War heroine Simonne Brugghe immortalized in Roeselare
At the end of the Second World War, Simonne provides Polish general Maczek with crucial information about the positions of the Germans in the city at Café Rustoord. Erwin Ureel, military battlefield guide: “After a first meeting, Maczek sent 22-year-old Simonne back into town to collect more information. Her father Allard Brugghe also played a special role in this. Together with her father, she went to see that German positions. Her father acted like a drunkard to get little or a lot of attention, but not the attention the Germans should have had for him.”
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Thanks to this information from Simonne, the Poles adjust their strategy to liberate Roeselare and the number of victims remains limited. “Maczek finally had the city taken with infantry. No bombing was involved, while the bombers were apparently ready.”
On December 12, 1944, during a military parade on the Grote Markt in Roeselare, Simonne received the Cross of Bravery, handed over personally by the Polish General Maczek. She was not thanked by everyone in Roeselare for that. Some members of the resistance were jealous of that recognition.
After the war, Simonne moved to London and later to Australia, where she also died. In fact, she never received official recognition in her own city when she was alive. But 79 years later, her remarkable performance is now immortalized on the wall of café Rustoord.