Memorial Camiel Bieseman Baasrode

There is a memorial for Camiel Bieseman on the Scheldekaai in Baasrode.
" For posterity
This occurred on September 2, 1944
under the bullets of traitors
Camiel Bieseman
Veteran 1914-18
Member of the resistance 1940-45

For freedom of people, monarch and peace"

Camiel Bieseman (°1895) was the youngest of 8 children in a farming family.
After primary school he was given the opportunity to continue his studies at the college in Dendermonde. In addition to his school subjects, he also had a talent for drawing and music.

In 1914 he went to the front as a volunteer. After a short stay in England, he trained as a saddler in Calais. From 1915 he was fully engaged in the war as a stretcher bearer in the trenches around Diksmuide. In his spare moments he described and drew the hard soldier's life. His picture cards were used by fellow soldiers as postcards for the home front.
After the war he took up his life again. He married in 1920 and they had 3 children.

During the Second World War, Camiel was a veteran member of the independence front and secretly listened to English radio. On September 2, 1944, with the liberation in sight, he went to the Vermylen company to get syrup for the pies.
While waiting with some friends on the Scheldekaai, a retreating convoy of German soldiers and German supporters passed by. In response to a skipper's gestures, several shots were fired. Henri, Camiel's neighbor, was hit in the knee.
They then dived together behind the Scheldt wall and hid under the jetty.
Camiel wanted to get help and crawled through the mud towards his house at low tide.
During this attempt he was cowardly killed by a Belgian traitor who came to look over the wall before fleeing.
After being notified by the neighbors, his son Pierre found him dead.
A few days later Baasrode was liberated and English soldiers moved into the buildings of Vermylen. It was with one of those soldiers that his widow remarried in 1946.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck