Gosselies, Belgium

I just read an account of an American GI during World War II (Tiger Joe; A Photographic Diary of a World War II Aerial Reconnaisance Pilot by Joe Thompson and Tom Delvaux). For a time he was in Gosselies, Belgium. During that time, the locals mentioned how several residents of the village had disappeared during the German occupation. They requested to dig up a spot where they suspected they would make a grissly discovery and, sure enough, they exhumed 190 bodies, many of which were of married couples with children then orphaned. What a sad discovery and another example of Nazi atrocities.

I mention this because I have family in Charleroi that is just south of Gosselies. My mother was born in the area as well and her mother was living in the area during the war. I can imagine the fear that existed during World War II of what the Nazis might do.