A British nurse is tried for treason in occupied Brussels
Edith Cavell calmly admits to sheltering Allied soldiers
Brussels in the autumn of 1915 was a city under occupation by the German army. In the gilded Senate chamber, decorated with scenes from Belgian history, the chairs were full of )erman oʛcers, leaning intently forward.
They had not come for an ordinary meeting. Rather, they were here to witness the trial of 35 prisoners, many of them charged with esRionage and treason 6he first of the accused, a 49-year-old Englishwoman, stepped forward to testify. Her name was Edith Cavell.
The daughter of a Norfolk country vicar, and a woman of deep seriousness and intense religious faith, Cavell had been working as a senior nurse in Brussels when war broke out in 1914. Although she was supposed to be strictly neutral she had joined a secret resistance network run by two Belgian aristocrats. She sheltered dozens of British, French and Belgian soldiers, keeping them hidden until they were ready to leave for the Dutch border. It was, she thought, her patriotic duty.
When the Germans unravelled the network in the summer of 1915, Cavell saw no point in lying. Her parents had brought her up as a good Christian girl who would always tell the truth. And now, on 7 October, facing conviction for treason, with the German oʛcers obserXing Rroceedings closel[, she made no effort to hide the truth pShe sRoMe without trembling,” reported one observer, “and showed a clear mind.”
Twenty-four hours later, the court announced her sentence: death. Then, on 12 October, to the horror of much of the world, Edith Cavell took her place before a German firing sSuad – and Rassed into legend