![Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1976-134-27, Belgien, Brüssel, Parade vor dem Schloss](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1976-134-27%2C_Belgien%2C_Br%C3%BCssel%2C_Parade_vor_dem_Schloss.jpg)
Despite being neutral at the start of
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 opposing ...
,
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 ...
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
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 invasi ...
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
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
where they formed
a government and
army-in-exile on the Allied side.
The
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
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
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
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, a figure representing 1.05 percent of the country's pre-war population, and around 8 percent of the country's
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...
was destroyed.
Background
During the 1930s, Belgium was still recovering from the destruction of
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 ...
. Economically, Belgium was experiencing high unemployment in the aftermath of the
Great Depression of 1929, and by 1932 unemployment stood at 23.5 percent
though under the "
New Deal-style"
Plan de Man this had been reduced to around 15 percent by 1937.
The 1930s also saw the growth of several
authoritarian and
fascist political parties in both
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
and
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
. In the
1936 elections, one of these, the French-speaking
Rexist party
The Rexist Party (french: Parti Rexiste), or simply Rex, was a far-right Catholic, nationalist, authoritarian and corporatist political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. The party was founded by a journalist, Léon Degrelle, , gained 11.6 percent of the national vote.
By 1939 however,
extremist
Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied share ...
parties lost many of the seats that they had previously gained
in new elections and political stability seemed to be returning.
Neutrality
![P4230112](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/P4230112.JPG)
As Belgium had suffered so much damage in
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 ...
, there was little appetite within the country to involve itself in any potential European conflict. In October 1936,
King Leopold III
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 invasi ...
announced that Belgium would remain neutral in the event of another war in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
as part of what he termed an Independent Policy (''Politique d'Indépendance'').
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
and receiving a guarantee of neutrality from
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
in 1937.
During this period, the
Belgian military
The Belgian Defense Forces ( nl, Defensie; french: La Défense) is the national military of Belgium. The King of the Belgians is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The Belgian Armed Forces was established after Belgium became indepen ...
was reorganized as an exclusively defensive force
and began construction and modernization of fortifications around the country, particularly around
Liège Province
Liège (; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is the easternmost province of the Wallonia region of Belgium.
Liège Province is the only Belgian province that has borders with three countries. It borders (clockwise from the north) the Du ...
near the German border.
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
The Koningshooikt—Wavre Line, abbreviated to KW Line (french: Ligne KW; nl, KW-stelling) and often known as the Dyle Line after the Dijle (Dyle) river, was a -long fortified line of defence prepared by the Belgian Army between Koningshooikt ...
linking the
National Redoubt at Antwerp with the south along the
River Dijle
The Dyle (french: Dyle ; nl, Dijle ) is a river in central Belgium, left tributary of the Rupel. It is long. It flows through the Belgian provinces of Walloon Brabant, Flemish Brabant and Antwerp. Its source is in Houtain-le-Val, near Nivelles ...
, just behind the main
Fortified Position of Liège
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
.
18 Days' Campaign
![Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1974-061-017, Belgien, Albert-Canal, Gefangene](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1974-061-017%2C_Belgien%2C_Albert-Canal%2C_Gefangene.jpg)
With the
German invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
in September 1939, although still following a policy of neutrality, the Belgian government began general mobilization. By 1940, the army numbered between 600,000
and 650,000 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
The Royal Netherlands Army ( nl, Koninklijke Landmacht) is the land branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. Though the Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, its origins date back to 1572, when the was raised – making the Dutc ...
at the time.
The invasion of Belgium by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
started on May 10, 1940 under the codename ''Fall Gelb'' ("Case Yellow") as part of the wider
invasion of France
France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans.
* the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...
, the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
. The Belgian
Albert Canal
The Albert Canal (, ) is a canal located in northeastern Belgium, which was named for King Albert I of Belgium. The Albert Canal connects Antwerp with Liège, and also the Meuse river with the Scheldt river. It also connects with the Dessel ...
fortifications, some of the most modern defensive networks in Europe, proved almost useless. At
Eben-Emael
Fort Eben-Emael (french: Fort d'Ében-Émael, ) is an inactive Belgian fortress located between Liège and Maastricht, on the Belgian-Dutch border, near the Albert Canal, outside the village of Ében-Émael. It was designed to defend Belgi ...
