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6. Birthday Party in Hamme
- The University Press of Kentucky
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6 ___________ Birthday Party in Hamme As the door closed behind me, I felt at long last the reliefofbeing inside a warm house. It seemed years since I had been indoors, and still longer since I had been in a home. Those four walls of that large Belgian kitchen were like the walls of a fortress, protecting me from the cold and the danger lurking outside. The young woman sat me down beside the huge Belgian stove that jutted out into the room. While I was thawing out, she was already dishing up potatoes and getting out beer for me. I could see now that as long as I was cared for by these kind Flemish farmers, I would not want for food. I was told that soon a man who could speak German would come by, and our conversation would be easier. The man with the cap left the room-on some errand, I assumed. A little man with a big handlebar mustache and a mischievous grin soon breezed in. It was impossible to tell his age; he could have been forty-five or he could have been sixty. His energy was boundless. He jumped about that room like a little elf. He talked and joked, and cursed the boche with great relish. He welcomed me as if I were a long-lost son. He spoke German well enough, and after we got through the preliminaries of how soon the Allied forces would arrive in Belgium, he said, "Don't worry. You are safe now. We will save you. The patrioten will help you escape." I told him I was confident in them and had no fears. "But you must be careful," the old man said. "You know what would happen to you if you got caught? They would just throw 42 ZELE ESCAPE FROM HITLER'S EUROPE SINT-ANNA Scale 1 2 Kilometers you in prison camp. Do you know what would happen to us? It would be kaput." He drew his hand across his neck in emphasis. But then he danced over to the stove, picked up a knife, and said with a gleam in his eye, "Ifthe boche comes in here, I'll take this knife and cut his throat, like this." I laughed and nodded agreement. This only encouraged the old man. He was getting more and more worked up and kept repeating. "I'll cut his throat out," laughing and winking with each sweep of the knife. A middle-aged couple came in. At first I thought they were neighbors, but I soon learned that they were the parents of Eduard Lauwaert, the man with the cap. The senior Lauwaert, like the little old guy, Leon Ducolumbeir, was a veteran ofWorld War I. We sat around the stove and talked about the last war and how the present war was going, about the Moscow Conference, about the exciting advances of the Russians. The conversation was part French, part German, with Ducolumbeir acting as interpreter when needed. 8] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:24 GMT) Birthday Party in Hamme 43 "WALKING OUT" THE FIRST DAY 1. Touchdown ~------1 2. Ditch 3. Outhouse 4. Lauwaert house I I I \ \----\ I I I I I _______, \\\ 5. German Soldiers I I I I I I I 6. Ducolumbeir house 7. Tram Station As I fed them news of the goings-on in the world, I realized that they were remarkably well informed. I asked them how they came to know all these things. They smiled, very pleased with themselves, and said, "We listen to the radio broadcasts from London every night." "But isn't it illegal to own a radio?" "It's not illegal to own a radio. It's just illegal to tune in on the British poste," they answered. "If we get caught, we are taken away by the Gestapo. In the beginning, many people were caught. The Germans would shut off the power and rush into homes while the lights were out. It they found the radio dials set at the BBC, they would arrest every member of the family. But we have learned how to deal with this. As soon as the power is cut off, we're prepared to tum the dial back to another station. Now they do not catch us anymore." A loud knock on the front door scared the daylights out ofme. The old man pointed to the back door, and I was out ofthere in no seconds...