Marguerite Bervoets

Marguerite Bervoets
Born(1914-03-06)6 March 1914
La Louvière, Belgium
Died7 August 1944(1944-08-07) (aged 30)
Wolfenbüttel, Germany
OccupationResistance Fighter
Years active1942–1944
Signature

Marguerite Bervoets (6 March 1914 – 7 August 1944)[1] was a Belgian poet, teacher and member of the Belgian Resistance during World War II[2]. She was arrested while carrying out resistance work and executed in Wolfenbüttel prison, in Germany.[3]

Biography

Marguerite Bervoets was born in La Louvière. She was a graduate in philosophy and literature, and a poet. At the time of the German invasion of Belgium she was working as a teacher in Tournai.[4] After the fall of Belgium to Nazi Germany, Bervoets began publishing the underground resistance paper "La Deliverance".[3] She helped transfer intelligence to the Allied Powers.[5]

On 8 August 1942 Bervoets and another resistance member, Cécile Detournay, went to the edge of Chièvres Airfield for the purpose of photographing newly installed anti-aircraft guns.[3] They were both carrying a shopping bag and a camera, once they reached the edge of the airfield they began to take pictures. A few minutes later a German sentry caught them by surprise and escorted them both to an officer nearby. They both showed their shopping bags and claimed that they were going to a nearby farm to get some food and take pictures of the fields. Unfortunately the German lieutenant ordered an investigation. A woman, a prosecution witness, provided evidence that led to the indictment of Bervoets and the leaders of the group to which she belonged.[5] At Bervoets's house they discovered weapons. She sensed her fate, and in high school she would often quote Maeterlinck, saying; "It is beautiful to when one sacrifices oneself, that sacrifice brings happiness to other men".

'Resistance' is a free street art work by Portuguese artist Daniel Eime as a tribute to Marguerite Bervoets.

After a few months of incarceration in Mons, Bervoets and Detournay were deported to Germany for their fates to be decided by the Volksgericht (People's Court) of Leer.[3] Bervoets' trial was held on the same day as that of resistance fighter Fernande Volral. Both Bervoets and Volral were sentenced to death, and Detournay to 8 years of forced labour.[5]

Death

Marguerite Bervoets and Fernande Volral were executed by "fallbeil" (German guillotine) on 7 August 1944 in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. Cécile Detournay was liberated by US forces on 24 April 1945.[6] Bervoets' family did not learn she had died until July 1945. She is buried in Mons communal cemetary.[3]

Recognition

  • In honor of Marguerite Bervoets, the Lycée de Mons, where she had her last three years of humanities and where her mother was director, bears her name; today it is the Athénée Royal Marguerite Bervoets.[7]
  • On 17 November 1946, an inauguration in the courtyard of the École Moyenne de la rue de Bouvy in La Louvière, a monument dedicated to Marguerite Bervoets and Laurette Demaret, former students of this establishment.[8]
  • A street of Mons also bears her name, as well as a street of Forest (in Brussels) and a street of Guyancourt (near Paris).[7]
  • There are many monuments that pay tribute to her, both in Belgium (especially in La Louvière thanks to a monument and a commemorative plaque), and abroad (for example on the shores of Lake Como).[7]
  • The 151st promotion of Social and Military Sciences at the Royal Military Academy was sponsored by Marguerite Bervoets.
  • At the school she taught at, a plaque in tribute to Marguerite Bervoets is installed in the entrance.
  • In July 2025, a temporary exhibition opened at the Mons Memorial Museum called 'L'esprit carcéral' which focussed on Marguerite Bervoets and her resistance colleague Cécile Detournay (as well their contemporary Fernand Dumont, a Belgian poet, lawyer and resistance writer, and the 19th century French poet Paul Verlaine; all four were imprisoned in the Mons prison).[9] It exhibited several of her personal artefacts, including her final letter to her parents.[10]

Bibliography

  • Marguerite Bervoets, A Heroine, 1914–1944, L. Balasse-De Guide, The Renaissance of the Book, Brussels, 1958
  • Marguerite Bervoets, E. Pequet, coll. The Notebooks of the Memory, HCD, 2014.

References

  1. ^ "Monographie de la Louvière - ville de la Louvière". Archived from the original on 2010-01-15. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
  2. ^ "Exposition consacrée à Marguerite Bervoets, poète et résistante - RTBF Actus". RTBF (in French). Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Grave of Marguerite Bervoets". www.liberationroute.com. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  4. ^ "Forest la plaque commémorative en l'honneur de la résistante a été inaugurée ce lundi matin : Forest rend hommage à Marguerite Bervoets".
  5. ^ a b c Suzanne van Rokeghem, Jacqueline Aubenas, Jeanne Vercheval-Vervoort, Des femmes dans l'histoire en Belgique, depuis 1830, Luc Pire éditions, 2006, 303 p.
  6. ^ Commission de l'historique de la résistance, Livre d'or de la résistance, éditions Leclercq, Bruxelles, 1949
  7. ^ a b c "Marguerite Bervoets | Vrije Universiteit Brussel". www.vub.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  8. ^ "Pages perso Orange – Créez facilement votre site web personnel". pages.perso.orange.fr.
  9. ^ "'L'esprit carcéral' au Mons Memorial Museum : des vies de résistance en prison - RTBF Actus". RTBF (in French). Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  10. ^ "L'esprit carcéral". Pôle muséal Mons (in French). Retrieved 2025-07-26.
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