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Statement:
Juliette Folens
(widow of Albert Folens)
"There are a number of allegations which I would like to deal with and issues I would like to clarify. My husband Albert was a member of the Flemish Legion in Belgium, which he joined in 1941 to support the cause for an independent country for the Flemish people and to fight against Stalin and Communism.
"The Flemish Legion was sent to the Eastern Front under German Military Command but Albert became ill and returned to Belgium. He saw no military action whatsoever. Because of his fluency in French, German and his native Flemish, he was deployed in Brussels as a translator - not an interpreter - compiling in German a What It Says in the Papers of the Flemish newspapers.
"At the end of the war he was arrested by the Belgian authorities who sought evidence against him. No evidence was found of crimes against any person or of war crimes.
"Albert was, amongst 59,000 others, found guilty of collaboration and sentenced to 10 years' detention. With my parents, my brother and friends, I was present in court when he was sentenced. He was never sentenced to death, as has been alleged.
"My husband was never a member of the Gestapo and was never a member of the Nazi party. In fact, he absolutely refused to pledge an oath of allegiance to Hitler because he had already pledged an oath of allegiance to the King of Belgium on becoming a teacher.
"Two years into his sentence he escaped and we made our way to Ireland. We lived openly under our own names and our identities were well known to the Irish authorities. If Albert had been wanted for war crimes, it is unlikely that he or I would have retained our identities. His initial employment in Ireland was as a translator in Kanturk, Co Cork, and then later as a French teacher in Dublin. He became an Irish citizen in the 1950s.
"I met Albert in March 1942 and we married in April 1943 so I was with him during the crucial period in question. I can testify that, contrary to what is being alleged, my husband never committed any war crimes whatsoever, was never a member of the Nazi party, and never a member of the Gestapo."
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