The Holocaust in Belgium
The Holocaust in Belgium was the systematic dispossession, deportation, and murder of Jews and Roma in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. Out of about 66,000 Jews in the country in May 1940, around 28,000 were murdered during the Holocaust.[1]
At the start of the war, the population of Belgium was overwhelmingly Catholic. Jews made up the largest non-Christian population in the country, numbering between 70–75,000 out of a population of 8 million. Most lived in the cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi and Liège. The vast majority were recent immigrants to Belgium who had fled persecution in Germany and Eastern Europe, and, as a result, only a small minority actually possessed Belgian citizenship.
Shortly after the
From 1942, opposition among the general population to the treatment of the Jews in Belgium grew. By the end of the occupation, more than 40 per cent of all Jews in Belgium were in hiding; many of them were hidden by
Background
Religion and Anti-Semitism
Before the war, the population of Belgium was overwhelmingly
The Jewish population of Belgium was comparatively small. Out of a population of around 8 million, there were only 10,000 Jews in the country before
The Interwar period also saw the rise in popularity of Fascist
German invasion and occupation
In the
The Holocaust
Early discrimination and persecution, 1940–41
On 23 October 1940, the German Military Administration adopted anti-Jewish legislation for the first time.
In 1940, the German government began to liquidate Jewish businesses. Some were transferred to German ownership in a process termed
Association des Juifs en Belgique
The "Association of Jews in Belgium" (AJB) was a Judenrat created by the Germans to administer the Jewish population of Belgium from November 1941.[17] Though directed by the Germans, the AJB was run by Jews and acted as an "organizational ghetto", allowing the Nazis to deal with Belgian Jews as a unit.[18] The AJB played a major role in registering Jews in the country. In total, 43,000 Jews were registered with the AJB.[14] This number represents only half of the total Jewish population, reflecting the community's mistrust of the organization, but it was the figure that SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann presented as the total number of Jews in Belgium at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942.[19]
During the deportations, around 10,000 Jews were arrested based on their affiliation to the AJB.[20] The AJB, closely supervised by the SiPo-SD (Sicherheitspolizei und Sicherheitsdienst; "Security Police and Intelligence Service"), was also responsible for the administration of the transit camp at Mechelen.[20] The AJB played a major role in persuading Jews to turn up voluntarily for deportation, though whether they knew the fate awaiting the deportees is disputed.[18] From 1942, following the assassination by the Resistance of Robert Holzinger, an AJB leader, confidence in the association declined and it was regarded with increasing suspicion.[15]
After the war, the leaders of the AJB were tried and acquitted of complicity in the Holocaust.[18]
Radicalisation, 1941–42
Antwerp Pogrom and Yellow Badge
On 14 April 1941, after watching the German propaganda film
As in the rest of occupied Europe, compulsory wearing of the yellow badge was enforced from 27 May 1942.[22] The Belgian version of the badge depicted a black letter "J" (standing for "Juif" in French and "Jood" in Dutch) in the centre of a yellow star of David. The star had to be displayed prominently on all outer clothing when in public and there were harsh penalties for non-compliance. The decree sparked public outrage in Belgium.[22] At great personal risk, the Belgian civil authorities in Brussels and Liège refused to distribute the badge, buying time for many Jews to go into hiding.[23]
The German authorities in Antwerp attempted to enforce the wearing of badges in 1940, but the policy was dropped when non-Jewish citizens protested and wore the armbands themselves.[24]
Deportation and extermination, 1942–44
From August 1942, the Germans began deporting Jews, using Arbeitseinsatz ("recruitment for work") in German factories as a pretext.[15] Around half of the Jews turned up voluntarily (though coerced by the German authorities) for transportation although round-ups were begun in late July. Later in the war, the Germans increasingly relied on the police to arrest or round up Jews by force.[25]
The first convoy from Belgium, carrying
In September, armed Devisenschutzkommando (DSK; "Currency protection command") units raided homes to seize valuables and personal belongings as the occupants were preparing to report to the transit camp, and in the same month, Jews with Belgian citizenship were deported for the first time.[27] DSK units relied on networks of informants, who were paid between 100 and 200 Belgian francs for each person they betrayed.[28] After the war, the collaborator Felix Lauterborn stated in his trial that 80 per cent of arrests in Antwerp used information from paid informants.[29] In total, 6,000 Jews were deported in 1943, with another 2,700 in 1944. Transports were halted by the deteriorating situation in occupied Belgium before the liberation.[30]
The percentages of Jews which were deported varied by location. It was highest in Antwerp, with 67 per cent deported, but lower in Brussels (37 per cent), Liège (35 per cent) and Charleroi (42 per cent).
In total, 25,437 Jews were deported from Belgium.[30] Only 1,207 of these survived the war.[32] Amongst those deported and killed was the surrealist artist Felix Nussbaum in 1944.
