Description
Object description
Belgian student lived in Belgium during German occupation, 1940-1945, including Resistance activities and work with Allied field hospitals, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of life as civilian in Ghent, Belgium, 1921-1940: father's service <Major Max Milcamps> in Belgian Army and as POW in Germany, 1914-1918; Walloon family background and social circumstances; education; interest in horse riding; first flight in aeroplane, 1933; attitude to Germans; effects of war service on father; awareness of approach of war and question of Belgian neutrality; question of Albert Canal defence system; learning Dutch in Netherlands, 8/1939; relationship with pro-German Dutch family; reactions to outbreak of war, 1/9/1939; father's service with Belgian Army on Albert Canal defences; story illustrating opinion of German teacher; news of German attack on Belgium, 10/5/1940; Belgian soldiers billeted in school; contact with father. Recollections of joining refugees to France, 5/1940: setting off in car, 15/5/1940; German Stuka attacks on refugees; meeting British soldiers; accommodation problems for Belgian refugees; reception on arrival at Dinard; chateau accommodation; Belgian surrender and German treatment of Belgian soldiers; father's status as POW; move to Bergarac; French surrender, 6/1940; situation following division of France.
REEL 2 Continues: background to return to Ghent. Period in Ghent, 6/1940-11/1940: situation; letter contact with father; death of grandfather and difficulty with German authorities in getting access to his flat; passing delayed school examinations, 10/1940; question of applying to university. Recollections of attending School of Physiotherapy, Brussels, 11/1940-7/1942: accommodation; nature of course; lack of social life; reactions to arrest of Jewish teacher; swimming; German action in shooting horses; story of nearly being arrested for reading English book; minimal contact with and attitude of German soldiers; passing course. Recollections of period in Ghent, 7/1942-12/1946: question of working as physiotherapist in German hospital; question of joining Belgian Resistance; attending physical education course at Ghent University, 10/1942-10/1946; anti-French attitude of Flemish students; food rationing and black market; clothes rationing; restrictions on wireless and listening to BBC and French broadcasts; acting as courier for Belgian Resistance; search of home by Belgian Blackshirts.
REEL 3 Continues: search of home by Belgian Blackshirts; question of assisting Belgian Resistance; reaction to news of D Day, 6/6/1944; return of father after heart attack, 1942; re-arrest of father and his escape, 1944; following progress of Allied advance; view of US daylight bombing raids and bailed out air crew; reactions to evacuation o German troops and liberation by British troops, 5/9/1944; duties on volunteering to work in Polish and British mobile field hospitals including giving injections and story illustrating effect of prior food shortages; sporting activities; forced work parties for Belgian students in textile factory, 1942, including minor sabotage activities and working conditions; background to meeting future husband Polish pilot Adam Ostrowski, 12/1944; reactions to German Ardennes offensive and attack on Belgian airfields, 12/1944; marriage, 9/1946; background to failing PE course and passing resit at Ghent University, 10/1946. Background to emigration with husband to live in GB, 12/1946.