In the middle of the night, German Gestapo agents raid several homes in Tessenderlo and arrest Frederic, Petrus, Frans, Albert, and Jozef, all members of the resistance group BNB. Accused of resistance activities and helping people in hiding, they are deported to Germany and sent to different labour and concentration camps, from which none of them returns.
As he enters Buchenwald concentration camp, Petrus reads the words “Jedem das Seine” above the gate. But what has the 18-year-old done to deserve such a fate? As a bicycle mechanic, he occasionally repairs bicycles and motorcycles for resistance fighters and people in hiding, yet the Gestapo can find little else to accuse him of.
Petrus’s greatest act of resistance is his refusal to betray his friends. Neither threats nor torture can make him betray them, and his fellow members of the BNB (Belgian National Movement) are deeply grateful for his courage, especially given his young age.
The brutal forced labour eventually becomes too much for Petrus. No longer able to work, he is placed on a transport for sick prisoners. We do not know exactly how he dies, but he was likely so weakened that he did not survive the journey.
For Petrus’s mother, his arrest comes as a complete surprise. She knows nothing of his involvement with the BNB. After the war, she is left alone: her husband had died before the war, and her oldest son paid for his refusal to speak with his life.
