A Nun, a Convent, and the German Occupation of Belgium
Mother Marie Georgines Diary of World War I
edited by Rene Kollar
A Nun, a Convent, and the German Occupation of Belgium
Mother Marie Georgines Diary of World War I
Copyright 2016 Sr. Hildegarde Verherstraeten, OSU. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, W. th Ave., Suite , Eugene, OR 97401 .
Pickwick Publications
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paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-9892-6
hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-9894-0
ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-9893-3
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Names: Kollar, Rene Matthew, 1947.
Title: A nun, a convent, and the German occupation of Belgium : Mother Marie Georgines diary of World War I / Rene Kollar.
Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016 .
Identifiers: isbn 978-1-4982-9892-6 ( paperback ) | isbn 978-1-4982-9894-0 ( hardcover ) | isbn 978-1-4982-9893-3 ( ebook ).
Subjects: LCSH: World War I, 19141918History. | Monasticism and religious ordersHistory20th century. | WomenReligious life. | Convents & nuns.
Classification: D542 V46 2016 ( print ) | D541 ( ebook ).
Manufactured in the U.S.A. 11/21/16
Table of Contents
Also by Rene Kollar
Westminster Cathedral: From Dream to Reality
The Return of the Benedictines to London: The History of Ealing Abbey from 1896 to Independence
Abbot Aelred Carlyle, Caldey Island, and the Anglo-Catholic Revival in England
A Universal Appeal: Aspects of the Revival of Monasticism in the West in the th and Early th Centuries
Searching for Raymond: Anglicanism, Spiritualism, and Bereavement between the Two World Wars
A Foreign and Wicked Institution?
The Campaign against Convents in Victorian England
To the students of Saint Vincent College
Brabant Province, August 1914 . Map drawn by Matthew Stout, taken from John Horne and Alan Kramer, German Atrocities, 1914 : A History of Denial (London: Yale University Press, 2001 ).
The Convent at Tildonk
Acknowledgments
I came across this important typewritten copy of Mother Marie Georgines hand written letters assembled in the form of a diary by accident. During the summer of 2014 , I attended a conference on the outbreak of World War I in London and I visited the Imperial War Museum (IWM). My current research deals with convent life, and I searched the IWM catalogue to see if it contained any interesting material on sisterhoods and the war years, and I was surprised to find a typed copy of Mother Marie Georgines diary with a description of its contents. The staff of the IWM was very helpful in answering my questions dealing with the diary and providing me with a photocopy. I contacted Sr. Kathleen Colmer, OSU, Provincial of the English Province, about whom to contact concerning the copyright and permission to publish the diary, and she directed me to the Ursulines of Tildonk in Belgium. I received an encouraging reply from the General Superior, Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk, Sr. Bimla Minj, OSU. She told me that she had a conversation with Provincial Superior, Sr Ann Cuppens, OSU, who was also very positive about my plans to publish Mother Marie Georgines diary. Sister Ann and I were exchanging emails about this project when I was saddened to learn about her sudden death in May 2015 . I appreciate very much her support and interest in my project. Sr. Bimla then sent me the name and the email address of the current Provincial Superior, Sr. Hildegarde Verherstraeten, OSU, and soon afterwards I received the information I requested, namely, biographical information on Mother Marie Georgine, pictures of her and the convent at Tildonk, and information about the school, from Sr. Bernadette Uytterhoeven, OSU. Sr. Hildegarde, holder of the copyright, also gave me permission to publish the diary. I greatly appreciate the help and encouragement of these Ursuline Sisters. Barbara Hester also supplied me with valuable information and material about Mother Marie Georgine, her great grandaunt. She believes that Mother Marie Georgine wrote these letters, which appear in the form of a diary, to her brother, Cecil Holt. I am very thankful for her help and assistance.
Several people at Saint Vincent Archabbey and College have been instrumental in this project. Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, OSB, has always encouraged and supported my research. Fr. Franois Diouf, OSB, gave me valuable insights into the meaning of several French words, and Fr. Brian Boosel, OSB, took time out from writing his doctoral dissertation to read the diary and to comment on, and at times, correct my translations of French into English. Monks of the Archabbey and my colleagues in the School of Humanities and Fine Arts encouraged me as my work progressed. Ms. Marsha Kush, Assistant to the Dean of the School of Humanities and Fine Arts, retyped the manuscript which I received from the Imperial War Museum and raised some important questions about spelling and consistency in this text. Finally, a Faculty Development Grant from the School of Humanities and Fine Arts, Saint Vincent College, helped to fund my trip to London in the summer of 2014 .
Some remarks on my editing. I tried to remain faithful to the typed manuscript which I received from the IWM, especially the English spelling, punctuation, and designation of hours of the day, and made only a few changes when necessary or for consistency. I italicized the French words, added the appropriate accents, and provided the translation in brackets immediately following the French in the text the first time the word appears. Definitions of other words which may not be familiar to the reader and a short identification of several people were placed in brackets in the same manner. Mother Marie Georgine offered her own comments, and these appeared in parenthesis in the typewritten manuscript. I also italicized words or phrases which were underlined in the text. In respect to proper place names in Belgium, I did not deviate from Mother Marie Georgines spelling, but corrected what appeared to be misspellings or typographical errors. Thildonck is the French spelling of the town, and Tildonk is the preferred Flemish spelling.
Rene Kollar
Introduction
S ince 1839 and the Treaty of London, the neutral status of Belgium had been guaranteed. But because of its strategic geographical location, at the outbreak of World War I Germany quickly violated the neutrality of this small country to implement its Schlieffen Plan, an attempt to encircle France and eventually capture Paris. On August , 1914 , German forces invaded Belgium and met with resistance which resulted in atrocities and acts of barbarism against its inhabitants and the destruction of town and cities. Nervous German soldiers responded to perceived threats of gunfire by destroying houses, taking hostages, and executing prisoners on the pretext of self-defense from snipers. They did not even spare the historic city of Louvain as the army advanced in August 1914 . The invading troops torched the library and its collection of rare books and manuscripts, and soldiers carried out random mass shootings. Throughout the war years, Germany continued its harsh treatment of Belgium as it continued its military operations. Historians such as Paul Fussell, Martin Gilbert, Peter Hart, Max Hastings, Philip Jenkins, John Keegan, Lyn Macdonald, and Jay Winter have chronicled the events of World War I, but other accounts from unlikely sources also vividly describe life in occupied Belgiumthe eyewitness reports of Roman Catholic nuns.
