A rare booklet and postcard produced by Belgian resistance fighters during the height of World War II, aimed at publicizing the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the Breendonk camp and exposing Belgian collaborators with the Nazis. Belgium, early 1940s.
VERITE SUR L’ENFER DE BREENDONCK TEMOIGNAGE D’UN COMPATRIOTE EVADE SUR CE CAMP DE CONCENTRATION. Vendu Of. 25 au profit des victimes de la répression – “Solidarity with the Victims of the Gestapo. The Truth About the Hell of Breendonk, Testimony of a Fellow Countryman Who Escaped from This Concentration Camp” – A rare publication during the height of the war about the crimes of the German Gestapo at the Breendonk camp, written by an anonymous Belgian prisoner. Printed with a typewriter and duplicated using a stencil. Breendonk was a fortified military base of the Belgian army between the cities of Antwerp and Brussels, which during the German occupation in World War II, was used as a detention camp, including for Jews from the Belgian community. The anonymous prisoner describes the conditions in the camp: “By fascist robbers, detained in the concentration camps of Breendonk, the first achievements of Nazi culture in Belgium, were arrested with disregard for international law, imprisoned in these camps without a shadow of a verdict, victims of the Gestapo. Subjected to an inhumane regime that puts their health and lives at risk.” Under the heading “Forced Labor, ” the prisoner describes: “In Breendonk, the alarm clock rings at 5:45 in the morning. The detainees have a few minutes to eat their meal consisting of a slice of bread and a little margarine… When the whistle sounds, the detainees must run. Those standing in line receive punches and blows. Then the work begins under the guard of armed German soldiers. This exhausting work involves dismantling the fort domes, i.e., the concrete with a pickaxe or heavy hammers, transporting sand in wheelbarrows. Those who succumb to fatigue are dealt with.” In the section “Hunger, ” he describes the meager lunch as soup, after which the prisoners return to work. In “Torture and Cruelty, ” he recounts the punishments for prisoners who tried to escape the camp – the escapee is held between two guards and beaten until they faint – if necessary, they are revived with a few buckets of cold water to be beaten again. The camp had six punishment cells – dungeons where the prisoner had no opportunity to sit or lie down, only to stand for several days. All forms of religious worship were forbidden in the camp. The author calls on all freedom fighters to do everything they can to fight Hitlerism and asks for food and money to help the Belgian prisoners captured by the Gestapo. [4] pages. Filing holes. Rare. Not known in bibliographies, not listed in the global library catalog WorldCat, and not recorded in any bibliographic list.
Real Photo Postcard of Belgian Collaborators with the Nazis in SS Uniforms – The reverse side of the postcard includes a French inscription documenting their names and crimes in collaboration with the German Gestapo: Translation: “The Gestapo throws our compatriots into dungeons, it has shot dozens of them, like Marshal Hock, Deputy Cordier was massacred in prison! Meanwhile, Belgians are joining the German army to ‘fight Bolshevism’. Keep this photo, it is a document. It represents the Verviers of the anti-Bolshevik legion in German uniforms! Here are the names of some of these villains: Marcel Fabry, Félix Bolmain, Mignon, Roger Legrand, Grignard, Goller, Raymond Biet, Hoffman father and son…”. Dimensions: 9×14 cm. Very rare. Condition: Very good.