Belgian collaboration in the Holocaust
Political collaboration
Some assistance was provided to the German authorities in the persecution of Belgian Jews by members of collaborationist political groups, either out of overt anti-Semitic sentiment or the desire to demonstrate their loyalty to the German authorities. The deportations were encouraged by the VNV and the Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen in Flanders and both, like Rex, published anti-Semitic articles in their party newspapers.[33]
An association known as Défense du Peuple/Volksverwering ("The People's Defence") was specially formed to bring together Belgian anti-Semites and to assist in the deportations.[33] During the early stages of the occupation, they campaigned for harsher anti-Jewish laws.[34]
Administrative collaboration
The German occupation authorities made use of the surviving infrastructure of the pre-war state including the Belgian civil service, police and Gendarmerie. These were officially forbidden by their superiors to assist the German authorities in anything other than routine maintenance of law and order. However, there were numerous incidents in which individual policemen or local sections assisted in the German arrest of Jews in breach of their orders.[35] In Antwerp, the Belgian authorities facilitated the conscription of Jews for forced labour in France in 1941[25] and aided in the rounding up of Jews in August 1942 after the SiPo-SD threatened to imprison local officials in Fort Breendonk.[35] Outside Antwerp, the Germans used coercion to force the Belgian police to intervene, and in Brussels at least three police officers disobeyed orders and helped arrest Jews.[35] The historian Insa Meinen argued that around a fifth of the Jews arrested in Belgium were rounded up by the Belgian policemen.[25] Nevertheless, the general refusal of the Belgian police to assist in the Holocaust has been cited as a reason for the comparatively high survival rate of Belgian Jews during the Holocaust.[35]
Belgian opposition to Jewish persecution
Belgian resistance to the treatment of Jews crystallised between August–September 1942, following the passing of legislation regarding wearing yellow badges and the start of the deportations.
The resistance was responsible for the assassination of Robert Holzinger, the head of the deportation program, in 1942.[26] Holzinger, an active collaborator, was an Austrian Jew selected by the Germans for the role.[26] The assassination led to a change in leadership of the AJB. Five Jewish leaders, including the head of the AJB, were arrested and interned in Breendonk, but were released after public outcry.[15] A sixth was deported directly to Auschwitz.[15]
The Belgian resistance was unusually well informed on the fate of the deported Jews. In August 1942 (two months after the start of the Belgian deportations), the underground newspaper De Vrijschutter reported that "They [the deported Jews] are being killed in groups by gas, and others are killed by salvos of machinegun fire."[40]
In early 1943, the Front de l'Indépendance sent Victor Martin, an academic economist at the Catholic University of Louvain, to gather information on the fate of deported Belgian Jews using the cover of his research post at the University of Cologne.[41] Martin visited Auschwitz and witnessed the crematoria. Arrested by the Germans, he escaped, and was able to report his findings to the CDJ in May 1943.[41]
Attack on the 20th transport
The best-known Belgian resistance action during the Holocaust was the attack on the 20th rail convoy to Auschwitz.[27] In the evening of 19 April 1943, three poorly armed members of the resistance attacked the railway convoy as it passed near Haacht in Flemish Brabant.[43] The train, containing over 1,600 Jews, was guarded by 16 Germans from the SiPo-SD.[37] Resistance members used a lantern covered with red paper (a danger signal) to stop the train, and freed 17 prisoners from one wagon before they were discovered by the Germans.[37] A further 200 managed to jump from the train later in the journey, as the train's Belgian driver deliberately kept his speed low to allow others to escape.[37] All three resistance members responsible for the attack were arrested before the end of the occupation. Youra Livchitz was executed and Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau were deported to concentration camps but survived the war.[37]
The attack on the 20th train was the only attack on a Holocaust train from Belgium during the war, as well as the only transport from Belgium to experience a mass breakout.[37]
Passive resistance
The treatment of Jews by the Germans led to public resistance in Belgium. In June 1942, the representative of the German
The Belgian underground newspaper
Discrimination against Jews was condemned by many high-profile figures in the occupied country. As early as October 1940, the senior Catholic clergyman in Belgium, Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey, condemned the German policy and particularly the legislation from 1942.[45]
Van Roey made many of the church's resources available for hiding Jews, but was prevented from publicly condemning the treatment of the Jews by his peers, who feared a Nazi repression of the Church. German attempts to involve the Belgian authorities and local government in its implementation began to arouse protest from 1942. The Committee of Secretary-Generals, a panel of Belgian senior civil servants tasked with implementing German demands, refused from the outset to enforce anti-Jewish legislation.[46] In June 1942, a conference of the 19 mayors of the Greater Brussels region refused to allow its officials to distribute yellow badges to Jews in their districts.[23] At great personal risk, the mayors, led by Joseph Van De Meulebroeck, sent a letter protesting the decree to the German authorities on 5 June.[23] The refusal of Brussels' council, and later that of the city of Liège, to distribute badges allowed many Jews to go into hiding before the deportations began.[47]
In the same year, members of the AJB met with Queen Elisabeth to appeal for her support against the deportations. She appealed to the Military Governor of Belgium, General
Legacy and remembrance
In the aftermath of the war, emigration to Israel further decreased the Jewish population of Belgium, which as of 2011 was estimated at between 30,000 and 40,000.[48] The population is still concentrated in Brussels and Antwerp, but new smaller communities (such as those in Ghent, Knokke, Waterloo and Arlon) have developed since 1945.[48] Notable Belgian Holocaust survivors include Ilya Prigogine, a 1977 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, François Englert, a joint recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013, and Paul Lévy, a well-known journalist (who converted to Christianity) who was also responsible for the design of the European flag.
