In the first year of the millennium, I had in my hands a book which made me understand that I had lived for twenty years in the house of a former SS
. "
It all started in 1979. That year, the young Stefan Hertmans, 28, was not yet a writer.
He will publish his first novel,
Ruimte
(unpublished in France) two years later.
In
"a dark alley in an old quarter"
of his hometown, Ghent, he discovers
"a large bourgeois house with a facade pockmarked with holes where humidity had infiltrated over the decades
.
"
The notary who shows him around, a little stiff man, is none other than the son of the lawyer in charge of the defense of Willem Verhulst, the famous SS, the former occupant of the decrepit house, condemned to death at the Liberation.
Read also
The Repair of the World, by Slobodan Snajder: life and destiny
The book cited by Hertmans at the beginning of
Ascension
, is signed Adriaan Verhulst, recognized scholar, former teacher of the writer and son of said SS!
A beautiful subject for the author who will then engage in a real work of investigator, detective ...
This article is for subscribers only.
You have 73% left to discover.
To cultivate one's freedom is to cultivate one's curiosity.
Continue reading your article for € 1 the first month
I ENJOY IT
Already subscribed?
Log in
