Lodelinsart ( Walloon : Lodlinsåt ) is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Charleroi , located in the province of Hainaut , Belgium .
89-521: It was a municipality of its own before the fusion of the Belgian municipalities in 1977. The Royal Climbia's Club is a philanthropic club founded in 1893 in Lodelinsart. The club is made up of thirteen local men and many volunteers who work with them for charity. The Climbia's organise a masked ball and various festive events. The Royal Cimbia's club is part of the oral and intangible heritage of
178-941: A constitutional oath before the United Chambers of the Belgian Parliament as Prince Royal on 11 August 1950. Leopold formally abdicated on 16 July 1951 and Baudouin ascended the throne and again took a constitutional oath the following day. Living standards in occupied Belgium decreased significantly from pre-war levels. Wages stagnated, while the occupying authorities tripled the amount of money in circulation, leading to rampant inflation . The occupying authorities tightly controlled which newspapers could be published and what news they could print. Newspapers of pro-Nazi political parties continued to be printed, along with so-called "stolen" newspapers such as Le Soir or Het Laatste Nieuws , which were published by pro-German groups without their owners' permission. Despite
267-436: A lesser extent, so that by 1830 there were 2,492 communes. With Belgium's independence, the trend was reversed with the creation of new communes, reaching a peak in 1928, when the country counted 2,675 communes, after 153 had been created and 7 abolished over the same period. Thus, in 1896, the hamlet called La Bretagne separated from Landelies (part of Montigny-le-Tilleul since 1977) to become an autonomous commune under
356-725: A policy declaration by the Eyskens III Government in November 1958 encouraged small communes to merge. This led to the Unitary Law of 14 February 1961, which introduced new provisions to facilitate mergers of communes by giving the government the right to carry out such regroupings for a period of ten years. These new provisions led to an initial reduction in the number of communes. In 1964, Belgium had 2,585 communes, 110 of which were grouped into 37 new entities. Belgium had come to have 2,379 communes by 1970, and 2,359
445-672: A policy of neutrality since its independence in 1830 , successfully avoiding becoming a belligerent in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). In World War I , the German Empire invaded Belgium. During the ensuing occupation , the Allies encouraged Belgian workers to resist the occupiers through non-compliance, leading to large-scale reprisals against Belgian civilians by the German army. As political tensions escalated in
534-1058: A raid on the Erla Motor Works in the town of Mortsel (near Antwerp ) on 5 April 1943, just two bombs dropped by the B-17 Flying Fortresses of the U.S. 8th Air Force fell on the intended target. The remaining 24 tonnes of bombs fell on civilian areas, killing 936 and injuring 1,340 more. During the preparation for D-Day in the spring of 1944, the Allies launched the Transport Plan , carrying out intensive bombing of railway junctions and transport networks across northern France and Belgium. Many of these targets were in towns near densely populated civilian areas, such as La Louvière and Kortrijk in Belgium, which were bombed in March 1944. The phase of bombing in
623-506: A repeat of World War I, when the Allies had encouraged Belgian workers to passively resist the Germans by refusing to work. The Germans instead deported Belgian workers and industrial machinery to German factories, benefitting their economy more. The policy also hoped to avoid an industrial decline which would have negative effects on the country's recovery after the war; however, many viewed the policy as collaboration. Between 1941 and 1942,
712-699: A result, only a small minority actually possessed Belgian citizenship. Shortly after the invasion of Belgium, the Military Government passed a series of anti-Jewish laws (similar to the Vichy laws on the status of Jews ) in October 1940. The Committee of Secretaries-General refused from the start to co-operate on passing any anti-Jewish measures and the Military Government seemed unwilling to pass further legislation. The German government began to seize Jewish-owned business and forced Jews out of positions in
801-526: A six-year reprieve, in the course of 1982, two decrees and two laws regulated the details of the merger of the communes of Antwerp , Berchem , Borgerhout , Deurne , Ekeren , Hoboken , Merksem and Wilrijk for 1 January 1983. On 1 January 1983, Belgium comprised 589 communes, as stipulated by the law of 30 December 1975: 308 in the Flemish Region , 262 in the Walloon Region and 19 in
890-652: The Front de l'Indépendance , who provided food and false papers. Many réfractaires went on to enlist in resistance groups, swelling their numbers enormously from late 1942. After the Belgian defeat, around 225,000 Belgian soldiers (around 30 percent of the total force mobilised in 1940) who had been made prisoners of war in 1940 were sent to prisoner of war camps in Germany. The majority of those in captivity (145,000) were Flemish, and 80,000 were Walloons. Most had been reservists, rather than professional soldiers, before
