Belgium collaborated with Nazi Germany

13 February 2007

A historical study ordered by the government revealed that the Belgian state actively collaborated with Germany’s Nazi regime during the second world war.

The Belgian state adopted a “docile and cooperative” attitude towards the nazi regime, which resulted in massive deportation of Jewish people living in the Kingdome.

The director of the CEGES (Centre d’Etude et de documentation Guerres et Société contemporaine), Rudi Van Doorslaer, said that the Belgium went from passive to active collaboration quickly. 

The 1,100 pages report, which took over two years to complete, isolates three key moments.

October 1940, when the central government started registering Jewish people living Belgium at the request of the Occupying power.

Summer 1942, when the Nazi regime massively deported Belgium of Jewish origins. At this point, collaboration started diminishing and some local representatives refused to hand out yellow stars to mark the future deportees. Not all did, Antwerp’s police force, for instance, arrested over 1,200 jews and delivered them to the German authorities.

And 1945, after the liberation, when Belgian military justice assessed that deliberations on the deportation of Jewish people were too “delicate” to be allowed to continue.

[Copyright Expatica]

Subject: Belgian news, WWII