Remembrance plaque Nazi prison Tournai

This plaque commemorates the thousands of men and women from the west of the province of Hainaut who awaited their deportation to Germany in this transit prison during the Second World War . She was inaugurated on September 11, 2010.

Resistance fighters who were caught red-handed or charged in the prison, people who resisted work in Germany, or simply participants in the black market. The head of this sinister lair was Adjutant Alfred RECHSER, known for his muscular interrogations. Neighbors talked about “Alfred Prison”. Wives or mothers of internees stood in front of the gate talking to the German prison guards in an attempt to get permission to pass a package to the prisoners.

The plaque suggests that a transit prison was established here, in this school. However, this is strongly contested by André Levau who states that the prison should not have been located here, at number 2, but further on at number 4 . He claims that the school at number 2 continued to function throughout the war until 1944. It was then closed until the end of the war. In this latter period there were some prisoners who managed to escape from Alfred Prison . Those who entered the boulevard were spotted by the girls' school sentry and shot. This is possibly where the confusion arises.

An article from Courrier de l'Escaut from 1987 confirms the position of the prison at number 4 on the boulevard.

Willem Vandenameele