COUNTRY LIFE IN A BELGIAN FAMILY DURING THE GERMAN OCCUPATION, 1942 -1944 [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: COUNTRY LIFE IN A BELGIAN FAMILY DURING THE GERMAN OCCUPATION, 1942 -1944 [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: MGH 4439
  • Other titles: AMATEUR FILM BY CARL DE BROUWER [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: Amateur film without titles shot by Belgian bank manager Carl de Brouwer records his family's adaptation to wartime conditions on their country estate at Saint Denis-Westrem, near Ghent, from September 1940, and his clandestine sheltering of a young Jewish girl and boy, incorporated into his own children's daily existence, from late 1942 to Liberation in September 1944.
  • Description: REEL 1: de Brouwer (Carl and Denise, with children Monique, Brigitte, Colette, Jacques, Jean-Marie) family cycling near Ghent to view bomb damage to Bellem church, September 1940. Three Jersey cows grazing in de Brouwer's garden, bought to make family self-sufficient in milk (and used for clandestine production of butter from surplus). Cook's daughter Madeleine pushing pram. Neighbour Joseph de Hemptinne driving donkey cart. Brigitte, aged six. Paternal grandmother, visiting from Ghent. Young Jean-Marie learning to walk. Father tending wartime apiary, making family self-sufficient in honey. Brigitte learning to read, reading to younger Colette. Private education at home from Mademoiselle Leger, who taught each of de Brouwer and de Hemptinne children two hours per day according to syllabus supplied by Brussels school. Cycling and playing ball during Easter holidays, April 1941. Eldest sister Monique running outside garden. Pet birds. Young cousins of de Brouwer family (whose father had just died in German prisoner-of-war camp, leaving widow Annick; Carl de Brouwer owed his quick release from captivity to his belonging to a Flemish regiment in the Belgian Army). Children playing war games outside air raid shelter dug at end of garden, with two young boys wearing military helmets. Children playing on ropes and running (encouraged by father Carl to be active). Denise with youngest child Jean-Marie. Father's sister and brother Jacques visiting. Children playing with cart brought back from Switzerland pre-war. Paternal grandmother indoors. May 1941 - July 1941: father on electrically-powered battery bicycle (war invention, used for weekday travel to work as manager of Ghent branch of Société Générale de Banque), and recharging battery from mains. Elderly maternal grandfather, General van Maldeghem. Cold-frames in garden for protecting vegetables (now being grown for wartime self-sufficiency). Father's sister and husband. Visit to Wippelgem to spinster cousin (who looked after fifteen children in her house). In aunt's garden at Courtrai, admiring her vegetable patch (a wartime preoccupation), and gathering potatoes. Colour film in October 1941: Denise, Carl by beehives, Denise wearing red turban (justification for colour film?), smoking cigarette and drinking coffee. Madeleine watching Jersey cows (Fanny with large horns), with Colette. Jean-Marie with father. Jacques struggling to recite poem, against autumnal coloured background; Brigitte reciting poem with facility. Black and white: weekend walk through woods. December 1941: spending Christmas indoors with grandparents General and Mrs van Maldeghem at 26 Boulevard Général Jacques, Brussels. Wartime gas-powered car outside. Indoors grandparents do puzzle; widowed sister Annick with her three young children; butler Eugène bows to camera. Outside tram and gas-powered car pass. June 1942: back at family home, father playing with Jean-Marie, and setting off by bicycle with spare bicycle to collect relative from station at Saint Denis-Westrem ("Family gatherings were for us the only distraction during the war", recalled Brigitte in 1996). Madeleine watching Jersey cow. Spring 1943: distant view of de Brouwer's family home. First view of Monique Mogoulsky (twelve-year old Jewish daughter of former colleague of Carl de Brouwer at Centrales Électriques de Flandres at Langerbrugge, accepted into de Brouwer family to conceal and protect her from German deportation, while her parents successfully hid in Ghent until liberation in September 1944). First view of Adrien Sapcaru (six-year old son of Jewish Rumanian professor of architecture at Ghent University, concealed by de Brouwer family, although his parents were deported and his mother killed. Assumed name Adrien Simons, also known as Dickie.) de Brouwer children with Monique M and Adrien have tea outdoors. "Mademoiselle", de Brouwers' nurse/governess. Adrien emerges from silo for storing animal