Dierickx-Tallieu family. Collection

Paula Tallieu was born on 25 September 1921 in Pittem, Belgium. By the end of 1933, when she was thirteen years old, she moved to Brussels where she worked as a maid at the butchery of Roger Van Eeckhaute and his wife Lea Blomme. Later on Paula assisted the couple as a shopkeeper. After Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, the Van Eeckhaute family could no longer pay Paula. Nonetheless, she remained in contact with the family even after finding a place as a housekeeper with doctor Van der Steen at Haachtsesteenweg in Schaerbeek. Van der Steen performed the medical examination of Belgian men to verify if they would be eligible as labourers for the German war economy. The doctor performed acts of resistance by regularly rejecting boys for service even if they were in good health. Doctor Van der Steen also offered his residence as a hiding place for British, American and Canadian soldiers who were separated from their unit and who were on their way back to unoccupied territories. Jewish families from Schaerbeek and members of the resistance in Brussels were also able to find shelter here and thus were not arrested and deported. Inspired by Van der Steen’s example, Paula also joined the resistance. She became part of the Comète-line, a network set up by Andrée de Jongh to smuggle allied pilots back oversees. Paula or Van der Steen’s daughters escorted these men via tram line 93 from Liedtsplein to Weldoenersplein, where another girl took over. The allied soldiers were thus smuggled to the outskirts of Brussels from where they travelled to England via France. After the war Paula was granted several certificates for her resistance activities. On 7 July 1950 she married Jan Dierickx (born in Tervuren on 26 September 1924 and passed away in Jette on 18 June 2002). Together they had two children: André and Michel. Paula Tallieu passed away in Neder-Over-Heembeek on 23 March 2017 at the age of 95.

Michel Dierickx, son of Paula Tallieu, kindly donated the original certificates and additional information to Kazerne Dossin in 2018.

Michel Dierickx, son of Paula Tallieu, 2018