, the fort held by 1,200 Belgians was taken when the Germans deployed 500 glider-borne ''
Fallschirmjäger
The ''Fallschirmjäger'' () were the paratrooper branch of the German Luftwaffe before and during World War II. They were the first German paratroopers to be committed in large-scale airborne operations. Throughout World War II, the commander ...
'' against them, opening the border for
Blitzkrieg-style warfare.
Almost all of the air force's modern
Hurricane fighters were also destroyed by the ''
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
'' on the ground at
Schaffen airfield on May 10.
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. 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. It is estimated that around two million civilians fled their homes during the campaign.
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
[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.] between its two cavalry divisions for political reasons as they had been considered too "aggressive" for the army of a neutral power.
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.
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. Belgian casualties during the campaign numbered some 6,000 killed and 15,850 wounded.
Some 112,500 French and Belgian troops escaped to the UK via
Dunkirk but the majority of the Belgian survivors were made
prisoners of war and many were not released until the end of the war.
With the surrender of the Belgian army,
the government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
, led by
Hubert Pierlot
Hubert Marie Eugène Pierlot (, 23 December 1883 – 13 December 1963) was a Belgian politician and Prime Minister of Belgium, serving between 1939 and 1945. Pierlot, a lawyer and jurist, served in World War I before entering politics in the 192 ...
, fled first to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
and formed a
government in exile
A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile ...
in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
. After the
Fall of France, the government transferred to
Eaton Square
Eaton Square is a rectangular, residential garden square in London's Belgravia district. It is the largest square in London. It is one of the three squares built by the landowning Grosvenor family when they developed the main part of Belgra ...
,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
Surrender of Leopold III
![Leopold III - 25 Cents 1943](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Leopold_III_-_25_Cents_1943.jpg)
Leopold III,
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
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.
His decision was fiercely criticized by the French prime minister,
Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud (; 15 October 1878 – 21 September 1966) was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Germany.
Reynaud opposed the Munich Agreement of ...
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".
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. 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. 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!" While imprisoned, he sent a letter to
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
in 1942 which has been credited with saving an estimated 500,000 Belgian women and children from forced deportation to munitions factories in Germany.
In November 1940, Leopold visited Hitler in
Berchtesgaden where he asked for Belgian prisoners of war to be freed.
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.
German occupation
Life in occupied Belgium
![RAF attack St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/RAF_attack_St._Vith_26_Dec_1944.jpg)
Belgium was run by a
German military government under General
Alexander von Falkenhausen
Alexander Ernst Alfred Hermann Freiherr von Falkenhausen (29 October 187831 July 1966) was a German general and military advisor to Chiang Kai-shek. He was an important figure during the Sino-German cooperation to reform the Chinese Army. In 19 ...
and
Eggert Reeder
SS-'' Gruppenführer'' Eggert Reeder (22 July 1894, Poppenbüll – 22 November 1959, Wuppertal) was a German jurist, civil servant, and district president of several regions. Reeder served as civilian administrator of Wehrmacht occupied B ...
until July 1944, and then by Reichskommissar
Josef Grohé
Josef Grohé (6 November 1902 – 27 December 1987) was a German Nazi Party official. He was the long-serving ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Cologne-Aachen and ''Reichskommissar'' for Belgium and Northern France toward the end of the Second World Wa ...
until liberation. 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.
In total, Belgium was forced to pay nearly two-thirds of its national income for these charges,
a figure equaling 5.7 billion
Reichsmark
The (; sign: ℛℳ; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the , and until 23 June 1948 in East Germany, where it was replaced by the East German mark. The Reich ...
s.
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. A significant
black market also existed in the country, supplying food illegally at very high prices to those that could afford it.
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
''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing ...
'' and the newspapers of pro-collaborationist political parties like ''
Le Pays Réel'' remained high. A large number of underground newspapers were also published and distributed – the underground paper ''
La Libre Belgique
''La Libre Belgique'' (; literally ''The Free Belgium''), currently sold under the name ''La Libre'', is a major daily newspaper in Belgium. Together with ''Le Soir'', it is one of the country's major French language newspapers and is popular in ...
'' achieved a circulation of 30,000.
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R46093, Belgischer Zwangsarbeiter bei Siemens](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R46093%2C_Belgischer_Zwangsarbeiter_bei_Siemens.jpg)
Occupied Belgium was also targeted by the
Allied bombers from both the British
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
and American
USAAF
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
. 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
Mortsel () is a city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality close to the city of Antwerp located in the Belgium, Belgian province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the city of Mortsel proper. In 2021, Mortsel ha ...
