01x05 - The liberation of Brussels and Antwerp

[bunniefuu]

[somber music plays]

♪ The bright horses have broken free
From the fields ♪

♪ They are horses of love
Their manes full of fire ♪

♪ They are parting the cities
Those bright burning horses ♪

♪ And everyone is hiding
And no one makes a sound ♪

♪ And I'm by your side
And I'm holding your hand ♪

[upbeat music plays]

[male reader 1] Radio message
from General Eisenhower.

"To the Belgian people
This is the supreme moment.

Fulfill your task loyally.

If all play their part, the liberation
of Belgium will be quickly achieved.

Long live Belgium.

To the Resistance forces
Your orders are now to protect."

In the morning of September 2nd at 9:30,
an American soldier on motorcycle

drove over this small bridge
over the river Elnon,

called Pont de la Liberation.

A little later at 11:30

the first Allied tank crossed
the Belgian frontier.

On this motorcycle,

a Harley Davidson WLA 750,

Gordon Powell crossed
the Belgian frontier.

The U.S. Army used these motorcycles
for police and escort work,

for courier duties and scouting.

"Cushman Airborne Motor Scooter,

Harley Davidson WLA,

M1 Extra Light Solo Motorcycle,

BMW R75, Zundapp KS750, Puch 800,

Excelsior Welbike, Norton 16H,
Norton 633."

[somber music plays]

I am Bart Peeters and my grandfather
survived World w*r II,

which was quite a miracle,

since he was an active member
of the Belgian Resistance.

My grandparent's house was a hiding place
for English pilots

and weapons for the Resistance.

My grandmother was the only person in town

that was able to understand
English messages on British radio.

For those British pilots,

my grandfather got betrayed by a neighbor

and then started a long and cruel journey

starting in the concentration camp
of Breendonk in Belgium.

We get to that later on.

[violin music plays]

[Bart] D-Day had been a moment of hope
for the Belgian citizens,

but also of fear and uncertainty.

What was to come and at what price?

From their side,

the German soldiers stationed in Belgium
also observed the landing

of the Allied forces during D-Day

and saw how fast they conquered
Normandy and Paris.

In panic, the Germans confiscated


[woman, in Dutch]
w*r diary of the Franciscan nuns.

Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7 September
are relatively calm days.

The German soldiers are still retreating.

They try to take horses and bicycles
with them, because they are exhausted.

They often go to Holland.

People stay indoors as much as possible.
Everything is quiet.

At the same moment, our King,
King Leopold III,

who did not want to exile
with his government to London,

was secretly moved on 7th June
with his family

to Saxony and later to Austria.

When liberated on May 7th in 1945
by American troops,

Leopold III did not return immediately
to Belgium

because a big part of the population
did not want him to.

His brother Prince Karel,
Count of Flanders,

became Regent due to Leopold III's
impossibility to reign.

On September 1st, the day before
Gordon Powell drove into Belgium

with his motorcycle,

the Germans ordered the evacuation
of notorious collaborators

and their families to Germany.

A total of about 5000 Walloon

and 15,000 Flemish collaborators
ended up in Germany.

[man, in French] Maurice Delvenne,
from his diary, September 1 or 3, 1944.

The pace of the withdrawal
of the German armies is speeding up

and seems more and more disorganized.

The same truck transports
engineers, infantry,

men from the navy, air force, a*tillery…

All of these men have very apparently been
in the combat zone.

They are dirty and haggard.

Their biggest concern

is how many kilometers
still separate them from their country

and obviously we take a malicious pleasure

in demoralizing them a little more
if possible,

to exaggerate the distance.

September 3rd.

Convoys carrying SS troops
drive by constantly, at full speed,

with several men
that are wounded and bandaged.

Their looks are hard
and they stare at people with hatred.

[man, in German]
Letter from Emil Zumburch,

organization Todt, to his parents.

The "Tommy" appeared as the liberator,

but what happened in France and Italy,
they will never do in Belgium.

But that is their prospect.
Those poor foolish and deluded people.

May they keep their faith.

Facts will demonstrate otherwise

if they too are faced with "nothing".

Then they will see who our Wehrmacht is.