979-737: The Führer of Germany, in Berchtesgaden to ask for Belgian prisoners of war to be freed. No agreement was reached, and Leopold returned to Belgium. This fueled the belief that Leopold, who had expressed anti-Semitic views before the war, was collaborating with the Nazis rather than defending his country's interests. For the rest of the war, Leopold was held under house-arrest in the Palace of Laeken . In 1941, while still incarcerated, he married Mary Lilian Baels , undermining his popularity with
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#17327974174311068-671: The Belgian Resistance , formed in late 1940, expanded vastly. From 1944, the SS and Nazi Party gained much greater control in Belgium, particularly after the military government was replaced in July by a Nazi civil administration, the Reichskommissariat Belgien-Nordfrankreich . In September 1944, Allied forces arrived in Belgium and quickly moved across the country. That December, the territory
1157-539: The Brussels-Capital Region . The regionalisation of local government organisation slowly renewed the question of municipality merging, especially in Flanders. The Flemish, Walloon and Brussels Regions became responsible for their respective municipalities through the special law of 13 July 2001 transferring various powers to the regions and communities. In their 13 July 2009 coalition agreement for
1246-499: The Brussels-Wallonia Federation . Sadia Sheikh was murdered in Lodelinsart in 2007. This Hainaut Province location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Fusion of the Belgian municipalities The fusion of the Belgian municipalities (French: fusion des communes , Dutch: fusie van Belgische gemeenten ) was a Belgian political process that rationalized and reduced
1335-680: The Courcelles Massacre in August 1944. Before the war, several Fascist movements had existed in Flanders. The two major pre-war Flemish Movement parties, the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV) and Verdinaso , called for the creation of an independent authoritarian Flanders or " Dietse Staat " encompassing both Flanders and the Netherlands. Shortly after the occupation, VNV decided to collaborate with
1424-601: The Court of Cassation confirmed the illegality of the creation of Greater Antwerp, despite the insistence of the occupation authorities. The end of the German occupation put a radical end to these mergers of communes and a return to the pre-war status quo, but the idea was not abandoned. In the aftermath of the Second World War, four communes were abolished between 1945 and 1961. On 1 January 1961, there were 2,663 communes in Belgium. A ministerial circular of 1957 and
1513-690: The Free Belgian Forces and which fought as part of the Allied forces . Shortly after the surrender of the Belgian army, the Militärverwaltung in Belgien und Nordfrankreich (a "Military Administration" covering Belgium and the two French departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais ) was created by the Germans with Brussels as administrative centre. Germany annexed Eupen-Malmedy , a German-speaking region that Belgium had seized after
1602-473: The SS ). The section of the Military Government that dealt with civil matters, the Militärverwaltungsstab , commanded by Eggert Reeder , was responsible for all economic, social and political matters in the territory. Before leaving the country in 1940, the Belgian government had installed a panel of senior civil-servants, the so-called " Committee of Secretaries-General ", to administer
1691-619: The Treaty of Versailles of 1919. The Military Government was placed under the control of General Alexander von Falkenhausen , an aristocrat and career soldier. Under von Falkenhausen's command, the German administration had two military units at its disposal: the Feldgendarmerie ("Field Gendarmerie", part of the Wehrmacht ) and the Gestapo (the "Secret State Police", part of
1780-585: The Vinkt Massacre in which 86 civilians were killed. From 1941, the regime became significantly more repressive. This was partly a result of the increasing demands on the German economy created by the invasion of the Soviet Union , as well as the decision to implement Nazi racial policies. From August 1941, the Military Government announced that for every German murdered by the resistance, five Belgian civilian hostages would be executed. Although
1869-718: The " Final Solution " from 1942, the persecution of Belgian Jews escalated. From May 1942, Jews were forced to wear yellow Star-of-David badges to mark them out in public. Using the registers compiled by the AJB, the Germans began deporting Jews to concentration camps built by Germans in occupied Poland . Jews chosen from the lists were required to turn up at the newly established Mechelen transit camp ; they were then deported by train to concentration camps at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen . Between August 1942 and July 1944, around 25,000 Jews and 350 Roma were deported from Belgium; more than 24,000 were killed before their camps were liberated by
