Archives of Maurice Bouchez

• Access and consultation: The fonds Maurice Antwerp can be accessed during the opening hours of the reading room. Its content is freely accessible. Reservation.
• Reproduction:  The content of the fonds can be reproduced freely in our reading room. For any information about requests for a document reproduction carried out by CegeSoma staff can be found here.
• Research instruments: Inventory AA2344

Archive fonds description :

Work archives of Maurice Bouchez about the liberation battles of Wodecq of 5 September 1944.

This fonds is composed of the work documents of Maurice Bouchez, collected for the preparations for his publication titled Le combat de Wodecq and two documents about events that took place at the time but that are not related to the main topic of his work.

Maurice Bouchez was born as son of a serviceman on 31 August 1924 in Moers (Germany) occupied by the Belgian armed forces at the time. Upon his return to Belgium, more precisely to the city of Ronse, he attended primary school in French and secondary school in Dutch. He authored a dictionary of Ronse dialect which is still a reference work today.

During the Second World War, Maurice Bouchez joined the resistance. He was arrested and deported to Dora-Mittelbau camp on 20 May 1944 where he remained incarcerated until the liberation of the camp la by British troops on 15 April 1945. He suffered a severe foot wound and was recognised as a disabled veteran.

After the war, Maurice Bouchez had an almost 40-year long career in the banking secor in Ronse and was active in many local associations, sports clubs and cultural organisations, and in patriotic movements. He also enjoyed drawing and painting. Many of his gouaches depict the dark hours of deportation.

Maurice Bouchez was interested in the history of the Second World War, in particular the tragic events that afflicted his home town of Ronse and the dramatic battle of Wodecq on 5 Septembre 1944 during which young resistance fighters opposed a significant number of German soldiers in order to force them to surrender, which led to fierce reprisal and caused many casualties.

Maurice Bouchez died on 21 February 2011 at the age of 86.

For more information :

• Bernard Henri, La Résistance 1940-1945, Bruxelles : La Renaissance du Livre, 1969.
• Le livre d’or de la résistance en Belgique, Bruxelles : M.D.N., 1948.
• Tanham George K., Contribution à l'histoire de la résistance belge, 1940-1944, Bruxelles : Presses universitaires de Bruxelles, 1971.