POTTER United Families

The “Great War” of 1914-1918? Never anymore!
Young people will barely understand these years of horrors,
deprivation and exalted patriotism. At the time, one would have been
shot for less than the secret that you now hold in the hands…
In 1914 the Germans violated the borders. Belgium was occupied
violently and without any respect for citizens’ rights. The Belgians
and their allies organized “networks of resistance and courage”. One
of them had gone up to Stavelot, in the Ardennes, by the Grandprez
family.
Unfortunately, a man sent discretely by the Germans infiltrated the
network and the whole heroïc family was shot. Their story is told in
the book "Volunteers of Death" at the Albertine Library in Brussels.
This is where my father, Lucien de Potter, re-organized this network
in 1916. The condition proposed to the colleagues was that he could
receive gun and ammunitions. As veteran Ardennes fighter, he was
quicker than a lightning with the weapon and could knock out an
opponent without worries.
He was armed until the end of the war. Judge in Vielsalm, Lucien
made his judgments at the foot of a large tree well known in the
region. He was often summoned by the Germans who did not realize
that the center of the network was established in Gouvy.
It was a courageous lady who hosted the secret head-quarters of the
network: my grandmother, Mrs. Annie Cheratte. She had learned to
hide the secret folds in the curtain lining of her living room and carry
them in dough balls baked like rolls. His son Franz transported them
through the villages and the countryside to the other members of the
network.
380