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Belgium in World War II

January 01, 1970

Despite being neutral at the start of World War II, Belgium and its colonial possessions found themselves at war after the country was invaded by German forces on 10 May 1940. After 18 days of fighting in which Belgian forces were pushed back into a small pocket in the north-west of the country, the Belgian military surrendered to the Germans, beginning an occupation that would endure until 1944. The surrender of 28 May was ordered by King Leopold III without the consultation of his government and sparked a political crisis after the war. Despite the capitulation, many Belgians managed to escape to the United Kingdom where they formed a government and army-in-exile on the Allied side.

German soldiers parade past the Royal Palace in Brussels, 1940

The Belgian Congo remained loyal to the Belgian government in London and contributed significant material and human resources to the Allied cause. Many Belgians were involved in both armed and passive resistance to German forces, although some chose to collaborate with the German forces. Support from far right political factions and sections of the Belgian population allowed the German army to recruit two divisions of the Waffen-SS from Belgium and also facilitated the Nazi persecution of Belgian Jews in which nearly 25,000 were killed.

Most of the country was liberated by the Allies between September and October 1944, though areas in the far east of the country remained occupied until early 1945. In total, approximately 88,000 Belgians died during the conflict,[1] a figure representing 1.05 percent of the country's pre-war population, and around 8 percent of the country's GDP was destroyed.[2]

Background edit

During the 1930s, Belgium was still recovering from the destruction of World War I. Economically, Belgium was experiencing high unemployment in the aftermath of the Great Depression of 1929, and by 1932 unemployment stood at 23.5 percent[3] though under the "New Deal-style" Plan de Man[4] this had been reduced to around 15 percent by 1937.[3]

The 1930s also saw the growth of several authoritarian and fascist political parties in both Wallonia and Flanders. In the 1936 elections, one of these, the Rexist party, gained 11.6 percent of the national vote.[5] By 1939 however, extremist parties lost many of the seats that they had previously gained in new elections and political stability seemed to be returning.[6]

Neutrality edit

 
Bunkers and anti-tank defenses of the K-W Line along the River Dijle, built in late 1939

As Belgium had suffered so much damage in World War I, there was little appetite within the country to involve itself in any potential European conflict. In October 1936, King Leopold III announced that Belgium would remain neutral in the event of another war in Europe as part of what he termed an Independent Policy (Politique d'Indépendance).[7] To this end, the Belgian government tried to steer a path away from alliances: leaving the Locarno Treaty, repudiating a defence pact with France signed in 1920[8] and receiving a guarantee of neutrality from Nazi Germany in 1937.[8]

The German Government considers that the inviolability and integrity of Belgium are common interests of the Western Powers. It confirms its determination that in no circumstances will it impair this inviolability and integrity and that it will at all times respect Belgian territory ...

— German guarantee of neutrality, 13 October 1937[9]

During this period, the Belgian military was reorganized as an exclusively defensive force[10] and began construction and modernization of fortifications around the country, particularly around Liège Province near the German border.[11]

On the declaration of war between the United Kingdom, France, and Germany in September 1939, the Belgian government launched a crash re-armament program, augmenting the national defenses by creating the K-W Line linking the National Redoubt at Antwerp with the south along the River Dijle, just behind the main Fortified Position of Liège.[12]

18 Days' Campaign edit

 
Belgian soldiers surrender to German paratroopers after the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael, 11 May 1940.
Main article: Battle of Belgium

With the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, although still following a policy of neutrality, the Belgian government began general mobilization.[13] By 1940, the army numbered between 600,000[14] and 650,000[15] men (nearly 20 percent of the male population of Belgium) making it approximately four times larger than the British Expeditionary Force and twice as large as the Dutch army at the time.[16]

The invasion of Belgium by Nazi Germany started on May 10, 1940, under the codename Fall Gelb ("Case Yellow") as part of the wider invasion of France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The Belgian Albert Canal fortifications, some of the most modern defensive networks in Europe, proved almost useless. At Eben-Emael, the fort held by 1,200 Belgians was taken when the Germans deployed 500 glider-borne Fallschirmjäger against them, opening the border for Blitzkrieg-style warfare.[17] Almost all of the air force's modern Hurricane fighters were also destroyed by the Luftwaffe on the ground at Schaffen airfield on May 10.[18]

 
Belgian civilians fleeing westwards away from the advancing German army, 12 May 1940

The German breakthrough at Sedan, which had been thought impassable, meant that defenders of the K-W Line risked being outflanked, and had to withdraw on 16 May.[19] The German invasion triggered a panic amongst Belgian civilians in the path of the advancing German army. By 11 May, the roads leading westwards, away from the fighting, were blocked by refugees, hampering the eastward advance of French and British forces.[20] It is estimated that around two million civilians fled their homes during the campaign.[21]

The government's policy of neutrality had left Belgium with an outdated and ill-equipped army and air force. Above all, the army possessed only 16 battle tanks[note 1] between its two cavalry divisions for political reasons as they had been considered too "aggressive" for the army of a neutral power.[22] The air force, hurriedly reorganised in May 1940, was taken by surprise and could only field 180 serviceable aircraft out of its total of 234.[18]

The military held out against German forces for 18 days, against overwhelming odds. On 28 May, forced into a small pocket along the Leie river and after failed attempts to broker a ceasefire on the 27th, the Belgian king and military surrendered unconditionally.[23] Belgian casualties during the campaign numbered some 6,000 killed[24] and 15,850 wounded.[18][25] Some 112,500 French and Belgian troops escaped to the UK via Dunkirk[26] but the majority of the Belgian survivors were made prisoners of war and many were not released until the end of the war.[27]

With the surrender of the Belgian army, the government, led by Hubert Pierlot, fled first to Paris and formed a government in exile in Bordeaux. After the Fall of France, the government transferred to Eaton Square, London.[28]

Surrender of Leopold III edit

 
A Belgian coin with the monogram of Leopold III, minted during the occupation.

Leopold III, king and commander in chief of the Belgian army, surrendered personally to German forces on 28 May, contrary to the advice of Pierlot's government, having personally decided that the Allied cause was lost.[29] His decision was fiercely criticized by the French prime minister, Paul Reynaud[30] and by Pierlot in a radio broadcast on 28 June 1940, where he declared Leopold's decision to be "an event without precedent in history".[31]

The king remained in Belgium during the war as a German prisoner while the government went into exile and continued military action in the Allied cause.[32] Unlike the Netherlands and Luxembourg where the monarchy was repressed or had joined the government in exile, Leopold III remained prominent in the occupied territory, and coins and stamps produced during the occupation continued to carry his face or monogram.[33] Nevertheless, Leopold remained a focus for resistance, his position explained by the slogan "Belgium is captive! Long live Belgium! The King is captive! Long live the King!"[34] While imprisoned, he sent a letter to Adolf Hitler in 1942 which has been credited with saving an estimated 500,000 Belgian women and children from forced deportation to munitions factories in Germany.[35] In November 1940, Leopold visited Hitler in Berchtesgaden where he asked for Belgian prisoners of war to be freed.[30]

After the war, allegations that Leopold's surrender had been an act of collaboration provoked a political crisis, known as the Royal Question, about whether he could return to the throne, which ultimately ended with his abdication.[30]

German occupation edit

Main article: German occupation of Belgium during World War II

Life in occupied Belgium edit

 
RAF Lancaster bombers target the Belgian town of St. Vith in the Ardennes, 1944.

Belgium was run by a German military government under General Alexander von Falkenhausen and Eggert Reeder until July 1944, and then by Reichskommissar Josef Grohé until liberation.[36] The German government levied the costs of the military occupation on the Belgians through taxes, while also demanding "external occupation costs" (or "Anti-Bolshevik charge") to support operations elsewhere.[37] In total, Belgium was forced to pay nearly two-thirds of its national income for these charges,[38] a figure equaling 5.7 billion Reichsmarks.[citation needed]

As in all occupied countries in Europe, food, fuel and clothing were strictly rationed by the German authorities. Even with the stringent rationing, the food and materials which civilians should officially have been entitled to were not always available.[39] A significant black market also existed in the country, supplying food illegally at very high prices to those that could afford it.[40] Information and the press were strictly controlled by the German government and news was greatly restricted. Nevertheless, the sales of collaborationist newspapers like Le Soir and the newspapers of pro-collaborationist political parties like Le Pays Réel remained high.[41] A large number of underground newspapers were also published and distributed – the underground paper La Libre Belgique achieved a circulation of 30,000.[42]

 
A Belgian forced worker in the Siemens factory in Berlin, August 1943.

Occupied Belgium was also targeted by the Allied bombers from both the British RAF and American USAAF. The policy led to high civilian casualties as bombs missed their intended targets and fell on civilian areas. In a raid on the Erla Motor Works in the Belgian town of Mortsel (near Antwerp) in April 1943, just two bombs dropped by the B-17s of the U.S. 8th Air Force fell on the intended target.[43] The remaining 24 tons of bombs fell on civilian areas of the town, killing 936 and injuring 1,600 more in just eight minutes.[43] The Allied policy was condemned by many leading figures within Belgium, including Cardinal van Roey.[44]

Around 375,000 Belgians also served in labour programs within Germany during the war, working in manual jobs in industry or agriculture for the German war effort.[45] Though nearly 180,000 Belgians signed up before conscription began in 1941, most were conscripted after that date and worked as forced labour against their will.[46]

200,000 Belgian military prisoners of war, who had been captured in 1940, were also transported to Germany.[27] Most were used as forced labour and paid only a nominal sum.[47] About 80,000 (mainly Flemish) prisoners were returned to Belgium between late 1940 and 1941,[27] but many remained in captivity until the end of the war. They were often kept in very poor conditions and around 2,000 died.[25]

Collaboration edit

 
Belgian Flemish nationalist politician (VNV), writer and poet Ward Hermans (1897 - 1992) as a speaker at a meeting of the General SS Flanders in Ghent, during the German occupation in World War II.

