Les crimes de guerre commis sous l'occupation de la Belgique, 1940-1945. La persécution antisémitique en Belgique - Official report on war crimes committed under the occupation of Belgium, 1940-1945. Anti-Semitic Persecution in Belgium", published by Georges Throne, Liege [Belgium], May 1, 1947 - first edition. French.
A detailed summary of the results of the research of an official Belgian commission of inquiry established by order of Prince Charles of Belgium on December 15, 1944 by order of the "Heir to the Crown", which was briefly called the "War Crimes Commission" on the subject of "violations of international law, laws and regulations of war" " - The committee investigated the crimes of the Nazis against the Jews on the soil of Belgium and its surroundings, which include arson, theft, abuse, massacres, torture camps, persecution of Jews, forced labor, attacks on national institutions and more, according to several sources at its disposal: the orders of the military government, The security service of the Gestapo, witnesses who gave evidence before the committee, materials received from the "Council of Jewish Associations of Belgium", and more.
The report details numerical data about the number of Jews who lived in Belgium in 1940, according to division into cities. A detailed description of the events that took place in Belgium in the Jewish areas after the German occupation, the anti-Semitic laws that got worse and worse in 1942. The report provides detailed conclusions regarding the ruse the Nazis used in order to take control of the Jews of Belgium - when the Germans invaded Belgium they did not have detailed names lists about the Jewish families as they did in Poland. Therefore, in the first stage, they established good relations with the heads of the communities, and allowed the Jewish communities a kind of autonomy in order to get them to cooperate with them, as they slowly tightened the stranglehold. In October 1940, the anti-Semitic orders began - first a ban on the Jewish slaughter, later, the obligation to register Jewish business owners and imposing a ban on the sale of their businesses, a ban on opening new bank accounts, and later the concentration of all Jews in only four cities: Brussels, Antwerp, Liège, and Charlevoix. The report goes on to detail the crimes committed by the Nazis after they had enough data about the Jewish population - looting and burning of synagogues, the organized raids of the Gestapo on Jewish homes starting in July 1942 which included the looting of property and the concentration of the Jews for extermination.
In the second part of the report, a detailed overview of the deportation of Belgian Jews to the Breendonk camp, and the way they were treated - their marking in the camp, exact numbers, and horrifying details about Jewish prisoners who were executed in various ways - name, method of murder, date, etc. as well as data and a detailed review on the route of the deportation of the Jews through the Belgian city of Mechelen to extermination in Auschwitz.
The authors of the report conclude: "When we examine the manner in which the anti-Semitic persecutions were carried out in Belgium, we are amazed at the systematic nature of the process. The logical progression of anti-Semitic decrees, the sequence of enforcement measures that took on an ever-increasing scale, testify to a previous and systematic plan, this plan was brewing in the minds of the leaders of Germany For years, it was written in the Nazi Bible "Mein Kampf" which outlined the "New World Order"... The anti-Semitic measures in Belgium are only a regional implementation of the general plan which was intended for all the Jews of Europe, if not for the Jews of the entire world...". The report also outlines the identical method of taking over - deportation - extermination - which the Germans used in all the occupied countries towards the Jews, and names the Nazi commanders directly responsible for the extermination of Belgian Jewry.
42, + [4] p. photographs. 24 cm. Slight stains on the cover. Good condition.