(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.
The remaining 24 tons of bombs fell on civilian areas of the town, killing 936 and injuring 1,600 more in just eight minutes.
The Allied policy was condemned by many leading figures within Belgium, including
Cardinal van Roey.
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. 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.
200,000 Belgian military prisoners of war, who had been captured in 1940, were also transported to Germany.
Most were used as forced labour and paid only a nominal sum. About 80,000 (mainly Flemish) prisoners were returned to Belgium between late 1940 and 1941,
but many remained in captivity until the end of the war. They were often kept in very poor conditions and around 2,000 died.
Collaboration
![Sswallonie](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Sswallonie.jpg)
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
Verdinaso (''Verbond van Dietsche Nationaal-Solidaristen'', ), sometimes rendered as Dinaso, was a small authoritarian and fascist political party active in Belgium and, to a lesser extent, the Netherlands between 1931 to 1941.
Verdinaso was foun ...
'' and ''
Vlaams Nationaal Verbond
The (Dutch for "Flemish National Union" or "Flemish National League"), widely known by its acronym VNV, was a Flemish nationalist political party active in Belgium between 1933 and 1945. '' (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
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
agenda of ''DeVlag'',
VNV appealed directly to a
Flemish separatist agenda, though this message was never the main source of their popularity. Infighting between the groups, particularly VNV and ''DeVlag'', was considerable.
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
The Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (french: Centre d'Études et de Documentation Guerre et Sociétés contemporaines; nl, Studie- en Documentatiecentrum Oorlog en Hedendaagse Maatschappij), known b ...
, a panel of historians concluded that Belgium had offered "maximum administrative collaboration" with the German occupation forces. 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".
The towns of Brussels and
Liège, the report added, "remained
enerallypatriotic-Belgian and decisively hostile to Germany".
["La Belgique docile" report summarised in ] The report also found that many Belgian authorities had been compliant, even active, in the deportation of Jews.
Two separate units of the
Waffen-SS
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
, the
Flemish Legion
The Flemish Legion ( nl, Vlaams Legioen) was a collaborationist military formation recruited among Dutch-speaking volunteers from German-occupied Belgium, notably from Flanders, during World War II. It was formed in the aftermath of the German ...
and the
Walloon Legion
The Walloon Legion (french: Légion Wallonie, "Wallonia Legion") was a unit of the German Army (''Wehrmacht'') and later of the Waffen-SS recruited among French-speaking collaborationists in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. It wa ...
, were recruited from Belgium during the occupation.
Léon Degrelle
Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle (; 15 June 1906 – 31 March 1994) was a Belgian Walloon politician and Nazi collaborator. He rose to prominence in Belgium in the 1930s as the leader of the Rexist Party (Rex). During the German occupatio ...
, founder of the Rexist Party, served as commander of the Walloon Legion, which fought against the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
in Eastern Europe. A total of 15,000 Belgians 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.
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.
Resistance
![Belgian res](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Belgian_res.jpg)
Resistance to German occupation came from all levels and regions of Belgium and quarters of the political spectrum, but was highly fragmented and localised.
The
government in exile
A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile ...
dealt only with sympathetic resistance groups, like the ''
Armée Secrète
The armée secrète was a French military organization active during World War II. The collective grouped the paramilitary formations of the three most important Gaullist resistance movements in the southern zone.
History
In mid-1942, in t ...
''; however, even these umbrella organisations had many different agendas or political ideologies.
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.
Resistance to the occupiers chiefly came in the form of helping Allied airmen escape, and numerous lines were set up to organise this effort; for instance the ''
Comet line'' which evacuated an estimated 700 Allied servicemen to
Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
.
The Comet Line had a series of safe houses throughout Belgium. Allied airmen were given civilian clothes and were frequently moved from house to house, staying with Belgian families who supported the resistance. The resistance would aid the airmen by giving them false papers and guiding them to either neutral or Allied occupied territory.
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. 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.
The resistance were instrumental in saving Jews and Roma from deportation to death camps, for instance the attack on the "
Twentieth convoy
On 19 April 1943, members of the Belgian Resistance stopped a Holocaust train and freed a number of Jews who were being transported to Auschwitz concentration camp from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium, on the twentieth convoy from the camp. In t ...
" 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.