During the period of Nazi occupation, some Belgians collaborated with their occupiers. There were pro-Nazi political organizations in both Flemish and Walloon communities before and during the war. The most significant were DeVlag, Verdinaso and Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV) in Flanders as well as the Catholic Rex movement in Wallonia. Each of these movements had subtly different ideologies, their own paramilitary forces and printed their own newspapers. These organisations were also instrumental in encouraging Belgians to enlist into the German Army. Unlike the German-style National Socialist agenda of DeVlag,[48] VNV appealed directly to a Flemish separatist agenda,[49] though this message was never the main source of their popularity.[50] Infighting between the groups, particularly VNV and DeVlag, was considerable.[48]

 
Recruitment poster with the slogan "Come to us!" for the 28th SS "Wallonien" Division made up of French-speaking Belgians.
See also: Rexism, Flemish National Union, Verdinaso, and DeVlag

On the whole, the Belgian administrative system was very pliant and became an instrument of collaboration. In a 2007 report by a Belgian research institute, Cegesoma, a panel of historians concluded that Belgium had offered "maximum administrative collaboration" with the German occupation forces.[51] The same report also commented on the apparently higher levels of collaboration in Flanders as part of an attempted integration into a "German-Flemish New Order".[52] The towns of Brussels and Liège, the report added, "remained [generally] patriotic-Belgian and decisively hostile to Germany".[52] The report also found that many Belgian authorities had been compliant, even active, in the deportation of Jews.[52]

Two separate units of the Waffen-SS, the Flemish Legion and the Walloon Legion, were recruited from Belgium during the occupation. Léon Degrelle, founder of the Rexist Party, served as commander of the Walloon Legion, which fought against the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. A total of 15,000 Belgians[53] in the "divisions" (neither ever greater than brigade strength) fought on the Eastern Front where the Walloon Legion was nearly annihilated in the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket in 1944.[54]

After the war, a total of 400,000 Belgians were investigated for collaboration. Of these, around 56,000 were prosecuted. The majority received prison sentences although several hundred were executed.[55]

Resistance edit

 
Members of the Belgian resistance with a Canadian soldier during the liberation of Bruges, 1944.
Main article: Belgian Resistance

Resistance to German occupation came from all levels and regions of Belgium and quarters of the political spectrum, but was highly fragmented and localised.[56] The Belgian government in exile dealt only with sympathetic resistance groups, like the Armée Secrète; however, even these umbrella organisations had many different agendas or political ideologies.[56] Some groups were very left-wing, like the Communist Partisans armés, but there were also right-wing resistance movements, like the monarchist Mouvement National Royaliste and the fascist Légion Belge, created by members of the pre-war Légion Nationale movement. There were also other groups like Groupe G which had no obvious political affiliation.[56]

Resistance to the occupiers often came in the form of helping Allied airmen shot down over Belgium escape. Belgians created numerous escape and evasion lines. The best known was the Comet line which evacuated an estimated 700 Allied airmen to Gibraltar from where they were flown to England.[57] The Comet Line sheltered downed airmen in safe houses throughout Belgium. Allied airmen were given civilian clothes and moved from house to house, staying with Belgian families who supported the resistance. The escape lines gave the airmen false identification papers and guided them to neutral or Allied occupied territory. The guides were usually young women. Hundreds of the workers for the escape lines were captured and imprisoned by the Germans and many were executed.[57][58]

 
The bodies of Belgian civilians killed by Germans, December 1944

As elsewhere, sabotage was employed against enemy military and economic assets, with railway lines and bridges being common targets. The activities of Groupe G, a small student resistance cell based in Brussels, alone are estimated to have cost the Nazis 10 million man-hours of labour to repair damages done.[59] Direct attacks on German troops and military installations were rarer, yet one estimate puts the number of German soldiers killed by the Belgian resistance in 1941 as higher than in all of France.[60]

The resistance were instrumental in saving Jews and Roma from deportation to death camps, for instance the attack on the "Twentieth convoy" to Auschwitz. Many Belgians also hid Jews and political dissidents during the occupation, with one estimate putting the number at some 20,000 people hidden during the war.[note 2] There was also significant low-level resistance, for instance in June 1941, the City Council of Brussels refused to distribute Stars of David badges.[61] Certain high-profile members of the Belgian establishment, including Queen Elizabeth and Cardinal van Roey, Archbishop of Malines, spoke out against the German treatment of Jews.[62] So far, 1,612 Belgians have been awarded the distinction of "Righteous Among the Nations" by the State of Israel for risking their lives to save Jews from persecution during the occupation.[63]

Belgian civilians were often subject to retaliation by paramilitaries and German forces for resistance activity. In August 1944, 20 civilians were killed by Rexist paramilitaries in the Courcelles Massacre in reprisal for a single attack on a Rexist politician.[64]

The Holocaust edit

 
The gallows at Breendonk Concentration Camp, near Mechelen.
Main article: The Holocaust in Belgium

In mid-1940, nearly 57,000 Jews were living in Belgium out of a population of roughly 8 million.[65] Many had fled to Belgium to escape recent persecution in Germany and elsewhere, meaning that only a minority were Belgian citizens.[65] Most of the Jewish population was focused in communities in the towns of Brussels and Antwerp.[65]

Anti-Jewish legislation (along the lines of the German Nuremberg Laws or French laws on the status of Jews) was enacted in October 1940, a few months after the German occupation.[65] Several pogroms took place in 1941, notably in Antwerp,[66] and economic assets belonging to Jews were seized.[65] In May 1942, wearing of the yellow Star-of-David badge became compulsory for Jews in Belgium.[65]

From June 1942, as part of the "Final Solution", Jews living in Belgium were ordered to report to the Mechelen transit camp.[65] Those who did not do so voluntarily were rounded up by the police. Between August 1942 and July 1944, a total of twenty-six railway convoys deported 25,000 Jews and 350 Roma from Belgium to eastern Europe.[67][68] Most were sent to the Auschwitz death camp, although others went to camps at Bergen-Belsen and Vittel.[65]

Of the 25,000 deported, over 24,000 were killed. Fewer than 1,000 were still alive by the time Allied forces liberated the camps.[55]

The former Belgian army fort at Breendonk, near Mechelen, was requisitioned by the Nazis and used for detainment and interrogation of Jews, political prisoners and captured members of the resistance. Of the 3,500 people incarcerated in Breendonk between 1940 and 1944, 1,733 died.[69] Around 300 people were killed in the camp itself, with at least 98 of them dying from deprivation or torture.[70][71]

Belgian government and army in exile edit

 
Free Belgian soldiers fire a mortar during a training exercise in Wales, 1941.
Main article: Free Belgian Forces

After the defeat in 1940, significant numbers of Belgian soldiers and civilians escaped to Britain who, along with Belgian pre-war émigrés in Britain and Canada, formed the Belgian forces in exile.[72] The Belgian government, including ministers from Catholic, Socialist and Liberal parties under Hubert Pierlot, evacuated to London alongside other governments from occupied countries (including the Netherlands and Luxembourg) where it remained until the liberation of Belgium in 1944.

The government in exile claimed the authority to speak for the whole of Belgium, leading the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paul-Henri Spaak, to comment that "all that remains of legal and free Belgium, all that is entitled to speak in her name, is in London".[73] A Belgian politician, Victor de Laveleye, is also credited with inspiring the Allied "V for Victory" propaganda campaign in 1941.[74] The Belgium government in exile declared war on the Empire of Japan on 20 December 1941.[75]

In a broadcast on French Radio, Pierlot called for the creation of an army in exile to continue the fight:

With the same youthful courage that responded to the government's call, reunited with the elements of the Belgian military in France and Great Britain, a new army will be levied and organized. It will go into the line alongside those of our allies ... all the forces we have will be put at the service of the cause which has become ours ... It is important to assure immediately and in a tangible way, the solidarity which continues to unite the powers which have given us their support ...

— Pierlot, Speech on French Radio, 28 May 1940[76]
 
Spitfires of No. 350 (Belgian) Squadron at RAF Kenley in England, 1942.

