Beverloo Camp (french: Camp de Beverloo, nl, Kamp van Beverloo) was a

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

installation at

Leopoldsburg Leopoldsburg (; french: Bourg-Léopold, ; li, Leopolsbörch) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. On January 1, 2006, Leopoldsburg had a total population of 14,403. The total area is 22.49 km² (8.68 sq mi) which ...

(Bourg-Léopold in French),

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

; 70 km southeast of

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. The camp was created in 1835, shortly after the independence of Belgium from the Netherlands. It acquired a permanent character in 1850.
During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it was occupied by German troops. In May 1944 the camp was bombed by the Allied forces, damaging some blocks. A part of the Camp was also used as a POW-camp by the Germans.

Beverloo Soldiers' Council

The Beverloo Soldiers' Council was set up by mutinous German soldiers in November 1918 as part of the November Revolution. The first mutiny, by Alsatian soldiers occurred on 12 May 1918. They worked closely with the

Brussels Soldiers' Council A Soldiers' Council (german: Soldatenrat) was established in Brussels on 10 November 1918 after news of the naval mutiny at Kiel and the November Revolution reached German troops in German-occupied Belgium in the final days of World War I. Int ...

Interwar years

In 1920, the facilities hosted the

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...

and

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...

events for the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; nl, Spelen van ...

. While those events took place,

combat engineers A combat engineer (also called pioneer or sapper) is a type of soldier who performs military engineering tasks in support of land forces combat operations. Combat engineers perform a variety of military engineering, tunnel and mine warfare ta ...

detonated

grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s four kilometres from the shooting stands. For

, during the German occupation, following the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

, 10,000 members of the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

forming the

12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend The SS Division Hitlerjugend or 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" (german: 12. SS-Panzerdivision "Hitlerjugend") was a German armoured division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from me ...

were trained at the camp. During the war, it was also used as a transit camp for the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

Josef Nassy Josef Nassy (born January 19, 1904 –1976) was an Surinamese American expatriate artist of Jewish descent. Nassy was living in Belgium when World War II began, and was one of about 2,000 civilians holding American passports who were confine ...

, an American black artist of Jewish descent, was imprisoned here during World War II.

Beverloo Camp Railway The Beverloo Camp Railway was a long gauge railway line in Beverloo Camp near Leopoldsburg in Belgium, which was operated from 1879 to 1940. History The first section of track was laid in 1879 by Paul Decauville. It was extended to Leopoldsb ...

* A website about the history of Leopoldsburg and Beverloo Camp
3970Leopoldsburg.be

References

*
Sports-reference.com Shooting overview of the 1920 Summer Olympics.US Holocaust Museum profile of Josef Nassy.
* ;Specific Venues of the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic shooting venues Defunct sports venues in Belgium Infrastructure of the Holocaust World War II sites of Nazi Germany World War II sites in Belgium Sports venues in Limburg (Belgium) {{Summer-Olympic-venue-stub

Beverloo Soldiers' Council

Interwar years

More

References