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The German occupation of Belgium was severe in World War I, but not as brutal as suggested by British propaganda. The German Army did seize the food supply, but starvation was overted by American food aid. This time the Germans lived up to the World War I images. The German occupation policies were in part race based, thus the occupation while brutal and expoitive, did not aprroach the horrors in the East, except for Belgium's small Jewish population. There was some collaboraion with the NAZIs, especially at first when it looked like the NAZIs had won the War. Colaborationists organized Youth groups along the lines of the Hitler Youth. Many viewed the King as a colaborationist, but his role is complicated to assess. The Wehrmacht was the occupation authority. Fascist groups open colaborated with the German occupation authorities. Hendrik de Man served as a front man for the Germans. He dissolved the Belgian Workers Party (June 1940). King Leopold III met Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden (November 1940). He reportedly angered Hitler by asking for improved conditions for the Belgians. He managed to arrange the release of 50,000 Belgian POWs and an improved food supply for occupied Belgium. Differences existed between the Flemish and Waloons. As in other countries, the Germans though in racist terms. The NAZIs saw the Flemish as more salvagble racial stock than the Wallonians. The NAZIs replaced the Belgian and Luxemburgian Franc with the German Reichsmark (1941). King Leopold showed great courage by subsequently refusing to administer his country under German control and lend any appearance of legitimacy to the NAZI occupation government. King Leopold was held prisoner by the Germans until the end of the war, first in his castle at Laeken, near Brussels. As the Allies approached Belgium he was moved deep in Germany itself. Attitudes toward the Germans began to change markedly (1942). Major factors included the consscription of Belgians for war work in the Reuch. German military reverses in the final months of the year.
Germany launched World War I by invading neutral Belgium (August 1914). The Germans occupied most of the country until the final months of the War. The German occupation was severe in World War I, but not as brutal as suggested by British propaganda. The German Army did seize the food supply, but starvation was overted by American food aid. German occupation authorities attempted to take advantage of the Flemish-Walloon division. They supported Flemish Activists--a radical nationalist group that agreed to work with the Germans hopeing to gain independence for Flanders. Flanders during the German occupation seceded from Belgium (November 1917). At the time, it looked like the Germans might finally win the War. The great majority of the Flemish remained loyal to King Albert and Belgium. There was little support for the German-supported Council of Flanders. Nor was the German decesion to change the University of Ghent from a French-language to a Flemish-language institution well received. (The Belgian government made the State University of Ghent partially Flemish and then in 1930 fully Flemish.) After the failure of the German Spring Offensive, Allied Armies significantly strengthened by the large and growing American Expeditionary Force broke the Grrman Western Front wide opened and liberated large areas of Belgium (August-November 1918). After the Germans asked for an armistice, the Flemish government collapsed (Novenber 1918). As part of the Armistice the Germans had to wuithdraw from the remaining areas of Belgium they still occupied. After the War, the Flemish leaders cooperating with the Germans were tried for treason. Some were hung.
The Wehrmacht was the occupation authority. The Germans established the heaquarters of the LXXXIXth Army Corps in Park Den Brandt at Wilrijk, just south of Antwerp. Five bunkers were built there for protection from Allied air attack. This included two command bunkers of an extremely rare type Sonderkonstruktion 1 (SK-1). The Germans administered Belgium along with northern France (Militärverwaltung in Belgien und Nordfrankreich). It included the two French departments Nord and Pas-de-Calais. The German occupation authorities were assisted by Fascist Flemish, Walloon, and French collaborationists. Curriously, the Germans decided to proceed to annex the area into the Reich (July 1944). It was a meaningless action as by this time the Allies were breaking out of the Normandy beachhead and the German armies were in retreat. Belgium and northern Frabce were divided into three new Reichsgaue: Flandern and Brabant for the Flemish territories, and Wallonien for the Walloon parts (July 12, 1944). A Reichskommissariat Belgien-Nordfrankreich was established to carry out the plan. We suspect that the action had been planned anticipating the defeat of the expected Allied cross-channel invasion and was designed to please Hitler..
This time the Germans lived up to the World War I images. The German occupation policies were in part race based, thus the occupation while brutal and expoitive, did not aprroach the horrors in the East, except for Belgium's small Jewish population. The NAZIs replaced the Belgian and Luxemburgian Franc with the German Reichsmark (1941).
