Eyewitness Testimony Armand Lemoine

From the files of the SS Walloon Legion. From: Journal "Le Rappel" of May 1, 1945 We find Mr. Armand Lemoine in his pretty house in Pieton, where he rests undisturbed. It seems that he is happy to have found his way back home to the domestic hearth, where he can now live peacefully and see friendly faces around him, faces that do not contort to utter insults, curses, and threats, always followed by action. Mr. Lemoine returned home last Saturday, April 21. What he endured can first be read in his exhausted, harried facial features, although he is somewhat rested now. Above all, one must understand it as a testimony, if not even as an indictment, which he delivers without passion and only in a half-quiet voice. One senses that this man, a victim of the devilish Nazis, is not yet capable of normal exertion. Talking too much tires him. It was almost embarrassing for us to torment him again with this interview. But the extraordinary kindness of Mr. Lemoine finally dispelled our doubts. The Raid. On July 25, 1944, the field gendarmerie carried out enormous raids in this area, which lies on the edge of the center and the land of Charleroi. What was the reason for this manhunt, where humans were the game? Sabotage acts, said the helmeted drivers employed in the area. The Gestapo did not care about inalienable goods: 37 hostages from Pieton, 114 from Forchies, Carnieres, Anderlues, Binche equally provided an important contingent of victims. Men of all ages and from all social classes. Are there social differences in game? This entire large herd of more than 700 people was now led to the camp of Casteau. Mr. Armand Lemoine was among them. He was "collected" at the moment he mounted his bicycle and was about to calmly ride home from his office at the "Bank of Brussels" in Charleroi. The stay in Casteau was not too bad. The Germans, however, lost no time. An uninterrupted series of sharp interrogations and various questioning allowed them to pick out from this frightened crowd of people, who feared their future fate, those who were labeled "voluntary workers" and immediately transported to Germany. The others, the overwhelming majority of these hostages, were able to return home after a month of waiting. The Camp of Kahla This now leads us from August 24 into the terrible time of mutilations and massacres. Mr. Lemoine was together with thirteen other citizens of Charleroi, apart from those from Binche, Carnieres, people from Anderlues, Trazegnies, Forchies, and other places. The transport arrived in Kahla in Thuringia. There was an enormous camp, divided from 1 to 7, to which the all-too notorious camps E and O were attached. Camp E was the unhealthiest, most devilish, and worst. It fell to Mr. Lemoine and eleven of his fellow citizens; two others were transported to Slovakia. Here the horrors began (forced labor). "Sick or not, one had to work hard," Mr. Lemoine explained to us, "otherwise the SS kept good order here." Everyone had to work; otherwise, they were showered with blows and mercilessly denied the right to eat. "What?" — "Oh, nothing great: a bowl of soup in the evening. And what kind of soup! And a quarter or fifth of commissary bread in the morning. That was all..." Prisoners of war, civilian deportees, certain political prisoners still had the right to receive packages. In Kahla, packages were something unknown, as was, by the way, all correspondence in both directions. "I saw the notary, Mr. Vallee from Binche, working with a hoe, digging a tunnel," Mr. Lemoine adds as a more precise detail. With such poorly nourished people, unaccustomed to such hard work, one understands that their strength soon began to fail. "They fell like flies and died of exhaustion. That was, incidentally, the sad fate of Mr. Leroy, who literally died exhausted to the core. A Malicious Belgian Doctor "And the medical care?" we dare to ask. "Shall we talk about that! We went three months without the shadow of a doctor. There was also no medicine against weakness. And then I already told you that the sick, the feverish, had to go to work just like the healthy. As I recall, every few months a Belgian SS doctor named De Bruyn came, who took malicious pleasure in declaring the unfortunate, who could no longer go on, fit for the construction site. Infectious diseases now appeared, especially typhus with rash and bacillary dysentery. That was inevitable given the exhaustion, hunger, lice, complete lack of hygiene, and the beatings. They were guarded by brutes. People who often amused themselves by "putting a patient to bed" on a table in the "torture room" and giving him so many blows with a stick until he died! (Horrible) "Or also this," Mr. Lemoine continues, "the incapable or the 'made incapable' were taken to the notorious bunker, where the SS indulged themselves to their heart's content. The saddest thing about it is that one must say these dehumanized beings, who were devoid of all human feelings, even the most elementary, without heart and soul, were SS members who were Belgians, fellow citizens. They wore the uniform of the famous Walloon Legion. The Belgian SS stood with their business alongside the boys of the Hitler Youth. Unfortunate ones who could no longer go on were forced to push carts loaded with stones. To make it harder for them, their legs were tied with ropes. To make them move faster, these guys beat their hands with sticks. The Death of the Athlete Julien Saelens The Volkssturm, which was assigned to the camp, behaved no less insensitively. "Around April 5, I saw one of them shoot one of our comrades with a rifle shot, who was about 2 meters from me. It was Julien Saelens from Olympia Bruges, the Belgian record holder over 100 and 200 meters. He had had a verbal exchange with a Volkssturm man who had denied him passage he wanted to use to receive his food faster. At a certain moment, when Saelens had turned his back to him, the German shot him cold-bloodedly. The bullet pierced the top athlete and then lodged in the shinbone of an Italian. The unfortunate Saelens died three hours later."Liberation Fortunately, the loud thunder of the American guns, which drew closer day by day, brought a strengthening message of hope to all these brave people. The Germans spoke of evacuating the camp to Slovakia. They no longer had time for that. Numerous refugees from elsewhere appeared among the prisoners, so the SS Wallonia was more occupied with obtaining civilian clothes than taking care of their prisoners. On April 14, the grim camp experienced the immense joy of liberation. "And the SS?" "Oh, them! Imagine, they had the audacity to mingle among us to be repatriated. But one by one they were recognized by their former victims, they were seized by the Americans and imprisoned, where we do not know." Thus ended the painful time of suffering for Mr. Lemoine. The people who did not return. Mr. Lemoine is happy to have returned to Pieton, that goes without saying. Nevertheless, he is burdened by great sorrow. "There were twelve of us in Camp E. I came back alone. And the others? Four are dead. Four others are sick." In this way, we learn that German soil serves as a shroud for four hostages from Pieton: the railway guard Christoph Allard (47), the baker Joseph Francq (32), the butter wholesaler Clement Anskens (44), and the tailor Roger Cambier (27). It was not for nothing that the camp at Kahla was dubbed "the death camp." Mr. Lemoine also gives us the names of other victims: Raoul Jacobeus, from Trazegnies, a young man of 18 years, Camille Boite and Maurice Guillaume from Forchies la Marche.