War Memorial Born

At the choir of the Saint Lucia Church, which was badly damaged during the Battle of the Bulge and rebuilt in 1955, stands this rather impressive war memorial.

The quartzite stone is the same as the one from which the church was built. For a municipality that today (2021) has only 570 inhabitants, the list of fallen and missing soldiers from the Second World War is impressively long. We count 36. With many of the same surnames. In the First World War there were fifteen.

Above one of the memorial plaques is a quote from the Odes of the Latin poet Horace: "Bella matribus detestata" (to be translated as: the wars detested by the mothers, Horat., Carm. 1, 1, 24). We see no names of civilian casualties. The bluestone death lantern is a remarkable detail that has a more French feel, but here is regarded as a general symbol of everlasting memory.

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Source

• Text: Jan Rymenams
• Photos: Jan Rymenams