According to François Hallemans (Minny's husband), Alfred sold his glassworks and took a job with Van Wauwe because he would normally had to go to work in Germany. This way, his family would have no worries about a glassworks company that would have to run without him. In the end, he did not have to go to Germany.

During WOII, companies were forced reserve a stay for a certain numbers of German soldiers. The soldiers came and went with the regularity of a clock. Some had to move on, others died on the frontline. Minny remembers that some soldiers were permeated by the German new order where little human contact was possible. Others were ordinary people who had not asked for this war. At the time, they had the choice between a certain death (execution in the case of refusal to serve) or a small chance of survival by following the appeal order. These soldiers were absolutely normal human beings, they had wife and child, a farm, a business, etc. The picture next to it shows a few normal human soldiers.

At a certain point, the Germans were standing on his doorstep, ready to carry out a search. The officer called and Alfred opened the door. The officer explained what they were doing and Alfred replied to him in' Hochdeutsch'. The officer was so impressed that he apologized and said that this was impossible, this must be a mistake. He ordered his soldiers to return to the barracks. François did not know why a search was planned.

In any case, if they were looking for something then they would have been allowed to search, but they would find nothing. Alfred was incredibly inventive. People knew that he used gold and silver in the production of certain pieces. You would never find the precious metal. Where did he hide something like that? The answer is very simple: in all the places you wouldn't think of as a normal human being. For example, he put gold away in the cavity of the ribbon roller of a roller shutter. Who wouls think about that? Alfred of course. Roller shutter cabinets were also favourite places to hide something and he had more of that in mind.

Minny told me that she had been bullied as much during the war as 'dirty Fritz' although she was Czech. When Alfred heard this, he went to the parents house and made it clear to them that it had to stop immediately and opened his coat in which he wore his revolver. Since then, no one has dared to say anything any more.