Germans march the hostages out of the village

Heroes Remember

Germans march the hostages out of the village

Transcript

I was sitting in the room upstairs. If I had hidden in the cupboard and they had found me, it would have been worse than just sitting out in here, with the idea that maybe they won't come upstairs but this soldier did, great big guy and he just said, "You." Just like that to me, you see. So I just followed him down onto the street and of course the people that were running the shop, they were absolutely terrified that he'd find out who I was, you see. So to make a story quicker, they, they disappeared. They took me up, put me with these other 39 men, all, all men on the street and then we started to march right out of the village. I had been wearing my slippers and I didn't, little René the one in here, he knew I'd need my shoes and I guess some food. That little guy, he ran upstairs got the shoes and got some bread and came down and went right in amongst all the hostages and forced these things on me, and then ran away you see which was. However, it worked. I wore them and. So then we were marched acrow away along the river and we went past the house that I had been hiding in, in with the other chap. I looked up and there they were, absolutely, you know they could see me in the group. Everybody's looking out the window but they're not doing anything. What can they do?

Description

Mr. Gouinlock talks about how he was captured. He also talks about the Belgian people helplessly watching it all take place.

Jack Gouinlock

Mr. Gouinlock was serving as a navigator with the Canadian Air Force when the plane he was in was shot down over Holland. He ended up spending about two months in Belgium, hiding from the Germans, staying with different people and moving around within Belgium. He was eventually taken prisoner by the Germans but was let go the next day as they did not know he was a Canadian soldier. Two Belgians that had been captured with him were not so lucky as they were shot right in front of the rest of the prisoners.

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