Léon-Ernest Emmanuel Marie Joseph Halkin (1906–1998) was a Belgian historian, a supporter of the

Walloon Movement The Walloon Movement (french: Mouvement wallon) is an umbrella term for all Belgian political movements that either assert the existence of a Walloon identity and of Wallonia and/or defend French culture and language within Belgium, either withi ...

, and a member of the

Resistance during World War II Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, r ...

Life

Léon-Ernest Halkin was born in Liège on 11 May 1906, the son of the classicist Léon Halkin and Elvire Courtoy. He was raised in an academic milieu, with both his father and his uncle Joseph Halkin professors at

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...

, and was educated under the Jesuits at the Collège Saint-Servais. He matriculated at the university in 1923. In 1928 he won a travel bursary, using it to spend a year in Paris, where he followed the classes of Robert Génestal at the

École pratique des hautes études The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...

Henri Hauser Henri Hauser (19 July 1866 – 27 May 1946) was a French historian, geographer, and economist. A pioneer in the study of the economic history of the early modern period, he also wrote on contemporary economic issues and held the first chair in e ...

at the

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

, and

Lucien Febvre Lucien Paul Victor Febvre (, ; 22 July 1878 – 11 September 1956) was a French historian best known for the role he played in establishing the Annales School of history. He was the initial editor of the '' Encyclopédie française'' together wi ...

at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

.Vincent Genin, "Halkin, Léon-Ernest", ''

Nouvelle Biographie Nationale Nouvelle is a French word, the feminine form of "new". It may refer to: ;Places * Nouvelle, Quebec, a municipality in Quebec, Canada * Nouvelle-Église, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department, France * Port-la-Nouvelle, a commune in the Aude depa ...

'', vol. 14 (Brussels, 2018), pp. 138-141. His doctoral thesis on the 16th-century Prince-Bishop of Liège Érard de La Marck, supervised by

Karl Hanquet Karl Hanquet (1871–1928) was a Belgian academic historian. Life Hanquet was born in Liège on 5 October 1871 to an established family of industrialists and arms manufacturers. He was educated at the Collège Saint-Servais and the University of L ...

, was published in 1930.Paul Gérin, "Léon-Ernest Halkin (1906–1998), de la critique à l'engagement", in ''Les intellectuels catholiques en Belgique francophone aux 19e et 20e siècles'', edited by Guy Zelis (Louvain-La-Neuve, 2009), p. 133. On 9 April 1931 he married Denise Daude (1907–1993), with whom he had six children: Marguerite, Marie-Jeanne, Hubert, Françoise, Pierre and Vincent. He taught at the University of Liège, where he became a

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

in 1943. From 1939 to 1975 he taught the undergraduate introduction to historical method. The main subjects of his research were the history of the

principality of Liège A principality (or sometimes princedom) can either be a monarchical feudatory or a sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a regnant-monarch with the title of prince and/or princess, or by a monarch with another title considered to fall under ...

and of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...

. He attacked

Henri Pirenne Henri Pirenne (; 23 December 1862 – 24 October 1935) was a Belgian historian. A medievalist of Walloon descent, he wrote a multivolume history of Belgium in French and became a prominent public intellectual. Pirenne made a lasting contributi ...

's vision of Belgian history as effacing the distinctiveness of the principality of Liège, and himself adhered to the

Walloon movement The Walloon Movement (french: Mouvement wallon) is an umbrella term for all Belgian political movements that either assert the existence of a Walloon identity and of Wallonia and/or defend French culture and language within Belgium, either withi ...

. After the German invasion of 1940, his colleague

Marie Delcourt Marie Delcourt (Ixelles, 18 November 1891 – Liège, 11 February 1979) was a Belgian classical philologist. She studied at the University of Liège (ULg), and obtained a PhD in classical philology in 1919. Under the German occupation of Belgium ...

got him involved in Resistance activities. He set up the underground newspaper ''Ici, la Belgique libre!'', joined the

Front de l'Indépendance The Independent Front (french: Front de l'Indépendance or FI; nl, Onafhankelijkheidsfront, OF) was a left-wing faction of the Belgian Resistance in German-occupied Belgium in World War II. It was founded in March 1941 by Dr Albert Marteaux ...

