LEON COLMAN ( 03 / 09 /1904 – 06 / 02 /1980 )
&
MARIA LUDOVICA HUYGENS ( 28 / 07 /1908 – 27 / 04 /1980 )
They were known as “ Léon en
Wiske ” in Brussels Language ,
but we used to call them “ Paa en Neneke or Marraine ”
Origins :
For my
Grand-Pa, his family is originally from
the
change in the name that occurred by mistake some 4 or 5 generations before he
was born.
They used
to be : O’ Colman before .
Later the family
arrived in
a small
village close to the city of
Picture : some of the Colman Family
around the
end of the 1800 ‘s – beginning of 1900
(The gentleman’s
standing is my Grand-Father’s father
if I
remember well…)
For my
grand-mother’s side, she was born and always lived in
in the GANSHOREN area
to be more precise.
When they
met and married they decided to live in
1938 : my
Grand-Mother was nurse in an hospital
(standing
left…)
They had
two children, one was my mother,
and the
second one was my aunt Lucienne.
HERE IN
1931 :
After
second world war, they had to sell the farm because of the war damages had put
the
financial side far under the deficit line…
So they
moved to the Koekelberg area, where they have lived
for 40 years,
until they
passed away at the beginning of 1980, almost at the same time,
because one
living without the other seemed to be impossible for them,
since their
love was true and immense.
Second World War Period 1939-1945 :
My grand
father was working for one of the main post-offices in central Brussels,
when the
second world war started in Belgium, by the Germans invading us.
As the situation
became worse, my grand father volunteered for bringing
the
post-offices treasure and documents to the French sea-side where
the general
administration had organised a transfer to London.
He never
told openly what happened during this long and very difficult trip,
but when he
came back, he had lost a lot of weight and had caught an infection of the longs
…
After he
recovered from this trip, he returned to the post-office,
and
continued working as nothing had happened for the all war period.
But this is
not all !
During all
the war, my grand-father and his friends, as well as the entire family,
including
my grand-grand-mother, my grand-mother, my mother and
her sister
organized a resistance group that was active all along the war period.
So I
remember them telling me a lot’s of stories about this period,
how they
intercepted important information at the post-office and transmitted it to
London,
how they
saved, many English, American and Canadian Soldiers that had their planes
shut down.
They hided them,
and through their contacts had them evacuated to London…
I remember
some names too , like for sure a “Johnny”,
and some
others too.
Another one
was a doctor in medicine … and was even in love with my mother !
Later he
proposed for marriage but since he had a job in South America,
my mother
was yet very young, and did not want to leave her family to
go and live
so far away, and she refused to marry, and stayed in Belgium…
These were
dangerous days, and I remember them telling me that
my Grand-Mother
would always carry a revolver-gun in her pocket,
while my
Grand-Father had a Browning pistol.
She told me
that even once she thought to have to used it on the tramway
when she
was followed for a while by a German Officer, but luckily
she could
escape and did not have to open fire…
Another
aspect of the resistance was the saving of the Jewish People.
Also in
that aspect, my family did a lot of things…
They
participated in many rescue expeditions against German troops,…
They also
saved Jewish People before the arrival of German troops
at their
houses for arresting them, …
They were
hiding them and making them pass in free countries…
One name I
remember was “Jozef Mendlewicz”
(I do not
know if it is correctly written since they never
wrote it down
so I tried to imagine how it could be…)
He was a
child at war time, and was hidden at my family’s
house for
the all war period.
They made
him pass as the younger son of the family
for all the
time he stayed at their home…
Picture of him
with my mother and my aunt ,
taken in
Brussels at “Chaussée de Gand”,
MAY 1944 .
According
to what I remember, after the war, his parents returned
to pick him
up and went to live in Israel…
(if I
remember well they were very poor, but sacrificed to give
a pull-over
as a present to my Grand-Mother…for saving their child…)
I do not
know if today he is still living and if he is in Israel or anywhere…
Unfortunately,
I do not remember everything since my grand-parents died,
and these
stories were told when I was still a very young child myself…
What I do
remember is another terrible fact, that happened during
these
rescue expeditions :
one of my
grand-father’s friends was captured by the German Troops,
and
tortured to make him give the names of the other resistance
members and
Jewish people who were saved…
It seems
that he was kept many days to try to make him talk,
so these
were terrible days because my family did not know
if he would
talk and if they would be arrested.
But at the
end, he did never talk, and so the German Troops
killed him
by burying him alive.
My
grand-parents still cried, 30 years later, in the 1970’s when
they were
telling us the story of this very courageous
friend
thanks to whom they were not discovered.
At the end of
the war, my Grand-Father also participated to the
liberation
of Brussels, and I remember some stories about the difficulties…
like for
instance the capture of German Troops that were hiding inside
the Basilic of Koekelberg , which is
situated on a hill on open land.
If I
remember well they lost some friends too during this fight…
Later, I
know for sure that they captured a lot of Belgian Collaborators
that had
worked with the Germans troops, and one of them even proposed
to my
Grand-Father to accept 1.000.000 Belgian Francs to let him go
(which was
a huge amount of money in those days)
but my
Grand-Father refused even if he was poor and this could have
been very
well used money.
My
Grand-Father’s Recognition Number 067
That is the
kind of people my parents were, and these are the reasons why
I so much
wanted to leave a small reminder of what they were and what
they
accomplished during their all lives.
Finally, I
know they also participated to the distribution of a special edition
of a newspaper
called “le vrai soir”… but
this fact I do not remember well
because it
was not directly connected to my Grand-Father’s group,
and so I
will not write about it.
Report of
their group “ Front de L’Indépendance”
about the acts
they did where my grand-father’s name is mentioned.
My
Grand-Father received lots of medals, decorations after the war,
under which
some were given directly by the Royal Family
(He
mentioned former Queen Elizabeth of Belgium...)
and here
are some of them :
He also was
very keen to pay tribute to his friends and all human beings that
passed away
fighting for freedom / liberty, peace, justice, democracy, …
so whenever
he could he was participating to the commemorations
my Grand-Father is the tall gentleman with the
hat
and medals
Here he is
walking in front of the commemoration group
with his
decorations and hat in his hand.
Just
incredible people who always sacrificed for all of us,
and
transmitted us the real values of life…
We will never
be able to put into words all they did…