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#17327974174311958-468: The 1930s, often with their own newspapers and paramilitary organisations. All had supported the Belgian policy of neutrality before the war, but after the start of the occupation began to collaborate actively with the Germans. Because of their different ideological backgrounds, they often differed with the Nazis on a variety of ideological issues such as the role of Catholicism or the status of Flanders. Though allowed more freedom than other political groups,
2047-604: The 1930s. With the German invasion, however, Rex rapidly accepted the occupation and became a major force in collaboration in Wallonia. As a result of the Flamenpolitik , Rex was not given the same favoured status accorded to Flemish Fascists. Nevertheless, it was permitted to republish its newspaper and re-establish and expand its paramilitary wing, the Formations de Combat , which had been banned before
2136-517: The Allies. Among them was the celebrated artist Felix Nussbaum . From 1942 and the introduction of the Star-of-David badges, opposition to the treatment of the Jews among the general population in Belgium grew. By the end of the occupation, more than 40 percent of all Jews in Belgium were in hiding; many of them hid by gentiles and in particular Catholic priests and nuns. Some were helped by
2225-544: The Bastogne denomination. A nonbinding referendum on the fusion was held in Bertogne on 20 November 2022, 42% eligible voters took part, 65% voted against the fusion, but the process went on, as announced beforehand. German occupation of Belgium during World War II The German occupation of Belgium (French: Occupation allemande , Dutch : Duitse bezetting ) during World War II began on 28 May 1940, when
2314-712: The Belga had been secured, were mostly transported to Britain, Canada and the United States before the German invasion. Over 198 tonnes, however, had been entrusted to the Banque de France before the war, and shipped to Dakar in French West Africa . Under the pro-German Vichy régime , the gold was seized by the Germans, who used it to buy munitions from neutral Switzerland and Sweden. Before fleeing in May 1940,
2403-674: The Belgian army surrendered to German forces, and lasted until Belgium's liberation by the Western Allies between September 1944 and February 1945. It was the second time in less than thirty years that Germany had occupied Belgium. After the success of the invasion, a military administration was established in Belgium, bringing the territory under the direct rule of the Wehrmacht . Thousands of Belgian soldiers were taken as prisoners of war , and many were not released until 1945. The German administration juggled competing objectives of maintaining order while extracting material from
2492-534: The Belgian government established a body of important economic figures, under the leadership of Alexandre Galopin , known as the "Galopin Committee". Galopin was the director of the Société Générale de Belgique (SGB), a company which dominated the Belgian economy and controlled almost 40 percent of the country's industrial production. The committee was able to negotiate with the German authorities and
2581-457: The Belgian public, which disliked Baels and considered the marriage to discredit his claim to martyr status. Despite his position, he remained prominent in the occupied territory, and coins and stamps continued to carry his portrait or monogramme. While imprisoned, he sent a letter to Hitler in 1942 credited with saving an estimated 500,000 Belgian women and children from forced deportation to munitions factories in Germany. In January 1944, Leopold
2670-608: The Brussels-Capital Region, the PS, Ecolo, cdH, Open Vld, CD&V and Groen agreed to set up a working group on the better distribution of competences between the Region and the communes and on communal borders, which would be made up of regional and communal representatives and would submit its conclusions over two years. On 17 September 2010, the note concluded "Following the debate on the advisability of merging communes,
2759-649: The CDJ attacked the twentieth rail convoy to Auschwitz and succeeded in rescuing many of the passengers. Because of the Nazi-Soviet Pact , signed in 1939, the Communist Party was briefly tolerated in the early stages of the occupation. Coinciding with the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 however, the Germans rounded up a large number of Communists (identified in police dossiers compiled before
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2848-479: The German administration were involved in the black market, stealing military or official supplies and reselling them. Factories, ports and other strategic sites used by the German war effort were frequent targets of Allied bombers from both the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and American United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Many of these were located in towns and cities, and inaccuracy of
