User:Blocold/Yvonne Vieslet

Yvonne Vieslet (June 8, 1908 - October 12, 1918) was a Belgian girl killed by a German soldier on October 12, 1918, in Marchienne-au-Pont, during the period of German occupation of Belgium in the First World War. Her young age and the dramatic circumstances of her death ( on which some details diverge) made her a Belgian martyr and heroine of the First World War.

Background
The Vieslet family (Emile Vieslet, Adelina Van Poeck, and their two children, Simone and Yvonne) lived in Monceau-sur-Sambre, a small town near Charleroi. His father worked at the Auto-Metalurgical factory in "rue de Châtelet" in the neighboring town of Marchienne-au-Pont. Yvonne attended the communal school of Monceau-sur-Sambre, in the current "rue des Combattants". The schools then distributed a nest to each student daily. Some families were totally needy, and this help was indispensable to them as winter approached.

At the beginning of the First World War, the region around Charleroi was particularly affected by the brutality of the conflict. On August 22, 1914, Charleroi itself was set on fire; many citizens were shot, and their houses were reduced to ruins. In this atmosphere of fear, the inhabitants took refuge in the less affected neighborhoods.

In October 1918, German soldiers were in a state of disarray, the war's end was near, and the Germans feel that defeat was approaching. Convoys were already flowing back to Germany; nevertheless, the German army still carried French prisoners of war and it had transformed the Circle Saint-Édouard in Marchienne-au-Pont into a makeshift transit camp, protected by barbed wire and wire fences. The atmosphere is tense, and the French soldiers are exhausted and hungry. Priority is given to Germans for food.

Death
The reconstruction of the event is not precise because some details differ from tale to tale; the tragic event's emotional impact on the population and the nationalistic connotations that it has inevitably acquired have also probably influenced the account of the story.

On October 12, 1918, Yvonne set out with her mother from Monceau-sur-Sambre towards the factory in the near village of Marchienne-au-Pont where her father worked, to take him his lunch (or or to wait for him at the exit). Along the way they passed in front of the circle Saint-Edouard, where some hungry French prisoners were gathered in the front yard. A sentry thirty meters away was watching them. Outside the gate of the building, on the pavement, a small group of people were observing the prisoners, but no one dared to approach for fear of the armed guards.

Yvonne and her mother approached as well, and Yvonne, according to the popular tale, touched by the conditions of the prisoners, gave ( or threw) to them the piece of bread she had received that morning at school.

According to another reconstruction, it was not Yvonne but another observer who threw the loaf of bread.

Of whoever the gesture was, this triggered a violent reaction of the guard against the prisoners and the crowd, causing an atmosphere of great tension among the onlookers on the pavement, who shouted and insulted the soldier. The sentry, not managing to calm the anger of the crowd, eventually lost it and blindly shot toward the people on the street: a bullet fatally hit Yvonne, who collapsed at the feet of her mother. The burst also injured four other people. Yvonne was quickly transported to a house in the neighborhood and then transferred to the civil hospital of Marchienne-au-Pont, where she died the next day at 11 am, almost 24 hours after the facts.

Aftermath
Her funeral took place on October 16, 1918: she was buried, after a moving ceremony, in a simple tomb, in the cemetery of Monceau-sur-Sambre.

It will be necessary to wait until the end of the war for different tributes to be paid to her: her body is transferred to the entrance of the Hall of Honor, where the veterans rest; a sculpture on his tomb commemorates his action.

On September 11, 1919, she received the Medal of the French Recognition from the President of the French Republic, Raymond Poincaré. A commemorative plaque was affixed at the entrance of his school one year to the day after the tragedy. A monument was erected in Marchienne in front of the Cercle Saint-Edouard; Princess Marie-José inaugurated it on July 1 1928. That same day, the Princess placed a decoration on her grave. The room of the hospital in which she died was later dedicated to her.

The soldier who made the gesture asked his brother at his death to return to the scene to apologize for his gesture to the Vieslet.

A street of Monceau takes its name, as well as a street perpendicular to the street of Châtelet near the place of the drama in Marchienne (name until the end of 2017; it then becomes rue Léo Darton in order to avoid confusion with the homonymous street of Monceau). Finally, various communal buildings and structures are named after her, including an athenee and a nursery.

The commemorative plaque affixed to the Yvonne school and the monument in Marchienne were removed during the Second World War by the Germans. After the war, the populations of the communes of Marchienne and Monceau mobilized to restore these two monuments. A public subscription is launched, and many inhabitants, from simple individuals to Ministers and the King, participate in the fundraising. The monument of Marchienne stands again in front of the Cercle Saint-Edouard. In 1956 a new monument was inaugurated in Monceau-sur-Sambre, rue Albert Camus. The statue on Albert Camus Street depicts Yvonne tending her cowl through the school gate, watched over by the Conscience. On February 12, 2007, the statue of Yvonne, cast in bronze, is stolen by metal dealers; of the monument it remains only the gate and the statue symbolizing Consciousness. In 2009, thanks to the intervention of the neighborhood committee and the city, a new statue identical was commissioned to the Gosselin Fabrice Ortogni. The new polyester statue of Yvonne was inaugurated on July 16 2010; the Conscience found its Moncelloise half. On the occasion of commemorations of the end of the First World War, the statue was renovated by its author.

MONUMENTS

The memory of this tragedy is still being perpetuated by a monument located just where Yvonne fell.

The sculptures of Yvonne and her guardian angel adorn the entrance of the Monceau-sur-Sambre school.

15 février 2007, gros scandale, on a volé la statue pour récupérer l'argent du bronze

''La tombe d'Yvonne. (envoi d'Augustin Simon)''

Le gouvernement français voulant honorer la petite martyre du beau mouvement qu'elle avait eu en se privant de son bout de pain pour secourir un malheureux prisonnier, lui octroya, à titre posthume, la Médaille de la Reconnaissance française en argent. La section marchiennoise de la Fédération nationales des combattants voulant glorifier le geste héroïque de l'enfant sublime lui a fait ériger un monument à l'endroit même où elle est tombée (Source [5]). Un film de 60 minutes relatant cet épisode tragique a été tourné en 1937 sous le titre "La tragédie de Marchienne". Il a été réalisé par Francis MARTIN (Source: Site Internet Movie Database). On trouve une crèche Yvonne VIESLET à Marchienne-au-Pont (Rue Lieutenant Général GILLAIN) et une rue Yvonne VIESLET à Monceau-sur-Sambre et Marchienne-au-Pont. Une médaille a également été frappée en son honneur

Crèche Yvonne VIESLET à Marchienne-au-Pont

La rue Yvonne VIESLET à Monceau-sur-Sambre