, 2018

Gedenkstätte Wolfenbüttel

André Charon was already active in the resistance as a member of the “Ligue Antifasciste” in 1936. He came into contact with the “Secours Rouge International” and helped to bring volunteers across the border for the “International Brigades” in the Spanish Civil War.

He distributed leaflets and sold solidarity stamps, to support the resistance of the Spanish Republicans. He was drafted into the army from 10 May 1940 to the end of July 1940. In November 1940, he and his father joined the resistance in the group ”Les Partisans Armés” He carried out sabotage operations. He then joined the “Allied Intelligence Service” (SRA) in the “Luc-Marc “group.

In 1942, he was arrested by the GestapoThe Gestapo, the Secret State Police of the Nazi regime, was the political police during the Nazi era., mistreated during an interrogation, and severely injured in his right eye. After the war, he said: “I was lucky that I couldn't say anything or denounce anyone. I can say that none of my comrades owe me a day in prison. But it's very hard. I would never be angry with anyone who talked.”

In September 1942, a military court sentenced him, along with Louis Bastin, to three years in prison for “promoting Bolshevik activities” within the resistance networks Rassemblement Wallon pour la liberté du pays (R.N.J. and R.W.), both of which belonged to the radical left-wing Belgian Labour Party.

In October, he was transferred to Wolfenbüttel, where he was assigned to the infirmary due to his medical studies. He voluntarily stayed there for a few weeks after the liberation, caring for the seriously ill and assisting the Allies on site.

After the liberation, André Charon was particularly committed to representing the interests of judicially convicted individuals, but also for war victims and people who had been sentenced and deported by the Nazi judiciary. He was one of the first experts of the “L'Office Médico Légal’ (OML) a Belgian authority dealing with medical reports for members of the military, the police and victims of war, and prepared medical reports for war victims. He also made an important contribution to new legislation that made it easier for former prisoners from German concentration camps and prisons to receive compensation for the psychological and physical damage they suffered. “All Belgian political prisoners are in his debt” , declared Dr Jean Van Roy, Chairman of OML, at the funeral of Andrè Charon.

His last contribution was the revision of the Royal Decree on the reorganisation of the OML.

He was National Secretary of the Fédération Royale Nationale des Militaires Mutiles et In-valides de la Guerre (F.R.N.I.).

In 1948, he co-founded the Amicale des Prisonniers Politiques Rescapés de WolfenbüttelFormer Belgian inmates of the Wolfenbüttel Prison founded a survivors’ association of political prisoners in 1948. The association served its members as a platform to exchange experiences of persecution and imprisonment and as a representative body for social and medical assistance, the enforcement of compensation claims, and societal recognition as a victim group., the survivors’ association of Belgian political prisoners from the Wolfenbüttel Prison. He later became one of its chairmen.

In the association, members exchanged their imprisonment experiences and advocated for social and medical assistance as well as compensation and for the remembrance of Nazi injustice. Until his death in 2013, André Charon was committed to supporting his former fellow inmates and commemorating the Nazi crimes.

Letter from former fellow inmate Victor Lauwers to André Charon,
31 October 1946

Gedenkstätte Wolfenbüttel

Envelope front

Mr. André Charon,
Student of medicine,
Rue Fossé Crahay, 220,
- LIÈGE -

Victor Lauwers
rue neuve St Pierre, 136
Ghent

Victor Lauwers.
Ghent, 31 Oktober 1946
rue neuve St Pierre, 136

Dear Sir,

I have finally managed to find the name and address of the medical student André who took such good care of me from November 1943 to February 1944 in the infirmary of the Wolfenbüttel Prison.

I am very pleased to hear that you are still alive!

[…] You, who treated me in Germany [derogatory] for diphtheria (paralysis), may I ask you to send me a certificate stating that I contracted the disease in November 1943 near Wolfenbüttel while working at Bussing [Büssing] in Braunschweig and that you treated me in the infirmary of the Wolfenbüttel Prison from the end of November 1943.

We, the undersigned – Chairman and Secretary of the Purification Commission of the aforementioned Amicale – confirm that, to the best of our knowledge and according to the official German documents in the possession of the aforementioned Amicale, Walter Collard, born on 20 November 1927, residing at 2 rue Pieds des Vignes, Vivegnis, was indeed interned in Wolfenbüttel from 27 September 1944, until the liberation of the penal prison on 11 April 1945.

[…]

As his behavior was impeccable, Walter Collard meets all the requirements for recognition as a political prisoner.

[Page 2] […]

 In the winter of 1944/45, he was also treated for a few days for bronchitis, which he, like many other young prisoners, had contracted due to the living conditions: very hard work, inadequate clothing, even in Siberian temperatures.

They were repeatedly prevented from going to the infirmary for treatment, despite their miserable coughing.

Collard was in this situation.

Certificate of imprisonment and illness of Walter (Walthère) Collard, 6 July 1948

Gedenkstätte Wolfenbüttel