2937-575: The German authorities began to force Belgian businessmen to make an explicit choice between obeying the Doctrine (and refusing to produce war materials, at risk of death) and circumventing the doctrine as collaborators. Before 1941, Belgian workers could volunteer to work in Germany; nearly 180,000 Belgians signed up, hoping for better pay and living conditions. About 3,000 Belgians joined the Organisation Todt (OT), and 4,000 more joined
3026-467: The German military command, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), had advised a ratio of 50 civilians for every one German soldier killed, von Falkenhausen moderated the policy and decreed that the hostages be selected from political prisoners and criminals rather than civilians picked at random. The systematic persecution of minorities (such as Jews , Roma and Freemasons ) began from 1942, and
3115-508: The German war effort. Working conditions for forced workers in Germany were notoriously poor. Workers were paid little and worked long hours, and those in German towns were particularly vulnerable to Allied aerial bombing. Following the introduction of compulsory deportation 200,000 Belgian workers (dubbed réfractaires or onderduikers ) went into hiding for fear of being conscripted. The réfractaires were often aided by resistance organisations, such as Organisation Socrates run by
3204-592: The Germans and soon became the biggest group in Flanders, gaining many members after Verdinaso disbanded in 1941 and after fusing with the Flemish wing of the nationwide Fascist Rex Party . There was also an organisation, the Duits-Vlaamse Arbeidsgemeenschap ("German-Flemish Work Community", known by its acronym DeVlag), which advocated Nazi-style anti-clericalism and the inclusion of Flanders into Germany itself . During
3293-543: The Germans did not fully trust these organisations and, even by the end of 1941, identified them as a potential "threat to state security". After the war, 53,000 Belgian citizens (0.6 percent of the population) were found guilty of collaboration, providing the only estimate of the number involved during the period. Around 15,000 Belgians served in two separate divisions of the Waffen-SS , divided along linguistic lines. In particular, many Belgians were persuaded to work with
3382-618: The Germans invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. During the Battle of Belgium , the Belgian army was pushed back into a pocket in the northwest of Belgium and surrendered on 28 May. The government fled to France , and later the United Kingdom, establishing an official government in exile under pre-war Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot . They were responsible for forming a small military force made up of Belgian and colonial troops , known as
3471-659: The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Since 1830, Belgium had administered the whole of Limburg and Luxembourg. In 1831, the Treaty of the Eighteen Articles had recognized this, but it was never signed by the Netherlands. The corresponding communes were therefore lost in 1839. After the First World War, the communes of the East Cantons were annexed from Germany. Population movements, the rural exodus and
3560-637: The Minister of the Interior, Joseph Michel , of the Tindemans II Government , announced the launch of the remodeling of the communal map, to be completed by the communal elections of October 1976. Several criteria were used to group communes together, such as financial, geographical, linguistic, economic, social or cultural elements, without altering the boundaries of the administrative districts and provinces unless they were justified under
3649-438: The bombing resulted in substantial civilian casualties. In the early years of the occupation, Allied bombing took the form of small-scale attacks on specific targets, such as the ports of Knokke and Zeebrugge , and on Luftwaffe airfields. The Germans encouraged the building of 6,000 air-raid shelters between 1941 and 1942, at a cost of 220 million francs. From 1943, the Allies began targeting sites in urban areas. In
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3738-492: The camp's "International Prisoners' Committee" after its liberation by the United States Army . In 1940, the German army requisitioned a former Belgian army fort at Breendonk and transformed it into an Anhaltelager or prison camp. Initially, the prison camp was used for detaining Jews, but from 1941 most of those detained at Breendonk were political prisoners or captured members of the resistance. Though it
3827-660: The civil service. In April 1941, without orders from the German authorities, members of the Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen and other Flemish fascists pillaged two synagogues in Antwerp and burned the house of the chief Rabbi of the town in the so-called "Antwerp Pogrom". The Germans also created a Judenrat in the country, the Association des Juifs en Belgique (AJB; "Association of Jews in Belgium") in which all Jews were required to inscribe. As part of
3916-571: The commune as the basic territorial unit. In 1800, there were 2,741 communes in what is now Belgium. However, the French authorities wanted to reduce the number of communes in the Belgian départements, and urged the departmental prefects to take measures to that effect. A total of 127 communes were abolished during this period in the Jemappe , Dyle and Sambre-et-Meuse departments. The Dutch period did not put an end to this process, which continued to
