Avenue Louise 347

In October 1994, when preparing his film about the Armed Partisans in the Brussels region during the Second World War, André Dartevelle discovered which buildings in the capital were used by the SIPO-SD (Sicherheitspolizei - Sicherheitsdienst).
His film production took place next to the buildings of the Traversière street and those of the Avenue Louise No. 347. It was to this last building that the Nazi police moved in February 1943 after an air raid. From this address, the SIPO-SD tried to eliminate the resistance in 1943. From this HQ, they  organized the hunt for the Jews and the great anti-Jewish raid (Operation Iltis) of 3 September 1943.
he cellars in this building served as a waiting room for the newly arrived members of the resistance, before the absuse and torture. On the walls of the cellars in some current private homes, dozens of inscriptions appear: names of members of the resistance, dates, names of women, political slogans, calls, prayers. One of the cellars shows inscriptions from members of the resistance from the Independence Front, from the MNB (the National Belgian Movement), the Armed Partisans and communist militants. These last two resistance movements suffered from heavy German repression in 1943. It is a tribute to all who were forced to stay at this place, between two interrogations.
The book contains plans of the buildings, testimonies of former prisoners, and many images of the inscriptions on these walls. The names of some people could be identified so that their life course could be reconstructed. Through  these human "signatures", these walls evoke human stories. They show the traces of a fight between life and death for all prisoners.

After fifty years, the walls speak to us. These are testimonies that historians cannot ignore and that every citizen should know.