Georges Goguin

Prepared by the Witnesses of War team

Georges Goguin was born on 1 April 1919 in Rulles, Belgium, and grew up in nearby Marbehan. He began military service on 15 April 1938 with the 2nd Regiment of Chasseurs Ardennais in Bastogne. Recalled in 1939, he joined the 5th Regiment, 9th Company, machine-gun platoon, initially deployed along the Meuse at Bas-Oha.

During the German invasion of May 1940, Goguin experienced the devastating bombing at Temploux and fought in the Battle of the Lys. He recalled holding a position with a heavy machine gun to cover the withdrawal of other Belgian troops. Wounded by shellfire and subsequently captured, he began almost five years as a prisoner of war.

His captivity included Stalag VIII-C near Sagan, now Żagań in Poland, and compulsory agricultural work. Drawing on his prewar experience as an apprentice butcher, he obtained an assignment at a slaughterhouse in Waldenburg, now Wałbrzych, in 1941. Despite this work providing better chances of survival than some other assignments, hunger remained a constant reality.

In spring 1945, after the guards fled, Goguin and four fellow Belgian prisoners set out towards freedom with a horse and cart. They travelled through Prague while fighting was still taking place, then reached American-controlled Plzeň. There, they received food and medical attention before being repatriated through Germany and Luxembourg. Back in Belgium, Goguin was finally reunited with his mother.

After recovering, he joined the Belgian Gendarmerie on 6 March 1946, serving until his retirement in 1975. He remained involved in veterans’ commemorations and shared his wartime memories into old age. Georges Goguin died on 26 January 2025, aged 105.