4005-656: The decision of the population (91% in Ruiselede in April 2022), but in at least one case ( Boortmeerbeek ) a fusion aborted as a consequence of the referendum. The Walloon décret regulating future fusions of communes was published in the Moniteur belge on 17 September 2019. The only fusion approved so far by the Walloon Parliament, due to be effective on 1 January 2025, unites Bastogne and Bertogne under
4094-582: The deportation of Belgian workers. After the war, allegations that Leopold's surrender had been an act of collaboration provoked a political crisis over whether he could return to the throne; known as the Royal Question . While a majority voted in March 1950 for Leopold's return to Belgium as king, his return in July 1950 was greeted with widespread protests in Wallonia and a general strike which turned deadly when police opened fire on protesters, killing four on 31 July. The next day Leopold announced his intention to abdicate in favour of his son, Baudouin , who took
4183-413: The economic upheavals of the 19th and early 20th centuries led to new thinking on the organization of the municipal map, especially in Brussels, where there was a desire to create a "Greater Brussels". On the eve of the First World War, two solutions were put forward: grouping the outlying communes with Brussels, or creating an inter-communal structure to manage certain responsibilities. In 1921, just after
4272-461: The end of the occupation. Food and fuel were tightly rationed, and all official news was closely censored. Belgian civilians living near possible targets such as railway junctions were in danger of Allied aerial bombing. From 1942, the occupation became more repressive. Jews suffered systematic persecution and deportation to concentration camps. Despite vigorous protest, the Germans deported Belgian civilians to work in factories in Germany. Meanwhile,
4361-462: The eyes of many Belgians, and was viewed as a sign of his support for the new order. He was denounced by the Belgian Prime Minister, Hubert Pierlot, and declared "incompetent to reign" by the government in exile. Leopold was keen to find an accommodation with Germany in 1940, hoping that Belgium would remain as a unified and semi-autonomous state within a German-dominated Europe . As part of this plan, in November 1940, Leopold visited Adolf Hitler ,
4450-512: The first year of the occupation, the German administration pursued a conciliatory policy toward the Belgian people in order to gain their support and co-operation. This policy was, in part, because there was little resistance activity and because the demands the Germans needed to place on Belgian civilians and businesses were relatively small on account of their military success. During the fighting in Belgium, however, there were incidents of massacres against Belgian civilians by German forces, notably
4539-494: The following year. At the end of this ten-year period, in 1971, Lucien Harmegnies , Minister of the Interior under the Eyskens IV Government (1968–1972), decided to proceed with the remembrement of the territory and had a new law passed on 23 July 1971. This broadened the scope of the Unitary Law to make it applicable in the case of large conurbations, initially excluded from these provisions. However, no new merger proposals were put forward until June 1974. In September 1974,
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#17327974174314628-418: The formation of independent Flemish paramilitary organisations, such as the Vlaamse Wacht ("Flemish Guard"), founded in May 1941, which they hoped would eventually be able to act as a garrison in the region, freeing German troops for the front. From 1942, VNV's dominance was increasingly challenged by the more radical DeVlag, which had the support of the SS and Nazi Party. DeVlag was closely affiliated to
4717-501: The fort by hand. Many were summarily executed and still more died as a result of the conditions at the camp. Of the 3,500 people incarcerated in Breendonk between November 1942 and April 1943, around 300 people were killed in the camp itself with at least 84 dying as a result of deprivation or torture. Few inmates remained long in Breendonk itself and were sent on to larger concentration camps in Germany. Both Flanders and Wallonia had right-wing Fascist parties which had been established in
4806-569: The future of communes, including the merger of communes. The German occupation of Belgium during World War II overturned the kingdom's municipal structure. The Germans wanted the outlying communes around major conurbations to form a single commune with a single administration and police organization As a result, several communes were grouped together, leading to the birth of seven large communes between 1941 and 1942: Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Charleroi, Ghent, La Louvière and Liège. The legal authorities opposed these creations, and on 1 February 1943,
