Farewell letter from Georges Baert, 15 June 1944 (Excerpt)

Bundesarchiv Berlin, R 3017/13532

After the German occupation of Belgium in May 1940, various resistance groups formed throughout Belgium. From December 1941, the German occupiers brought members of the resistance to Germany as “Night-and-Fog” prisoners. Their relatives received no information about their whereabouts. In Lichtervelde and Torhout, resistance groups of the Witte Brigade [White Brigade] formed in early 1942. In the summer of 1942, the GestapoDie Gestapo, die geheime Staatspolizei des NS-Regimes, war die politische Polizei in der NS-Zeit. arrested numerous members of the “White Brigade.” The prisoners were taken to the Ghent Wehrmacht Prison. The Gestapo interrogated and tortured the prisoners at their Ghent headquarters. From Ghent, they were transferred via the Bochum Penitentiary to the Esterwegen Penal Camp.

The Chief Reich Prosecutor at the People’s Court charged Georges Baert with membership in the “White Brigade” and possession of weapons. The specific accusation was that he had joined the “White Brigade” in early 1942. He had received a pistol from his co-defendant Omer Vermandele, which he later passed on within the resistance group.

The People’s Court in Leer sentenced the 17 defendants to death in February 1944. They were transferred to Wolfenbüttel Prison, which served as a central execution site in northern Germany. On 15 and 16 June, 1944, the resistance group from Belgium was executed in Wolfenbüttel Prison or, in one case, at the shooting range in Braunschweig-Buchhorst. Georges Baert died on 15 June at 18:54 in Wolfenbüttel by guillotine. The relatives only learnt about this after the end of the war.

On 15 June 1944, Georges Baert wrote a farewell letter to his mother Emma van Haelemeesch:

However, his farewell letter was not sent. It was only in 1990 that it could be delivered to the family after it was found in the Potsdam State Archive. Nevertheless, Georges Baert’s wish was fulfilled: The mortal remains of the resistance group from Lichtervelde were exhumed from the Catholic cemetery in Wolfenbüttel in August 1947, transferred to Belgium, and buried with great public participation.

At the end of 1946, a trial was opened against the Belgians who had betrayed the resistance group to the German occupiers. Emma van Haelemeesch kept a total of twenty newspaper articles reporting on the trial. In the article “Military Court in Bruges - The Case of the 17 White Brigade Men from Lichtervelde and Torhout,” which appeared in the newspaper Het Nieuwsblad on 10 December 1946, the great public interest in the trial is evident:

In the immediate post-war years, Emma van Haelemeesch, mother of Georges Baert, received a monthly financial allowance due to her neediness and her son’s status as a “political prisoner.” This initially paid aid was reclaimed by the Belgian Ministry of Family from January 1947. Since Emma van Haelemeesch received a pension and owned a small house where her daughter ran a grocery store, she was retrospectively classified as not needy.

On 30 January 1947, the Regeeringshulp van de Politieke Gevangenen (Government Aid Service for Political Prisoners) wrote to Emma van Haelemeesch:

Emma van Haelemeesch tried to avert the repayment with the help of the Nationale Unie der Moeders en Vrouwen van Terechtgestelden en Overleden Politieke gevangenen (National Association of Mothers and Wives of Deceased and Missing Political Prisoners). She was a member of this association. This was unsuccessful, but the repayment was made through deductions from the military pension that Emma van Haelemeesch received due to the posthumous status of “armed resistance fighter” awarded to Georges Baert. The repayment was finally suspended in April 1954.

In December 1948, the Ministry of National Defence posthumously awarded Georges Baert the status of “armed resistance fighter,” recognising his membership in the White Brigade.

Emma van Haelemeesch applied for the status of “political prisoner” for her executed son. This application was granted on 27 January 1949.

As the mother of Georges Baert, she was a beneficiary of the status and received financial compensation for her son’s imprisonment. This payment was not a welfare benefit and was not linked to neediness, unlike the reclaimed monthly allowance.

From the Bilateral Compensation Agreement (GlobalabkommenZwischen 1959 und 1964 schloss die Bundesrepublik Deutschland bilaterale Entschädigungsabkommen mit zwölf westeuropäischen Staaten. Darin wurden Pauschalzahlungen vereinbart, mit denen alle Entschädigungsansprüche abgegolten werden sollten. Die Verteilung der Gelder oblag jeweils dem Empfängerstaat.) between Belgium and Germany, Emma van Haelemeesch also received payments between 1962 and 1965.