Commemorative Medal Portraying Yvonne Vieslet, 1918

Yvonne Vieslet was 10 years old when she was shot dead by German soldiers at Marchienne-au-Pont on 12 October 1918. A group of about 20 French soldiers, shabby and starving, were trapped in the garden of the Cercle-Saint Edouard. Yvonne, along with her mother and sister, was on her way to see her father when she decided to give her school cake to a prisoner. Arriving at the fence, Yvonne approached closer but was pushed away by the German soldiers. She then threw the cake through the bars from a distance and was shot by the guard. She died the next day. The incident caused a stir and a monument was erected both in Marchienne-au-Pont and in the playground of Yvonne's school in Monceau-sur-Sambre. The medal was sold with the aim of raising funds to build a "Maison Yvonne Vieslet" that would be a women's centre for French culture and Franco-Belgian friendship.