4895-455: The group recommends reviewing communal boundaries crossing obstacles such as railroads or roadways." The Flemish decree of 24 June 2016 on the Voluntary Merging of Municipalities created a regulated procedure, including a financial incentive for municipalities who merge. After decades without any change, some municipalities began seriously considering a fusion. Fifteen Flemish municipalities were merged into seven as of 1 January 2019, reducing
4984-451: The implementation of more radical German policies, such as forced labour and deportation. In practice, the Committee merely enabled the Germans to implement their policies more efficiently than the Military Government could have done by force. In July 1944, the military administration was replaced by a civilian government ( Zivilverwaltung ), led by Josef Grohé . The territory was divided into Reichsgaue , considerably increasing
5073-473: The law of 23 July 1971. After consulting the provinces and communes between September 1974 and January 1975 on merger proposals, a draft merger plan was written and submitted to two regional ministerial committees, one for Wallonia and the other for Flanders. This project resulted in the Royal Decree of 17 September 1975, dividing Belgium into 589 communes by 1 January 1977, but was postponed by six years for Antwerp and seven communes on its outskirts. This
5162-405: The lead up to D-Day alone resulted in 1,500 civilian casualties. Bombing of targets in Belgium steadily increased as the Allies advanced westward across France. Allied bombing during the liberation in September 1944 killed 9,750 Belgians and injured 40,000. The Allied policy was condemned by many leading figures in Belgium, including Cardinal van Roey , who appealed to Allied commanders to "spare
5251-415: The name Goutroux . Article 3 of the Belgian Constitution as then in force (currently article 7) and the provincial law of 1836 codified the procedures for mergers or the creation of new communes in Belgium. During this period, Belgium underwent two changes to its territorial boundaries. The Treaty of London (1839) led Belgium to cede part of its territory, forming the Province of Limburg (Netherlands) and
5340-427: The number of municipalities in Belgium between 1964 and 1983. In 1961, there were 2,663 such municipalities; by 1983, these had been re-arranged and combined into 589 larger municipalities. The annexation by France of the Austrian Netherlands , the principalities of Liège and Stavelot and the Duchy of Bouillon on 4 Brumaire of Year IV of the Revolution (26 October 1795) led to territorial reorganization, with
5429-445: The number of Flemish municipalities from 308 to 300, and the Belgian total from 589 to 581. Several more municipalities are in the process of merging by 1 January 2025: e.g. Gooik , Galmaarden and Herne , Hasselt and Kortessem , Lochristi and Wachtebeke . Most fusions were decided by the municipal councils without – nonbinding – local referenda, and where one was organised, several ( Zwijndrecht , Ruiselede ) went on against
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#17327974174315518-404: The occupation in World War I, the Germans had favoured the Flemish area of the country in the so-called Flamenpolitik , supporting Flemish cultural and political movements. This policy was continued during World War II, as the military government encouraged Flemish Movement parties, especially the VNV, and promoted Flemish nationalists, like Victor Leemans , to important administrative positions in
5607-438: The occupied territory. In turn, the VNV was important in recruiting men for a new "Flemish Legion", an infantry unit within the Wehrmacht , formed in July 1941 after the invasion of Russia. In 1943, the legion was "annexed" into the Waffen SS as the 27th SS Langemarck Division , despite the protestations of the party. The unit fought on the Eastern Front, where it suffered 10 percent casualties. The Germans also encouraged
5696-406: The occupiers as a result of long-running hostility to Communism, particularly after the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. By 1944, Belgian collaborationist groups began to feel increasingly abandoned by the German government as the situation deteriorated. As resistance attacks against them escalated, collaborationist parties became more violent and launched reprisals against civilians, including
5785-440: The organised resistance, such as the Comité de Défense des Juifs (CDJ), which provided food and safe housing. Many of the Jews in hiding went on to join the armed resistance. The treatment of Jews was denounced by the senior Catholic priest in Belgium, Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey, who described their treatment as "inhuman". The Partisans Armés had a notably large Jewish section in Brussels. In April 1943, members of
5874-496: The outbreak of war and their detention created a large labour shortage in civilian occupations. As part of their Flamenpolitik , the Germans began repatriating Flemish prisoners of war in August 1940. By February 1941, 105,833 Flemish soldiers had been repatriated. Gradually, more prisoners were released, but 67,000 Belgian soldiers were still in captivity by 1945. Many prisoners of war were forced to work in quarries or in agriculture and around 2,000 died in captivity. In
