Panel 14 Mortsel Bombing 5 April 1943

Text on panel 14
April 5th, 1943
Bombing of Mortsel

Sint-Jozef hospital
What happened here?
This hospital was located just outside the disaster area and was soon overrun by countless injured people. Although the rooms were already occupied by the ordinary sick, about a hundred injured people were received here after the disaster. Half of them died of their injuries shortly afterwards.

Witnesses tell
"The people were laying here in the halls, on the ground. There weren't enough doctors and nurses. The wounded were calling for drinking water, but there was none. It was terrible."

"The floors were colored red. The nuns' skirts were all red with blood at the bottom."

Soon the hospital was overloaded. Beds were set up in all the corridors. The people had a wide variety of injuries, fractures, crushed body parts. We worked all night. "

"I was lying there on the ground among dead and crying people. There was no room for us. They put me on a truck and took me to the hospital in Hoboken. or sixteen years old with a broken leg. " She held my hand, but not long. She died on the truck. "

This walk was realized by the city of Mortsel in collaboration with Pieter Serrien.

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Source

• Text: Mia van den Berg
• Photos: Mia van den Berg