[The number provided by the ''Museum van Deportatie en Verzet'' puts the number at 20,000 Jews, including 3,000 children. The historian ]Eva Fogelman
Eva Fogelman is an American psychologist, writer, filmmaker and a pioneer in the treatment of psychological effects of the Holocaust on survivors and their descendants. She is the author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book ''Conscience and Cour ...
supplies a figure of 20,000 adults ''and'' 8,000 children in hiding. There was also significant low-level resistance, for instance in June 1941, the
City Council of Brussels refused to distribute
Stars of David badges. 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. So far, 1,612 Belgians have been awarded the distinction of "
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...
" by the
State of Israel for risking their lives to save Jews from persecution during the occupation.
Nevertheless, 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 a reprisal for a single attack on a Rexist politician in the
Courcelles Massacre.
The Holocaust
![Breendonk046](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Breendonk046.jpg)
In mid-1940, nearly 57,000 Jews were living in Belgium out of a population of roughly 8 million.
Many had fled to Belgium to escape recent persecution in Germany and elsewhere, meaning that only a minority were Belgian citizens.
Most of the Jewish population was focused in communities in the towns of Brussels and Antwerp.
Anti-Jewish legislation (along the lines of the German
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...
or
French laws on the status of Jews) was enacted in October 1940, a few months after the German occupation.
Several
pogroms took place in 1941, notably in Antwerp, and economic assets belonging to Jews were seized.
In May 1942, wearing of the
yellow Star-of-David badge became compulsory for Jews in Belgium.
From June 1942, as part of the "
Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
", Jews living in Belgium were ordered to report to the
Mechelen transit camp
The Mechelen transit camp, officially () in German, also known as the Dossin barracks, was a detention and deportation camp established in a former army barracks at Mechelen in German-occupied Belgium. It served as a point to gather Belgian Je ...
.
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.
Most were sent to the
Auschwitz death camp, although others went to camps at
Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...
and
Vittel
Vittel (; archaic ) is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France.
Mineral water is bottled and sold here by Nestlé Waters France, under the '' Vittel'' brand.
History
In 1854, after visiting the baths at nearby ...
.
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.
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. Around 300 people were killed in the camp itself, with at least 98 of them dying from deprivation or torture.
Belgian government and army in exile
![Allied Forces in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H7146](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Allied_Forces_in_the_United_Kingdom_1939-45_H7146.jpg)
After the defeat in 1940, significant numbers of Belgian soldiers and civilians escaped to Britain who, along with Belgian pre-war émigrés in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, formed the
Belgian forces in exile. The Belgian government, including ministers from
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
,
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
and
Liberal parties
This article gives information on liberalism worldwide. It is an overview of parties that adhere to some form of liberalism and is therefore a list of liberal parties around the world.
Introduction
The definition of liberal party is highly deba ...
under
Hubert Pierlot
Hubert Marie Eugène Pierlot (, 23 December 1883 – 13 December 1963) was a Belgian politician and Prime Minister of Belgium, serving between 1939 and 1945. Pierlot, a lawyer and jurist, served in World War I before entering politics in the 192 ...
, evacuated to London alongside other governments from occupied countries (including the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
) 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
Paul-Henri Charles Spaak (; 25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972) was an influential Belgian Socialist politician, diplomat and statesman. Along with Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer he was a leader in the formation of the ...
, to comment that "all that remains of legal and free Belgium, all that is entitled to speak in her name, is in London". A Belgian politician,
Victor de Laveleye, is also credited with inspiring the Allied
"V for Victory" propaganda campaign in 1941. The Belgium government in exile declared war on the
Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...
on 20 December 1941.
In a broadcast on French Radio, Pierlot called for the creation of an army in exile to continue the fight:
![Royal Air Force Fighter Command, 1939-1945](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Royal_Air_Force_Fighter_Command%2C_1939-1945._CH6345.jpg)
By 1944, the Free Belgian forces in the United Kingdom numbered some 4,500 men.
Belgian soldiers formed the
1st Belgian Infantry Brigade
The Independent Belgian Brigade was a Belgian and Luxembourg military unit in the Free Belgian forces during World War II, commonly known as the Piron Brigade (''Brigade Piron'') after its commanding officer Jean-Baptiste Piron. It saw actio ...
(which also included an artillery battery of soldiers from
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
) more often known as the ''Brigade Piron'' after its commanding officer,
Jean-Baptiste Piron
Lieutenant General Jean-Baptiste Piron (10 April 1896 – 4 September 1974) was a Belgian military officer, best known for his role in the Free Belgian forces during World War II as commander of the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade, widely known ...
