Just in case you think I exaggerate when I say the Belgian state was attempting to suppress Flemish culture and language, you might just be convinced by this example which draws on Leentje's book.
After the war Albert's godfather, uncle Jozef, returned from a German prison camp with tuberculosis. He had been wounded in the first month of the war. Flemish soldiers were in the majority in the Belgian army and resented the fact that all the officers were French-speaking. Many, including Jozef, became ardent Flemish nationalists, partially as a consequence of being ordered about by these French-speaking officers.
Soldiers killed in the war were buried under a cross with ‘mort pour la patrie’ (‘died for the fatherland’) inscribed in French. Jozef and his comrades were not happy with this and paid a weekly contribution so they could be buried under a different cross which had ‘AVV-VVK’ printed on it, ‘Alles Voor Vlaanderen-Vlaanderen Voor Kristus’ (‘All for Flanders-Flanders for Christ’).
The Flemish cross has a strong resemblance to the Celtic cross. It was in fact designed by a Belgian artist, Joe English, whose father was Irish and mother was Flemish.
In 1921 nearly all these gravestones were broken up by the Belgian Government and the rubble was used to mend roads.
Get the book.
The book is available to readers in Europe here, and to those outside Europe, and particularly in the USA here
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