Hortense Clews; heroine of the Belgian resistance (remarkable story)
Hyfler/Rosner
January 30, 2007
Hortense Clews
August 12, 1926 - December 18, 2006
Belgian resistance courier who was captured by the SS but
survived the cruelties of Ravensbrück concentration camp
As a schoolgirl courier for the Belgian Army of Partisans in
Louvain in 1942-43, Hortense Daman daily faced arrest,
interrogation and deportation to a German concentration
camp. She, her father and mother suffered all of these
terrors yet miraculously survived.
The partisans of Louvain had limited support from the local
population until in October 1942 the call-up of young men
for work in German industry drove many to join them or go on
the run.
The following spring the partisans destroyed almost 300
wagons and many thousands of gallons of fuel oil in the
Louvain railway marshalling yards. They also kept Soviet
Union intelligence abreast of Wehrmacht deployments in
Belgium as well as attacking facilities supporting the
German war machine.
Hortense Daman, however, acted only from patriotic motives
and to support her brother François, a returned prisoner of
war, who had begun his work with the partisans by helping
British servicemen left behind in Belgium to avoid capture.
Hortense proved ideal as a courier as she had a cool head
and knew how to use her blonde good looks to advantage when
necessary.
The situation was exceptionally dangerous; Gestapo vigilance
had uncovered a communist spy circuit in Belgium known to
them as the Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra) and had arrested
the leaders. François Daman counselled his sister: "No
matter how important the message, nothing is more important
than being able to walk away free and keeping the message
from being captured."
Using deliveries from her mother's grocery shop at 130
Pleinstraat just beyond the line of the old city walls as
cover, she was able to carry messages, explosives and even
grenades beneath the upper layer in her cycle pannier.
Returning from an outlying village with a heavy sack of
explosive hanging over the rear wheel she met a German
patrol and escaped only because of her escort - following a
safe distance behind her - wounded one of the patrol with
his pistol.
When stopped by a roadblock while carrying grenades under an
upper layer of eggs, she implored the officer not to delay
her as her mother would be angry, allowing him to think she
had been with a boyfriend. Attracted by her youthful,
apparent innocence, he let her through.
On another occasion she was almost caught with a parcel of
partisan documents when returning by train from a village in
the valley of the Dyle. As the German Field Security Police
neared her seat, she walked back to the first-class
compartment occupied by German officers and, when
questioned, pretended to be feeling sick. Again her youthful
charm came to her aid. An officer offered his seat, told the
patrol not to bother with her parcel and gave her a lift in
his staff car from Louvain station.
She was careful to ask him to drop her well away from home.
The betrayal of her and her family, together with many
others partisans, came through the capture of one of their
number who succumbed to torture.
She and her father and mother were arrested on St Valentine's
Day, 1944. For a month all three were subjected to
interrogation and vicious beatings by the Belgian SS -
working with the occupation forces.
She and her mother were held in the Little Prison of Louvain
reserved for women. When an Allied air force attack on the
marshalling yards damaged the prison severely, she was moved
to Louvain's main prison and from there to Ravensbrück
concentration camp in Germany.
As a terrorist sentenced to death without trial, she was
subjected to sterilisation treatment as part of a programme
of experiments for the prevention of contamination of pure
Aryan stock.
She was also injected in the thigh to induce gangrene. Soon
afterwards it seemed certain her leg would have to be
amputated but the German doctors decided against it and she
made a slow and painful recovery.
The elder daughter of Jacques and Stephanie Daman, Hortense
was born in Louvain and attended school there. Her mother
was also sent to Ravensbrück but both survived, as did
Jacques Daman in Buchenwald.
Jacques was found by his son François, who had avoided
capture. Hortense returned with her mother from Sweden, to
where they had been evacuated by the Swedish Red Cross in
the chaos of the final months of the war.
The courage of Hortense Daman during her service with the
Belgian resistance and her fortitude under interrogation was
recognised by her appointment as a Knight of the Order of
Leopold II, the Belgian Croix de Guerre and the Medal of
Resistance.
In 1946 she married Staff Sergeant Sydney Clews of the
British Army, who had befriended her father on his return
from Buchenwald. For many years he was the administrator of
Westcliffe Hospital at Stoke-upon-Trent while living in
Newcastle-under-Lyme.
He predeceased her and she is survived by a son and
daughter.
Hortense Clews, née Daman, courier for the Belgian
Resistance, was born on August 12, 1926. She died on
December 18, 2006, aged 80