Frank Raeman ensures that the stories and burial places of WWII soldiers are known in their home countries and to their descendants. He has been honoured many times for his voluntary service
Culture
Medal of honour for making sure Slovakia knew about WWII fighter pilot buried in Flanders
Lisa Bradshaw
Published:
Frank Raeman of Lievegem, East Flanders, has received a medal of honour from Slovakia for his unwavering dedication to making sure that the story of a Slovakian soldier buried in Flanders was known in the soldier’s home country.
Fighter pilot Otto Smik is buried in the Canadian War Cemetery in Adegem, also in East Flanders. Originally incorrectly identified, Smik’ s name was eventually engraved on his tombstone – which did not go unnoticed by Raeman.
Raeman, now 58, has dedicated himself to caring for graves in the Adegem cemetery and uncovering stories behind the soldiers buried there since he was a teenager. He has been honoured by several countries for his work, including Germany, Italy and Canada. The Slovakian medal of honour is his eighth recognition.
When I saw this Czecho-Slovak grave in Adegem, I knew there was a story there
Amateur historian Frank Raeman
“When I saw this Czecho-Slovak grave in Adegem, I knew there was a story there,” he says. And there was. Of Jewish origin, Otto Smik and his family fled the Nazi regime, settling in the UK. The young man signed on with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.
He turned out to be an incredibly valuable fighter pilot, shooting down 16 enemy planes. In November of 1944, he was shot down above Zwolle, the Netherlands, and did not survive the crash.
In 1945, an investigation identified the body as Belgian pilot Henri Tayman, who had died during the same mission. The body thought to be Tayman was buried in the Evere cemetery.
More than 20 years later, pieces of Tayman’s plane were discovered during works on the railroad tracks in Zwolle. That meant the body found in a different crash could not have been him.
Soon Smik’s body was correctly identified, and he was reburied in the Canadian War Cemetery in Adegem. But it was only with the founding of the Slovak Republic in 1994 that his story made it to Slovakia. Raeman made sure of it – taking care of his grave for many years and making contact with his descendants. He provided them with answers to questions that had gone unanswered for decades.
Tomáš Kozák, the Slovakian ambassador to Belgium, handed Raeman his medal in the presence of a delegation from the embassy and of Lievegem mayor Kim Martens. “That there are so many people here from the embassy demonstrates the value of Frank’s work,” she said during the ceremony. “He is much more than an amateur historian. He builds bridges between generations who never experienced the war but who still feel its consequences.”