By 1944, the Free Belgian forces in the United Kingdom numbered some 4,500 men.[77] Belgian soldiers formed the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade (which also included an artillery battery of soldiers from Luxembourg) more often known as the Brigade Piron after its commanding officer, Jean-Baptiste Piron. The Brigade Piron was involved in the Normandy Invasion and the battles in France and the Netherlands until liberation.[78]

Belgians also served in British special forces units during the war, forming a troop of No.10 (Inter-Allied) Commando, which was involved in the Italian Campaign and the Landings on Walcheren.[79] The 5th Special Air Service (part of the élite SAS) was made up entirely of Belgians and was the first Allied unit to enter Belgium in September 1944.[80]

400 Belgian pilots served in the Royal Air Force. Two all-Belgian fighter units, Nos. 349 and 350 Squadrons, served in the European theatre. No. 350 Squadron alone claimed 51 "kills" between its formation in November 1941 and the end of the war.[81] In total, 1,200 Belgians served in the RAF, mainly in British or Free Dutch squadrons.[82]

Two corvettes and a group of minesweepers were also operated by the Belgians during the Battle of the Atlantic. By 1943, 350 Belgians were serving as sailors on these vessels.[82]

Belgian Congo edit

 
Belgian-Congolese Force Publique soldiers, 1943.
Main article: Belgian Congo in World War II

Despite Belgium's occupation, the Belgian Congo remained loyal to the government in exile and was put at the disposal of the Allies, making a significant contribution to the Allied war effort.[83]

Congolese soldiers of the Force Publique were involved in fighting with Italian forces during the East African Campaign and were instrumental to forcing Italian forces out of Abyssinia,[84] suffering 500 casualties.[85] 13,000 Congolese troops served under British command in Nigeria.[85] Detachments of Congolese soldiers also served in the Middle East and Burma.[85] In total, the Force Publique comprised approximately 40,000 men[86] and was racially segregated meaning that blacks could not become officers. Throughout the war, therefore, it was commanded by white officers.[87]

Twice, in 1941 and 1944, major strikes took place in towns around the country against the extra pressure put on workers by the colonial authorities. The Force Publique garrison in Luluabourg also mutinied in 1944.[88] These were repressed by military force, often violently.[89]

The Congo was also a vitally important economic asset to the Allied powers. The Congo's gold alone contributed some $28.5 million to the Allied war effort,[90] while its exports of rubber and uranium provided vital sources of raw materials.[91] Most of the uranium used during the American Manhattan Project – including that used for the nuclear weapons dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – was supplied by the Belgian firm Union Minière du Haut Katanga from Katanga Province in the Belgian Congo.[92]

Liberation edit

Main article: Liberation of Belgium (1944)
See also: Chronology of the liberation of Belgian cities and towns during World War II
 
British armoured cars during the liberation of Ghent, September 8th 1944.

Belgium was liberated in September 1944 by the Allied forces, including British, Canadian, and American armies, which also included the Brigade Piron. On September 3, 1944, the Welsh Guards liberated Brussels.[93] Just after the liberation, the inhabitants of the Marolles district held a mock funeral for Hitler.[93]

The port of Antwerp was an important strategic objective because Allied supply lines were heavily stretched and needed a deep-sea port near the front lines.[94] The British Second Army liberated Antwerp on September 6, with help from the local resistance.[95] Despite taking control of the city, the port was not accessible until the surrounding waters were safe for cargo ships. The Germans successfully denied access to the port until the Battle of the Scheldt completed in November.[96]

Leopold III's brother, Charles, the Count of Flanders, was appointed Regent, pending a decision about whether the King would be able to regain his former position on the throne.[35] In February 1945, Achille Van Acker replaced Pierlot as Prime Minister.[97] The resistance was disarmed, and many of its members and other Belgians who had remained in the country during the occupation were mobilised into the regular Belgian army in 57 "Fusilier Battalions".[98] These battalions served in several battles on the western front.[99] 100,000 Belgians were fighting in the Allied armies by VE Day.[100]

General Courtney Hodges' U.S. First Army liberated the region south of Brussels and Maastricht in early September 1944. While two corps of the First Army were concentrated elsewhere, VIII Corps occupied a long stretch of the front from the area south of Liège, across the Ardennes and into Luxembourg. The length of the deployment meant that the Corps' front line was only lightly defended, leaving it vulnerable.[101]

 
American soldiers of the 99th Infantry Division enter the Belgian village of Wirtzfeld, late 1944.

Following a few months of relative calm in Belgium, on 16 December 1944 the Germans launched the Ardennes Offensive with over a quarter of a million soldiers.[102] Antwerp was the ultimate objective of the German offensive, but the German advance stalled before the Meuse River, at Celles near Dinant, and was pushed back in furious fighting over a period of six weeks in bitterly cold weather by American, British and Belgian troops.[102] Belgian towns and civilians in the Ardennes suffered during the offensive as homes were reduced to ruins, and there were instances of German troops shooting civilians.[103] Around 90% of the town of La Roche-en-Ardenne was destroyed during fighting.[104] By 4 February 1945, the country was reported to be free of German troops.[105]

In the six months following Allied liberation, Belgian towns were widely targeted by the unpiloted German V-Bombs. A total of 2,342 of these rockets (1610 of the more advanced V-2s and about 732 V-1s) fell in a 10-mile radius around Antwerp alone.[106] A post-war SHAEF report estimated V-Bombs had been responsible for killing 5,000 people and injuring a further 21,000, mostly in the cities of Liège and Antwerp.[106]

The period after liberation also saw a wave of prosecutions of those suspected of collaboration during the war. 400,000 Belgians were investigated for collaboration of whom 56,000 were prosecuted.[55] Nearly 250 were executed.[55] Léon Degrelle, despite being sentenced to death, managed to escape to Francoist Spain where he remained until his death in 1994.[107]

Legacy and aftermath edit

 
Plaque commemorating the Belgian victims of the Holocaust in the Marolles area of Brussels.

After the experience of World War II, Belgium abandoned its neutral stance in international politics, in favour of military, political and economic integration. In 1949, Belgium joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and deployed troops to fight alongside other United Nations forces in the Korean War in 1950.[2] Belgium was also a key player in the unsuccessful negotiations about the creation of a European Defence Community (EDC) in the 1950s. Belgium was assigned a sector of the British zone in West Germany, around the city of Cologne, which it occupied from 1945.[108] Belgian soldiers remained in Germany until their final withdrawal in 2002.[108]

Economically, Belgium joined the Benelux Economic Union in 1948 and was a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community from its creation in 1952.[2] From 1944 until 1960, Belgium also experienced a period of rapid economic recovery, dubbed the "Belgian Miracle", partially as a result of the Marshall Plan.[109]

The political crisis surrounding Leopold III's role during the occupation, and whether he could return to the throne, polarized Belgian public opinion in the years following the war between Catholics, notably in Flanders, who broadly supported his return, and Socialists, in Wallonia and Brussels, who were strongly opposed to it.[30] After a general strike and an indecisive referendum, the king resigned in favour of his son, Baudouin, in 1950.[30]

Commemoration edit

In the decades following the war, large numbers of public memorials were erected around the country in memory of Belgian soldiers who had died fighting for the Allied cause during the conflict.[note 3] There are numerous monuments and streets dedicated to Allied politicians and generals, including Franklin Roosevelt and Bernard Montgomery in Brussels.[93] The large numbers of British and American cemeteries and memorials, particularly in the Ardennes region associated with the Battle of the Bulge, meant that the legacy of the war was very visible.[110]

In common with other countries, there are numerous veterans' associations[111] (known as "Fraternelle" or "Amicale" in French) and Belgian towns, particularly Bastogne, are frequently visited by veterans from other countries.[112] There are also numerous war museums around the country, including the Royal Museum of the Army and Military History in Brussels, which aim to inform the public about the war.[113] The Holocaust is commemorated in Belgium by both memorials and museums; the prison at Fort Breendonk has been preserved as a museum and has been open to the public since 1947.[114] Since the passing of the Holocaust denial law in 1995, it is illegal to deny the holocaust.[115]

The participation of soldiers from the Belgian Congo was, however, largely forgotten[116] following Congolese independence in 1960 and decades of subsequent war. In recent years the profile of the veterans has been raised by exhibitions creating greater public awareness.[117][118]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ 16 tanks of the French Renault ACG-1 type were in service in 1940, in addition to 270 other armoured vehicles, mostly of the lightly armoured T-13 and T-15 types.
  2. ^ The Museum van Deportatie en Verzet puts the number at 20,000 Jews, including 3,000 children. The historian Eva Fogelman supplies a figure of 20,000 adults and 8,000 children in hiding.
  3. ^ For a map of all World War II memorials in Brussels, see . Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.

