Witte Brigade
The Witte Brigade (German: White Brigade ) was a group within the Belgian Resistance during the Second World War . It was founded in Antwerp in the summer of 1940 by Marcel Louette , alias Fidelio . The group was originally known as De Geuzengroep , but after the liberation changed its name to Witte Brigade , and then to Witte Brigade-Fidelio , to avoid confusion with other groups.
Characterization of the resistance group
The name White Brigade was chosen to emphasize the contrast to the so-called Black Brigade . This was part of the collaboration and was directed by the Belgian SS-Untersturmführer Reimond Tollenaere .
The center of the White Brigade was Antwerp, but there were also other groups in Ghent , Lier , Aalst , Brussels , in Waasland, Wallonia and on the coast.
Many members of the brigade were police officers; a particularly large number belonged to the police of Deurne near Antwerp. In addition to Marcel Louette, Monique de Bissy was another well-known member.
activities
Important activities were the dissemination of messages that did not bear the stamp of the German censorship and the creation of lists in which the names of collaborators were recorded. The White Brigade also organized patriotic demonstrations on major Belgian holidays, such as B. July 21, the national holiday, and November 11, the anniversary of the German surrender in the First World War . The brigade brought out its own magazine in the underground with the French title Unis Toujours , or Steeds verenigd in Dutch (German about: Always united) . There were about 80 issues. In addition, the group collected military information about the port of Antwerp and the planned German invasion of Great Britain . For allied pilots who had crashed over the occupied territories, was crossing services rendered. The Witte Brigade had connections with various intelligence networks ( Luc , Bravery and Group Zero ). It was also the only resistance group that had contact with the British and the Belgian government- in- exile in London at an early stage of the war .
Despite the waves of arrests, the Witte Brigade , together with other resistance groups, managed to save the port of Antwerp from destruction by the German troops in 1944, so that it could be handed over to the Allies intact.
persecution
From 1943 on there were numerous arrests. A list of names was found on a prominent member of the group, whereupon 58 members of the brigade were arrested and taken to German camps. In a raid in Deurne in January 1944 alone, 62 people were picked up. Then, on May 9, the brigade's founder, Marcel Louette, was arrested. Like many other members of the Belgian resistance, he was taken to Fort Breendonk , which the Gestapo used as a reception camp. He was then deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Louette survived and returned to Belgium. He died in Antwerp in 1978. Of the 3,578 recognized members of the Witte Brigade , a total of 400 did not survive persecution and imprisonment.
literature
- Kim de Vidts: Belgium. A small yet significant resistance force during world war II , master's thesis at Hawaii Pacific University, submitted for the academic year 2003-2004. For the Witte Brigade cf. Pp. 77-80.
Individual evidence
- ↑ These were the mainly socialist-communist-oriented Front de l'Indépendance / Onafhankelijkheidsfront , the right-wing Mouvement National Royaliste / Nationale Koninklijke Bewegungsing , the Groupe G (abbreviation of Groupe Général de Sabotage de Belgique ) and the Belgian Armée secrète .
- ↑ http://www.breendonk.be/Leerkrachtenhoek/audio.html