{"id":16058,"date":"2025-08-25T20:46:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T18:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dirkvanbabylon.com\/?p=16058"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:01:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T15:01:21","slug":"scharpenelle-a-small-story-of-a-great-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dirkvanbabylon.com\/en\/bibliography-of-patrick\/scharpenelle-a-small-story-of-a-great-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Scharpenelle, A Small Story of a Great War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scharpenelle, A Small Story of a Great War<\/h2>\n

For this story, Patrick Bernauw goes back more than a century. The true story behind <\/span>Scharpenelle, A Small Story of a Great War<\/span><\/i> unfolds during the First World War. Five Flemish soldiers find a toddler in the middle of a house struck by shrapnel. They take the little girl with them to the front and give her the nickname \u201cElisabeth Shrapnell.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Around the same time, a doctor from Leuven, Dr. Scherpeneel, loses his family during the German invasion. His little daughter Isabel has vanished without a trace. Years later, he believes he has found her again in an orphan girl who calls herself \u201cScharpenelle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What follows is a search for identity, interwoven with war propaganda, soldiers\u2019 tales, and songs and poems that circulated at the front. Bernauw weaves these small, true stories into a poignant mosaic meant to render the horror and absurdity of the Great War tangible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scharpenelle<\/span><\/i> was awarded the Visser Neerlandia Prize in 2005.<\/span><\/p>\n

More about the story at bernauw.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scharpenelle, A Small Story of a Great War For this story, Patrick Bernauw goes back more than a century. The true story behind Scharpenelle, A Small […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[159],"class_list":["post-16058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bibliography-of-patrick","tag-patrick-bernauw-en","authors-patrick-bernauw"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nScharpenelle, A Small Story of a Great War - dirk van babylon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For this story, Patrick Bernauw goes back more than a century. 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