References edit

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  2. ^ a b c "Belgium after World War II". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Belgium 1929–1940 – Economic Policy". World History at KMLA. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  4. ^ Schuermans, Willy (2006). Memo 6: Nieuwste Tijden, 20ste – 21ste eeuw. Antwerp: de Boeck. pp. 42–47. ISBN 978-90-455-1501-4.
  5. ^ "Belgium 1929–1940 – Domestic Policy". World History at KMLA. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  6. ^ di Muro, Giovanni F. (2005). Léon Degrelle et l'aventure rexiste. Brussels: Éd. Luc Pire. pp. 151–3. ISBN 2-87415-519-5.
  7. ^ Polsson, Ken. . 2timeline.info. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  8. ^ a b "Belgium 1929–1940 – Foreign Policy". World History at KMLA. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  9. ^ Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality (1946). "Aggression Against Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourgh" (PDF). Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Vol. I. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. p. 762.
  10. ^ Churchill, Winston (25 May 1937). "Germany's Arms: Dutch and Belgian Policies". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  11. ^ Bond, Brian (1990). Britain, France, and Belgium, 1939–1940 (2nd ed.). London: Brassey's Riverside. p. 24. ISBN 0-08-037700-9.
  12. ^ Vanden Bloock, Bernard. "Belgian Fortifications, May 1940: KW Line (60 km)". niehorster.orbat.com. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  13. ^ Balace, Francis (10 May 1990). "L'Armée Belge à l'Aube du Conflit: Nous Avions une Armée de Reservists, Un Belge sur Douze était Mobilisé". Le Soir. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  14. ^ Bailly, Michel (2 February 1990). "Forces et faiblesses de l'armée belge en 1940 à la veille de la guerre". Le Soir. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  15. ^ Thomas, Nigel (1991). Foreign Volunteers of the Allied Forces: 1939–45. London: Osprey. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-85532-136-6.
  16. ^ Various authors (1941). Belgium: The Official Account of What Happened, 1939–40. London: Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. p. 99.
  17. ^ Lucas, James (1988). Storming Eagles: German Airborne Forces in World War Two. London: Arms and Armour. pp. 21–22. ISBN 0-85368-879-6.
  18. ^ a b c Mollo, Andrew (2001). The Armed Forces of World War II: Uniforms, Insignia & Organisation. Leicester: Silverdale Books. pp. 48–50. ISBN 1-85605-603-1.
  19. ^ "Koningshooikt Wavre Line (KW line)". globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  20. ^ "11 May 1940: Belgian Refugees Clog the Roads". World War II Today. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  21. ^ . Project 1944. Archived from the original on 6 June 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  22. ^ . home.scarlet.be/vdmeiren. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  23. ^ Various authors (1941). Belgium: The Official Account of What Happened, 1939–40. London: Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. pp. 41–5.
  24. ^ Keegan, John (1989). The Second World War. New York: Penguin Books. p. 96. ISBN 0-14-303573-8.
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Further reading edit

Primary sources
  • Weller, George (1941). The Belgian Campaign in Ethiopia: A Trek of 2,500 Miles through Jungle Swamps and Desert Wastes. New York: Belgian Information Center.
  • Various authors (1941). Belgium – The Official Account of What Happened – 1939–1940. London: Evans Brothers Limited, for the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  • Various authors (1942). The Belgian Congo at War. New York: Belgian Information Center.
Secondary sources
  • Bernard, Henri (1968). La Résistance 1940–1945 (in French). Brussels: Éd. Renaissance du livre.
  • Conway, Martin (1993). Collaboration in Belgium: Léon Degrelle and the Rexist Movement, 1940–1944. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press. ISBN 0-300-05500-5.
  • Conway, Martin (2012). The Sorrows of Belgium: Liberation and Political Reconstruction, 1944–1947. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-969434-1.
  • Conway, Martin; Gotovitch, José, eds. (2001). Europe in Exile: European exile communities in Britain 1940–1945 (1st ed.). New York: Berghahn. ISBN 978-1571817594.
  • Keyes, Roger (1984). Outrageous Fortune: The Tragedy of Leopold III of the Belgians, 1901–1941 (1st British ed.). London: Secker & Warburg. ISBN 978-0436233203.
  • Van Doorslaer, Rudi; Debruyne, Emmanuel; Seberechts, Frank; Wouters, Nico (2007). "La Belgique docile: Les autorités belges et la persécution des Juifs en Belgique pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale" [Docile Belgium: Belgian authorities and the persecution Jews in Belgium during the Second World War] (PDF). Final report of a study carried out by the Center for Studies and Documentation on War and Contemporary Societies on behalf of Federal government and at the request of the Belgian Senate, 2004-2007 (in French). Brussels: Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (CegeSoma) – via www.senate.be.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Belgium in World War II.
  • Houbion, Georgette; Marichal, Jean-Louis. "History of the Piron Brigade 1940–1945". Brigade-piron.be. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  • "Holocaust Encyclopedia: Belgium". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  • "The Belgian War Press". CEGES-SOMA. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  • Van Wijnsberghe, Jean-Marie. "The Belgian Armed Forces, 1940–1946". Be4046.eu. Retrieved 30 May 2013.

