Commemorative plaque Arthur Odevaert

In 2022 the plate appears to have disappeared (as a result of works on the facade?).

Commemorative plaque in honor of war victim Arthur Odevaert.
Bronze inscription on the wall of his former home;
"IN MEMORIAM
ODEVAERT ARTHUR
arrete le 26 juillet 1944 par la 'GESTAPO'
et fusille a Oostacker
le 24 aout 1944"

In Memoriam
Odevaert Arthur
arrested on July 26, 1944 by the Gestapo
and executed in Oostakker
on August 24, 1944

This was the last collective execution to take place in Oostakker. No fewer than fifteen men were executed that day in retaliation, but the motive that led to this harsh retaliation is unclear. According to La Flandre Libérale, it would have been the murder of the mayor of Melle. Just like the previous hostages executed in Oostakker, the victims had already been arrested for various resistance activities in the months before and they were serving their sentences in the Nieuwe Wandeling.
We can divide this group of fifteen in two according to their origin. A first
group of six men came from the Ronse area who were all arrested after a
failed Secret Army sabotage at a bridge in the hamlet of LouiseMarie at 7
July 1944. The ball started rolling with Edmond Van Der Donckt from Ellezelles, a village
which now belongs to Hainaut. The liaison agent Van Der Donckt talked on July 26
1944 in a café, while informants from the SIPOSD were present. The
The German government would have immediately understood through his statements that it was he who did not
had helped less than 18 resistance fighters to go into hiding after the sabotage action. The
arrests began the following night, early in the morning of July 27. One of the
victims was the day laborer Gilbert Dutranoit from Ronse. He participated in several
weapon drops and sabotage. His fellow townsman Gaston Verdonckt, a tailor, also
had participated in sabotage and (weapon) drops. The other two Ronsenaars
the bus operator Emiel Geenens and his son, the student Albert Geenens, were barely
19 years old when he was executed together with his father. They were both definitely active
involved in the sabotage of the bridge in question.A last fatal victim of this
group was Arthur Odevaert, who was a liaison agent between the refuges La Mouette
and Le Canard. He also took part in drops and sabotage, and kept in his own home
some of the saboteurs went into hiding. Odevaert still has a street name in today
his birthplace Schorisse. It seems plausible that others in these circumstances too
were arrested, but they were not picked as hostages, or had gone before
Germany deported.

On November 5, 1944, the Gazet van Aalst reports the excavation in Oostakker of 15 corpses, including that of Arthur Odevaert from Schorisse. He was recognized by his clothes and other objects.

The house with the commemorative plaque used to be an inn so-called "In het Boschgat", until recently café so-called "Bosterijst" and later café so-called "In den Engel" (number 23 / Arthur Odevaertstraat), only worth mentioning as a hotbed in 1788 of the peasant revolt in Schorisse, but current house from the second quarter of the 20th century.

willem vandenameele