The great journey

On November 11, 2013 Annemie Peeters began her search for stories from the Great War. Not great history. But impressive stories of unknown people. She found what she wanted via a call she made on Radio 1 on 11 Nov 2013, asking listeners to go and talk to family, parents and grandparents. She knew there are many 'untold' war stories still alive today. The generations who actually experienced the Great War are now dead. And soon it will be too late and we will also have lost the stories of the children of the war children.
Peeters was right. The Flemings responded massively to her call, and sent in personal war stories that had never been heard before. Annemie selected the best and then had unknown people tell them. She made a series of those stories on Radio 1. The stories are also included in the book ‘De Grote Tocht’ (The Great Journey). The aim of her book is not to expose the truth because there are as many truths as there are stories. De Groote Tocht with Annemie Peeters, from April 13 to June 8 every Sunday from 1-2 pm on Radio 1. This submitted episode (epsiode 4) was about encounters with Germans: Germans were tyrants. Bullies. Arsonists. Oppressors. In the stories that preceded them and told by refugees from Limburg, Leuven and Liège.
These were men you would flee from. However, during four years of war (and occupation) you did occasionally encounter the enemy. They would come and check to see whether you weren’t hiding any cows for example. Or they forced you to give up a part of your house. You even had to bloody well live with them! You can hear the way things turned out, the difficulties, but also how things sometimes went amazingly well, in episode 4 of De Groote Tocht.

• Production :VRT Radio 1
• Version :Dutch
• Script : Yes
• Year : 2014
• Country : Belgium
• Running time :56'00"
• Subject :Documentaries, History, International URTI Radio Grand Prix, War
• Showing of extracts allowed : Yes
• Limit Country : No