Join us for a screening of Martin King’s Emmy-Award winning documentary Searching for Augusta: the Forgotten Angel of Bastogne. This event will be held in Het Huis van het Nederlands, at just a few minutes from the Grand Place. There are two screenings, one at 17h00 and one at 18h30, followed by a dinner in the Hard Rock Café on the Grand Place. Martin King, author, historian and producer of the film, will give a brief introduction before the screening.
The film tells the real story of Augusta Chiwy, a young black woman born in the Congo who left her home in Louvain, Belgium on a journey that would affect the rest of her life. She was going home for Christmas to visit her family in Bastogne, a city that within a week would become the center of the largest land battle in US Army history: the Battle of the Bulge.
Bastogne was destined to become a place of terror and destruction; where no one was safe and where anyone could be killed at any time. In mid-January the war moved on to Germany. Augusta returned home, married and raised a family. She never talked about the horror she had experienced.
Augusta disappeared into history until a comment made to historian and author Martin King in 2008 sparked a quest to find this heroic woman who saved so many American lives. After months of searching he found her living alone in Brussels. Conversation after conversation brought to light events that had been hidden for 65 years.
King began a campaign to gain her the international recognition that she so deserved. In 2011, Augusta was knighted by the King of Belgium, and received the United States Army “Humanitarian Civilian Award” for her extraordinary bravery in World War Two. Augusta passed away on 23 August 2015.
The Forgotten Angel of Bastogne, a documentary film about Augusta Chiwy, was screened on March 21, 2014 in Bastogne, Belgium. It is the story of a woman who demonstrated unselfish service and great heroism. It is a story within a story, as the film answers the question “was she a myth?” It is a story of the relationship between two very different people, Jack Prior a white, 10th Armored Division medic and Augusta Chiwy, a black Belgian nurse who volunteered for what meant certain death if she was captured by the advancing German Army.
It is a story that completes a story that began in the Band of Brothers HBO Series, where two nurses, Renée Lemaire, and “Anna from the Congo” are depicted treating patients in the Bastogne aid station. Renée was killed in a bomb blast on Christmas Eve 1944 and became famous as “the Angel of Bastogne”. Anna was lost to history until Martin King found Augusta Chiwy living in Brussels sixty-five years later. Augusta has become the “Forgotten Angel of Bastogne”.
To attend this event you must reserve your tickets in advance on the website of our friends of the American Club of Brussels. NOTE, you can follow one of the two screenings at 17h00 or 18h30. Dinner afterwards is optional.
Join us for a screening of Martin King’s Emmy-Award winning documentary Searching for Augusta: the Forgotten Angel of Bastogne. This event will be held in Het Huis van het Nederlands, at just a few minutes from the Grand Place. There are two screenings, one at 17h00 and one at 18h30, followed by a dinner in the Hard Rock Café on the Grand Place. Martin King, author, historian and producer of the film, will give a brief introduction before the screening.
The film tells the real story of Augusta Chiwy, a young black woman born in the Congo who left her home in Louvain, Belgium on a journey that would affect the rest of her life. She was going home for Christmas to visit her family in Bastogne, a city that within a week would become the center of the largest land battle in US Army history: the Battle of the Bulge.
Bastogne was destined to become a place of terror and destruction; where no one was safe and where anyone could be killed at any time. In mid-January the war moved on to Germany. Augusta returned home, married and raised a family. She never talked about the horror she had experienced.
Augusta disappeared into history until a comment made to historian and author Martin King in 2008 sparked a quest to find this heroic woman who saved so many American lives. After months of searching he found her living alone in Brussels. Conversation after conversation brought to light events that had been hidden for 65 years.
King began a campaign to gain her the international recognition that she so deserved. In 2011, Augusta was knighted by the King of Belgium, and received the United States Army “Humanitarian Civilian Award” for her extraordinary bravery in World War Two. Augusta passed away on 23 August 2015.
The Forgotten Angel of Bastogne, a documentary film about Augusta Chiwy, was screened on March 21, 2014 in Bastogne, Belgium. It is the story of a woman who demonstrated unselfish service and great heroism. It is a story within a story, as the film answers the question “was she a myth?” It is a story of the relationship between two very different people, Jack Prior a white, 10th Armored Division medic and Augusta Chiwy, a black Belgian nurse who volunteered for what meant certain death if she was captured by the advancing German Army.
It is a story that completes a story that began in the Band of Brothers HBO Series, where two nurses, Renée Lemaire, and “Anna from the Congo” are depicted treating patients in the Bastogne aid station. Renée was killed in a bomb blast on Christmas Eve 1944 and became famous as “the Angel of Bastogne”. Anna was lost to history until Martin King found Augusta Chiwy living in Brussels sixty-five years later. Augusta has become the “Forgotten Angel of Bastogne”.
To attend this event you must reserve your tickets in advance on the website of our friends of the American Club of Brussels. NOTE, you can follow one of the two screenings at 17h00 or 18h30. Dinner afterwards is optional.
