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living with the Germans seen through the eyes of a Belgian priest named Henri Leroeye.

On the 7th of October, Oostende became the capital of the country. the ministries moved into the Océan hotel, the royal Atheneum and the maritime station. The ministers stayed in the Majestic Hotel, the royal couple arrived on 10 October. Already on 13 October, the government left Ostend on the grinding boat Pieter de Coninck for Le Havre. That day, the King and Queen set off for Nieuwpoort. On Wednesday 15th October, the first German horsemen and cyclists entered the town, that evening, a triumphal entry with a parade was organised.

H. Leroeye The priest of the St Anna Parish at Stene wrote down some interesting material of who stayed in his house before the Germans arrived, like the English officer who asked so many questions about the people in this house and if they were to trust, so afraid of spies, but after he made it clear that his maid and the cleaning lady were to trust the conversation changed to a more friendly one.

The days that the Belgian colonel Van Weyenbergh and commandant Cabra stayed in his house, where they decide before they had to leave Oostende to burry important paperwork in the garden in leaden boxes, they were never found even dough the Germans did dig in the garden. The garden was ploughed, telephone poles were erected, Christmas trees were planted, but the boxes were never found.

Henri writes the following down of what happened on the 15th of October : Soldiers were quartered everywhere, slaughtering their cattle along the streets, taking the best bits for themselves and leaving the rest, the poor people who were beginning to suffer poverty because of lack of work began to pick up the leftovers so that they could have a decent meal. Shortly after noon a group of officers came storming into my house, they wanted to see the whole house, I led them around and was allowed to see the first sample of German civilisation. In one of the bedrooms there was a tired German non-commissioned officer. The Oberst of the newly arrived group had hardly seen him when he shouted: Who is that? A German non-commissioned officer, I said. Immediately he flew over and hit him with his riding crop. Out and fast he said. The boy, a law student at Berlin University, jumped out of the bed without saying a word, ran off with his clothes under his arm and got another kick in the back.

Then I was questioned. Have there been soldiers here? Yes Belgian and English was my answer. Where did the English go ? I don’t know where the English have gone.

Didn’t they tell you? No. Well man,” said a German, taking me by the shoulder, “you know but you don’t want to say. We know and we will find them! Now they had to see the bedrooms again . In which direction is the sea and how far in a straight line is the North Sea from here? I answered North-West and about 2 kilometres.

Going to the west side of the house, they asked again this is the side of the Sea? You sleep here! We will take all the other rooms, the other residents will find a room to sleep elsewhere, but you will stay here! In the evening they brought a big piece of meat and red cabbage, demanding that my maid prepare it in 15 minutes. On 17 October, they demanded fresh flowers for the table and complained about the squeaky door in the dining room. We soon realised that they did not mean any harm and were satisfied with what they got. They were nervous and shy. They also asked me for wine, about ten bottles if I am not mistaken, but they did not overdo it. The next day I saw that every bottle had been uncorked, but only one or two glasses had been drunk from each one. Before going to sleep an officer searched the house and garden again. They didn’t sleep much, I could constantly hear running away and back, even the beds were moved. Why? No idea. At 5 o’clock in the morning they were up and before 7 o’clock the column had already left in the direction of the river ‘Ijzer’

Henri also describes that the Germans were teasers after all. Demanded his church 4 or 5 times for a service only to find that the German chaplain was there in an empty church. More than once the chaplain came to apologise for having been ordered to hold a service in the church in Stene but found that the soldiers did not know or were simply not there. In the beginning father Henri was always warned well in time by the commander himself that they were going to use the church, but after a while this worsened. Especially with the arrival of Commandant Krach somewhere in May 1916, his nickname was ‘the swine’. An anecdote from 1917.

Henri was in church with the children who would make their solemn communion the next Sunday. Suddenly the commander entered. Get out! he shouted. I looked at him in amazement, “Get out now! he shouted. A lot of soldiers came in, I sent the children to school. I didn’t even have time to carry the holy sacrament into the sacristy. On my way out, I spoke to the commander and asked if it would be possible to notify me. He looked at me like a devil and started cursing. I left.

Why did the Germans need the church that day? He found out a little later: to practice with their gas masks!

On 2 August 1917, the church was requisitioned to take care of the wounded before they were sent on. The Germans made a nasty scene in the church: altars were taken away, the benches broken and thrown into the sacristy. The doors of the cupboards and the entrance doors were taken away and you name it, it was thrown into the churchyard. What was done now? There was a warehouse but it was used as a prison. The small pieces Henri could bring in safely, but the big pieces ? Fortunately, the parish of the’ Konterdam’ came to the rescue and the secretary of Stene said that everything could be taken there. But how? There were almost no horses left in Stene, let alone wagons. You needed a pass to go there and the church was used as a school, so there was not much room. A bitter answer from the commander was all he got and eventually the soldiers used everything that was flammable as firewood.

Henri was not highly regarded by the Germans, his mail from his superiors was not delivered. He urgently wanted to speak to the Dean of Ostend one day, for which he literally had to beg at least 8 times. In the end he got permission, but accompanied by a soldier who was not allowed to move an inch from his side, even for the meal he had with the dean and his toilet visit, his German companion was next to his side.

next week part two