January 01, 1970
belgium, world, despite, being, neutral, start, world, belgium, colonial, possessions, found, themselves, after, country, invaded, german, forces, 1940, after, days, fighting, which, belgian, forces, were, pushed, back, into, small, pocket, north, west, countr. Despite being neutral at the start of World War II Belgium and its colonial possessions found themselves at war after the country was invaded by German forces on 10 May 1940 After 18 days of fighting in which Belgian forces were pushed back into a small pocket in the north west of the country the Belgian military surrendered to the Germans beginning an occupation that would endure until 1944 The surrender of 28 May was ordered by King Leopold III without the consultation of his government and sparked a political crisis after the war Despite the capitulation many Belgians managed to escape to the United Kingdom where they formed a government and army in exile on the Allied side German soldiers parade past the Royal Palace in Brussels 1940 The Belgian Congo remained loyal to the Belgian government in London and contributed significant material and human resources to the Allied cause Many Belgians were involved in both armed and passive resistance to German forces although some chose to collaborate with the German forces Support from far right political factions and sections of the Belgian population allowed the German army to recruit two divisions of the Waffen SS from Belgium and also facilitated the Nazi persecution of Belgian Jews in which nearly 25 000 were killed Most of the country was liberated by the Allies between September and October 1944 though areas in the far east of the country remained occupied until early 1945 In total approximately 88 000 Belgians died during the conflict 1 a figure representing 1 05 percent of the country s pre war population and around 8 percent of the country s GDP was destroyed 2 Contents 1 Background 1 1 Neutrality 2 18 Days Campaign 2 1 Surrender of Leopold III 3 German occupation 3 1 Life in occupied Belgium 3 2 Collaboration 3 3 Resistance 3 4 The Holocaust 4 Belgian government and army in exile 5 Belgian Congo 6 Liberation 7 Legacy and aftermath 7 1 Commemoration 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External linksBackground editDuring the 1930s Belgium was still recovering from the destruction of World War I Economically Belgium was experiencing high unemployment in the aftermath of the Great Depression of 1929 and by 1932 unemployment stood at 23 5 percent 3 though under the New Deal style Plan de Man 4 this had been reduced to around 15 percent by 1937 3 The 1930s also saw the growth of several authoritarian and fascist political parties in both Wallonia and Flanders In the 1936 elections one of these the Rexist party gained 11 6 percent of the national vote 5 By 1939 however extremist parties lost many of the seats that they had previously gained in new elections and political stability seemed to be returning 6 Neutrality edit nbsp Bunkers and anti tank defenses of the K W Line along the River Dijle built in late 1939 As Belgium had suffered so much damage in World War I there was little appetite within the country to involve itself in any potential European conflict In October 1936 King Leopold III announced that Belgium would remain neutral in the event of another war in Europe as part of what he termed an Independent Policy Politique d Independance 7 To this end the Belgian government tried to steer a path away from alliances leaving the Locarno Treaty repudiating a defence pact with France signed in 1920 8 and receiving a guarantee of neutrality from Nazi Germany in 1937 8 The German Government considers that the inviolability and integrity of Belgium are common interests of the Western Powers It confirms its determination that in no circumstances will it impair this inviolability and integrity and that it will at all times respect Belgian territory German guarantee of neutrality 13 October 1937 9 During this period the Belgian military was reorganized as an exclusively defensive force 10 and began construction and modernization of fortifications around the country particularly around Liege Province near the German border 11 On the declaration of war between the United Kingdom France and Germany in September 1939 the Belgian government launched a crash re armament program augmenting the national defenses by creating the K W Line linking the National Redoubt at Antwerp with the south along the River Dijle just behind the main Fortified Position of Liege 12 18 Days Campaign edit nbsp Belgian soldiers surrender to German paratroopers after the Battle of Fort Eben Emael 11 May 1940 Main article Battle of Belgium With the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 although still following a policy of neutrality the Belgian government began general mobilization 13 By 1940 the army numbered between 600 000 14 and 650 000 15 men nearly 20 percent of the male population of Belgium making it approximately four times larger than the British Expeditionary Force and twice as large as the Dutch army at the time 16 The invasion of Belgium by Nazi Germany started on May 10 1940 under the codename Fall Gelb Case Yellow as part of the wider invasion of France the Netherlands and Luxembourg The Belgian Albert Canal fortifications some of the most modern defensive networks in Europe proved almost useless At Eben Emael the fort held by 1 200 Belgians was taken when the Germans deployed 500 glider borne Fallschirmjager against them opening the border for Blitzkrieg style warfare 17 Almost all of the air force s modern Hurricane fighters were also destroyed by the Luftwaffe on the ground at Schaffen airfield on May 10 18 nbsp Belgian civilians fleeing westwards away from the advancing German army 12 May 1940 The German breakthrough at Sedan which had been thought impassable meant that defenders of the K W Line risked being outflanked and had to withdraw on 16 May 19 The German invasion triggered a panic amongst Belgian civilians in the path of the advancing German army By 11 May the roads leading westwards away from the fighting were blocked by refugees hampering the eastward advance of French and British forces 20 It is estimated that around two million civilians fled their homes during the campaign 21 The government s policy of neutrality had left Belgium with an outdated and ill equipped army and air force Above all the army possessed only 16 battle tanks note 1 between its two cavalry divisions for political reasons as they had been considered too aggressive for the army of a neutral power 22 The air force hurriedly reorganised in May 1940 was taken by surprise and could only field 180 serviceable aircraft out of its total of 234 18 The military held out against German forces for 18 days against overwhelming odds On 28 May forced into a small pocket along the Leie river and after failed attempts to broker a ceasefire on the 27th the Belgian king and military surrendered unconditionally 23 Belgian casualties during the campaign numbered some 6 000 killed 24 and 15 850 wounded 18 25 Some 112 500 French and Belgian troops escaped to the UK via Dunkirk 26 but the majority of the Belgian survivors were made prisoners of war and many were not released until the end of the war 27 With the surrender of the Belgian army the government led by Hubert Pierlot fled first to Paris and formed a government in exile in Bordeaux After the Fall of France the government transferred to Eaton Square London 28 Surrender of Leopold III edit nbsp A Belgian coin with the monogram of Leopold III minted during the occupation Leopold III king and commander in chief of the Belgian army surrendered personally to German forces on 28 May contrary to the advice of Pierlot s government having personally decided that the Allied cause was lost 29 His decision was fiercely criticized by the French prime minister Paul Reynaud 30 and by Pierlot in a radio broadcast on 28 June 1940 where he declared Leopold s decision to be an event without precedent in history 31 The king remained in Belgium during the war as a German prisoner while the government went into exile and continued military action in the Allied cause 32 Unlike the Netherlands and Luxembourg where the monarchy was repressed or had joined the government in exile Leopold III remained prominent in the occupied territory and coins and stamps produced during the occupation continued to carry his face or monogram 33 Nevertheless Leopold remained a focus for resistance his position explained by the slogan Belgium is captive Long live Belgium The King is captive Long live the King 34 While imprisoned he sent a letter to Adolf Hitler in 1942 which has been credited with saving an estimated 500 000 Belgian women and children from forced deportation to munitions factories in Germany 35 In November 1940 Leopold visited Hitler in Berchtesgaden where he asked for Belgian prisoners of war to be freed 30 After the war allegations that Leopold s surrender had been an act of collaboration provoked a political crisis known as the Royal Question about whether he could return to the throne which ultimately ended with his abdication 30 German occupation editMain article German occupation of Belgium during World War II Life in occupied Belgium edit nbsp RAF Lancaster bombers target the Belgian town of St Vith in the Ardennes 1944 Belgium was run by a German military government under General Alexander von Falkenhausen and Eggert Reeder until July 1944 and then by Reichskommissar Josef Grohe until liberation 36 The German government levied the costs of the military occupation on the Belgians through taxes while also demanding external occupation costs or Anti Bolshevik charge to support operations elsewhere 37 In total Belgium was forced to pay nearly two thirds of its national income for these charges 38 a figure equaling 5 7 billion Reichsmarks citation needed As in all occupied countries in Europe food fuel and clothing were strictly rationed by the German authorities Even with the stringent rationing the food and materials which civilians should officially have been entitled to were not always available 39 A significant black market also existed in the country supplying food illegally at very high prices to those that could afford it 40 Information and the press were strictly controlled by the German government and news was greatly restricted Nevertheless the sales of collaborationist newspapers like Le Soir and the newspapers of pro collaborationist political parties like Le Pays Reel remained high 41 A large number of underground newspapers were also published and distributed the underground paper La Libre Belgique achieved a circulation of 30 000 42 nbsp A Belgian forced worker in the Siemens factory in Berlin August 1943 Occupied Belgium was also targeted by the Allied bombers from both the British RAF and American USAAF The policy led to high civilian casualties as bombs missed their intended targets and fell on civilian areas In a raid on the Erla Motor Works in the Belgian town of Mortsel near Antwerp in April 1943 just two bombs dropped by the B 17s of the U S 8th Air Force fell on the intended target 43 The remaining 24 tons of bombs fell on civilian areas of the town killing 936 and injuring 1 600 more in just eight minutes 43 The Allied policy was condemned by many leading figures within Belgium including Cardinal van Roey 44 Around 375 000 Belgians also served in labour programs within Germany during the war working in manual jobs in industry or agriculture for the German war effort 45 Though nearly 180 000 Belgians signed up before conscription began in 1941 most were conscripted after that date and worked as forced labour against their will 46 200 000 Belgian military prisoners of war who had been captured in 1940 were also transported to Germany 27 Most were used as forced labour and paid only a nominal sum 47 About 80 000 mainly