Memorial Drama Ghlin 16 January 1919

Monument in memory of the children who lost their lives in the drama at Ghlin on 16 January 1919.
On Thursday 16 January 1919, two months after the armistice, a group of friends, children aged 8 to 12, played along the railway in Ghlin.
There are a number of abandoned objects along the railway tracks. They find a closed chest and try to open it with a hammer and chisel. Suddenly an explosion follows, nine children are killed instantly, the next day two more die.
The explosives are probably German explosives that fell from the train, or a chest that would have been left behind after the Germans blew up the railway bridge in November 1918.

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Source

• Text: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Photos: Luc Van Waeyenberge