. The Brigade Piron was involved in the
Normandy Invasion and the battles in France and the Netherlands until liberation.
Belgians also served in British special forces units during the war, forming a troop of
No.10 (Inter-Allied) Commando
No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando was a commando unit of the British Army during the Second World War, recruited largely from non-British personnel from German-occupied Europe. This unit was used to help co-ordinate attacks with other allied forces ...
, which was involved in the
Italian Campaign and the
Landings on Walcheren. 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.
400 Belgian pilots served in the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
. 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. In total, 1,200 Belgians served in the RAF, mainly in British or
Free Dutch squadrons.
Two
corvettes
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop ...
and a group of
minesweepers
A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping.
History
The earliest known usage of ...
were also operated by the Belgians during the
Battle of the Atlantic. By 1943, 350 Belgians were serving as sailors on these vessels.
Belgian Congo
![Soldiers in the Belgium Congo - NARA - 197079](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Soldiers_in_the_Belgium_Congo_-_NARA_-_197079.jpg)
Despite Belgium's occupation, the
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
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.
Congolese soldiers of the ''
Force Publique
The ''Force Publique'' (, "Public Force"; nl, Openbare Weermacht) was a gendarmerie and military force in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885 (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of ...
'' were involved in fighting with Italian forces during the
East African Campaign and were instrumental to forcing Italian forces out of
Abyssinia
The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...
, suffering 500 casualties.
13,000 Congolese troops served under British command in
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
.
Detachments of Congolese soldiers also served in the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
and
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
.
In total, the ''Force Publique'' comprised approximately 40,000 men and was racially segregated meaning that blacks could not become officers. Throughout the war, therefore, it was commanded by white officers.
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.
These were repressed by military force, often violently.
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, while its exports of rubber and uranium provided vital sources of raw materials. Most of the uranium used during the American
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
– including that used for the nuclear weapons dropped on the
Japanese towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – was supplied by the Belgian firm ''
Union Minière du Haut Katanga
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
'' from
Katanga Province in the Belgian Congo.
Liberation
![The British Army in North-west Europe 1944-45 BU769](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/The_British_Army_in_North-west_Europe_1944-45_BU769.jpg)
Belgium was liberated in September 1944 by the Allied forces, including
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
,
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
, and
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
armies, which also included the
Brigade Piron
The Independent Belgian Brigade was a Belgian and Luxembourg military unit in the Free Belgian forces during World War II, commonly known as the Piron Brigade (''Brigade Piron'') after its commanding officer Jean-Baptiste Piron. It saw action ...
. On September 3, 1944 the
Welsh Guards
The Welsh Guards (WG; cy, Gwarchodlu Cymreig), part of the Guards Division, is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the First World War, by Royal Warrant of George V. ...
liberated Brussels.
Just after the liberation, the inhabitants of the
Marolles district held a mock funeral for Hitler.
The
port of Antwerp
The Port of Antwerp-Bruges is the port of the City of Antwerp. It is located in Flanders (Belgium), mainly in the province of Antwerp but also partially in the province of East Flanders. It is a seaport in the heart of Europe accessible to ...
was an important strategic objective because Allied supply lines were heavily stretched and needed a deep-sea port near the front lines.
The
British Second Army
The British Second Army was a field army active during the First and Second World Wars. During the First World War the army was active on the Western Front throughout most of the war and later active in Italy. During the Second World War the army ...
liberated
Antwerp on September 6, with help from the local resistance. 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
The Battle of the Scheldt in World War II was a series of military operations led by the First Canadian Army, with Polish and British units attached, to open up the shipping route to Antwerp so that its port could be used to supply the Alli ...
completed in November.
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.
In February 1945,
Achille Van Acker
Achille Van Acker (8 April 1898 – 10 July 1975) was a Belgian politician who served three terms as the prime minister of Belgium between 1946 and 1958. A moderate from Flanders, Van Acker was a member of the Belgian Socialist Party (PSB–BSP) ...
replaced Pierlot as Prime Minister. 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". These battalions served in several battles on the western front. 100,000 Belgians were fighting in the Allied armies by
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...
.
General
Courtney Hodges
General Courtney Hicks Hodges (January 5, 1887 – January 16, 1966) was a decorated senior officer in the United States Army who commanded First U.S. Army in the Western European Campaign of World War II. Hodges was a notable "mustang" officer ...
