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62-717: Established in July 1941, the Walloon Legion was envisaged by Léon Degrelle 's Rexist Party as a means of demonstrating its loyalty and political indispensability in German-occupied Belgium where it had been largely ignored since the German invasion of May 1940 . A similar formation had already been created by Flemish collaborators as the Flemish Legion , preventing Degrelle from being able to establish

124-743: A division and re-designated as the SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonia ( SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Wallonien ) in October 1944. After heavy losses during the 1945 retreats, its remaining personnel surrendered to British forces in April 1945. At the time of the German invasion in May 1940 , Belgium had several political parties that were broadly sympathetic to the authoritarian and anti-democratic ideals represented by Nazi Germany . In Wallonia and Brussels ,

186-848: A " Flemish Legion " to fight in the German Army in the Soviet Union . This move, combined with the Germans' favourable stance towards the VNV, meant that it would not be possible to realise Rex's preferred option of a national "Belgian Legion" on the Eastern Front. In July 1941, Rex announced that it would raise a unit of volunteers of its own, dubbed the Wallonia Free Corps ( Corps Franc Wallonie ) or Walloon Legion ( Légion Wallonie ). Unlike comparable Flemish and Dutch units ,

248-565: A by-election in April 1937 did it openly embrace anti-Semitism and anti-parliamentarianism, following the model of German Nazism . Historian Roger Griffin in “The Nature of Fascism” states that the Rexist Party during the German occupation of Belgium as "fully fascist"; until then, he considers it " proto-fascist ". The Rexist movement attracted support almost exclusively from Wallonia. On 6 October 1936, party leader Léon Degrelle made

310-840: A minor role during the war) was imprisoned. Degrelle took refuge in Francoist Spain . He was convicted of treason in absentia in Belgium and sentenced to death , but repeated requests to extradite him were turned down by the Spanish government. Stripped of his citizenship and excommunicated (later lifted in Germany), Degrelle died in Málaga in 1994. [REDACTED] Media related to Rexist Party at Wikimedia Commons Dutch Volunteer Legion The Volunteer Legion Netherlands ( Dutch : Vrijwilligerslegioen Nederland )

372-589: A secret agreement with Rex's Flemish counterpart, the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV; "Flemish National Union") led by Staf De Clercq . Both movements strove for a corporatist system. Still, unlike the Rexists, the VNV sought to separate Flanders from Belgium and to unite it with the Netherlands . The Flemish side cancelled the agreement after just one year. It also faced competition from

434-593: The 1936 Belgian general election in which it received 11.5 percent of the national vote. In spite of this, the party experienced a rapid decline in the years before the German invasion and polled below five percent in the 1939 elections and remained marginal. After the Belgian surrender on 28 May 1940, the German Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France governed the occupied country. As part of its strategy of indirect rule ,

496-805: The Battle of Tannenberg Line outside Narva alongside other units of the SS from Western Europe including Flanders. In the aftermath of the Allied liberation in September 1944, Degrelle managed to have the brigade upgraded to division -status, after drafting Rexist refugees fleeing the Allied advance and Belgian volunteers from the paramilitary National Socialist Motor Corps ( Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps , NSKK). The new 28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonia ( 28. SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Wallonien )

558-605: The German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, it embraced the idea of raising a military unit, seen as "a political opportunity to increase the importance of their movements and eliminate political competition". At the same time, the Flemish National League ( Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond , VNV), a Flemish nationalist and rival authoritarian party in Flanders, also announced its intention to form

620-548: The SS Division Wiking . During its time there, elements of the brigade were engaged in rear-security operations. During this period, the brigade was redesignated 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland. At this time, its strength stood at 9,342 men. On 25 December 1943, the brigade was transferred, along with Steiner's SS Corps, to Oranienbaum, Russia in Army Group North 's sector. The corps

