THE PAINFUL EXECUTION OF " PIERRE DEPRETER" IN BREENDONK TORTURE CAMP, NEAR BRUSSELS BY FIRING SQUAD.

The Painful Execution Of "Pierre DePreter" In Breendonk Torture Camp, near Brussels, By Firing Squad.

Today is Monday, Memorial Day; a federal holiday to honor those who lost their lives in military service to the United States of America.

I have one relative -- Ralph Tuthill of Tacoma, Washington -- who died in 1948 from war wounds received in Europe near the end of World War II.

His wounds overwhelmed him with infection. Doctors would beat back the infection, then it would return. Infection took his life in 1948, three years after WWII ended.

Alas, I have no photo of Ralph Tuthill. He married my aunt during the war. My late brother, Ralph Vogel, was born months after Tuthill died and named for him.

In place of a photo of Ralph Tuthill, I submit wartime photos involving the Vogel family.

Photo 1: Pierre DePreter a lieutenant of the Belgian Army, 1940. Before the war, he was a teacher in Brussels. DePreter was my mother's first husband. He was a Prisoner of War (POW) for a few months.

He was then released by the Germans to return to teaching. DePreter met with other former POWs one night to join the Belgian Resistance.

"You do not have to wear a uniform to fight for your country," DePreter said during the meeting.

He was eventually captured for his Belgian Resistance activities and sent to Breendonk Torture Camp, near Brussels. He endured this Hell for more than a year, without betraying the others.

Pierre DePreter was executed by firing squad on May 23, 1944 -- two weeks before D-Day.

Photo 2

My mother (far right) with Pierre Depreter in a Brussels bar, before the war. Times were better. The man in the middle is mom's brother, my Uncle Albert. I'm named after him. I don't know the couple.

Photo 3

My father, Technical Sgt. Henry Vogel (left) in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. He was in the 975th Engineering Maintenance Company.

Between Vogel and an unknown Soldier on the right is the awe-inspiring M2 Browning .50-caliber machine gun.

It was designed in 1918 and first produced in 1921. The M2 remains a standard heavy machine gun in the U.S., NATO and around the world today. It was recently used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan and continues to serve.

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