20945

The other day someone asked me what my MSN nickname, Mopje, means. In Dutch, you can translate it as ‘little joke’. But thats not where my nickname comes from. Rather, it was given to me by my grandfather when I was a little girl. My family still uses it often. When I was about 4 years old, I went to visit my grandfather every saturday. He always bought these little cupcakes, soft little delicious cakes with black and white choclate in stripes on it. They are called ‘zebracupcakes’, very original name huh. We call them’ mopkes’ in our Dutch dialect. So every saturday afternoon when I arrived, apparantly the first thing I said was ‘ Grandfather, mopke!!’. He told me one day I’d turn into a ‘mopke’ if I kept eating them as much as I did, and I guess thats how my nickname was born. My grandfather was always old compared to my friend’s grandfathers as he had my mum quite late. Thankfully he was very strong and active for his age. I remember he helped me and my dad build the chicken-coop when he was 85. He lifted a big wooden wall like it was nothing!! Impressive. Next is a picture of me and him, I was 4 years old in this pic, he was 73. I had absolutely white hair when I was a kid. Sadly the pic is damaged.
When my grandfather died 4 years ago, natural or due to wrong medications we will never know, we had to sort his belongings. One of them was a box with very old pictures, many of them taken during the war. My grandfather had to go fight in the war, and he was also taken prisoner of war with the Germans. He survived though, and with his immense and impressively clear memory he always told us many stories about those times. He remembered all the names of fellow soldiers, all the places he’d been to, everything, untill the very last day of his life. I scanned a bunch of the pictures, we have to figure out the best way to save them for the future. Some of them are absolutely beautiful to me, I’ll post a few.

The first is my grandfather and his fellow soldiers in ‘Brasschaet’, Belgium, dated 1934.


The second is in Bruges, Belgium, in a boat on the famous rivers in the city, dated 1945. My grandfather is the one rowing. The third picture is also in Bruges, I love the little kids running on the street.




The 4th picture is taken in 1941 in Eben Emael, my grandfather is the one sitting bottom right.



The 5th and 6th are taken in ‘Zeebrugge’ in 1945. My grandfather is the second from the left in both. With their guns and costumes, the mess in the back, it marks the end of the war.



The 7th picture is taken in Strelitz near Breslau. They are Belgian and French prisoners. My grandfather is the one sticking out the highest at the back row.


The 8th picture is my grandfather in Liege in 1943. I dont know why he was there, probably for business as LaWallonie was the place to be back then (better not start at its current status!). My grandfather always wore his hat when he went out, it was a great toy to us kids.


The 9th picture is my grandfather and his ‘war-friends’ taking a bath in a german river. Now, those swimming trunks are not exactly what you’d find in the Victoria’s Secret men’s collection, but, proven effective, we date war times after all. The picture was taken in Oostende at the North Sea in 1945.


The last picture is my grandfather and his saxophone in 1949. He was a member of the local brass band for many years. I guess this shows why I chose to play the sax as a little girl. Recently, we even found out my grandfather played for the British army brass band.


I think its time we go through all his notes and speak to the last of his living brothers to hear all the details about my grandfathers life during the war. Its a gold mine of information. Some pictures were not kept very well sadly, and I dont have all of them scanned. When my grandfather died I received his now over 90 year old sheet music. He once showed them to me when I was about 14 years old, we went through them all, him singing and swinging his arm to teach me the rhytms. They are very old songs written in an old fashion way and on beautiful coloured paper. We also got his paperwork from during the work: the paper that says he was a german prisoner, his details of the camps (Breemdonk was one of them!), his prisoner number 20945, the nazi stamps on it with the eagle and nazi cross, and the papers of the Germans controlling his whereabouts. Very interesting I find, we also got his membership card of the secret army against the Germans. And then there are numerous papers and medals for his duty towards the Kingdom Belgium in the war. The few surviving soldiers of the world war, my grandfathers friends, came to his funeral with flags and played the Belgian hymne.
I am proud of my grandfather, and though he was very old when he died, I think he died a soul too young...