Flemish prisoners were returned to Belgium between late 1940 and 1941 27 but many remained in captivity until the end of the war They were often kept in very poor conditions and around 2 000 died 25 Collaboration edit nbsp Belgian Flemish nationalist politician VNV writer and poet Ward Hermans 1897 1992 as a speaker at a meeting of the General SS Flanders in Ghent during the German occupation in World War II During the period of Nazi occupation some Belgians collaborated with their occupiers There were pro Nazi political organizations in both Flemish and Walloon communities before and during the war The most significant were DeVlag Verdinaso and Vlaams Nationaal Verbond VNV in Flanders as well as the Catholic Rex movement in Wallonia Each of these movements had subtly different ideologies their own paramilitary forces and printed their own newspapers These organisations were also instrumental in encouraging Belgians to enlist into the German Army Unlike the German style National Socialist agenda of DeVlag 48 VNV appealed directly to a Flemish separatist agenda 49 though this message was never the main source of their popularity 50 Infighting between the groups particularly VNV and DeVlag was considerable 48 nbsp Recruitment poster with the slogan Come to us for the 28th SS Wallonien Division made up of French speaking Belgians See also Rexism Flemish National Union Verdinaso and DeVlag On the whole the Belgian administrative system was very pliant and became an instrument of collaboration In a 2007 report by a Belgian research institute Cegesoma a panel of historians concluded that Belgium had offered maximum administrative collaboration with the German occupation forces 51 The same report also commented on the apparently higher levels of collaboration in Flanders as part of an attempted integration into a German Flemish New Order 52 The towns of Brussels and Liege the report added remained generally patriotic Belgian and decisively hostile to Germany 52 The report also found that many Belgian authorities had been compliant even active in the deportation of Jews 52 Two separate units of the Waffen SS the Flemish Legion and the Walloon Legion were recruited from Belgium during the occupation Leon Degrelle founder of the Rexist Party served as commander of the Walloon Legion which fought against the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe A total of 15 000 Belgians 53 in the divisions neither ever greater than brigade strength fought on the Eastern Front where the Walloon Legion was nearly annihilated in the Korsun Cherkassy Pocket in 1944 54 After the war a total of 400 000 Belgians were investigated for collaboration Of these around 56 000 were prosecuted The majority received prison sentences although several hundred were executed 55 Resistance edit nbsp Members of the Belgian resistance with a Canadian soldier during the liberation of Bruges 1944 Main article Belgian Resistance Resistance to German occupation came from all levels and regions of Belgium and quarters of the political spectrum but was highly fragmented and localised 56 The Belgian government in exile dealt only with sympathetic resistance groups like the Armee Secrete however even these umbrella organisations had many different agendas or political ideologies 56 Some groups were very left wing like the Communist Partisans armes but there were also right wing resistance movements like the monarchist Mouvement National Royaliste and the fascist Legion Belge created by members of the pre war Legion Nationale movement There were also other groups like Groupe G which had no obvious political affiliation 56 Resistance to the occupiers often came in the form of helping Allied airmen shot down over Belgium escape Belgians created numerous escape and evasion lines The best known was the Comet line which evacuated an estimated 700 Allied airmen to Gibraltar from where they were flown to England 57 The Comet Line sheltered downed airmen in safe houses throughout Belgium Allied airmen were given civilian clothes and moved from house to house staying with Belgian families who supported the resistance The escape lines gave the airmen false identification papers and guided them to neutral or Allied occupied territory The guides were usually young women Hundreds of the workers for the escape lines were captured and imprisoned by the Germans and many were executed 57 58 nbsp The bodies of Belgian civilians killed by Germans December 1944 As elsewhere sabotage was employed against enemy military and economic assets with railway lines and bridges being common targets The activities of Groupe G a small student resistance cell based in Brussels alone are estimated to have cost the Nazis 10 million man hours of labour to repair damages done 59 Direct attacks on German troops and military installations were rarer yet one estimate puts the number of German soldiers killed by the Belgian resistance in 1941 as higher than in all of France 60 The resistance were instrumental in saving Jews and Roma from deportation to death camps for instance the attack on the Twentieth convoy to Auschwitz Many Belgians also hid Jews and political dissidents during the occupation with one estimate putting the number at some 20 000 people hidden during the war note 2 There was also significant low level resistance for instance in June 1941 the City Council of Brussels refused to distribute Stars of David badges 61 Certain high profile members of the Belgian establishment including Queen Elizabeth and Cardinal van Roey Archbishop of Malines spoke out against the German treatment of Jews 62 So far 1 612 Belgians have been awarded the distinction of Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel for risking their lives to save Jews from persecution during the occupation 63 Belgian civilians were often subject to retaliation by paramilitaries and German forces for resistance activity In August 1944 20 civilians were killed by Rexist paramilitaries in the Courcelles Massacre in reprisal for a single attack on a Rexist politician 64 The Holocaust edit nbsp The gallows at Breendonk Concentration Camp near Mechelen Main article The Holocaust in Belgium In mid 1940 nearly 57 000 Jews were living in Belgium out of a population of roughly 8 million 65 Many had fled to Belgium to escape recent persecution in Germany and elsewhere meaning that only a minority were Belgian citizens 65 Most of the Jewish population was focused in communities in the towns of Brussels and Antwerp 65 Anti Jewish legislation along the lines of the German Nuremberg Laws or French laws on the status of Jews was enacted in October 1940 a few months after the German occupation 65 Several pogroms took place in 1941 notably in Antwerp 66 and economic assets belonging to Jews were seized 65 In May 1942 wearing of the yellow Star of David badge became compulsory for Jews in Belgium 65 From June 1942 as part of the Final Solution Jews living in Belgium were ordered to report to the Mechelen transit camp 65 Those who did not do so voluntarily were rounded up by the police Between August 1942 and July 1944 a total of twenty six railway convoys deported 25 000 Jews and 350 Roma from Belgium to eastern Europe 67 68 Most were sent to the Auschwitz death camp although others went to camps at Bergen Belsen and Vittel 65 Of the 25 000 deported over 24 000 were killed Fewer than 1 000 were still alive by the time Allied forces liberated the camps 55 The former Belgian army fort at Breendonk near Mechelen was requisitioned by the Nazis and used for detainment and interrogation of Jews political prisoners and captured members of the resistance Of the 3 500 people incarcerated in Breendonk between 1940 and 1944 1 733 died 69 Around 300 people were killed in the camp itself with at least 98 of them dying from deprivation or torture 70 71 Belgian government and army in exile edit nbsp Free Belgian soldiers fire a mortar during a training exercise in Wales 1941 Main article Free Belgian Forces After the defeat in 1940 significant numbers of Belgian soldiers and civilians escaped to Britain who along with Belgian pre war emigres in Britain and Canada formed the Belgian forces in exile 72 The Belgian government including ministers from Catholic Socialist and Liberal parties under Hubert Pierlot evacuated to London alongside other governments from occupied countries including the Netherlands and Luxembourg where it remained until the liberation of Belgium in 1944 The government in exile claimed the authority to speak for the whole of Belgium leading the Minister of Foreign Affairs Paul Henri Spaak to comment that all that remains of legal and free Belgium all that is entitled to speak in her name is in London 73 A Belgian politician Victor de Laveleye is also credited with inspiring the Allied V for Victory propaganda campaign in 1941 74 The Belgium government in exile declared war on the Empire of Japan on 20 December 1941 75 In a broadcast on French Radio Pierlot called for the creation of an army in exile to continue the fight With the same youthful courage that responded to the government s call reunited with the elements of the Belgian military in France and Great Britain a new army will be levied and organized It will go into the line alongside those of our allies all the forces we have will be put at the service of the cause which has become ours It is important to assure immediately and in a tangible way the solidarity which continues to unite the powers which have given us their support Pierlot Speech on French Radio 28 May 1940 76 nbsp Spitfires of No 350 Belgian Squadron at RAF Kenley in England 1942 By 1944 the Free Belgian forces in the United Kingdom numbered some 4 500 men 77 Belgian soldiers formed the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade which also included an artillery battery of soldiers from Luxembourg more often known as the Brigade Piron after its commanding officer Jean Baptiste Piron The Brigade Piron was involved in the Normandy Invasion and the battles in France and the Netherlands until liberation 78 Belgians also served in British special forces units during the war forming a troop of No 10 Inter Allied Commando which was involved in the Italian Campaign and the Landings on Walcheren 79 The 5th Special Air Service part of the elite SAS was made up entirely of Belgians and was the first Allied unit to enter Belgium in September 1944 80 400 Belgian pilots served in the Royal Air Force Two all Belgian fighter units Nos 349 and 350 Squadrons served in the European theatre No 350 Squadron alone claimed 51 kills between its formation in November 1941 and the end of the war 81 In total 1 200 Belgians served in the RAF mainly in British or Free Dutch squadrons 82 Two corvettes and a group of minesweepers were also operated by the Belgians during the Battle of the Atlantic By 1943 350 Belgians were serving as sailors on these vessels 82 Belgian Congo edit nbsp Belgian Congolese Force Publique soldiers 1943 Main article Belgian Congo in World War II Despite Belgium s occupation the Belgian Congo remained loyal to the government in exile and was put at the disposal of the Allies making a significant contribution to the Allied war effort 83 Congolese soldiers of the Force Publique were involved in fighting with Italian forces during the East African Campaign and were instrumental to forcing Italian forces out of Abyssinia 84 suffering 500 casualties 85 13 000 Congolese troops served under British command in Nigeria 85 Detachments of Congolese soldiers also served in the Middle East and Burma 85 In total the Force Publique comprised approximately 40 000 men 86 and was racially segregated meaning that blacks could not become officers Throughout the war therefore it was commanded by white officers 87 Twice in 1941 and 1944 major strikes took place in towns around the country against the extra pressure put on workers by the colonial authorities The Force Publique