They will be able
to save them from their fate,

but for this they will never thank
the German soldiers.

[Bart] A lot of Flemish said

they collaborated because
they wanted to be independent

from the French-speaking elite
from Belgium

and they wanted to get from
under their yoke.

[man, in Dutch] Letter from Albert DS
to his sister Marie-Louise. Russian front.

You tell me to come home for good.

Maybe I can come home on leave some day,

but not as a sinner who gives up
the ideals for which he fights.

No, I'm far too steadfast for that.

And I will remain a soldier
until the end of the w*r, at least.

And then the battle will begin for real,
for national socialism in Flanders.

Then we will do a big clean-up there
and turn the rotten Belgium of the past

into a wealthy, prosperous part
of the Greater Germanic Empire.

[Bart] There were about


The most recognized group
were the military collaborators.

Most of them were called East Fronters.

Young Belgian men that fought
for the German Army

against the Soviet Army and against the,
according to them, rise of communism.

But most of them wanted to be part
of Adolf Hitler's Europe.

Belgium wasn't the only country
with soldiers on the Eastern Front.

Three hundred thousand Polish,


six thousand Norwegians, 6000 Danes,

twenty thousand French, 20,000 Hungarians,


even some Englishmen were fighting along
with the German Army.

It's recently known that there were also
Belgian East Fronters involved

in extremely violent w*r crimes
against humanity.

Like the extermination of Jews
in Eastern Europe.

[man, in Dutch] Letter from Karel H.
to his father, February 20th, 1943.

He didn't last long, an MP charger
in his stupid head and down he went.

After a while
the Russians were utterly defeated.

Daddy, you should have seen that,
they were lying there in piles.

Then the fun started.

Those who were only wounded
wanted to crawl back to safety.

Then our boys sprang into action.
It was like sh**ting at the fair:

Five ba*ls for one franc.

Every Russian who moved even slightly
got a well-aimed shot through him.

This narrow, dusty road was used
by the Allies to free the town of Mons.

These days it's hard to believe that tanks
and jeeps and other military vehicles

had to squeeze themselves
along this road to fight the enemy.

[male reader 2] Diary of
William B. Ruth, Sr. September, Mons.

"After this sh**ting incident,
we finally overtook these sn*pers.

Those that weren't k*lled
we rounded up and taken prisoner.

We loaded about a truckload.

They were mean, surly, and fanatics.

I was assigned to guard them.
I rode behind the truck and the Jeep.

The Jeep had a 50-caliber machine g*n,
which I was manning.

I was grateful that I had the training
to use this g*n.

It came in handy later on.

As we went through a small town,

once again, we were pinned down
by sn*pers firing from a Church steeple.

The officer told me to spray this g*n

over the prisoner's heads in the truck.

He said that way they won't
get the idea of escaping

while we were worrying about the sn*pers."

[Bart] Roosevelt and Churchill wanted
to divide Belgium into two countries.

But even during the liberation,
the country was divided.

The South of Belgium was to be liberated
by the American Army,

while the North was to be liberated
by the British, Canadian,

Polish troops and even the Belgian troops.

[somber music plays]

[Bart] There was one army missing.

The Congolese Army
"Le Force Publique du Congo".

When the Germans invaded Belgium in 1940,

the Belgian colony of Congo mobilized
an army consisting of

twenty-eight thousand Congolese soldiers
and 1700 white executives.

Former Red Devils
Captain Vincent Kompany's grandfather

was serving in that army.

But according to the Belgian government,
having Belgium liberated

by the Congolese Army
by what they called "Negroes",

was a bridge too far.

They decided that Le Force Publique
could be useful in the fields of Africa.

So Le Force Publique fought against
the Italian troops

during the East African Campaign,

alongside with the British in Ethiopia,
and some units were sent to Nigeria,

Egypt, Madagascar, Palestine,
and even Burma.

[piano music plays]

[Bart] The American atomic b*mb
that fell on Hiroshima in 1945

was loaded with Congolese uranium
from the Shinkolobwe mine in Katanga.

[explosions]

[piano music plays]

It was on September 2nd
that here in the south of Mons,

a devastating three day battle began.

