War diaries: Thoughts by Belgian writer Kamiel van Baelen on the cycles of human contradictions (Published on 07/11/2025)
After returning to his hometown of Turnhout in northern Belgium following the outbreak of World War II, Kamiel van Baelen joined the resistance after Belgium was conquered by German troops in May 1940. He died shortly before the end of the war in the Dachau concentration camp.
He wrote shortly before the start of the German attack (Source: Bähr, Die Stimme des Menschen – Briefe und Aufzeichnungen aus der ganzen Welt 1939 – 1945 [“Man’s Voice – Letters and Notes from Around the World, 1939 – 1945”] (1961), p. 24 f. [translation from German language]):
“May 1940 [In Belgium]
Today is a holiday. May has never been so beautiful, with its young green leaves and bright flowers. In two days, we will pray to the Holy Spirit to come into our divided hearts and change the face of the world. Will we do that? Oh, something happened tonight…
I left the city and its chattering people behind me. This event has made me quiet and serious. I need to think and count the beautiful memories of my youth. I need to store them somewhere safe, bombproof… No, don’t think about that: look how beautiful the orchards are, decorated with purple and white blossoms. Every bud has been kissed by the sun, brides of a day and buds bursting open… I sit down by the side of the road, turn my back on the people passing by, and put a blade of grass in my mouth. It tastes bitter and fresh.
Then I move on and immerse myself in general reflections. For example, I think: First, people spend millions to save a few lives; then they throw away billions to deliberately destroy as many lives as possible; they draw from the gray shaft of phrases after exhausting the human supply of profundity for a few centuries. My feet get blisters and my thoughts become dull. Perhaps that was the unconscious intention of my long wandering. But when the animal gets tired, it returns to the stable. Suddenly, I notice workers’’ apartments in this rural area: a compromise between the countryside and the city. Here I want to rest for a moment and gather all my courage to rejoin the people, who in their excitement are also hiding a little satisfaction that something is finally happening.
Less than ten meters away from me, in a narrow courtyard behind the first row house, a little girl stands eagerly blowing soap bubbles into the air. Her cheeks are round, her eyes wide with anticipation. Swaying, the iridescent bubble detaches itself from the clay pipe. For a moment, it seems as if the soap bubble is still considering whether to take the plunge, and I can clearly see the round windows and houses reflected in it… everything is so clean and crystal clear, everything appears in miniature, city and countryside – and the dimensions are neither small nor narrow. I have a fervent desire that this monstrous world may also rise, high and pure, to those heights where God dwells, to bear witness there that everything is not as bad as it seems.
Suddenly there is a humming, howling, roaring sound, as if the earth were bursting. The soap bubble bursts, irretrievably lost, the clay whistle falls into pieces, and the girl runs into the house in fright: Attack of the first German dive bombers!”
Kamiel van Baelen, born on 15/08/1915 in Turnhout/Belgium, died on 16/04/1945 in the Dachau Camp near Munich.
(Head picture: Grave of Belgian citizen Georges Doyen
at the German military cemetery Brandau/Odenwald, August 2025)
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