It is April 1944. Louis Aerts is working on his parents’ farm when three American airmen, shot down over the Netherlands, suddenly appear before him. Exhausted and hungry, they carry a note in Dutch:
“Can you help us? We are three Americans. We are hungry and have come on foot from Holland.”
Louis and his wife, Maria, care for the men and hide them from the German soldiers. After four nights, the airmen move on. Louis and Maria believe the danger has passed, but they are betrayed.
On 28 June, the SiPo (Sicherheitspolizei) arrives at Hoeve de Ploeg in Herselt looking for Louis. He manages to hide in the barn, but when the Germans cannot find him, they take Maria and Louis’s brother Frans instead.
Louis flees to his parents-in-law’s home. Together, they decide he should not turn himself in, believing Maria and Frans will eventually be released.
Maria and her brother-in-law Frans are forced onto a train bound for Germany. The women are sent to a different concentration camp from the men, but they are subjected to the same treatment: stripped of their clothes, their heads shaved, and their bodies disinfected. They are given a uniform and a number. From that moment on, Maria is prisoner 51015.
Life in the camp is harsh. The women support one another whenever they can, and before going to sleep, they sing together to keep up their spirits.
But the hardship takes its toll. Maria is hungry, exhausted, and falls ill. Not long afterwards, all the women are ordered to leave the camp on foot. Maria is too weak to walk and remains behind with the other sick prisoners.
Soon afterwards, she dies. She is only 24 years old.
A few days later, the camp is liberated by the Red Army.