Seventy thousand German soldiers
were surrounded by US military.

Thirty thousand of them managed to escape.

Another 30,000 were taken prisoner

and 3500 of them were k*lled
by the Allied aircraft raids.

[male reader 3] A letter
from Glenn A. Davidson to his mom

on September 5th.

"We witnessed one act that showed
the sportsmanship of the Yank

and the courage of a German soldier.

A wounded German,
well within small arms range,

was trying to crawl away.

From over the far hill
came another German,

wheeling a bicycle.

The boys opened up on him
from the next outpost

and slugs were kicking up dust
all around him.

He came right on, never faltering.

When he neared the wounded man,
the fellows stopped firing.

He picked up the man
and placed him across the cycle.

Then he took off the way he had come
and there wasn't a shot fired.

I heard one of the fellows say,

"That guy's a man, even if he is a Jerry,
you can't sh**t a bird that will do that."

[Bart] Something I've never heard of

was that the German Army used


Almost two million of them
died during the w*r.

Most of them were used
on the Eastern front,

but also here in the west
a lot of horses were k*lled in battle.

Newspaper article, by William Smith White,
September 3rd, Mons.

"No one has had time to count the Germans
thus far taking prisoners here,

but they include at least a colonel

with whom I rode back
to a prison stockade.

The streets of Mons look like
the setting of some play

dealing with the end of the world.

German bodies lie in the streets
along with carcasses

of dead German transport horses."

[Bart] According to the Allies,


in the year '42
came from the Belgian resistance.

In the summer of 1944, the resistance
grew to about 150,000 members.

This represented 2% of the population
aged between 16 and 65.

A third of them got arrested
and around 15,000 were k*lled.

At the end, the contradiction
between the collaborators

and the resistance couldn't be bigger.

[man, in French]
Diary of Paul Struye.

The hatred that now pits Belgians
against other Belgians

is relentless and truly ferocious.

It is a lot more intense
than the violence towards the occupier.

It makes it inevitably clear to see

that there will be a lot of hostility
after the liberation of the country.

[Bart] And he was right.
In certain regions of the country

during the summer of '44,

the violence between the resistance
and the collaborators

took on the character of a real civil w*r.

This village, called Meensel-Kiezegem
was the scene

of one of the most painful dramas
in the Second World w*r in Belgium.

On July 30th, 1944, Gaston Merckx,

a member of the local Black Brigade,

was k*lled by the local resistance group.

In revenge the next day,
three people were shot

by the German SS
and the Flemish De Vlag Security Corps.

Fourteen people were taken away
to the Gestapo prison in Leuven.

About two weeks later
in the early morning,

a second excessive revenge action
followed.

Three hundred and fifty men
of the Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen,

the Security Corps
conducted by Robert Verbele,

the faction Guard, the Flemish Guard
and some members of the Sicherheitsdienst

surrounded the village and systematically
searched all the houses.

During the raid, a farmer died
in his burning house.

Eighty-nine people were arrested,


This drama is the most notorious action
of the collaboration group De Vlag.

[soldiers chanting]

[man, in Dutch] Letter from Ferdinand
Duerinckx, when he was deported.

The letter was found on the railroad.

Dear friends, on the way to Germany.

Unknown destination. We are all healthy.

Hope to be back soon.

Pray for a safe and fast journey home.

Fernand.

[man, in Dutch] Testimony during the trial
of Meensel-Kiezegem, 1946.

Witness Lodewijckx Joseph Marcel,
Meensel-Kiezegem,

states that he was arrested
on the 11th of August 1944.

He recognized Merckx Albert and Marcel
and Jos Degeest, from Glabbeek.

At the Gestapo at Leuven,
just before his arrival,

a prisoner had been beaten ferociously.

The brothers Merckx, Albert and Marcel,
beat the prisoners there and said:

"You are not good enough for the b*llet,
to the salt mines with you."

All the while Broos smoked a cigar
in a defiant way and mocked the prisoners.

Mrs. Merckx showed the weapons,
which were stored in the office,

which looked more like an arsenal,
and said:

"These are to exterminate the 'whites'."