garrison in Luluabourg also mutinied in 1944 88 These were repressed by military force often violently 89 The Congo was also a vitally important economic asset to the Allied powers The Congo s gold alone contributed some 28 5 million to the Allied war effort 90 while its exports of rubber and uranium provided vital sources of raw materials 91 Most of the uranium used during the American Manhattan Project including that used for the nuclear weapons dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was supplied by the Belgian firm Union Miniere du Haut Katanga from Katanga Province in the Belgian Congo 92 Liberation editMain article Liberation of Belgium 1944 See also Chronology of the liberation of Belgian cities and towns during World War II nbsp British armoured cars during the liberation of Ghent September 8th 1944 Belgium was liberated in September 1944 by the Allied forces including British Canadian and American armies which also included the Brigade Piron On September 3 1944 the Welsh Guards liberated Brussels 93 Just after the liberation the inhabitants of the Marolles district held a mock funeral for Hitler 93 The port of Antwerp was an important strategic objective because Allied supply lines were heavily stretched and needed a deep sea port near the front lines 94 The British Second Army liberated Antwerp on September 6 with help from the local resistance 95 Despite taking control of the city the port was not accessible until the surrounding waters were safe for cargo ships The Germans successfully denied access to the port until the Battle of the Scheldt completed in November 96 Leopold III s brother Charles the Count of Flanders was appointed Regent pending a decision about whether the King would be able to regain his former position on the throne 35 In February 1945 Achille Van Acker replaced Pierlot as Prime Minister 97 The resistance was disarmed and many of its members and other Belgians who had remained in the country during the occupation were mobilised into the regular Belgian army in 57 Fusilier Battalions 98 These battalions served in several battles on the western front 99 100 000 Belgians were fighting in the Allied armies by VE Day 100 General Courtney Hodges U S First Army liberated the region south of Brussels and Maastricht in early September 1944 While two corps of the First Army were concentrated elsewhere VIII Corps occupied a long stretch of the front from the area south of Liege across the Ardennes and into Luxembourg The length of the deployment meant that the Corps front line was only lightly defended leaving it vulnerable 101 nbsp American soldiers of the 99th Infantry Division enter the Belgian village of Wirtzfeld late 1944 Following a few months of relative calm in Belgium on 16 December 1944 the Germans launched the Ardennes Offensive with over a quarter of a million soldiers 102 Antwerp was the ultimate objective of the German offensive but the German advance stalled before the Meuse River at Celles near Dinant and was pushed back in furious fighting over a period of six weeks in bitterly cold weather by American British and Belgian troops 102 Belgian towns and civilians in the Ardennes suffered during the offensive as homes were reduced to ruins and there were instances of German troops shooting civilians 103 Around 90 of the town of La Roche en Ardenne was destroyed during fighting 104 By 4 February 1945 the country was reported to be free of German troops 105 In the six months following Allied liberation Belgian towns were widely targeted by the unpiloted German V Bombs A total of 2 342 of these rockets 1610 of the more advanced V 2s and about 732 V 1s fell in a 10 mile radius around Antwerp alone 106 A post war SHAEF report estimated V Bombs had been responsible for killing 5 000 people and injuring a further 21 000 mostly in the cities of Liege and Antwerp 106 The period after liberation also saw a wave of prosecutions of those suspected of collaboration during the war 400 000 Belgians were investigated for collaboration of whom 56 000 were prosecuted 55 Nearly 250 were executed 55 Leon Degrelle despite being sentenced to death managed to escape to Francoist Spain where he remained until his death in 1994 107 Legacy and aftermath edit nbsp Plaque commemorating the Belgian victims of the Holocaust in the Marolles area of Brussels After the experience of World War II Belgium abandoned its neutral stance in international politics in favour of military political and economic integration In 1949 Belgium joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and deployed troops to fight alongside other United Nations forces in the Korean War in 1950 2 Belgium was also a key player in the unsuccessful negotiations about the creation of a European Defence Community EDC in the 1950s Belgium was assigned a sector of the British zone in West Germany around the city of Cologne which it occupied from 1945 108 Belgian soldiers remained in Germany until their final withdrawal in 2002 108 Economically Belgium joined the Benelux Economic Union in 1948 and was a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community from its creation in 1952 2 From 1944 until 1960 Belgium also experienced a period of rapid economic recovery dubbed the Belgian Miracle partially as a result of the Marshall Plan 109 The political crisis surrounding Leopold III s role during the occupation and whether he could return to the throne polarized Belgian public opinion in the years following the war between Catholics notably in Flanders who broadly supported his return and Socialists in Wallonia and Brussels who were strongly opposed to it 30 After a general strike and an indecisive referendum the king resigned in favour of his son Baudouin in 1950 30 Commemoration edit In the decades following the war large numbers of public memorials were erected around the country in memory of Belgian soldiers who had died fighting for the Allied cause during the conflict note 3 There are numerous monuments and streets dedicated to Allied politicians and generals including Franklin Roosevelt and Bernard Montgomery in Brussels 93 The large numbers of British and American cemeteries and memorials particularly in the Ardennes region associated with the Battle of the Bulge meant that the legacy of the war was very visible 110 In common with other countries there are numerous veterans associations 111 known as Fraternelle or Amicale in French and Belgian towns particularly Bastogne are frequently visited by veterans from other countries 112 There are also numerous war museums around the country including the Royal Museum of the Army and Military History in Brussels which aim to inform the public about the war 113 The Holocaust is commemorated in Belgium by both memorials and museums the prison at Fort Breendonk has been preserved as a museum and has been open to the public since 1947 114 Since the passing of the Holocaust denial law in 1995 it is illegal to deny the holocaust 115 The participation of soldiers from the Belgian Congo was however largely forgotten 116 following Congolese independence in 1960 and decades of subsequent war In recent years the profile of the veterans has been raised by exhibitions creating greater public awareness 117 118 See also edit nbsp Belgium portal Order of battle of armour units of the Belgian Army in May 1940 Faux Soir a 1943 resistance spoof of the collaborationist newspaper Le Soir Commemorative Medal of the War 1940 1945 medal awarded to all Belgian veterans of the war Belgian annexation plans after the Second World War The Sorrow of Belgium a novel by the Flemish writer Hugo Claus about growing up in occupied Belgium Belgium in World War I History of BelgiumNotes edit 16 tanks of the French Renault ACG 1 type were in service in 1940 in addition to 270 other armoured vehicles mostly of the lightly armoured T 13 and T 15 types The Museum van Deportatie en Verzet puts the number at 20 000 Jews including 3 000 children The historian Eva Fogelman supplies a figure of 20 000 adults and 8 000 children in hiding For a map of all World War II memorials in Brussels see Brussels Remembers Archived from the original on 15 May 2013 Retrieved 28 May 2013 References edit Frumkin Grzegorz 1951 Population Changes in Europe Since 1939 Geneva A M Kelley a b c Belgium after World War II Encyclopaedia Britannica 11 September 2023 a b Belgium 1929 1940 Economic Policy World History at KMLA Retrieved 31 December 2012 Schuermans Willy 2006 Memo 6 Nieuwste Tijden 20ste 21ste eeuw Antwerp de Boeck pp 42 47 ISBN 978 90 455 1501 4 Belgium 1929 1940 Domestic Policy World History at KMLA Retrieved 31 December 2012 di Muro Giovanni F 2005 Leon Degrelle et l aventure rexiste Brussels Ed Luc Pire pp 151 3 ISBN 2 87415 519 5 Polsson Ken October 1936 2timeline info Archived from the original on 29 January 2013 Retrieved 31 December 2012 a b Belgium 1929 1940 Foreign Policy World History at KMLA Retrieved 31 December 2012 Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality 1946 Aggression Against Belgium The Netherlands and Luxembourgh PDF Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Vol I Washington DC US Government Printing Office p 762 Churchill Winston 25 May 1937 Germany s Arms Dutch and Belgian Policies Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 31 December 2012 Bond Brian 1990 Britain France and Belgium 1939 1940 2nd ed London Brassey s Riverside p 24 ISBN 0 08 037700 9 Vanden Bloock Bernard Belgian Fortifications May 1940 KW Line 60 km niehorster orbat com Retrieved 26 February 2013 Balace Francis 10 May 1990 L Armee Belge a l Aube du Conflit Nous Avions une Armee de Reservists Un Belge sur Douze etait Mobilise Le Soir Retrieved 15 May 2013 Bailly Michel 2 February 1990 Forces et faiblesses de l armee belge en 1940 a la veille de la guerre Le Soir Retrieved 17 January 2013 Thomas Nigel 1991 Foreign Volunteers of the Allied Forces 1939 45 London Osprey p 15 ISBN 978 1 85532 136 6 Various authors 1941 Belgium The Official Account of What Happened 1939 40 London Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs p 99 Lucas James 1988 Storming Eagles German Airborne Forces in World War Two London Arms and Armour pp 21 22 ISBN 0 85368 879 6 a b c Mollo Andrew 2001 The Armed Forces of World War II Uniforms Insignia amp Organisation Leicester Silverdale Books pp 48 50 ISBN 1 85605 603 1 Koningshooikt Wavre Line KW line globalsecurity org Retrieved 27 February 2013 11 May 1940 Belgian Refugees Clog the Roads World War II Today Retrieved 23 May 2013 On the Run the Chaotic Days of May 1940 Project 1944 Archived from the original on 6 June 2019 Retrieved 23 May 2013 The Campaign of the Belgian army in May 1940 home scarlet be vdmeiren Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 Retrieved 17 January 2013 Various authors 1941 Belgium The Official Account of What Happened 1939 40 London Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs pp 41 5 Keegan John 1989 The Second World War New York Penguin Books p 96 ISBN 0 14 303573 8 a b Belgium Army ABC CLIO Retrieved 17 January 2013 Swanston Alexander Swanston Malcolm et al 2007 The Historical Atlas of World War II London Cartographica p 61 ISBN 978 1 84573 240 0 a b c Les prisonniers de guerre belges 7 May 2006 Archived from the original on 18 April 2021 Retrieved 17 January 2013 Shirer William L 1990 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich A History of Nazi Germany Rev ed New York u a Simon amp Schuster p 729 ISBN 0 671 72868 7 Yapou Eliezer 2006 Belgium Disintegration and Resurrection Governments in Exile 1939 1945 Jerusalem a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link a b c d e Langworth Richard M Feeding the Crocodile Was Leopold Guilty Churchill Centre Archived from the original on 21 May 2013 Retrieved 17 January 2013 The Belgian Royal Question the Abdication Crisis of King Leopold III The Royal Articles Retrieved 21 April 2013 Palmer Alan 1992 