Description

At dawn one day early in August 1944, a 17-year-old girl working for the Belgian Underground arrived at a house in the Antwerp suburb of Merksem to collect a New Zealand Lancaster pilot hidden there. She was to take him by tram to his next hiding place, a bombed-out hospital about four kilometres away in Schoten. He was dressed in an ill-fitting suit, but despite her fears this would attract unwanted attention, she safely delivered him into the care of the nuns who ran the sanctuary beneath the hospital ruins.

The young girl never knew what happened to the pilot, if he even survived the war.

Eighty years later, her questions have been answered and the incredible story of his evasion and capture uncovered. It highlights the courage and sacrifice of the young girl’s father and his colleagues, heroes of De Witte Brigade, and the bravery of the many Dutch and Belgian civilians who put their families at risk to shelter and assist evading airmen. Humanity prevailed among destruction, oppression and cruelty, and powerful friendships were forged in desperate times.

The 17-year-old girl is now 99, but the pilot never had the chance to thank her in person. The story of her ‘New Zealand soldier’ has renewed a very special link between two families on opposite sides of the world. It has also provided an opportunity to say thank you to her and the many whose own stories have been forgotten.