Die Shoah in BelgienDiscusses the deportation of Jews from Belgium to concentration camps during World War II, focusing on a comparison with the procedures in France. In France the first deportations took place already in spring 1942, urged by the military authorities in Paris who wished that reprisals for the activities of the French resistance should occur in the East rather than in France. In Belgium, the authorities initially refused to collaborate with arrests; however, notes that in Antwerp there was more motivation for cooperation. Ca. 20% of Belgian Jews were arrested by Belgian policemen, while in France most of the deportees were arrested by the Vichy police. Notes, also, that less Jews were arrested in the roundups in Antwerp and Brussels than in the mass roundups in France, relative to the size of the Jewish population in each country. Emphasizes the large number of Jews who went into hiding in Belgium. Relates the activities of the Comité de Défense des Juifs, which, in cooperation with sympathetic officials in local administrations, delivered false credentials and ration cards, thus rescuing at least 2,500 Jewish children. Members of the Catholic clergy managed to save an additional 500 Jewish children. Concludes that more than half of the 56,186 Jews registered in a card file of the Brussels Judenrat managed to avoid deportation from the Malines camp to Auschwitz. |