682-621: The US Army . The other battle group was pushed south by the Soviet offensive, into the area around Halbe . The remnants of the unit were absorbed into Kampfgruppe Vieweger of the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) . The unit was destroyed in the Halbe pocket . After the war, the unit personnel were tried in the Netherlands, with several death sentences handed down. Wagner

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744-520: The Waffen-SS raised from French-speaking volunteers in Belgium with Rexist support after German invasion of the Soviet Union . After an initial failure to attract recruits, Degrelle volunteered for the unit as a publicity stunt and spent much of the rest of the war outside Belgium on the Eastern Front . He increasingly saw the Walloon Legion as a better vehicle for seeking German support than

806-471: The "Belgian Legion" he had originally intended. The formation, initially part of the German Army, was officially designated Infantry Battalion 373 ( Infanterie Bataillon 373 ). Degrelle himself enlisted and increasingly saw the unit as a more important political vehicle than the Rexist Party. It participated in fighting on the Eastern Front from February 1942 but struggled to find sufficient recruits in Belgium to replace its persistently heavy losses. The unit

868-461: The British Army at Lübeck to escape capture by Soviet forces . Altogether, between 7,000 and 8,000 men served in the Walloon Legion between 1941 and 1944, slightly less than the number of Flemish who served in comparable formations. Some 1,337 were killed, representing about a fifth of its total strength. However, its maximum field strength had never exceeded 2,000 men. In the final weeks of

930-657: The Catholic Party, who was supported — in the hope of thwarting a Rexist victory — by all other parties, including even the Communists. The Archbishop of Mechelen and primate of the Catholic Church of Belgium, Jozef-Ernest Cardinal van Roey , intervened, rebuking Rexist voters, insisting that even abstention from voting would be sinful, and calling Rexism "a danger to the country and to the Church". Degrelle

992-518: The Northern Oder region. The Nederland took part in the abortive Operation Sonnenwende , and the battles near Altdamm in February 1945. In April 1945, the division was split into two battle groups. The Soviet offensive of 16 April had broken the German lines by 25 April, cutting the lines of communication between the two units. One of the battle groups broke out to the west, surrendering to

1054-468: The Rexist Party, and recruitment drained the party of its cadres . Whilst Degrelle was absent, nominal leadership of the party passed to Victor Matthys . The Rexists had their paramilitary wing known as the Formations de Combat ( lit.   ' Combat Formations ' ), founded in 1940 and having around 4,000 members. Their members wore dark blue uniforms with the red Burgundian cross . Due to

1116-746: The SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland. The brigade was to consist of two Panzergrenadier regiments under the command of SS-Oberführer Jürgen Wagner . In September 1943, the Brigade sent to the Independent State of Croatia ( Yugoslavia ) to join SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner 's III SS Panzer Corps currently forming in the area. Upon its arrival, the Brigade received 1,500 Dutch recruits, drawn from

1178-717: The Waffen-SS Regiment Nordland (for Danish, Norwegian and Swedish volunteers), and the Waffen-SS Regiment Westland (for Dutch and Flemish volunteers). Recruitment in the Netherlands was given an air of respectability by the support of Dutch General Staff officer Lieutenant-General Hendrik Seyffardt . By April 1941, volunteers began arriving in Hamburg . By July 1941, the Dutch were organized into SS Volunteer Unit Niederlande. The formation

1240-458: The Walloon Legion was established within the German Army ( Wehrmacht ) because Walloons were not considered sufficiently "Germanic" by Nazi racial theorists to be allowed into the Waffen-SS . Recruitment initially met with little success, leading Degrelle personally to volunteer for the unit as a private as a publicity stunt. In total, some 850 men had volunteered by August 1941, bringing

1302-412: The administration preferred to work with established Belgian political and social elites, largely ignoring fringe political groups such as the Rexists. In order to acquire more influence and German support, Rex attempted to bring itself closer to the occupation authorities. On 1 January 1941, Degrelle announced Rex's total support for the occupation authorities and for the policy of collaborationism. After

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1364-527: The brigade received orders to evacuate the pocket by sea and report to the Swinemünde - Stettin area to participate in the defence of the Oder line. The brigade arrived in German territory on 4 February. On 10 February, the brigade was redesignated 23rd SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nederland, with a strength of 1,000 men. The new division was attached to Steiner's Eleventh SS Panzer Army , defending

1426-502: The constant depletion of its strength through members volunteering for more active forms of service in the German forces, the Formations had, by the end of 1943, virtually ceased to function. The party had been banned from the liberation of Belgium in September 1944. With the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, many former Rexists were imprisoned or executed for their role during collaboration. Victor Matthys and José Streel were both executed by firing squad, Jean Denis (who had played only

1488-582: The example of the Nazi Party in Germany. It initially gained limited interest from the Dutch lower-middle class but never gained widespread support. It polled only three percent in 1939. After the invasion of Poland in 1939, Heinrich Himmler , head of the SS , sought to expand the Waffen-SS with "Germanic" volunteers from other countries. The enrollment began in April 1940 with the creation of two regiments:

1550-574: The ideologically similar (but explicitly anti-German) Légion Nationale ("National Legion") of Paul Hoornaert . The Rexist Party was founded in 1935 after its leader Léon Degrelle had left the mainstream Catholic Party , which he deemed too moderate. It targeted disappointed constituencies such as traditionalist Catholics, veterans, small traders and jobless people. In the Depression era, it initially won considerable popularity — mostly due to its leader's charisma and energy. Its most tremendous success

1612-484: The killing, one Walloon legionary also took part, with Belgian officers and soldiers standing by to watch and taking photographs. The Legion was then attached to the Romanian Army and later to the 100th Jäger Division . It fought its first major engagement against Soviet forces at Hromova Balka near Donetsk on 28 February 1942 as part of the 17th Army . It suffered heavy losses, both from disease and combat, and

1674-469: The largest of these groups was the Rexist Party , led by Léon Degrelle . This had originated as a faction of the mainstream Catholic Block , but split in 1935 to form an independent populist party. Ideologically, Rex supported Belgian nationalism , but its support for corporatism and anti-communism made it sympathetic towards aspects of Nazi ideology . It achieved some early success, peaking in

1736-558: The liberation. Initially modelled on Italian Fascism and Spanish Falangism , it later drew closer to German Nazism . The Party espoused a "right-wing revolution" and the dominance of the Catholic Church in Belgium , but its ideology came to be vigorously opposed by the leader of the Belgian Church Cardinal van Roey , who called Rexism a "danger to the church and the country". The ideology of Rex, which

1798-534: The mainstream Catholic and Liberal parties . With the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, Rexism welcomed German occupation, even though it had initially supported the pre-war Belgian policy of neutrality. While some former Rexists went into the underground resistance or (like José Streel ) withdrew from politics after they had come to see the Nazis' anticlerical and extreme anti-Semitic policies enforced in occupied Belgium, most Rexists, however, proudly supported

1860-544: The new SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonia was deployed for the first time to Ukraine in response to the Soviet Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive . There, the brigade fought as part of the SS Division Wiking in the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket in February 1944 and suffered 70 percent casualties. By the end of the engagement, the effective strength of the unit had been reduced from 2,000 to 632. Among those killed

1922-620: The occupiers and assisted German forces with the repression of the territory wherever they could. Nevertheless, the popularity of Rex continued to drop. In 1941, at a reunion in Liège , Degrelle was booed by about a hundred demonstrators. In August 1944, a Rexist militia was responsible for the Courcelles Massacre . Closely affiliated with Rex was the Walloon Legion , a unit within the German Army ( Wehrmacht ) and later

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1984-718: The only foreign volunteer to be decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves . In late 1942, Himmler declared the Walloons to be a Germanic race, paving the way for the unit's incorporation into the Waffen-SS on 1 June 1943. The Walloon Legion was re-organised into a brigade-sized unit of 2,000 men, known as the SS Assault Brigade Wallonia ( SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien ). As part of

2046-442: The party's paramilitary wing. In propaganda, Rex emphasised the anti-communist dimension of the German war effort and argued that collaboration was compatible with Belgian patriotism . The unit encountered various internal problems with some volunteers being unwilling to swear personal allegiance to Adolf Hitler and others being classed as medically unfit; almost a third of the volunteers were repatriated before October 1941. Over

2108-518: The siege at Leningrad. One 19-year old Dutch gun crew leader, Gerardus Mooyman, destroyed 23 Russian tanks with his Pak 40 in about a month of fighting. He became the first foreigner to be awarded Knight’s Cross . On 6 February, General Seyffardt, while campaigning for new recruits in Amsterdam, was assassinated by the Dutch resistance . In April 1943, the unit was sent to Germany to be reformed as

2170-421: The thousands of Belgian prisoners of war held in German camps . However, Degrelle became increasingly keen on the political potential of the Walloon Legion which he saw as a more effective political tool than the Rexist Party in Belgium. As the war continued and the pool of Rexist members fell, the volunteers became "largely non-political 'adventurers' or desperate men", often drawn from the urban working class and

2232-435: The transfer, the links between the unit and Rex were cut. The pre-existing structure of welfare organisations set up by Rex in German-occupied Belgium such as Legionary Solidarity ( Solidarité légionnaire ) were disbanded and replaced by a new autonomous entity known as National Socialist Welfare ( Entre'aide Nationale-Socialiste ). Degrelle himself spent much of 1943 on a publicity tour of Germany and Belgium. In November 1943,

2294-516: The unemployed. The Legion's record in combat, however, was widely exploited in propaganda and increased Degrelle's legitimacy in the eyes of the German leadership, especially Heinrich Himmler who commanded the SS. In the fighting between February and May 1942, Degrelle was able to rise rapidly through the ranks to Leutnant and received numerous decorations including the Iron Cross . In subsequent months, he received further plaudits and became

2356-714: The unit retreated to the Narva River in Estonia , where it took part in the Battle of Narva deployed on the Ivangorod bridgehead. The launch of Operation Bagration on 22 June threatened the German positions. On 23 July, Steiner ordered a withdrawal to the Tannenberg Line . The unit was destroyed from the air on 24 July, with only a few personnel reaching the Tannenberg Line a week later. The regiment

2418-683: The unit up to the strength of a battalion . Officially designated as Infantry Battalion 373 ( Infanterie Bataillon 373 ), it was sent for training in Meseritz in Germany. As part of Degrelle's notion of an expanded Burgundian-style Belgium , the unit adopted the Cross of Burgundy as its insignia. Most of the Legion's initial volunteers were Rexist cadres and many had been part of the Combat Formations ( Formations de Combat ) which served as

2480-604: The unit was even loaned armoured vehicles by other German units to make it seem more prestigious. Following Lippert's death, Degrelle was promoted to rank of SS-Sturmbannführer , and took command of the brigade. The Western Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944 and began to advance rapidly towards Belgium. On the Eastern Front, the brigade was hurriedly redeployed in July from its temporary camp in Franconia to participate in

2542-587: The vote in the French-speaking province of Luxembourg , compared with just 9 per cent in equally French-speaking Hainaut. Degrelle admired Adolf Hitler 's rise to power and progressively imitated the tone and style of fascist campaigning, while the movement's ties to the Roman Catholic Church were increasingly repudiated by the Belgian clergy. Degrelle ran in the April 1937 Brussels by-election against Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland of

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2604-516: The war, Degrelle fled to German-occupied Norway and flew to Francoist Spain where, sentenced to death in absentia , he remained in exile until his death in 1994. Survivors of the Legion were sentenced to death after the war, although this was only carried out against the officers and holders of the Knights Cross. The enlisted ranks were let off with 10 to 20 years imprisonment and re-education and training classes between 1946 and 1951. It

2666-587: The winter of 1941–1942, it participated in training and security operations near Donetsk in Ukraine . For the first months after its deployment, the Walloon Legion was deployed in "minor mopping-up operations" behind the Eastern Front from November 1941. One of the Russian émigrés who served in the Legion, Rostislav Zavadskii, at the end of November wrote in his diary about the shootings of civilians suspected of being partisans. Although Feldgendarmerie units did

2728-425: Was 21 out of 202 deputies (with 11.4% of the vote) and twelve senators in the 1936 election . Never a mass movement, it was on the decline by 1938. During the German occupation of Belgium in World War II , Rex was the most significant collaborationist group in French-speaking Belgium, paralleled by the Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond (VNV) in Flanders. By the war's end, Rex was widely discredited and banned following

2790-464: Was a collaborationist military formation recruited in the German-occupied Netherlands during World War II . It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front in the Waffen SS alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe . It was the largest Dutch SS unit. The Volunteer Legion was renamed the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Brigade Netherlands in October 1943. It

2852-409: Was created in October 1944. It numbered fewer than 4,000 men, making it considerably understrength. French soldiers and Spaniards from the Blue Legion were folded into the unit to increase its numbers. Early in 1945, the Wallonia Division was deployed to the defence of Pomerania . It participated in fighting at Stargard on 5 February. By the end of the month, it had been reduced to only 700 men and

2914-431: Was decisively defeated: he obtained only 20 per cent of the vote, the rest going to Van Zeeland. Afterwards, Rexism allied itself with the interests of Nazi Germany even more strongly and incorporated Nazi -style antisemitism into its platform. At the same time, its popularity declined sharply. In the 1939 national election , Rex's share of votes fell to 4.4 per cent, and the party lost 17 of its 21 seats, largely to

2976-402: Was deployed to the area near Oranienbaum as part of the 18th Army . The Soviet Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha Offensive cut through the weak infantry units formed out of the 9th and 10th Luftwaffe Field Divisions . The unit, alongside the SS Division Nordland , soon retreated to avoid encirclement by General Leonid A. Govorov 's Leningrad Front . In the face of the Soviet Kingisepp–Gdov Offensive ,

3038-405: Was founded by a journalist, Léon Degrelle . It advocated Belgian unitarism and royalism . Initially, the party ran in both Flanders and Wallonia , but it never achieved much success outside Wallonia and Brussels . Its name was derived from the Roman Catholic journal and publishing company Christus Rex ( Latin for Christ the King ). The highest electoral achievement of the Rexist Party

3100-402: Was integrated into the Waffen-SS in June 1943 as the SS Assault Brigade Wallonia ( SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien ) and was almost destroyed by Soviet forces in the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket in February 1944. It expanded slightly after the Allied Liberation of Belgium in September 1944 as Belgian, French, and Spanish collaborators were drafted into the unit. It was upgraded to the notional status of

3162-466: Was loosely based on the writings of Jean Denis , called for the "moral renewal" of Belgian society through the dominance of the Catholic Church by forming a corporatist society and abolishing liberal democracy . Denis became an enthusiastic member of Rex, and later wrote for the party newspaper Le Pays Réel . The original programme of Rexism borrowed strongly from Charles Maurras ' integralism . It rejected liberalism , which it deemed decadent, and

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3224-453: Was officially re-designated as a division in February 1945 but never grew to larger than a brigade. When the Germans invaded in May 1940, several political parties in the Netherlands sympathized with the authoritarian and anti-democratic ideals of Nazi Germany . The most important was the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands ( Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland , NSB), led by Anton Mussert , founded in 1931 on

3286-453: Was ordered to be reformed at Schlochau . In September, Leon Degrelle 's battle group from SS Brigade Wallonien was placed under the command of Nederland. The unit arrived in the area near Gumi-Wolmar in mid-October. The Soviet forces cut off Army Group North in the Courland area, creating the Courland Pocket . During the unit's presence in Courland, Wagner ordered the reprisal executions of an unknown number of civilians. On 26 January 1945,

3348-516: Was reduced to 150 men within its first months. It continued to encounter "enormous losses" throughout 1942. The Legion was posted to the Don River in July 1942 and then moved south to the Caucasus . In one action alone, the unit lost 854 men and Degrelle was seriously wounded. By November 1942 it had been reduced to 187 men. The high attrition rate within the Walloon Legion required increasing focus on recruitment. The age requirements for volunteers were loosened in early 1942. A second recruitment drive

3410-406: Was reported in 1992 that there were around 1,000 surviving veterans. Many were unrepentant and claimed not to have had any knowledge of Nazi atrocities. Rexist Party The Rex Popular Front ( French : Front populaire de Rex ), Rexist Party , or simply Rex , was a far-right Catholic authoritarian and corporatist political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. The party

3472-448: Was started in February 1942, recruiting 450 new volunteers of whom many came from Rex's small Rexist Youth ( Jeunesse Rexiste ) or its paramilitary Combat Formations ( Formations de Combat ). A third "frantic" campaign in November 1942 raised a further 1,700 men. These recruitment drives weakened many Rexist institutions by diverting manpower away from projects in Belgium. At the same time, it failed to secure more than 140 recruits from among

3534-599: Was strongly opposed to both Marxism and capitalism , instead striving for a corporatist economic model, idealising rural life and traditional family values . It has been claimed that in its early period until around 1937, Rexism should not be categorised as a ‘fascist movement’, and that it was instead a populist , authoritarian and conservative Catholic nationalist movement that initially tried to win power by democratic means, and did not want to totally abolish democratic institutions. The party increasingly made use of fascist-style rhetoric, but only after Degrelle's defeat in

3596-442: Was the size of a reinforced infantry battalion, with five motorized companies. The unit was again redesignated, this time as SS Volunteer Legion Niederlande under General Seyffardt. In November 1941, the legion was ordered to the front near Leningrad , under the overall command of Army Group North Rear Area . The Legion arrived at the Volkhov River in mid-January 1942 and was engaged in rear-security activities . In late June, it

3658-546: Was the unit's commander Lucien Lippert  [ Wikidata ] . A detachment also fought at the Tannenberg Line in Estonia in June 1944, also suffering heavy losses. Degrelle, however, was widely celebrated for his role in the battle at Cherkassy, becoming "the poster boy for all European collaborators" and being featured in Wehrmacht's Signal magazine. The remnants of the unit returned to Belgium where parades were held in Brussels and Charleroi in April 1944. Ahead of its return, largely to encourage more enlistments,

3720-406: Was thrown into a costly attack on the Russian bridgehead at the Oder river in which it lost a further 650 men. In the aftermath of this failure, some of the survivors were evacuated by sea to German-occupied Denmark and headed for Schleswig-Holstein . Degrelle met with Himmler at Plön but was not given any tangible orders and fled to Norway. The surviving personnel of the division surrendered to

3782-440: Was transferred north in support of units at the Siege of Leningrad . The unit was then to take part in an offensive Operation Nordlicht , which was ultimately called off to deal with the Soviet Sinyavino Offensive . The Legion was then moved south near Lake Ladoga . At the end of 1942, it was merged with the 2nd SS Infantry Brigade . In January 1943, Dutch troops were heavily involved in defending against Soviet attempts to lift

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3844-444: Was winning 11.5 per cent of the total vote in the 1936 election . On that occasion the Rexist Party took 21 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 8 out of 101 in the Senate, making it the fourth-strongest force in Parliament, behind the significant established parties (Labour, Catholic, Liberal). However, the support for the party (even at its height) was extremely localized: Rexists succeeded in garnering over 30 per cent of

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