Witness Rentiers Maria, Meensel.

While in prison,
the witness was visited by Marcel Merckx,

who threatened her.

As a result of the inhumane abuse,

the child of the witness,
who was born shortly afterwards, died.

The child could not live
as a result of the abuse.

[Bart] The far-right cultural organization
De Vlag

was founded in 1935 by Jef Van de Wiele,

a doctor of Germanic languages
at the Catholic University of Leuven.

The De Vlag group studied the matches
between the German and Flemish culture

and aimed for a cultural collaboration
between Flanders and Germany.

Through his contacts with Germany,

Jef Van de Wiele was introduced
to National Socialism,

but after the outbreak
of the Second World w*r in September '39,

De Vlag stopped operations.

This was only because he feared reprisals
for his own people.

When the Germans
had occupied Belgium in 1940,

Van de Wiele
started up his De Vlag group again.

In the spring of '44,

the partnership between the SS and De Vlag

led to the formation of the Security Corps
under the leadership of Robert Verbelen.

Soon after this,
De Vlag became directly involved

in a series of acts committed by the SS
in the summer of '44.

De Vlag also founded
the Flemish Hitler Youth

and at a certain point had around


[French]
I want to express my sincerest thanks

for this incredible honor

to the philosophical faculty
of the university of Cologne.

[German] My sincerest thanks

for the award of the honorary doctorate

from your famous university.

[man, in Dutch]
Letter by Cyriel Verschaeve.

This w*r is sacred…

because it is being fought
for something sacred.

Life, and all the beauty that it entails.

These words
are written by Cyriel Verschaeve

and printed on the death cards
of many Flemish East Front fighters.

Until some years ago,

streets in Flanders were named after
Cyriel Verschaeve in Marke, in Zoersel,

in Kapelle-op-den-Bos, in Lanaken,
and even in Breendonk,

in the shadow of the Fort.

Cyriel Verschaeve
was a Flemish nationalist,

priest and writer.

During the summer of 1940,
Cyriel Verschaeve wrote,

[in German] "Het Uur van Vlaanderen",

in which he explained his sympathy
for n*zi Germany.

In '45 he fled to Austria
and after the w*r in 1946,

he was sentenced to death by a firing spot
in absentia in Bruges.

He died in Austria, but in 1973

members of the Neo-n*zi
Vlaamse Militanten Orde

dug up his remains and reburied him
in Flanders in Alveringem.

[piano music plays]

[Bart] On the other hand,
there were real heroes too.

It was September 2nd and the Allied forces

were crossing the Belgian border
to liberate the country,

as the Germans decided to evacuate
the Saint-Gilles prison in Brussels.

The prisoners, 1500 of them,

were crammed on a train, a cargo train,
and their final destination

was the concentration camp
of Neuengamme in Germany.

They were planned to leave Brussels
at 10:00 a.m.

But just before leaving under-chief
of the station, Michel Petit,

signaled a nonexistent technical defect
on the train,

so it could only leave at 3:30
in the afternoon.

And after it left, the train drove slowly

and was always in front
of the red signal lights

or had some other technical problem.

This time it was the driver,
Louis Verheggen

and his stoker Louis Pochet,
pretending everything went wrong.

After midnight the train didn't even
pass Mechelen, not even 25 km away.

The next morning a German locomotive
came to drag the train back to Brussels.

On their way back, railwaymen invented
new problems to slow them down.

On September 3rd, at 08:30 a.m.,

the train arrived in Brussels
almost in line with the Allies

who had the capital in sight.

Most of the Germans fled
and even unlocked plenty of wagons

so the prisoners could escape.

This painting was made
by the train conductor Louis Verheggen

at the occasion of his train ride.

It's entitled
"The Departure of the Last Convoy."

So Louis and his colleagues made sure
that the train came back.

[instrumental music plays]

[Bart] That evening on Sunday,
September 3rd, 1944, at 7:00 p.m.,

the streets of Brussels were deserted.

Radio London broadcasted the Brabançonne
during the whole day,

which is the national anthem.

At 07:45 p.m., the first Cromwell tank
entered the desolated Boulevard Anspach.

