Thanks to oral history we can compile an image of many interesting and extremely important aspects of life and thus get access to the individual microcosm of earlier times.
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This project's results speak for themselves. Thus maybe this humble contribution of mine had better be perceived as the expression of a shared enthusiasm and of my great appreciation for the social commitment of the Oral History Team.
Excerpts from the introduction at the presentation of an Expeditions Oral History publication by Minister Frank Vandenbroucke.
Evi Hendrickx (1984)
Mrs. Van Rompaey was one of my informants during my Oral history-project. She told me about her childhood in Ourodenberg. When she had finished secondary school, she went to Laken. A few years later she started working as a teacher in her former school. She has gone through the struggle between the two parts of the education, the liberals and the Socialists against the Catholics.
Free Coekaerts was my other informant. He was a friend of my deceased grandfather. Born during the first World War and his parents had to flee from Belgium. They first went to The Netherlands, later to England and then to France. When Free was four years old, he met his other family for the first time. Back in Aarschot, he had to go to school again. When he was twenty years old, it was time for Free to do his military service. Free also told me about leisure possibilities back then. “Cinema Pathé” was the first cinema in Aarschot, something quite different from cinema as we know it.
Sophie Daems (1986)
Two years ago I took part in a project guided by my history teacher in high school, Marc Vanlangendonck. The assignment was to write a paper on the life of a close friend or family member, preferably of a past generation. I decided to interview my grandmother Simone Verpoorten and tell her story about life during the Second World War. As the oldest daughter of seven children she had to give up her studies to help her mother in the household. Because her father was a “gendarme” and member of the “white brigade”, as they called it, the family had to move several times and their lives were put in danger. Although it seems as if her experience was quite rough, she still managed to evoke some beautiful memories about her childhood and especially about her loving father, whom she never saw again after his deportation. It’s a down to earth story without privileging descriptions; it’s the life of a simple Belgian woman.
Tom Vuerinckx (1985)
Goodday, i live in St.-Joris-Winge and student Modern History at the Catholic University of Louvain. In the sixth grade, our history teacher, Dr. Marc Vanlangendonck, gave us the chance to play a part in the Oral History project. It was a great experience. It brought us publication, a public speech and even a visit to queen Paola of Belgium herself ! But most important reward was a wider vision on life itself. The book is a must for people who love to find themself in the middle of real-life history!
‘The year is 1940. War! I, Jacques Staudt, lived and still live in Kessel-Lo. I was six years old. Too old to not realise it, too young to really engage myself in it. Old enough to bare the unpleasant consequences... but too young to fully and seriuosly understand them.’ And so begins the introduction of Jacques Staudt’s memories on World War II. The story runs like a train trough the War. While stopping at several stations, he shares his vision and feelings about his experiences. The sadness about his father, who was kept prison in Austria; happiness about friends he made; horror about the bombing of Louvain; excitement about the resistance; the relief when his father returned. He doesn’t try to keep the spotlight on one aspect like politics or education, but pays attention to details and the daily life during the Second World War.
In May 2004 Expeditions visited the Royal Palace of Belgium on invitation of the Belgian queen Paola, to receive an award from her hands concerning an Oral History Expeditions project (2000-2004, 4 publications), carried out in a Flemish school in Aarschot.
Oral History offers a fascinating world of the near past. It’s about shared history; often surprising and always innovating. It makes history vivid and –for many- comprehensible.
