#Geschichte - Belgien
Two beautiful liberation stories
In September 1944, the British army took the southern part of Kempen step by step. The Germans did what they could to stop the advancing British. Olen was one of the municipalities where it came to a bloody encounter
A Scottish godfather
In September 1944, the British army took the southern part of the Kempen region step by step. The Germans did what they could to stop the advancing British. Olen was one of the municipalities where it came to a bloody encounter.
During the fighting, the inhabitants of St.-Jozef-Olen took shelter in the Union Minière factory on the Bocholt-Herentals canal. There were more than 400 of them there . Among them the heavily pregnant Regina Janssens. Sheltering from the bombardments and rain of bullets, she gave birth to a son, Jan De Schrijver, on 14 September. In gratitude, Regina and her husband Miel asked their liberator Peter McHunt, lieutenant-colonel of the Scottish Infantry, to be the godfather of the newborn child.
Back from Buchenwald
It was not until May 1945 that the German army capitulated. The few Jews, Roma and political prisoners who survived the concentration camps returned home. Among them was parish priest Janssens from St-Jozef-Olen. In the summer of 1944, he was arrested for unknown reasons by the German secret police and deported to the infamous Buchenwald camp in Germany. When he returned to his parish, he was given a festive welcome.
Not everyone of the nearly 30 political prisoners from Olen was as lucky. More than half did not survive the war. They died in the concentration camps or during the infamous death marches, deeper into besieged Germany.
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