There were about 90,000-100,000 Jews in Belgium at the time World War II broken out in Europe, many were foreign Jews that had already fled the NAZIS from their own countries. During the first months of the occupation, thousands of Jews, especially foreign Jews, fled from Belgium or were deported to neighboring France. As a result, as of late 1940 about 52,000-55,000 Jews remained in Belgium. Hitler apparently had no marked plans for Belgium in the NAZI "New Order" in Europe. This thus had a marked effect on the administration that the Germans established in Belgium. NAZI suppression of Jews in Belgium followed a familar pattern. The NAZIs issued the first anti-Jewish measures in the Fall 1940. These measures suceeded in robbing Belgian Jews of their property. Inpoverished and concentrated it cities, they were now ready for the next step, transport east and the death camps. The killing of Dutch, Belgian, and French Jews began in July 1942 when the Polish death camps became fully operational. Most accounts suggest that the NAZI anti-Semetic campaign which began soon after the occupation had little impact on most Belgians. It was virtually impossible to contront the NAZIs openly. Many Belgians, however, quierly and effectively opposed the NAZIs quiettly and effectively. One author explain that it was these "slent rebels" that saved many Belgian Jews. Belgian clerics were some of the most effective in Europe in helping to rescue the country's Jewish population. The most notable cleric was Father Bruno who saved hundreds of children. There was only so much the Resistance could do in Belgium. Unlike Denmark there was no easy to get to sanctuary. The English Channel and North Sea is difficult waters. mined, and heavily patrolled by the Germans. The NAZIs succeeded in killing about 25,000 Jews who were living in Belgium. Here accounts vary. Some are as high as 40,000. Only 1,271 survived and retuned after the War. Despite the appaling total, the number of Jews saved is a testimony to the support of the Belgian people to their non-Jewish countrymen.
There was some collaboraion with the NAZIs, especially at first when it looked like the NAZIs had won the War. Colaborationists organized Youth groups along the lines of the Hitler Youth. Many viewed the King as a colaborationist, but his role is complicated to assess. Fascist groups open colaborated with the German occupation authorities. Hendrik de Man served as a front man for the Germans. He dissolved the Belgian Workers Party (June 1940). In binational Belgian territory, the predominantly French region of Wallonia, the collaborationist Rexists worked with the Germans. In Flemish-populated Flanders, the Flemish National Union worked with the Germans.
King Leopold III met Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden (November 1940). He reportedly angered Hitler by asking for improved conditions for the Belgians. He managed to arrange the release of 50,000 Belgian POWs and an improved food supply for occupied Belgium. King Leopold showed great courage by subsequently refusing to administer his country under German control and lend any appearance of legitimacy to the NAZI occupation government. King Leopold was held prisoner by the Germans until the end of the war, first in his castle at Laeken, near Brussels. As the Allies approached Belgium he was moved deep in Germany itself.
Belgium is one of the most surprising World war II food stories. The country was still as in World War I not self sufficient in food production and dependent on imports. But unlike World War I there there would be no arrangement to allow American food in to save the Belgians. Churchill was opposed to such measures and the Germans were determined to use the Belgian economy to support the war effort. Even so, while food supplies were tight and the Belgins lost wight, they did not starve. Because of the World War I experience the Belgian authorities before the War prepard an emergency rationing system. It went into effect the day the Germans invaded (May 10, 1940). [Van den Wijngaert, pp. 55-56.] German occupation policy as that each occupied country was to feed the German occupation force. Thus Belgian farmers would have to feed not only the Belgian population, but also the German occpiers. This was a danting task as with the occupation, the 1.2 million t of grain imported annually abruptly ceased. [Collingham, p. 168.]
The German food plan was that with the invasion of the Soviet Union, vast quantities of food would be available from the East. This of course did not materialize and Göring, Backe and others had to look o Western Europe to feed the German people. And throughout Western Europe, German authorities used food as a weapon and a bargaining tool to force compliance. [Van den Wijngaer, p. 23.] The food allocated to the Belgian citizens was about two-thirds of that allocated to Reich citizens. [Gildea, et. al, p. 26.]
