Letter to Roy Langlois from Joseph Black

Letter to Roy Langlois from Joseph Black

Note (Roy's) at top about people being captured and held in Gestapo jail and died in Auschwitz. Letter from someone unknown to Langlois on behalf of his aunt about a person he met while evading in Belgium who was caught and tortured and subsequently died. They feel that he would like to know the fate of someone who helped many evading airmen.

1945-10-18

1945-10-07

One page b/w photocopy

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

EBlackJBlack[Sis]451018

[inserted] Roy’s note [symbol] [/inserted]
N.B. Jean was captured with myself & my radio operator at the Brussels address below & taken with us to St Giles Gestapo Jail in Brussels later I heard he had died at Auchwitz [sic] Concentration Camp.
[signature]
18/10/45
To. Roy. B. Langloise. Esq.
Flight Leut. R.A.F. No 37938
7.10.45
Dear Sir,
My letter may perhaps perplex you seeing that it is from someone you do not know, and the difficulty for me is also great, but I have been asked to write you.
My Aunt Madame Vandehove of Brussels has asked me if I would inform you of the following.
My cousin Jean Francois Vanderhove is dead, he died in Germany in 1943. It seems from her letter that you knew him slightly, and that you stayed at my home, 66 Rue Washington Brussels while the Germans were still there, in [deleted] ca [/deleted] any case she has sent me your address, and also that of another officer.
You are perhaps aware that my cousin was one of the principal underground men, who helped our Boys when they baled out, and my aunt has an idea that you and a friend stayed with him for a short time.
I am sorry to say he was caught and sentenced to 8 years hard labour, but he only lived six weeks after he was so weak from repeated beatings and starvation that he had to be supported by two young men from his camp. We feel that you would be interested [deleted] in [/deleted] to know the fate of our brave Son, who although not an Englishman did all he could to help our boys and sacrificed all he had even his life for England, a place he had never seen, he is buried at Cassel. If ever you care to drop me a line and [inserted] I [/inserted] will only be too pleased to inform them in Belgium that you are safe.
Yours Sincerely
Joseph Slack.
39 Mercers Road
missing words
[drawing]