Last Train Leaving Belgium

Coletta Perry Interview, Part 2 Is there a DNA connection in our family to a French baguette? Coletta is the oldest child in our family. She was born in France in 1953 while our father was still in the US Air Force. She is an entrepreneur and has had her own business since her mid-twenties. I mention this because Coletta has employed three generations of our family starting with our mother, and including several of our other siblings and, finally the next generation of sons and daugters/nieces and nephews. Coletta traveled with our mother in December 2001. It was our mother's first trip back to Belgium since she left Europe in 1954 to embark on her new life in the US as young wife and mother. Coletta and Terez have also shared numerous trips to France since then to reunite and visit with family. Colletta family gallery: https://www.lasttrainleavingbelgium.com/coletta

Coletta is the oldest child in our family. She was born in France in 1953 while our father was still in the US Air Force. She is an entrepreneur and has had her own business since her mid-twenties. I mention this because Coletta has employed three generations of our family starting with our mother, and including several of our other siblings and, finally the next generation of sons and daugters/nieces and nephews. Coletta traveled with our mother in December 2001. It was our mother's first trip back to Belgium since she left Europe in 1954 to embark on her new life in the US as young wife and mother. Coletta and Terez have also shared numerous trips to France since then to reunite and visit with family. Colletta family gallery: https://www.lasttrainleavingbelgium.com/coletta

Last Train Leaving, Jeff Lipkes, Part 2 by Anne Marie Cannon

We speak to Jeff Lipkes, author of "Rehearsals: The German Army in Belgium, August 1914" written in an effort to set the record straight regarding the atrocities committed against innocent civilians during the initial first weeks of the German Invasion of Belgium often referred to as the "Rape of Belgium." A first hand account of the aqueduct massacre told by Adele Houbion Charlier appears in this book. Jeff and Anne Marie discuss the background and reason he wrote the book in this episode.

Third and final episode of the Odette Winne interview. Two cousins compare notes. Anne Marie interviews her cousin, Oddette Winne. Oddete's mother, Renée Houbion, is 15 years old when WWII breaks out in Belgium. In spite of her young age, Renée becomes a courier for the resistance in Belgium. It's recommended that you listen to episode 1 before delving into Oddete's story in order to understand the backstory. Artwork by Kyle Rutten

In Part 2 of the Odette Winne, interview, Odette talks about her mother, Renée, and the work she did for the resistance in Lìege, Belgium during WWII. Anne Marie discovers there are more heroes in the family.

Two cousins compare notes. Anne Marie interviews her cousin, Oddette Winne. Oddete's mother, Renée Houbion, is 15 years old when WWII breaks out in Belgium. In spite of her young age, Renée becomes a courier for the resistance in Belgium. It's recommended that you listen to episode 1 before delving into Oddete's story in order to understand the backstory. Artwork by Kyle Rutten

What becomes of children caught in the crossfire of war? Seven-year-old Therese Couture finds out when her picture perfect Wallonian childhood is disrupted by the opening scenes of WWII. Her father has gone off to fight with the French. Her life is uprooted when she, along with her mother and two brothers, are forced to go live with her grandmother, Alphonsine Houbion, in a house that sits along railroad tracks in the village of Neffe near the flowing Meuse River. The context of Therese’s story would not be complete without first referencing the trauma inflicted just 26 years earlier at the hands of the German military in a WWI massacre that took place in front of Alphonsine’s house, beneath an aqueduct along the train tracks that killed her nephew, two nieces and brother-in-law along with 23 other civilians. Last Train Leaving Belgium is a timely reminder of the lasting emotional scars left on the youngest survivors of war told by Therese and her youngest daughter, 72 years after the last train left Belgium.