A special historical find has been made in Steenbergen. The local localhistory circle discovered film images from the war. It shows how themonumental Sint Gummarus church is being shot at. But it also shows Germansoldiers and perhaps even the funeral of a legendary war hero. The film wassecretly made. Film images from Brabant from the autumn of 1944 are quiterare, especially those with shelling. Experts are surprised.
The film was made by Henk van Mechelen, photographer in Steenbergen (1916-1991). “He had a well-known photo shop with film equipment. In theKaaistraat,” says Robert Catsburg of Heemkundekring De Steenen Kamer.
Discovery “His son was cleaning out the attic. There he found five boxes of film. Hecalled us and said his father had made movies showing them blowing up thechurch. I thought: that is never possible!” Catsburg picked up the film. “ThenI saw the footage and I swore! I was shocked myself. What a discovery!”
There were already all kinds of stories about the shooting of the church. TheGermans wanted to blow up the tower. Then the advancing Allies could no longeruse him as a lookout.
On Monday afternoon, October 30, 1944, the German occupiers decided to destroythe tower. “The local OD commander (a resistance group) described that. 1250kilos of explosives were in the bell tower,” says Catsburg.
Guns According to stories from the village, residents tried to change the mind ofthe German soldiers. But without success. Strangely enough, the explosiverefused to explode.
“Then they tried to hit the tower with antiaircraft guns.” The shooting itselftakes place off screen, which is why the weapon is unknown. It may have been aself-propelled gun.
**’ All windows out’ ** At six o’clock in the afternoon the church tower collapsed with a huge thump.”All the windows went out in the area.” It is striking that the collapsecannot be seen on the images. There is no explanation for this, that is aguess. “Maybe that was such a huge blow that it shook the camera too much?”Catsburg cannot explain that.
The tower shell was filmed from the skylight of the photo shop. “It was prettybad what he did. You could even be shot for that.”