In 1941, seventeen-year-old, Oswald Van Ooteghem, along with five hundred other volunteers, left for the Eastern Front with blazing enthusiasm. He is going there to fight for the Germans, but in his young eyes it is mainly a fight for Flanders.
He studied architecture at the Sint-Lucas Institute in Ghent and he was in that period a member of the Algemeen Vlaamsch Nationaal Jeugdverbond and the Nationaal-Socialistische Jeugd Vlaanderen, of which he became a squad leader.
In August 1941, Van Ooteghem interrupted his studies to leave for the Eastern Front as a member of the Flemish Legion. He was wounded three times and became a war correspondent.
He served in the Senate from 1974 to 1987 and in the Flemish Council from 1980 to 1987.
After the war he remained in hiding in Germany until 1949. After his return, he received a three-year prison sentence, one of which he served. Once free, he worked as an executive in a construction company.