, and led the Réseau Socrate, as well as hiding a Jewish girl in his own home. Betrayed by a former student, he was arrested by the Gestapo on 17 November 1943. The girl he had been hiding was sheltered by his colleague (and professional rival)

Paul Harsin Paul Marie Isidore Harsin (1902–1983) was an economic and political historian who held doctorates in the humanities, social sciences, and law. He was a professor at the University of Liège for over 40 years and briefly served as president of th ...

. Halkin was tortured, imprisoned at

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 Wo ...

, and then deported to

Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour f ...

. He was liberated from Boelcke-Kaserne concentration camp in 1945. He became one of the first Belgian members of the peace movement

Pax Christi Pax Christi International is an international Catholic peace movement. The Pax Christi International website declares its mission is "to transform a world shaken by violence, terrorism, deepening inequalities, and global insecurity." History ...

. Halkin became an associate member of the

Commission royale d'Histoire The Commission royale d'Histoire (in French) or Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis (in Dutch) is the Belgian Royal Historical Commission. It was founded by royal decree on 22 July 1834. They initially published their proceedings under the title ...

on 6 October 1947, and a full member on 15 September 1956.Jean-Louis Kupper,
Léon-E. Halkin
, ''Bulletin de la Commission royale d'Histoire'', 175 (2009), pp. 69-70. From 1950 to 1968 he was the president of the Comité belge d'histoire ecclésiastique, which he had co-founded, and from 1965 to 1970 co-director of the Centre interuniversitaire d'histoire de l'humanisme. In 1969 he set up an institute of Renaissance and Reformation history in Liège. From 1972 to 1986 he was director of the

Belgian Historical Institute in Rome The Belgian Historical Institute in Rome ( nl, Belgisch Historisch Instituut te Rome, french: Institut historique belge de Rome, it, Istituto storico belga di Roma), founded 1902, is a scholarly research institute focused on the study of Roman, and ...

. After being widowed in 1993, he remarried with a former student, Louise-Angèle Williot, who had worked as his secretary from 1948 to 1975. Halkin died in Liège on 29 December 1998.

Honorary doctorates

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

(1972) *

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier (french: Université de Montpellier) is a public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the oldest universities in the wor ...

(1974) * Brussels Faculty for Protestant Theology (1984)

Works

;Books * ''Réforme protestante et réforme catholique au diocèse de Liège: Le cardinal de La Marck, prince-évêque de Liège, 1505-1538'' (1930) * with Georges Dansaert, ''Charles de Lannoy, vice-roi de Naples'' (1934) * ''Introduction à l'histoire paroissiale de l'ancien diocèse de Liège'' (1935) * ''À l'ombre de la mort'' (1947), with a preface by

François Mauriac François Charles Mauriac (, oc, Francés Carles Mauriac; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the Nobel Prize ...

* with Denise van Derveeghde, ''Les sources de l'histoire de la Belgique aux Archives et à la Bibliothèque vaticanes: état des collections et répertoire bibliographique'' (1951) * ''Initiation à la critique historique'', with a preface by

(1951) * ''La Réforme en Belgique sous Charles-Quint'' (1957) * ''Eléments de critique historique'' (1960) * ''Les archives des nonciatures'' (1968) * ''Érasme et l'humanisme chrétien'' (1969) * ''Les colloques d'Érasme'' (1971) * ''Érasme'' (1987) * ''Érasme et la troisième voie'' (1992) ;Articles in the ''Bulletin de la Commission royale d'Histoire'' * "Un pouillé du concile de Tongres en 1700", 115 (1950), pp. 57–84. * with F. Lemaire, "Un procès d'anabaptistes à Limbourg en 1536", 121 (1956), pp. 1–24. * "Émile Fairon (1875-1945)", 125 (1959), pp. 160–167. * "Édouard de Moreau (1879-1952)", 125 (1959), pp. 168–179. * "L'édit liégeois de 1526", 125 (1959), pp. 405–430. * with G. Moreau, "Le procès de Paul Chevalier à Lille et à Tournai en 1564", 131 (1965), pp. 1–74. * "Le journal d'André Strengnart, évêque auxiliaire de Liège (1586-1599)", 150 (1984), pp. 177–225.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halkin, Leon-Ernest 1906 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Belgian historians Academic staff of the University of Liège Belgian resistance members Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp survivors Historians of Belgium People from Liège Walloon movement activists