Memorial Emile "Jules" Borremans Aarschot

The facts
The commemorative plaque for Canon Emile "Jules" Borremans and his brother, Ambassador Louis Borremans, is not very noticeable placed outside eye level in the portico of an apartment building. Both brothers were born and raised in this house. Their careers were very different. Louis Borremans has been an employee at the Belgian Embassy in London since 1932. There he would make himself meritorious by organizing a Belgian Red Cross service and by offering help to the 25,000 Belgian refugees in England.

Emile "Julius" Borremans became Norbertine. It doesn't take more than the word "Mauthausen" on the plate to describe the canon's tragic fate. In the rural village square of Papignies (municipality of Lessines in Hainaut), under a large maple near a classicist church, his name is engraved on a memorial column. The square is called Place Curé Borremans. Emile was a parish priest in this village during the Second World War. On June 21, 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo and three collaborators. An American pilot who was hiding in the rectory was barely able to escape. For Emile, the agony began. He was detained in Ghent prison for two months. To keep time and fear under control, he and his fellow inmates discussed music. Emile, who had been an organist at Tongerlo Abbey, was a gifted musician. Several compositions and studies are to his name. In September he was taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp as a Nacht und Nebel prisoner, number 97469. Here he cared for the sick and guided them in their last days of life. On October 29, 1944, he died of hardship and exhaustion. Almost a year later, his breviary was found in the camp by chance and the family was informed of his tragic fate.

About the plaque
The plaque was unveiled in 1990 with Aarschot Kermis on the initiative of the Ducal Aarschotse Kring voor Heemkunde. The occasion was the honorary citizenship of Louis Borremans, honorary ambassador of Belgium.

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Source

• Text: Jan Rymenams
• Photos: Jan Rymenams