Herminie Vaneukem

Herminie Vaneukem (* 1895 or 1896 in the province of Hainaut , † after 1916) was a Belgian spy and seamstress . Vaneukem worked for the British secret service during the First World War . The surname is also given in the sources as Vaneuken , Waneukem or Waneuken .

Life

Vaneukem was the daughter of a gatekeeper working in Masnuy-Saint-Jean. She worked as a seamstress in Brussels and belonged to the Belgian espionage network "Carlo-Louis", which passed the movements in rail traffic on to the Allies. Vaneukem worked as a courier for the network and had the code name "Rosette". In February 1916 the network was blown.

process

The trial took place on February 29 and March 1, 1916, as the first trial of this magnitude in the concert hall of the Mons Theater against 39 defendants (three of them women).

For Vaneukem two death sentences and an alternative ten years imprisonment had been requested. In fact, Vaneukem was initially sentenced to death . However, her sentence was reduced to 15 years of forced labor following a petition for clemency submitted by the court itself . Of the 17 death sentences required, nine were pronounced and seven were carried out on the morning of March 2, 1916.

Several reasons are listed for the pardon: These include the emotional plea of ​​her defense lawyer Thomas Braun , which also alluded to Vaneukem's young age, the presence of representatives of the German military in the courtroom and, last but not least, the strong negative international response to the execution of Edith Cavell . The death sentence against Gabrielle Petit , which was pronounced only a little later, was carried out.

As it turned out later, Adolphe Lampert, who was also pardoned, was the person who had betrayed the network. Lampert was sentenced to twenty years in prison after the war ended.

No information is known about the further life of Vaneukem.

literature

• Louis Maraite: Le Rôle des Cheminots dans la Bataille de Liège , Liège 2014.
• Sophie De Schaepdrijver: Gabrielle Petit: The Death and Life of a Female Spy in the First World War . Bloomsbury, London 2015 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

• Zeven spy in bezet België. In: vrt.be. March 2, 2016, accessed April 6, 2019 (Dutch). 
• Si Jurbise m'était conté: 8. In: jurbistory.blogspot.com. Retrieved April 6, 2019 . 
• Fusillés des Territoires Occupés - Les civils du Valenciennois dans la Grande Guerre 1914–1918. In: civils19141918.canalblog.com. February 24, 2017, accessed April 6, 2019 .