One report suggests that food shortages led to weight lossess of 5-7 kilograms of weight per person in 1940, the first year of occuption. [Van den Wijngaert, p. 60.] Rationing did not guarantee availability. Often food and other rationed goods were simply not availanle. [Jacquemyns and Struye, p. 307.]
What saved the Belgians was the black market. The Germans set prices that farmers received for their crops. The prices were set very low which discoraged production, a potential disaster for a country that was not self sufficent in food production. Fisheries were significantly affected by the German occupation. An important part of the fleet fled escaped to England as the Germans approached the ports. The fishermen tht remained no longer had acces to the North sea. (This allowed the fish stocks to recover from overfishing.) The Germans restricted vessel activity and disel fuel was hard to obtain. The Germans, however, allowed fishermen to resume sctivity in coastal waters (1941. This was in part because a substantial part of the catch went to the Reich. The landed record amounts of herring. [Lescrauwaet]
It was the black market that prevented starvation. Black market prices were so high that farmers actually increased production. As a result, food was available in Belgium, albeit at high prices. [Nefors, pp. 256–257.] We do not at this time have details on just how the poor survived the war, but a combination of low-priced rationed goods and judicious black market purchases seems to have carried the Belgian people through the War.
Differences existed between the Flemish and Waloons. As in other countries, the Germans though in racist terms. The NAZIs saw the Flemish as more salvagble racial stock than the Wallonians.
The NAZIs were torn as to how to administer occupied Belgium. Belgium was a highly industrialized country with the capability of providing valuable support to the German war effort. To capatalize on the Belgian capability, the Wehrmacht one to avoid disruptive changes. NAZI purists on the otherhabd wannted to annex part of Belgium to the Reich, especially Flanders. Such atep could have proved dusruptive. The Wehrmacht won out and the country was place under military administtation until the last few months of the occupation. [Warmbrunn]
Belgium was a source of coal for the German steel industry during the War.
Attitudes toward the Germans began to change markedly (1942). Major factors included the consscription of Belgians for war work in the Reuch. German military reverses in the final months of the year. The Germans conscripted 0.5 million Belgians between 18 and 50 years old to work in the war industry in the Reich (1942). Some attempted to evade conscription and went into hiding, but this mneant licing without access to rationed food. Most of those conscripted had little choice but to report for transport to the Reich. Conscription had a major impact on popular attitides. Opposition against the Germans increased and resisrtance groups began to grow. The Resistance managed to save about half of the country's Jews.
There was only limited damage done during the German invasion. And for most of the War the British did not target German occupation forces in Belgium. Antwerp with its invaluable port was largely intact. The Allies with their griowing air power began taegetting war industries (1943). Mortsel and Antwerp North were bombed. Much worse was to comne from the Germans after liberation.
The Germans, preparing for the Allied invasion, flooded the area of Oosterweel to stop the Allies (February 24, 1944). It proved to be effective.
Collingham, Lizzie. The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food (Penguin Books: New York, 1962), 634p.
Gildea, Robert, Olivier Wieviorka, and Anette Warring. Surviving Hitler and Mussolini: Daily Life in Occupied Europe English ed. (Oxford: Berg, 2006).
Jacquemyns, Guillaume and Paul Struye. La Belgique sous l'occupation allemande: 1940–1944 (Brussels: Éd. Complexe, 2002).
Lescrauwaet, A.K., F. De Raedemaecker, M. Vincx, and J. Mees. "Flooded by herring: Downs herring fisheries in the southern North Sea during World War II," A.K. Lescrauwaet, "Belgian fisheries: Ten decades, seven seas, forty species: Historical time-series to reconstruct landings, catches, fleet and fishing areas from 1900," (2013), pp. 164-181. .
Nefors, Patrick. La collaboration industrielle en Belgique, 1940–1945 (Brussels: Racine, 2006).
Van den Wijngaert, Mark and Vincent Dujardin. La Belgique sans Roi, 1940–1950 Nouvelle Histoire de Belgique, 1905–1950 Vol. II (Brussels: Éd. Complexe, 2006).
Warmbrunn, Wener. The German Occupation of Belgium 1940-1944.
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