Breendonk Prison Camp Survivors
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Breendonk Prison Camp Survivors
Breendonk is a village in the municipality of Puurs-Sint-Amands in the province of Antwerp, Belgium, with a population 3,000, halfway between Brussels and Antwerp. History Its name stems from the medieval ''Bredene Dunc'' which translates as "wide mound" or "a dry spot in the marshes." In the 19th century it was known for its beautiful Neo-Gothic church and the lavish mansion of the Earl de Buisseret. Both were destroyed by the Belgian army at the start of World War I because they obstructed the gunner's view from the local fortifications. From the 20th century on it was best known for its fortification at Fort Breendonk, built in 1909. It was judged that Antwerp, being continental Europe's second most important port, needed two circles of fortifications for its defence. Breendonk's fortification was part of the outer defensive ring. These fortifications were built on the same site previously occupied by Roman fortifications, this site having been selected because it was the ...
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Fort Breendonk
Fort Breendonk ( nl, Fort van Breendonk, french: Fort de Breendonk) is a former military installation at Breendonk, near Mechelen, in Belgium which served as a Nazi prison camp (''Auffanglager'') during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II. Originally constructed between 1906 and 1913 as part of the second ring of the National Redoubt defending Antwerp, Fort Breendonk was used by the Belgian Army and was covered by a five-metre thick layer of soil for defense against artillery fire, a water-filled moat and measured . It was used in both World War I and World War II by which time it had become militarily obsolete. Fort Breendonk was requisitioned by the Schutzstaffel (SS) shortly after the Belgian surrender on 28 May 1940 and used as a prison camp for the detention of political prisoners, resistance members, and Jews. Although technically a prison rather than a concentration camp, it became infamous for the poor living conditions in which the prisoners were hou ...
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Leopold III Of Belgium
Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasion in May 1940, he surrendered his country, earning him much hostility, both at home and abroad. Leopold's act was declared unconstitutional by Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot and his cabinet, who moved to London to form a government-in-exile, while Leopold and his family were placed under house arrest. In 1944, they were moved to Germany and then Austria, before being liberated by the Americans, but banned for some years from returning to Belgium, where his brother Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, had been declared regent. Leopold's eventual return to his homeland in 1950 nearly caused a civil war, and under pressure from the government, he abdicated in favour of his son Baudouin in July 1951. Leopold's first wife, Astrid of Sweden, was ...
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Dutch Language
Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. ''Afrikaans'' is a separate but somewhat mutually intelligible daughter languageAfrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , . Afrikaans was historically called Cape Dutch; see , , , , , . Afrikaans is rooted in 17th-century dialects of Dutch; see , , , . Afrikaans is variously described as a creole, a partially creolised language, or a deviant variety of Dutch; see . spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia, evolving from the Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa. The dialects used in Belgium (including Flemish) and in Suriname, meanwhile, are all guided by the Dutch Language Union. In Europe, most of the population of the Netherlands (where it is the only official language spoken country ...
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Brabantian
Brabantian or Brabantish, also Brabantic or Brabantine ( nl, Brabants, Standard Dutch pronunciation: , ), is a dialect group of the Dutch language. It is named after the historical Duchy of Brabant, which corresponded mainly to the Dutch province of North Brabant, the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant as well as the Brussels-Capital Region ( Brusselian; where its native speakers have become a minority) and the province of Walloon Brabant. Brabantian expands into small parts in the west of Limburg, and its strong influence on the Flemish dialects in East Flanders weakens toward the west. In a small area in the northwest of North Brabant (Willemstad), Hollandic is spoken. Conventionally, the South Guelderish dialects are distinguished from Brabantian but for no reason other than geography. Because of the relatively-large area in which it is spoken, Brabantian can be roughly divided into three subdialects, all of which differ in some aspects: * West Brabantian is ...
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Belgian Beer
Beer in Belgium includes pale ales, lambics, Flanders red ale, Flemish red ales, sour Oud bruin, brown ales, strong ales and Stout (beer), stouts. In 2018, there were 304 active breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries including Trappist beer, Trappist monasteries. On average, Belgians drink 68 liters of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass.''Michael Jackson's Great Beers of Belgium'', Michael Jackson, In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. History In Belgium, beer was already produced in the Roman era, as evidenced by the excavation of a brewery and malthouse from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD at Assesse, Ronchinne. During the Early and High Middle Ages ...
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Duvel Moortgat Brewery
Duvel Moortgat Brewery (Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat) is a Flanders, Flemish family-controlled brewery founded in 1871 in the Antwerp Province (Belgium). Its strong golden pale ale, Duvel, is exported to more than forty countries. Duvel is Brabantian, Ghent and Antwerp dialect for ''devil'', the standard Dutch language, Dutch word being ''duivel'' . Other popular beers include Maredsous and Vedett. History The brewery Moortgat was founded in 1871 by Jan-Leonard Moortgat, who was descended from a family of brewers that lived in Steenhuffel, Belgium. In the 1950s, the third generation of Moortgats took control of the brewery. In the early 1970s, when the company was struggling financially, Moortgat bottled and distributed the Danish beer, Tuborg. The two companies ended this arrangement in the early 1980s, but it did save the brewery, which by then had managed to also set up massive distribution channels for their flagship beer, Duvel. In June 1999, Duvel Moortgat Naamloze Vennootsc ...