5963-506: The paramilitary Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen ("General-SS Flanders"), which was stationed in Belgium itself and involved in the so-called Antwerp Pogrom of 1941. Though both Fascist and anti-Semitic, Rex 's ideology had been more closely aligned with Benito Mussolini 's Partito Nazionale Fascista than with the Nazi Party before the war. Rex 's newspaper Le Pays Réel , which frequently attacked perceived Nazi anti-clericalism, had even been banned from circulation in Germany in
6052-540: The paramilitary German supply corps, the Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps (NSKK). The numbers, however, proved insufficient. Despite the protestation of the Secretaries-General, compulsory deportation of Belgian workers to Germany began in October 1942. At the beginning of the scheme, Belgian firms were obliged to select 10 percent of their work force, but from 1943 workers were conscripted by age class . 145,000 Belgians were conscripted and sent to Germany, most to work in manual jobs in industry or agriculture for
6141-460: The popularisation of comics in Europe, completed three volumes of The Adventures of Tintin under the occupation, serialised in the pro-German newspaper Le Soir . Before the war, the Belgian government had planned an emergency system of rationing, which was implemented on the day of the German invasion. The German occupying authority used Belgium's reliance on food imports as a bargaining tool. The amount of food permitted to Belgian citizens
6230-437: The power of the Nazi Party and SS in the territory. By 1944 the Germans were increasingly forced to share power, and day-to-day administration was increasingly delegated to Belgian civil authorities and organisations. Leopold III became King of the Belgians in 1934, following the death of his father Albert I in a mountaineering accident. Leopold was one of the key exponents of Belgian political and military neutrality before
6319-425: The private possessions of the citizens, as otherwise the civilised world will one day call to account those responsible for the terrible treatment dealt out to an innocent and loyal country". The German government levied the costs of the military occupation on the Belgians through taxes, while also demanding "external occupation costs" (or " Anti-Bolshevik charges") to support operations elsewhere. In total, Belgium
6408-431: The territory for the war effort. They were assisted by the Belgian civil service, which believed that limited co-operation with the occupiers would result in the least damage to Belgian interests. Belgian Fascist parties in both Flanders and Wallonia , established before the war, collaborated much more actively with the occupiers; they helped recruit Belgians for the German army and were given more power themselves toward
6497-410: The territory in the absence of elected ministers. The Germans retained the committee during the occupation; it was responsible for implementing demands made by the Militärverwaltungsstab . The Committee hoped to stop the Germans from becoming involved in the day-to-day administration of the territory, allowing the nation to maintain a degree of autonomy. The committee also hoped to be able to prevent
6586-478: The tight censorship and propagandist content, the circulation of these newspapers remained high, as did the sales of party newspapers such as Le Pays Réel and Volk en Staat . Many civilians listened to regular broadcasts from Britain, so-called Radio Belgique , despite being officially prohibited from December 1940. Most Belgians continued their pre-war professions during the occupation. The Belgian cartoonist Hergé , whose work since 1928 had contributed to
6675-487: The war) in an operation codenamed "Summer Solstice" ( Sommersonnenwende ). In September 1942, the Germans arrested over 400 workers which they feared were plotting a large-scale strike action. Many important politicians who had opposed the Nazis before the war were arrested and deported to concentration camps in Germany and German-occupied Poland, as part of the Nacht und Nebel (literally "Night and Fog") decree. Among them
6764-474: The war, even this was not always available and many civilians survived by fishing or by growing vegetables in allotments. Because of the tight rationing, a black market in food and other consumer goods emerged. Food on the black market was extremely expensive. Prices could be 650 percent higher than in legal shops and rose constantly during the war. Because of the profits to be made, the black market spawned large and well-organised networks. Numerous members of
6853-508: The war, the mayor of Brussels, Adolphe Max, proposed the creation of a metropolitan district for the Brussels conurbation. In the same year, the communes of Laeken , Neder-Over-Heembeek and Haren merged with Brussels to form the City of Brussels , without any consultation and consent of the concerned populations. In the interwar period, publications on communal management outlined ideas for
6942-460: The war. In April 1943, Rex declared itself part of the SS. The Formations de Combat were responsible for numerous attacks against Jews and, from 1944, also participated in arbitrary reprisals against civilians for attacks by the resistance. In 1944, Rexist paramilitaries massacred 20 civilians in the village of Courcelles in retaliation for an assassination of a Rexist politician by members of