Since the passing of the
In 2004, the
As of 2013, a total of 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.[53]
Relatives of the victims have sought compensation from the state owned rail company SNCB after compensation was paid by the similar companies in
See also
- Belgium in World War II
- History of the Jews in Belgium
- Jewish Museum of Belgium
- Henri Kichka
- Maxime Steinberg
References
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- ^ Van Eeckhaut, Fabien (13 September 2013). "Léopold III: Roi trop passif sous l'Occupation?". RTBF. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
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- ^ "Présence juive dans nos régions". Musée Juif de Belgique. Archived from the original on 8 May 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
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- ^ a b c Maron, Guy (10 November 2004). "Des Juifs, Curateurs du Ghetto Juif". Le Soir. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
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- ^ a b c Saerens, Lieven (2012). "Insa Meinen: the Persecution of the Jews in Belgium through a German Lens". Journal of Belgian History (RBHC-BTNG). XLII (4): 204–5.
- ^ "Nazis in Belgium Revive Edict Imposing Yellow Badges on Jews". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Zürich. 3 June 1942. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
- ^ a b c Saerens, Lieven (2012). "Insa Meinen: the Persecution of the Jews in Belgium through a German Lens". Journal of Belgian History (RBHC-BTNG). XLII (4): 207.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-504523-8.
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- ^ Saerens, Lieven (2012). "Insa Meinen: the Persecution of the Jews in Belgium through a German Lens". Journal of Belgian History (RBHC-BTNG). XLII (4): 210.
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- ^ Waterfield, Bruno (17 May 2011). "Nazi hunters call on Belgium's justice minister to be sacked". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on December 6, 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
- ^ a b Saerens, Lieven (2012). "Insa Meinen: the Persecution of the Jews in Belgium through a German Lens". Journal of Belgian History (RBHC-BTNG). XLII (4): 212–4.
- ^ "Strict Anti-Jewish Laws in Belgium Demanded". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. London. 15 June 1941. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
- ^ a b c d Saerens, Lieven (2012). "Insa Meinen: the Persecution of the Jews in Belgium through a German Lens". Journal of Belgian History (RBHC-BTNG). XLII (4): 206.
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- ^ a b c d e f Williams, Althea; Ehrlich, Sarah (19 April 2013). "Escaping the train to Auschwitz". BBC News. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ Various (1991). "Préface". Partisans Armés Juifs, 38 Témoignages. Brussels: Les Enfants des Partisans Juifs de Belgique.
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- ^ "Projet de Loi tendant à réprimer la négation, la minimisation, la justification ou l'approbation du génocide commis par le régime national-socialiste allemand pendant la seconde guerre mondiale". lachambre.be. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
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- ^ "Relatives of Victims Seek Holocaust Compensation From Belgium's Railway". Algemeiner. 1 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
Further reading
- Meinen, Insa (2009). Die Shoah in Belgien (in German). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. ISBN 9783534221585. Also published in French and Dutch.
- Michman, Dan, ed. (1998). Belgium and the Holocaust: Jews, Belgians, Germans (2nd ed.). Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. ISBN 965-308-068-7.
- Steinberg, Maxime (1983). L'Étoile et le Fusil (in French). Vol. I: La Question Juive 1940–1942. Brussels: Éd. Vie Ouvrière. ISBN 2870031777.
- Steinberg, Maxime (1984). L'Étoile et le Fusil (in French). Vol. II: 1942. Les Cent Jours de la Déportation des Juifs de Belgique. Brussels: Éd. Vie Ouvrière. ISBN 2870031807.
- Steinberg, Maxime (1987). L'Étoile et le Fusil (in French). Vol. III: La Traque des Juifs 1942–1944. Brussels: Éd. Vie Ouvrière. ISBN 2870032102.
- Fraser, David (2009). The Fragility of Law: Constitutional Patriotism and the Jews of Belgium, 1940–1945. Abingdon: Routledge-Cavendish. ISBN 978-0-415-47761-1.
- Schreiber, Marion (2003). The Twentieth Train: the True Story of the Ambush of the Death Train to Auschwitz (1st US ed.). New York: Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-1766-3.
- Vromen, Suzanne (2008). Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Belgian Nuns and their Daring Rescue of Young Jews from the Nazis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195181289.
External links
Media related to The Holocaust in Belgium at Wikimedia Commons
- Belgium at the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI)
- Belgium at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)