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Austerlitz (novel)
''Austerlitz'' is a 2001 novel by the German writer W. G. Sebald. It was Sebald's final novel. The book received the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2019, it was ranked 5th on ''The Guardians list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. Plot Jacques Austerlitz, the main character in the book, is an architectural historian who encounters and befriends the solitary narrator in Antwerp during the 1960s. Gradually we come to understand his life history. He arrived in Britain during the summer of 1939 as an infant refugee on a kindertransport from a Czechoslovakia threatened by Hitler's Nazis. He was adopted by an elderly Welsh Nonconformist preacher and his sickly wife, and spent his childhood near Bala, Gwynedd, before attending a minor public school. His foster parents died, and Austerlitz learned something of his background. After school he attended Oriel College, Oxford and became an academic who is drawn to, and began his research in, the study of European architecture. ...
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Paul Hoornaert
Paul Hoornaert (5 November 1888 – 2 February 1944) was a Belgian far right political activist. Although a pioneer of fascism in the country he was an opponent of German Nazism and, after joining the Belgian Resistance during the German occupation, died in Nazi custody. Early years Hoornaert was born in Liège to a middle class Catholic family and studied at the University of Liège, completing his doctorate in law in 1910.Philip Rees, ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890'', Simon & Schuster, 1990, p. 190 A lawyer by profession, Hoornaert was a veteran of the First World War where his combat record was highly distinguished. National Legion A strong admirer of Benito Mussolini, but equally demonstrating a staunch hatred of Germany, Hoornaert was a member of the far right veterans' group National Legion (french: Légion Nationale, nl, Nationaal Legioen) which was established in Liège in 1922.R.J.B. Bosworth, ''The Oxford Handbook of Fascism'', Oxford ...
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Fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a (German: “people’s community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation" characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Fascism rose to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, before spreading to other European countries, most notably Germany. Fascism also had adherents outside of Europe. Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, liberalism ...
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Bert Van Hoorick
Bert Van Hoorick (31 January 1915 – 19 February 2000) was a Belgian politician and writer. He was a member of the Belgian parliament from 1946 up to 1949 and from 1958 until 1976. When 18 years old, he joined the Belgian socialist party and also the Socialist Anti-War Lique and in the late thirties the Communist Party of Belgium, of which he became a leading member. During the second world war Van Hoorick became a member of the resistance. He was apprehended by the Nazis in January 1943 and imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Breendonk and Buchenwald. After the war he became chief editor of ''De Rode Vaan'', the journal of the Belgian communist party. In 1946 he was elected to the municipal council of Aalst and to the Belgian parliament. After the events of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he broke with the communist party and in January 1957 he became a member of the Belgian socialist party. In 1958, he became a member of parliament for the socialist party, a ...
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Communist Party Of Belgium
french: Parti Communiste de Belgique , abbreviation = KPB-PCB , colorcode = , leader1_title = Historical leaders , leader1_name = Joseph JacquemotteJulien LahautLouis Van Geyt , founder = Julien Lahaut , founded = , dissolved = , merger = Communist PartyBelgian Communist Party , successor = Kommunistische Partij Parti Communiste , headquarters = Brussels , newspaper = ''De Roode Vaan'' (Flemish)''Le Drapeau Rouge'' (French) , youth_wing = Communist Youth of Belgium , wing1_title = Paramilitary wing , wing1 = Partisans Armés (1940-43) , membership_year = 1965 , membership = 11,000 (peak) , ideology = CommunismEurocommunism , position = Far-left , international = Comintern (1919–1943)Cominform (1947–1956) , european = , europarl = Communist and Allies Group (1973–1989) , colours = Red , country = Belgium The Communist Party of Belgium ( nl, Kommunistische Partij van België, or KPB; french: Parti Communiste de Belgique, PCB) was a political party ...
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Jacques Ochs
Jacques Ochs (18 February 1883 – 3 April 1971), was a Jewish Belgian artist and Olympic fencer in the épée style (in which he was champion) and competed in the saber, and foil fencing categories. Biography Ochs was Jewish, and was born in Nice, France. His family moved to Liège, Belgium, in 1893. He was the Belgian Champion fencer in 1912 and competed for Belgium in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, winning a gold medal in the team épée event (his teammates included Gaston Salmon). He also competed in three individual events at the same Olympics. In the individual foil and individual épée categories, he reached the 2nd round before being eliminated (he finished 39th in foil, and 29th in épée.) Ochs's final event was individual sabre, but he was eliminated in the 1st round. Whilst pursuing a career as a professional fencer, he also worked at the newspapers "Newspaper of Liège", "Small Parisian", and "the Belgian Nation", drawing caricatures. During the Second W ...
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