7031-732: The war. Under the Belgian Constitution , Leopold played an important political role, served as commander-in-chief of the military, and personally commanded the Belgian army in May 1940. On 28 May 1940, the King surrendered to the Germans alongside his soldiers. That violated the constitution, as it contradicted the orders of his ministers, who wanted him to follow the example of the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina and flee to France or England to rally resistance. His refusal to leave Belgium undermined his political legitimacy in
7120-619: The years leading to World War II, the Belgian government again announced its intention to remain neutral in the event of war in Europe. The military was reorganised into a defensive force and the country left several international military treaties it had joined in the aftermath of World War I. Construction began of defences in the east of the country. When France and Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, Belgium remained strictly neutral while mobilising its reserves. Without warning,
7209-486: Was also coupled with much stricter repression of Belgian political dissent. At the start of the war, the population of Belgium was overwhelmingly Catholic . Jews made up the largest non-Christian population in the country, numbering between 70 and 75,000 out of a population of 8 million. Most lived in large towns and cities in Belgium, such as Antwerp and Brussels. The vast majority were recent immigrants to Belgium fleeing persecution in Germany and Eastern Europe and, as
7298-414: Was also in contact with the government in exile. Galopin pioneered a controversial policy, known as the "Galopin Doctrine". The Doctrine decreed that Belgian companies continue producing goods necessary for the Belgian population (food, consumer goods etc.) under the German occupiers, but refused to produce war materiel or anything which could be used in the German war effort. The policy hoped to prevent
7387-490: Was forced to pay nearly two-thirds of its national income for these charges, equalling 5.7 billion Reichsmarks (equivalent to 23 billion 2021 euros) over the course of the occupation. The value of the Belgian franc was artificially suppressed, further increasing the size of the Anti-Bolshevik charge and benefitting German companies exporting to the occupied country. The considerable Belgian gold reserves, on which
7476-568: Was incorporated de jure into the Greater German Reich although its collaborationist leaders were already in exile in Germany and German control in the region was virtually non-existent. Belgium was declared fully liberated in February 1945. In total, 40,690 Belgians, over half of them Jews, were killed during the occupation, and the country's pre-war gross domestic product (GDP) was reduced by eight percent. Belgium had pursued
7565-485: Was moved to Germany where he remained for the rest of the war. Despite his position, Leopold remained a figurehead for right-wing resistance movements and Allied propaganda portrayed him as a martyr, sharing his country's fate. Attempts by the government in exile to pursue Leopold to defect to the Allied side were unsuccessful; Leopold consistently refused to publicly support the Allies or to denounce German actions such as
7654-429: Was ratified by the law of 30 December 1975. On 1 January 1977, Belgium went from 2,359 to 596 communes. Following the adoption of the law of December 1975, in 1976 a special commission was set up in each province to rectify the administrative boundaries of all 596 communes. After discussions with communes, individuals and private bodies, royal decrees were issued in 1982 to finalize the rectifications. Having obtained
7743-494: Was reasonably small, the camp was infamous for its poor conditions and high death rate. It was also where summary executions of hostages as reprisals for resistance actions occurred. Unusually, Breendonk was mainly guarded by Flemish collaborators of the Vlaamse SD-wacht , rather than German soldiers. Prisoners were often tortured, or even mauled by the camp commander 's dog, and forced to move tonnes of earth around
7832-469: Was roughly two-thirds of that allowed to comparable German citizens and was amongst the lowest in occupied Europe. On average, scarcity of food led to a loss of five to seven kilograms of weight per Belgian in 1940 alone. A Belgian citizen was entitled to 225 grams (7.9 oz) of bread each day, and 250 grams (8.8 oz) of butter, 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) sugar, 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) meat and 15 kilograms (33 lb) of potatoes each month. Later in
7921-430: Was the 71-year-old Paul-Émile Janson who had served as Prime Minister between 1937 and 1938. He was arrested at his home in Belgium in 1943 and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp where he died in 1944. Many captured members of the resistance were also sent to concentration camps. Albert Guérisse (one of the leading members of the "Pat" escape line) was imprisoned at Dachau and briefly served as president of
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