NEW BOOK

 

 

A book just published contains explosive revelations about Albert Folens, the man who founded the very successful Folens publishers.

The book is available to readers in Europe here, and to those outside Europe, and particularly in the USA here

The story up to now, put about by RTÉ in its television programme in 2007, was that Albert was a Nazi sympathiser who willingly collaborated with the Germans during WWII and who might have been guilty of God knows what crimes in that period. The programme suggested that he had worked for the Gestapo in their Brussels headquarters as an interpreter and took part in the brutal interrogation of members of the Belgian Resistance and captured Allied airmen.

That there was not a shred of evidence to support these allegations did not seem to matter to the RTÉ of the day, nor was it a consideration that the so called revelations could have devastated his family. That Albert was dead and could not defend himself appeared to be the clincher and the programme seems to have taken the view that it could shred his reputation with impunity.

They were wrong. His widow, Juliette, who had stood by him from the outset, went to court to enforce an agreement Folens had with the editor of the Sunday Tribune, and one of its "journalists" who had taped an "interview" with him in 1985. The agreement stipulated that should any material from the interview be used in public, he would have a right of reply. This resulted in a rather grudging insertion in the programme, quoting Juliette to the effect that her husband was not a Nazi and the dropping of a re-enactment sequence which showed him participating in a brutal interrogation in the role of interpreter. However, the damage was done and he is now firmly embedded in many people's mind as the war criminal portrayed in this disgraceful programme.

The fact of the matter is that had he received a fair trial and had all the available evidence been presented it would have been clear that any collaboration with the Germans would have been at least balanced and at most outweighed by his work for the Resistance and on behalf of Flemish authors during the occupation. At worst he should have walked, at best he should have got a medal.

Thankfully, the story doesn't end there. His daughter, Leentje, drawing on documentation of his trial in 1947, which she has obtained from the Belgian authorities, has set the record straight in her new book "Albert and Juliette - Love, Loss, Liberty".

Albert emerges as a man of integrity, a patriot, and a loving husband and father. Leentje has spent four years writing this book which is based on stories her parents told her, material they have written or recorded and a wide range of contacts with relations and friends of Albert. The story is told with love and respect for her parents and has been described by those who have read it as a page turner.

Alan Dukes, a former Irish Minister for Finance, summed it up thus:

The real story of a truly remarkable man who overcame reverses which would have destroyed the resolve of many. It is also about Juliette, Albert’s devoted and equally extraordinary wife, a story of love, courage and resilience containing what could be the themes of a spy story, a thriller and a romance. Many generations of Irish students have benefited from their particular contribution to educational publishing.

Get a copy and check out the real story.

The book is available to readers in Europe here, and to those outside Europe, and particularly in the USA here