10 Silhouettes between the green barracks Vloethemveld

After the Second World War , the British set up a Prisoners of War camp in the forest in Vloethemveld. More than a hundred thousand German and Baltic soldiers were housed in tents and barracks and lived in hellish conditions for two years. Meanwhile, the local population knew little or nothing about this camp. English soldiers, reinforced with Belgian conscripts, took care of the security and there was virtually no contact with the outside world . It explains why the Vloethemveld POW camp is not part of our collective memory.

In the spring of 2020, 10 silhouettes were placed between the green barracks on the former military site. Vloethemveld is involved in the Creative Europe project Atlantic Wall .

The Atlantic Wall was a more than 5000 km long defense line that Germany built in the occupied territories during the Second World War to prevent an Allied invasion. The aim of the European Atlantic Wall Europe project is to form a sustainable network of Atlantic Wall sites, presenting the Atlantic Wall heritage as inspiration for cultural collaboration with museums, places of remembrance and other stakeholders.

The artwork by Andy Verschoot e from Zedelgem is appealing because the silhouettes reflect the individual and the diversity of people (soldiers, prisoners of war, guards, ...) from different countries. The silhouettes were made from Corten steel , a material that refers to the steel used to support buildings and railway lines in Vloethemveld.

The aim of the project is to contribute to raising awareness about the personal impact of wars on people and to express the hope for peace through memory. In this way we want to give this loaded history a place step by step in the past of Zedelgem and Jabbeke.

Willem Vandenameele