Ixelles War Memorial
Square du Souvenir, Ixelles 1050, Brussels
On the Ixelles War Memorial four of the Belgians who helped British troops and died in the camps are listed.
Emile Louis TOUSSAINT the artist and adventurer who was in Finland in 1940 during the Russo-Finnish war, Emile was the son of Henri Joseph TOUSSAINT and Bertha Maria Elisa DOHLEN of the Rue Royale 104 in Brussels. He died in Sonnenburg (Germany) most likely at the beginning of June 1944. He was an American citizen but after the war was posthumously awarded the Croix de Chevalier de l'Ordre de Léopold II with palm and Croix de Guerre with palm and Resistance Medal.
Jean-Francois VANDENHOVE The man who hid probably about fifty soldiers and airmen in his Brussels tobacconist shop from 1940 until his arrest in October 1941. After the Essen trial Vandenhove was badly treated, cruelly tortured so that he had to be carried by his fellow prisoners and only survived until the 4th August 1943.
Florence DUCHENE daughter of Jeannie DUCHENE who was taken to Ravensbruck after the Essen court case in 1943, she died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945 at the age of 38.
Georges GUILLON,the director of a carpet company who died in Mauthausen on the 22 April 1945 age 54 years.
Also listed on the Ixelles War Memorial is William Reynolds an Englishman born 11th May 1890 in Brighton, he was the butler of Madame Pauline LAMBIOTTE of rue de Livourne Brussels. His wife Elise Marie Honorine SERVAIS also worked for Madame LAMBIOTTE as a cook. William Reynolds became involved in several organisationd that worked against the Germans among them the group run by Englishwoman Edith HARDY (nee Bagshaw) which was involved in espionage but also helped some evading allied aircrew.
Betrayed by another Englishwoman, Pearl ENGELS, who was also involved in the resistance, he was arrested 20th January 1942 by the Geheime Feldpolizei and very badly treated, he was held in St Gilles Prison from 24th January 1942 until 15th August 1942 when he was taken to Cologne in Germany. Later he was taken to the prison in Bochum and then tried and sentenced to death in Bonn. As the president of the court passed sentence Reynolds said " I regret nothing I did. Long Live England". He was executed at Goerden Prison, Brandenbourg, probably by guillotine, on the 24th January 1944. He gave no names or information to the Germans and behaved courageously to the end.
A complete list of all the 586 names of the First and Second World War dead on the Ixelles War Memorial (including Edith Cavell) is on webpage http://www.brusselsremembers.irisnet.be
Click on www.belgiumww2.info to go to INTRODUCTION
