Bert Caron lived in Gits during World War II and initially found ways to profit from the German occupation, such as making wooden clogs to sell to soldiers or polishing boots in exchange for cigarettes. However, the Germans began confiscating families' extra cows and goats without payment, slaughtering them, which threatened Bert's family when they took one of their three cows despite rules allowing only one per household. Bert had the remaining cow graze at a neighbor's to avoid losing another.

1. Bert Caron
In the beginning, the war didn’t seem so bad.
Everyone thought that it would soon be over. The German soldiers who
were encamped in Gits, asked us whether they could somewhere buy souvenirs.
Together with two friends, I made small clogs out of wood so that we could sell them to the
German soldiers. We earnt money fast that way. Other

2. boys at my school polished the soldiers’ boots
and some of them even cleaned German cars
and got cigarettes in exchange.
When you had more than one cow or goat,

3. the Germans claimed the animals. They just took them away from
the family without paying and they slaughtered them. Before the war, we had 3 cows and they
already fetched one of them. We let the other cow grazing at the neighbours’. That way we
could pretend that we both only had one cow. We hoped that the Germans
wouldn’t take another cow from us.
Bert Caron lived in Gits during the war. In his diary he talks about his cigarette trade, and that
he only had one cow.