The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth Century History 1900 1991 4th ed London Penguin p 42 ISBN 0 14 051264 0 Schloss Andrew Summer 2004 Obituary for the Belgian Franc Belgium s Post War Political Landscape Reflected Through its Coinage ANS Magazine 3 2 Archived from the original on 14 August 2012 Retrieved 18 January 2013 Dutry Soinne Tinou 2006 Les Meconnus de Londres Journal de Guerre d une Belge 1940 1945 Vol 1 Brussels Racine p 121 ISBN 2 87386 483 4 a b Leopold III Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Geller Jay Howard January 1999 The Role of Military Administration in German occupied Belgium 1940 1944 Journal of Military History 63 1 99 125 doi 10 2307 120335 JSTOR 120335 Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality 1946 Germanization and Spoliation 4 The Western Occupied Countries PDF Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Vol I Washington DC US Government Printing Office p 1064 Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality 1946 Germanization and Spoliation 4 The Western Occupied Countries PDF Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Vol I Washington DC US Government Printing Office p 1054 Jacquemyns Guillaume Struye Paul 2002 La Belgique sous l occupation allemande 1940 1944 Brussels Ed Complexe p 307 ISBN 2 87027 940 X a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Nefors Patrick 2006 La collaboration industrielle en Belgique 1940 1945 Brussels Racine pp 256 257 ISBN 2 87386 479 6 The Press under German Censorship during the Second World War The Belgian War Press CEGES SOMA Retrieved 9 February 2013 La Libre Belgique The Belgian War Press CEGES SOMA Retrieved 9 February 2013 a b April 5 1943 Belgium tragedy in USAAF daylight bombing raid Ww2today com Retrieved 15 April 2013 Stop Bombing Us Primate s appeal to Allies reported on Belgian Radio Catholic Herald 26 May 1944 Retrieved 15 April 2013 Chiari Bernhard Echternkamp Jorg et al 2010 Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg Vol 10 Munich Deutsche Verlags Anstalt p 669 ISBN 978 3 421 06528 5 Freiwillige Zwangsarbeit Die Expansion nach Westen German Federal Archives Retrieved 23 May 2013 Les prisonniers de guerre 1e partie 1940 cheratte net Retrieved 17 January 2013 a b Witte Els Craeybeckx Jan Meynen Alain 2010 Political History of Belgium From 1830 Onwards Asp pp 203 4 ISBN 978 90 5487 517 8 di Muro Giovanni F 2005 Leon Degrelle et l aventure rexiste Brussels Ed Luc Pire p 45 ISBN 2 87415 519 5 Brown Coree January 2008 Federalism as Fuel for National Conflict Belgium s Political Evolution and Its Consequences MA thesis Jagiellonian University p 68 Retrieved 4 March 2013 Van Doorslaer 2007 a b c La Belgique docile report summarised in Baes Ruben La Belgique docile Les autorites belges et la persecution des Juifs CEGES SOMA Archived from the original on 28 September 2011 Retrieved 18 January 2013 Estes Kenneth W 2007 A European Anabasis Western European Volunteers in the German Army and SS 1940 1945 Columbia Project Gutenburg ISBN 978 0 231 13030 1 Nash Douglas E 2009 Hell s Gate the Battle of the Cherkassy Pocket January February 1944 3rd ed Stamford CT RZM Imports p 27 ISBN 978 0 9657584 3 7 a b c d Waterfield Bruno 17 May 2011 Nazi hunters call on Belgium s justice minister to be sacked The Telegraph Archived from the original on 6 December 2013 Retrieved 26 February 2013 a b c Conway Martin 12 January 2012 The Sorrows of Belgium Liberation and Political Reconstruction 1944 1947 Oxford Oxford University Press pp 21 23 ISBN 978 0 19 969434 1 a b Moore Bob ed 2000 Resistance in Western Europe 1st ed Oxford Berg p 35 ISBN 1 85973 274 7 John Clinch 2004 Comete Line Escape Line Research and Remembrance Retrieved 16 October 2010 A Brief History of Belgian Resistance Groupe G WW II Living History Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 Retrieved 26 December 2012 Smith Howard K 1942 Last Train from Berlin Knopf p 317 Museum van Deportatie en Verzet Archived from the original on 26 February 2011 Retrieved 3 November 2012 Saerens Lieven 1998 The Attitudes of the Belgian Roman Catholic Clergy towards Jews prior to the Occupation In Michman Dan ed Belgium and the Holocaust Jews Belgians Germans 2nd ed Jerusalem Yad Vashem p 156 ISBN 965 308 068 7 The Righteous Among the Nations ceremony in the presence of President Shimon Peres Prince Philippe and Minister Didier Reynders Embassy of Belgium in Ireland 5 March 2013 Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 Retrieved 4 April 2013 Plisnier Flore 2009 L ordre nouveau et le rexisme dans la region de Charleroi Societe Royale d Archeologie d Histoire et de Paleontologie de Charleroi 64 201 202 a b c d e f g h Belgium European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Project enhri project eu Archived from the original on 21 September 2013 Retrieved 4 April 2013 Report Belgium Collaborated With Nazis in Deporting Jews Deutsche Welle 14 February 2007 Retrieved 15 April 2013 Ferree Chuck L Holocauste en Belgique Jewish Gen Retrieved 27 February 2013 Holocaust Kazerne Dossin Memorial Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 Retrieved 15 April 2013 Breendonk Le Memorial ne changera pas de nom Le Soir 6 December 2007 Retrieved 26 February 2013 Van der Wilt Olivier Europaische Perspektiven der 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and political change in the Congo Stanford Stanford U P p 62 ISBN 0 8047 0793 6 Mwamba Mputu Baudouin 2011 IV Mutinerie de Luluabourg de 1944 Le Congo Kasai 1865 1950 De l exploration allemande a la consecration de Luluabourg Paris L Harmattan Mazrui Ali Wondji C eds 1999 Africa since 1935 vol 8 Unabridged ed Oxford James Currey p 195 ISBN 0 520 06703 7 Wickman Stephen B ed 1985 Belgium A Country Study U S Government Printing Office p 45 ISBN 0 16 001635 5 Le Congo dans la guerre les accords tripartites Belgique Grande Bretagne Etats Unis The Congo in the war the Belgium Great Britain US tripartite agreements Courrier Hebdomadaire du CRISP in French n 781 782 35 1 56 1977 doi 10 3917 cris 781 0001 ISSN 0008 9664 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a volume has extra text help Fleckner Mads Avery John July 2005 Congo Uranium and the Tragedy of Hiroshima PDF 55th Pugwash Conference University of Copenhagen 1 2 a b c 1944 The liberation of Brussels Brussels be Archived from the original on 7 March 2015 Retrieved 9 January 2013 Roberts Stephen H 4 November 1944 Antwerp will be a Crucial Gain Port can Transform Allies Supply Problems The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 28 February 2013 Gotovitch Jose Aron Paul eds 2008 Dictionnaire de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale en Belgique Brussels Andre Versaille ed p 249 ISBN 978 2 87495 001 8 MacDonald Charles B 1990 1963 Chapter IX The Approaches of Antwerp The Siegfried Line Campaign United States Army Center of Military History CMH pub 7 7 1 Archived from the original on 15 June 2010 Retrieved 5 February 2007 Fadoul Karim 13 June 2007 De van Acker a Verhofstadt La Derniere Heure Retrieved 25 June 2013 Thomas Nigel 1991 Foreign Volunteers of the Allied Forces 1939 45 London Osprey p 16 ISBN 978 1 85532 136 6 Burgaff Eric 16 December 2004 Les Belges a la liberation Le Soir Retrieved 18 February 2013 Belgian Armed Forces in the United Kingdom Introduction Be4046 eu Retrieved 13 April 2013 Cole Hugh M 1965 The Ardennes Battle of the Bulge Washington D C Government Printing Office p 56 a b Battle of the Bulge December 16 1944 January 28 1945 History Channel Retrieved 12 May 2013 Gallagher Richard 1964 Malmedy Massacre Paperback Library pp 110 111 ASIN B0007ED54W Battle of the Ardennes Museum La Roche en Ardenne Attractions Retrieved 12 May 2013 Gotovitch Jose Aron Paul eds 2008 Dictionnaire de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale en Belgique Brussels Andre Versaille ed pp 246 7 ISBN 978 2 87495 001 8 a b V Bomb Damage in Belgium Extensive Canberra Times 17 May 1945 Retrieved 15 April 2013 Leon Degrelle Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Edition 2007 a b Belga 30 December 2005 La fin des forces belges en Allemagne Soixante ans d histoire PDF Le Soir Archived from the original PDF on 29 October 2013 Retrieved 25 June 2013 Cassiers Isabelle 1994 Belgium s postwar growth and the catch up hypothesis European Economic Review 38 3 899 911 doi 10 1016 0014 2921 94 90126 0 Schrijvers Peter 2005 The Unknown Dead Civilians in the Battle of the Bulge University Press of Kentucky p 369 ISBN 0 8131 2352 6 History of the Institute of Veterans Warveterans be Archived from the original on 3 December 2012 Retrieved 15 December 2012 World War Routes to the past in French speaking Belgium Visitbelgium com Retrieved 12 May 2013 KLM MRA Museum Educational Programme Klm mra be Archived from the original on 24 February 2007 Retrieved 15 December 2012 Breendonck Jewish Virtual Library Retrieved 27 February 2013 Projet de Loi tendant a reprimer la negation la minimisation la justification ou l approbation du genocide commis par le regime national socialiste allemand pendant la seconde guerre mondiale lachambre be Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 Retrieved 27 February 2013 Dorzee Hugues 3 April 2013 Nos veterans congolais spolies et oublies de l histoire Le Soir Retrieved 1 July 2014 Lisolo Na Bisu Klm mra be Archived from the original on 14 June 2013 Retrieved 15 December 2012 De Force Publique van Belgisch Kongo in de periode 1940 1945 VOX Defence Archived from the original on 9 March 2013 Retrieved 15 November 2012 Further reading editPrimary sources Weller George 1941 The Belgian Campaign in Ethiopia A Trek of 2 500 Miles through Jungle Swamps and Desert Wastes New York Belgian Information Center Various authors 1941 Belgium The Official Account of What Happened 1939 1940 London Evans Brothers Limited for the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Various authors 1942 The Belgian Congo at War New York Belgian Information Center Secondary sources Bernard Henri 1968 La Resistance 1940 1945 in French Brussels Ed Renaissance du livre Conway Martin 1993 Collaboration in Belgium Leon Degrelle and the Rexist Movement 1940 1944 New Haven Yale Univ Press ISBN 0 300 05500 5 Conway Martin 2012 The Sorrows of Belgium Liberation and Political Reconstruction 1944 1947 Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 969434 1 Conway Martin Gotovitch Jose eds 2001 Europe in Exile European exile communities in Britain 1940 1945 1st ed New York Berghahn ISBN 978 1571817594 Keyes Roger 1984 Outrageous Fortune The Tragedy of Leopold III of the Belgians 1901 1941 1st British ed London Secker amp Warburg ISBN 978 0436233203 Van Doorslaer Rudi Debruyne Emmanuel Seberechts Frank Wouters Nico 2007 La Belgique docile Les autorites belges et la persecution des Juifs en Belgique pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale Docile Belgium Belgian authorities and the persecution Jews in Belgium during the Second World War PDF Final report of a study carried out by the Center for Studies and Documentation on War and Contemporary Societies on behalf of Federal government and at the request of the Belgian Senate 2004 2007 in French Brussels Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society CegeSoma via www senate be External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Belgium in World War II Houbion Georgette Marichal Jean Louis History of the Piron Brigade 1940 1945 Brigade piron be Retrieved 7 March 2013 Holocaust Encyclopedia Belgium United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Retrieved 5 May 2013 The Belgian War Press CEGES SOMA Retrieved 7 March 2013 Van Wijnsberghe Jean Marie The Belgian Armed Forces 1940 1946 Be4046 eu Retrieved 30 May 2013 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Belgium in World War II amp oldid 1220709280, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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