Sheep graze happily on the dike behind ‘s-Gravenpolder and look somewhat surprised at me and the cameraman. Today it is low tide and the birds on the banks of the Western Scheldt are looking for food. Up the stairs and at the top of the dike there is the memorial for Robert Deprez, a Belgian soldier who died in the Second World War. My eyes read: ‘Deerlijk Sport; To his late playing member and friend Lieutenant Robert Deprez’. The memento has his photo on it.
Recently Robert Deprez has come to life for me. He is only nineteen years old when the war starts and leads a carefree life in Harelbeke, a village just outside Kortrijk. Together with André Schaepdrijver and Marcel Becquaert he formed an almost inseparable trio in their youth. After completing secondary school, he goes to Ghent to take a teacher training course.
Deprez is busy with this when the Germans also invade Belgium in 1940. With his two best friends, Deprez joins the local resistance in Harelbeke. They mainly try to disrupt things with sabotage and illegal press. When it gets too hot under their feet, Deprez, Schaepdrijver and Becquart have to flee. They want to reach England and resume their fight against the Germans from there.
Tags: war memorial dike sGravenpolder
