William Bache gave an outline of Sven Lindqvist's Exterminate All The Brutes. The book is a good introduction to how European powers used Darwinian natural selection theories and scientific racism to justify slavery and their global imperial ambitions. These ideologies were successful due to advances in firepower coupled with the ability of...
Trip DuBard told the story of Helene, a young "Aryan looking" daughter of German Jewish refugees living in the Ixelles area of Brussels. The resistance movement recruited her to work inside the Gestapo secret police headquarters, 453 Avenue Louise, Brussels. She was able to copy the nightly "black" lists of Jews and resistance members targeted for...
Christina Bache engaged in an exciting book discussion with the author, Gwen Strauss. The Nine follows the true story of the author's great-aunt Hélène Podliasky, who led a band of nine female Dutch and French resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced-labor camp and made a ten-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany...
Retired USAF Lt. Colonel and C-130 pilot Chuck Steiner led our book discussion at our Christmas season luncheon at the Club Prince Albert. Masters of the Air is the deeply personal story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler's doorstep. With the narrative power of fiction, Donald Miller takes you...
William Bache led our discussion of how British intelligence secretly used homing pigeons in a clandestine espionage operation to gather information about German units and logistics, and to communicate with the Belgian resistance during World War II. The British dropped 16,000 pigeons across Nazi-occupied Europe as part of Operation Columba....
Our Farewell Dinner for Battles and Books plank holders Miguel Diaz, Lanny Spencer, and their families. Both families were involved with the Foreign Service and were transferred to their new assignments. The very nice dinner took place at the Fraternelle des Agents Parachutistes in Brussels. Both Miguel and Lanny were instrumental in establishing...
Local guide Fenton Wiffen led a private historical tour of the Fort'Aubin complex, Neufchateau, for Book Club members - William Bache, Heather Rhine, Trip DuBard, Philippe "Boz" Rogers, and Walter Benjamin. The Fort held out against overwhelming German forces during the first week of the 10 May 1940 invasion. After the visit, we travel west to the...
Local history guide Fenton Wiffen led a private tour of the Eben-Emael Fortress for Book Club members - William Bache, Heather Rhine, Trip DuBard, Philippe "Boz" Rogers, and Walter Benjamin.
Authors Guy Vanthemsche and Roger De Peuter, who are retired VUB Professors, were our guests and presenters at Club Prince Albert. The small and densely populated nation of Belgium has played an important role in the history of Europe and other continents, especially Africa. It was a pioneering force in industry, trade, and finance during...
Lanny Spencer led a discussion of Behind the Lines and tour of the Brussels US Embassy, where we saw grain bags that had contained food donated by the American people.
William Bache covered The Agony of Belgium: The Invasion of Belgium in WWI - August-December 1914. A contemporary account of the German Invasion of Belgium, written in 1914 by Frank Fox, a war correspondent and veteran of the Balkan Wars. Fox was a War Correspondent for the Morning Post. He alerted the world to the suffering of the...
Lanny Spencer led the discussion of Herman Bodson's story about the Belgian resistance group, the OMBR (Office Militaire Belge de Résistance). With a Doctorat es Sciences in Chemistry from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, he was well-positioned to become a leader in the sabotage and guerrilla warfare efforts of the resistance against the Nazis....
The idea for a book club focusing on history and Belgium was promoted by Miguel Diaz with the support of William Bache. Somehow, we attracted some great people, like Lanny Spencer, Christina Bache, Charles "Chuck" Steiner, and Philippe "Boz" Rogers. The Club Prince Albert, next to the Foreign Ministry, served as our home location for over a year,...