'
U.S. First Army
First Army is the oldest and longest-established field army of the United States Army. It served as a theater army, having seen service in both World War I and World War II, and supplied the US army with soldiers and equipment during the Kore ...
liberated the region south of Brussels and
Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
in early September 1944. While two corps of the First Army were concentrated elsewhere,
VIII Corps 8th Corps, Eighth Corps, or VIII Corps may refer to:
* VIII Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French army during the Napoleonic Wars
* VIII Army Corps (German Confederation)
* VIII Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Ar ...
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.
![99th Infantry Division Moving Through Wirtzfeld](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/99th_Infantry_Division_Moving_Through_Wirtzfeld.jpg)
Following a few months of relative calm in Belgium, on 16 December 1944 the Germans launched the
Ardennes Offensive
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...
with over a quarter of a million soldiers.
Antwerp was the ultimate objective of the German offensive, but the German advance stalled before the
Meuse River
The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a ...
, 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.
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. Around 90% of the town of
La Roche-en-Ardenne was destroyed during fighting. By 4 February 1945, the country was reported to be free of German troops.
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
Some have suggested that 1610 may mark the beginning of the Anthropocene, or the 'Age of Man', marking a fundamental change in the relationship between humans and the Earth system, but earlier starting dates (ca. 1000 C.E.) have received broa ...
of the more advanced
V-2s and about 732
V-1s) fell in a 10-mile radius around Antwerp alone.
A post-war
SHAEF
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in 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.
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.
Nearly 250 were executed.
Léon Degrelle, despite being sentenced to death, managed to escape to
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
where he remained until his death in 1994.
Legacy and aftermath
![Bruxelles rue De Lenglentier](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Bruxelles_rue_De_Lenglentier.jpg)
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
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
and
deployed troops to fight alongside other
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
forces in the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
in 1950.
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
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, around the city of
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
, which it occupied from 1945.
Belgian soldiers remained in Germany until their final withdrawal in 2002.
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.
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
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
.
The
political crisis
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
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
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
, in Wallonia and Brussels, who were strongly opposed to it.
After a general strike and an
indecisive referendum, the king resigned in favour of his son,
Baudouin, in 1950.
Commemoration
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.
[For a map of all World War II memorials in Brussels, see ] There are numerous monuments and streets dedicated to Allied politicians and generals, including
Franklin Roosevelt and
Bernard Montgomery in Brussels.
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.
In common with other countries, there are numerous veterans' associations (known as ''"Fraternelle"'' or ''"Amicale"'' in French) and Belgian towns, particularly
Bastogne
Bastogne (; nl, Bastenaken, ; german: Bastnach/Bastenach; lb, Baaschtnech) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium.
The municipality consists of the following districts: Bastogn ...
, are frequently visited by veterans from other countries. There are also numerous war museums around the country, including the
Royal Museum of the Army and Military History in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, which aim to inform the public about the war. The Holocaust is commemorated in Belgium by both memorials and museums; the prison 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 ...
has been preserved as a museum and has been open to the public since 1947. Since the passing of the
Holocaust denial law in 1995, it is illegal to deny the holocaust.
The participation of soldiers from the Belgian Congo was, however, largely forgotten 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.
See also
*
* ''
Faux Soir
The "''Faux Soir''" was a spoof issue of the newspaper ''Le Soir'' published in German-occupied Belgium on 9 November 1943. It was produced by the Front de l'Indépendance, a faction in the Belgian Resistance, in a satirical style that ridiculed ...
'' – 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 After the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II in 1945, Belgium planned to annex parts of the territory along the Belgian–German border. In addition to monetary compensations and the lending of labour forces, this was considered a way of reparat ...
* ''
The Sorrow of Belgium'' – a novel by the Flemish writer
Hugo Claus
Hugo Maurice Julien Claus (; 5 April 1929 – 19 March 2008) was a leading Belgian literature, Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, the novel, a ...
about growing up in occupied Belgium.
*
Belgium in World War I
The history of Belgium in World War I traces Belgium's role between the German invasion in 1914, through the continued military resistance and occupation of the territory by German forces to the armistice in 1918, as well as the role it played in ...
*
History of Belgium
Notes
References
Further reading
;Primary sources
*
*
*
;Secondary sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
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 opposing ...
1940s in Belgium
Belgium–Germany relations