feed. Summer 1943: de Brouwer servants: Elvire, Madeleine in garden, gardener's assistant Mileke and neighbouring peasant Fons Verzele sharpening scythe for cutting lawn now used for hay. Bees in hive. Carl turns hay in garden. Denise returning from station by bicycle (cars having been requisitioned by Germans). Bringing in milk. Adrien with Jacques. Colette learns to walk in wooden clogs (wartime necessity). de Brouwer servants. Carl lifting hay up to loft above garage, Mileke helping. Servants pause during harvesting. Local butcher's assistant (who slaughtered the annual pig.) REEL 2: June 1943 - August 1943: Jersey cows being milked, while Jean-Marie holds tail. Grounds of Joseph and Yvonne de Hemptinne's house (neighbours), and elderly Madame de Hemptinne. Aunt Edith arriving from station with children. Monique M with de Brouwer children. Carl returning from station with his mother. Jacques suffering from bee sting to eye. Denise returning from station with Jacques and Jean-Marie. Sunday outing on bicycles and donkey cart by de Brouwer parents and children, including Monique M and Adrien; Monique M is on first bicycle, Adrien in the donkey cart; all stop on country road to offer prayer at roadside Catholic shrine. October 1943: visiting neighbouring farm of Flemish peasant Fons; holding newborn calf; roof in background is de Brouwer home; Monique M and Adrien with Fons. Joseph de Hemptinne with daughter in his donkey cart. de Brouwer children, with Monique M and Adrien, walking to near Ghent, crossing River Lys by punt. de Brouwer's annual pig has posterior vigorously kicked by Adrien. Gathering turnips. Easter holidays, April 1944: de Brouwer expedition to Alost to visit cousins, travelling in rear of transport truck which factory-owner uncle is permitted to retain. Brigitte with her first permanent wave. 25 June 1944: visiting Ghent for Monique de Brouwer's first communion; nuns emerge from church linked to Béguignage (whither paternal grandmother Madame de Brouwer moved after house in centre of Ghent was requisitioned by Germans); Madame de Brouwer emerging from Béguignage. Cut back to Alost, family reembarking in truck, with Monique M emerging from house with dog and Carl carrying his Standard 8mm camera case. Back at Saint Denis-Westrem, Monique M and Adrien in donkey cart, then with de Brouwer children roller- skating along traffic-free road outside house, in wintry weather. Jean-Marie displays swollen effect of bee-sting on his cheek. Monique de Brouwer celebrates her First Communion, attended by her two brothers and two sisters also dressed in white, parents and relatives; returning through streets of Ghent after ceremony (not seen); guests climb into donkey cart. Carl and Denise de Brouwer kiss their five children, then all seven children (including Monique M and Adrien) pose on terrace of house. After Allied liberation of East Flanders, crowds of Belgian civilians watch surrendered German soldiers walk through village as prisoners-of-war. Jean-Marie wears a captured German helmet. Road sign to De Pinte - 2 kilometers. More German POWs. High-angle views of Canadian armour entering liberated Ghent, with welcoming crowds and Belgian national flag flying. Extended coverage of Victory in Europe parade (May 1945), with units from the US Army, British and Canadian Armies, Royal Navy and RAF, plus Allied women's services, marching through, as planes pass overhead. Banner reading "Victory" bears portrait shots of Roosevelt, de Gaulle, Churchill and Stalin. Peasant talks to Carl de Brouwer. Peacetime scenes of de Brouwer girls swimming and diving in nearby river, where their father sails a dinghy. Jean-Marie holds his sister Brigitte by a safety rope. Lady sewing indoors; Denise de Brouwer smoking outdoors and descending sand dune during seaside stay in En famille pension on Belgian coast,
  • Alternative Title: AMATEUR FILM BY CARL DE BROUWER [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: Colour
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: MGH 4439
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM
  • Featured Period:
  • Production Date: 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944
  • Production Country: Belgium
  • Production Details: de Brouwer, Carl (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:Stalin, Josef (person) Gaulle, Charles André Joseph Marie de (person) Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (person)
  • Keywords:
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: Std 8mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 2 Running time: 76 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MGH 4439

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