Memorial Resistance Fighter Julien Demolder

A memorial plaque to Julien Demolder hangs on the facade of the Windsor Building.
This man was 30 years old when he was shot.
He had been married for a few years and had a son.
He enjoyed a certain fame as a cyclist, in 1938 he won six amateur races, so that in 1939 he was offered a contract with the prestigious Helyett team.
The Second World War messed up these plans, but it was those sporting qualities that would lead to his dramatic end.
At the start of the Second World War he was contacted by the resistance. They saw Demolder's training trips through the Westhoek as the perfect cover for the
conveying messages. Thus, the lone cyclist became a courier for the Secret Army.
But Demolder took a lot of risks. He did not stop at transporting messages and clandestine press, sometimes far beyond De Panne. With his father, he also began to sabotage train cars and steal weapons from German depots.
Finally, the inevitable happened and he was arrested on December 4, 1943.
He was transferred to the Ortskommandantur, in the Zeelaan.
He was interrogated and severely beaten but did not tell anyone.
During a brief moment of inattention, he managed to escape but was chased by a few armed soldiers, who unscrupulously shot him a little further on the corner of Zeelaan and Koksijdestraat.
Julien Demolder lived another day in the hospital of Veurne where he was taken seriously injured by cart and horse. And on his deathbed, despite his infernal pains, he still performed a heroic deed. He whispered important information into a relative's ear, exposing a German spy and preventing an imminent arrest of a resister.
After the war the name Koksijdestraat was changed to Demolderlaan as a tribute to Julien who was shot there on the corner.

Source : Westhoek imagines
VRT-nws : opinion piece Luckas Vander Taelen – 2 Aug. 2018

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• Text: Marie-Christine Vinck
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck