Fort Breendonk

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Entrance of the fort
Aerial view

The Fort Breendonk is an early 20th century built fortress in Willebroek in Belgium . It was under fire from the German artillery during the First World War . During the Second World War it was captured by the Wehrmacht in May 1940 as part of the western campaign and served as a reception camp for detained opponents of the regime until it was liberated.

history

Fort Breendonk was originally part of the Belgian defensive belt of Antwerp and is located between the neighboring fort Liezele in the west and Walem in the east. At first it belonged to the territory of the municipality of Breendonk , after which it is named. With the construction of the A12 motorway , the part of the municipality with the fort was separated and incorporated into the municipality of Willebroek. Construction on the fort began in 1906. When the First World War began, construction was not yet complete, but it was technically outdated (see explosive shell ).

The building complex extends over approximately 260 m in length and 106 m in width. It is surrounded by a 40 to 50 m wide moat (average depth 2.75 m). The fort is largely covered by earth (9.75 m maximum height of the layers). The fort was initially equipped with seven armored domes. Their cannons and howitzers had a caliber between 7.5 cm and 15 cm. Fourteen 57 mm rapid fire cannons were used to defend themselves against infantry attacks.

During the First World War it was used during the siege of Antwerp on October 1 and October 4 to 8, 1914 by heavy German artillery with the:

  • Heavy coastal mortar battery 1 with 221 rounds of 30.5 cm caliber from a distance of 7.8 km
  • Heavy coastal mortar battery 5 with 225 rounds caliber 30.5 cm from a distance of 8.0 km
  • Heavy coastal mortar battery 6 with 117 rounds 30.5 cm caliber from a distance of 8.0 km

shot at.

In 1940 the fort was the headquarters of the Belgian armed forces , where on May 10th, at 8:30 a.m., King Leopold III. arrived. From there he sent his proclamation to the Belgian people. There he also received the commanders of the 7th French Army to the south and the British forces in the north. On the afternoon of May 17, the headquarters were moved to Sint-Denijs-Westrem near Ghent . The king subsequently stayed in Belgium; the government fled into exile in London.

Belgium surrendered on May 28, 1940. On June 22, France also signed the Compiègne armistice, which was equivalent to surrender . In September 1940, the German Secret State Police (Gestapo) set up the “Breendonk reception camp” in the fort. The camp became the center of the Gestapo activities of the security service in Belgium and northern France until the liberation of these areas in autumn 1944. At least 3,532 people were imprisoned there until the dissolution after the liberation. 458 people are said to have been released, about half of these 3,532 people did not survive. From September 1940 to November 1943, the "Breendonk reception camp" was under the command of Philipp Schmitt , who from July 1942 to April 1943 was also the commandant of the SS assembly camp in Mechelen . Numerous members of the Belgian resistance were deported from here to German concentration camps .

See also: Category: Prisoner at Fort Breendonk (1940–1944)

After the liberation of Belgium on September 4, 1944, the fort became a prison for collaborators . Initially, the supporters of the local resistance locked up the " inciviques " there (for example: fellow citizens considered unreliable). The prisoner was illegally assaulted during this time. On October 10, 1944, the complete evacuation of the camp was ordered. The prisoners were transferred to the Dossin barracks in Mechelen. The fort then became the official internment camp of the Belgian state.

On August 19, 1947, the Belgian parliament unanimously decided to establish the “Breendonk Fortress National Memorial” as an independent institution. Since then, the memorial has been dedicated to the memory of the events in the concentration camp assembly camp as well as the structural preservation of the fortress and the objects stored there.

  • Roll call area

  • Original goods wagon with which people were deported to the concentration camp.

  • Room with the names of the deportees

  • Room with a two-story bed frame for 48 people

  • Execution place

  • torture

  • memorial

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literature

  • Patrick Nefors: Breendonk 1940-1945. Racine, Bruxelles 2005. ISBN 978-2873864200 (French)
  • Marc van den Wijngaert, Patrick Nefors: Beulen van Breendonk: Schuld en boete (Verhalen uit WO II). Standaard Uitgeverij - Algemeen, Antwerp 2019, ISBN 978-90-5908-979-2 . (Dutch)
  • Hans Schafranek : In the "Hell of Breendonk". Victims - perpetrators - collaborators. Germans in a Belgian police detention camp 1940–1944 . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft , vol. 67, 2019, issue 2, pp. 118-138
  • Hans Schafranek : In the "Hell of Breendonk". A void in the culture of remembrance: Austrians in the Belgian SS reception camp Breendonk . In: DÖW (Ed.), Yearbook 2019
  • Thorsten Fuchshuber: The Hell of Breendonk. jungle world , 39, 26 September 2019, p. 10f. Photos: Patrick Galbats (also online)
  • Paul MG Lévy: The "reception camp" Breendonk. In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Dachauer Hefte. 5: The forgotten camps. Munich 1994. ISBN 3-423-04634-1 .
  • Breendonk . In: Frans Fischer, Edgard Marbaix (ed.): Collection Terres des Belges . Editions Jourdan, 2006, ISBN 2-930359-74-9 (French).
  • Ministère de la justice du Royaume de Belgique, Commission des crimes de guerre (ed.): Les Crimes de guerre commis sous l'Occupation de la Belgique 1940–1945 - Le camp de tortures de Breendonk . Georges Thone Éditeur, Liège 1949 (French).
  • Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel : Terror in the West - National Socialist Camps in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg 1940–1945 (=  History of the Concentration Camps 1933–1945 . Volume 5 ). Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2004.
  • Andreas Pflock: On forgotten tracks. A guide to memorials in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg . Ed .: Federal Agency for Civic Education . Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-685-X .

The literary subject Das Fort appears as a topos in Sebald's last novel:

Web links

Commons : Fort van Breendonk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust - Photos: Fort Breendonk Interior. Florida Center for Instructional Technology. 2005, accessed September 4, 2019.
  2. ↑ Breendonk.be ( Memento of December 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Breendonk.be ( Memento of December 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 23 "  N , 4 ° 20 ′ 29"  E