Issue of the Belgian weekly LE SOIR Illustré, dated May 16, 1946 – covering the day the verdict was delivered against the commanders of the Breendonk camp, following 24 tense days of proceedings: “The Executioners of Breendonk Pay the Price – The End of a Major Trial.”
The Le Soir Illustré issue of May 16, 1946 reports on the conclusion of one of postwar Belgium’s most dramatic and anticipated trials: the prosecution of the torturers of Breendonk – the Nazi concentration camp in Belgium whose name had become a symbol of cruelty, fear, and human loss. After 24 tense days of proceedings, the Belgian military tribunal delivered its verdict: 16 death sentences, four life sentences of forced labor, additional prison terms, and one surprising acquittal. According to the article, the public received the verdict with a sense of relief: each defendant received the punishment he deserved. The article is accompanied by charged images: the accused sitting hunched and grim, a courtroom packed with survivors and family members, all bearing solemn faces. Journalist Fernand Serve acknowledges that some had hoped for a swift trial, perhaps even public vengeance. Yet he writes that even in the face of such horror, justice must be carried out with deliberation, precision, and integrity. And so it was. Each defendant was given the opportunity to defend himself. Every detail was examined. The suffering of the survivors, the grief of the families, were heard and left a mark. Serve adds a somber reflection: there was a small measure of consolation in the fact that the delay in carrying out the sentences, the long nights in prison cells, the unbearable waiting, became a punishment in itself, perhaps no less heavy than the verdict. The article concludes by noting that two of those sentenced to death, De Bodt and De Vos, remained at large, but it was believed they would eventually be apprehended.
In the photographs: De Sappel as the death sentence is read to him; Weiss, the executioner, during the reading of the charges against him; Van Borm listening with trembling anticipation as he is acquitted; Presiding Judge Verwilghen reading out the verdict; and the audience, composed largely of former Breendonk prisoners, erupting in protest, hands raised as police attempt to calm the outcry. A wide-angle view captures the courtroom at the moment the verdict is delivered.
Later in the issue, a lengthy article covers the Warsaw Ghetto, following a visit by the paper’s correspondent to the ruins of the ghetto in April 1946. The reporter describes the devastation visible in every corner of what was once the ghetto and provides an overview of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, along with historical context and reflections on its aftermath.
Breendonk Camp, a former fortress converted by the Nazis into a concentration camp in occupied Belgium (1940–1944), became one of the darkest sites in the country’s history. Thousands of Jews, resistance fighters, and “political prisoners” were held there, subjected to torture, humiliation, and starvation—under the direct supervision of Nazi-aligned Belgian personnel and German commanders. Following the liberation of Belgium, the Breendonk Trial opened in 1946, considered one of the first major trials in Europe against local collaborators. Over 24 days of proceedings, dozens of survivor testimonies were heard, revealing brutal torture, degrading punishments, and inhumane treatment at the hands of Belgian guards—many of whom were described as “willing executioners.” At the trial’s conclusion: 16 defendants were sentenced to death, others to life in forced labor, and some to long prison terms.
24 pages. 39 cm. Complete issue. Good condition.
