Flying Bombs and Dora Photographs

[Michel Ryckx]

At http://www.dma.be/cultuur/persberichten/vbommen.htm a press release (unhappily in Dutch) can be found, concerning two expositions in Antwerp (Belgium):

"Flying Bombs on Antwerp"  Translated by a mere amateur (namely sous-signé) , it says:

'Being liberated in September 1944, the inhabitants of the city of Antwerp thought an and end has drawn to 4 years of war misery.  They would experience very quickly quite the contrary: the worst had yet to come....  Antwerp and its harbour have been throughout history major military strategic targets.  During WW II the importance of its harbour was crucial if the allied marching on to Nazi Germany  was to be succesful.  The continuous supply of large quantities war equipment could not be guaranteed with a harbour not intact.  Hitler, realising this very well, used his most secret V-weapons in order to destroy the Antwerp harbour.  The Americans deployed all around the city one of the most impressive anti-missile systems in history (a V1 was apprehended quite easily, MR).  The stakes were high: a quick victory over Germany was to become impossible without the harbour.'

'Between October 1944 and March 1945 more than 3,700 V-1's and V-2's hit town and province of Antwerp.  Thousands of citizens were killed or wounded, tens of thousands of houses were destroyed, public life came at a standstill.  Schools were closed down, hospitals had to be evacuated, people fled en masse. Those who stayed went living underground.'

'The exposition recalls recalls images of and atmosphere in Antwerp during the V-bomb period.  Using photographs and film fragments, authentic objects and an original V-bomb, the visitoor is confronted with life in a terrorised town.  The past is surprisingly vivid in the reconstruction of a cellar.'

"Dora Photographs" 
Concentration camp photographs are a rarity.  This exposition "Impressions of Dora" (...) shows unique colour pictures of the secret underground factory at Dora-Nordhausen, where the Nazis have prisoners working on the V-1's and V-2's.  This photographs will be seen later on in New York and Munich.

Didn't I say that history was very, very vivid (how arrogant to quote one's own)?  Unfortunately this is all to be found on the Net here in Antwerp.  I will try to find out how the information can be spread more widely.  But the thought of a homepage of my own really drives me mad.

Michel Ryckx.

PS: Lear's Fool: it is very nice to be sorry for the fact that Democritus' texts are nearly lost.  Blame it on those strange religious barbarians, who made intolerance a science and their own primitive religion the main one.  The first time I've heard talking of him I was 14.  I will never forget the contrast  between his beautiful, elegant and simple ideas and that idiot of a Plato, who nearly ruined my love for the Greek language.  But if you really interested in him, try reading De Rerum Natura by Lucretius, which we had to read in school.  But best of all Pre-Socratics is Heraclitus.  What do you say of this one 'Bow and Arrow, One Tension'?

M.