- 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.
- He was member of the Cultural Council for the Dutch Cultural Community.
- He engaged in social work for those affected by repression and former Eastern Fronters, and he strove for amnesty.
- After serving as a war correspondent, Oswald was recalled to officer school in November 1943. One last time he goes to the front, this time to the Oder front as an officer in the Flemish Youth Battalion. However, the situation was no longer sustainable and Oswald disbanded his unit. Oswald is able to escape through the Russian lines to Germany where he changes his military clothes for civilian clothes. He goes into hiding there with the name Hans Richter and marries a German woman. After several years, he turns himself in anyway at the insistence of his mother.
- From 1974 to 1987, he was a senator for the district of Ghent-Eeklo. In the Senate, he was involved in infrastructure and defence, among other things.
- In Debica, Poland, Oswald receives inhumanly harsh training. A few months later, he is sent to the Leningrad Front with the Flemish Legion. Unlike the Russians, the Flemish boys are not prepared for the extreme temperatures. Some days the temperature drops to -52ºC. Oswald's toes soon exhibit frostbite in his unlined leather soldier boots. He suffers for the rest of his life.
- He finished the war as a sub-lieutenant in the Flemish Youth Battalion of the Waffen SS Division Langemarck.
- In June 1942, Oswald received training as a war reporter in Berlin. He had to return to Leningrad and found himself in a heavy battle there. Seventy-two hours he lids under fire in a forest. He was hit in his left thigh, elbow and cheek by flying shrapnel.
- He was a Belgian politician.
- He was a former Belgian collaborator and politician for the People's Union Party (Volksunie).
- In 1984 Van Ooteghem became general vice-chairman and provincial chairman for East Flanders of the Flemish Association for retired persons.
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