The Ascent by Stefan Hertmans & David McKay

Author:Stefan Hertmans & David McKay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2022-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

26

6 September 1944. Griet has found a place to stay in Ghent, so that she can be at the Dietsch Action Committee offices by six-thirty in the morning; she’s brought some provisions for the journey, a bundle of clothes and some personal effects. By the time she arrives, the meeting place is abuzz with activity; some of the fugitives seem scared and rushed, others are laughing – Hey, fancy seeing you here. Come on, we’re going on tour! – the cars and trucks drive up, the trailers are attached, and the little column of vehicles is rounded off by an open truck that dozens of people crowd into. The entire staff of the radio rediffusion service has also been tipped off; Griet learns that Willem is addressing them inside, on the upper floor. Meanwhile, a large trailer is being attached to his own car, with dozens of jerry cans of fuel loaded onto it. These are covered with a coarse canvas tarpaulin. When the line of cars lurches into motion, shouting is heard from all along the roadside, where the people of Ghent have gathered and are waving their fists; from somewhere among them, a stone is hurled at one of the vehicles; an SS man jumps out, brandishes his pistol, and fires a few shots over the heads of the now-fleeing crowd.

They drive out of Ghent. Griet sits beside Willem, stunned; he says nothing and gazes out ahead, sullen. He looks handsome today in his feldgrau coat, his black gloves and his black cap. The car makes a reassuring growl. She rests her hand on his knee.

*

Now events are taking a radical turn. All over the country, confrontations are flaring up between Belgian patriots and collaborators; both sides carry out attacks, dragging their targets from their beds and shooting them dead on a lonely country road, or in some alley. Vengefulness poisons the minds of people who once, before the war, lived together in peace. Resistance fighters have watched their flamingant compatriots slide into a morass of high treason and self-enrichment, spying on their neighbours and blood relations, betraying their fellow townspeople, all the while proclaiming their Flemish ideals with growing fanaticism. Meanwhile, on the other side, families are in mourning for pro-German uncles who were beaten to death, stabbed in the chest or strangled by resistants. The mutual resentment keeps growing; society is split into two camps, each filled with an implacable hatred for the other. In this period, the collaborators arrive at the position that some of their children and grandchildren will go on defending in our own time: the guilt belongs not to those who betrayed their country, but to the Belgian patriots who remained loyal to it, because that country itself was the cause of all the trouble. The German sympathisers refer to resistants and patriots as snakes in the grass, filth, rabble, un-Flemish types; they consistently call the Belgian flag ‘that old rag’; and collaborators, camp guards and SS men pose as victims while

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.