- Document ID: 9676281
- Document Collection: 1.1.5.7 Nummern-Namen-Kartei Buchenwald (Maenner)
- Link to Online Archive: https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/9676281
Louis Guillaume MENTEN
http://www.getuigen.be/Getuigenis/3den/d-Hainaut-Brigitte-Somerhausen-Christine/Nl/Dora-belgen.xls
Louis Guillaume Menten (1892-1949), a former prisoner of the Breendonk camp and employee of the National Bank of Belgium, engaged in the resistance during World War II. He joined the grouping „Commandant Lambert“ where he engaged in distributing the underground newspapers La Libre Belgique, Vrijheidsklok and Vrij Volk.
On 18 February 1944, he was arrested at home and transferred to the Kommandantur of Leuven where he was questioned. He was then transferred to the Breendonk camp where he was subjected to blows to the head, chest and back. They even made him stand naked in the snow for a full hour during which he received a bucket of cold water over him and then he was allowed to stand in the snow again for half an hour. The regime in Breendonk was unusually harsh. Hard labour, lack of food and medical care were the daily reality there.
On the sixth of May 1944, Guillaume was put on transport to Germany to the Buchenwald camp. By rail, he travelled for two days and two nights in beast wagons, along with 120 other prisoners. This was followed by the Dora and Bergen Belsen camps. On 15 April, he was liberated by the British.
After several months of rest following his imprisonment, he went back to work at the National Bank until his death in 1949.