The Welsh Guards were the first liberators
in the streets of Brussels.

There were no major confrontations,

just some minor fights left and right
to clean up the last German Resistance.

Chaos rules around
the Brussels Palace of justice.

The Germans that stayed behind
to clean up the archives

simply set fire to it
in the middle of the building.

It was probably not intended,

but the whole palace of justice took fire
and the roof collapsed.

During this chaos,

the people broke into the storage rooms
of the palace

and stole the cognac and the champagne
that was stored there.

A couple of German soldiers were in panic

and emptied their g*ns
to scare the people.

Firefighters and people
from the neighborhood

rushed to the rescue
to extinguish the fire.

The Belgian Brigade Piron
was walking in the shadow

of the Guard Division
when it entered Brussels.

They were the symbol
of the Belgian military contribution

to the liberation of the country.

The inhabitants of Brussels
were happy to see

that there were compatriots
among the Liberators.

The Brigade Piron
was founded in January 1943.

It was a small, modern Belgian unit

trained to take part
in the invasion of Europe.

On August 8th, 1944,
the unit disembarked 500 vehicles

and 2200 men, including 371 Luxembourgers.

But the Brigade Piron were not the first
Belgian forces to reach Belgium.

[crowd cheering]

[Bart] Two weeks before the liberation
of Brussels,

Belgian Special Air Service agents

were dropped in France
and they crossed the Belgian border.

Their Operation Noah
was in fact a scouting patrol.

For at least three weeks,

commander Blondeel and 41 Belgian members
of the Special Air Service

completed several missions
in the Ardennes from August 16th

till they were relieved by the advancing
Americans by September 13th.

Blondeel later found the Belgian Para's.

[ominous music plays]

[g*n clocking]

[g*n shot]

[g*n clocking]

[g*n shots]

[g*n shots continue]

[Bart] It was on the campus of the ULB
that a resistance group called Group G

was founded in 1942 by ex-students
of le Cercle Polytechnique.

They were active in the field
of sabotage and are considered

one of the most effective
resistance groups.

Their first general
Commander Jean Burgers,

was arrested and ex*cuted in '44.

In the beginning,
the group was active on a local level.

The arrival of André Wendelen,
a Belgian diplomat working

with the British SOE organization in '42,

made them expand their activities
on a more national level.

At their peak, they had about


Their most famous act of sabotage

was a nationwide
electricity breakdown in '44.

This caused enormous damage to the Belgian
and German industry

and cost the occupier
at least 10,000 hours of work.

Between June and September 1944,
Group G destroyed 95 railway bridges,

two hundred and eighty-five locomotives,


and 17 railway tunnels.

Another important cell of the resistance
was the Independence Front,

such as the Belgian Army of Partisans
which was the armed branch

of the Communist Party of Belgium
and had 13,000 members,

the patriotic militias
who had 22,000 members,

and further on there were
nonviolent resistance groups

like the Jewish Defense committee,

the Trade Union committees,
Free Justice and Free Medicines.

One of the most important
nonviolent actions

was a big strike in Liège
by 100,000 workers

led by Julien Lahaut in '41.

Years later, in 1950,

the same Julien Lahaut shouted
"Vive la République"

during the constitutional oath-taking
of King Boudewijn.

A week later he got m*rder*d.

But the biggest achievement
of the Independence Front

was the saving of many thousands of Jews

with among them more than 2000 children.

[man, in French] Journal Jean Osta.
On September 4, 1944,

a large "funeral" procession formed
at the Place du Jeu de Balle

and went through the Rue Haute.

In a handcart, with black cloths,

an open coffin
contained the "corpse" of Adolf Hitler.

This corpse sat up from time to time
and shouted terrible things.

Wearing horrible make-up, with
the mustache and hair of the dictator,

the man who played Hitler was very brave,

because a lot of rubbish
was thrown at his head.

[Bart] The Liberators became the symbol
of a better future and a better life.

They brought new things such as Coca Cola,

chewing gum, instant coffee but also goods
that weren't here during the occupation,

like chocolate, candy, nylon stockings,
and cigarettes.

They introduced a more popular culture
from jazz to American cinema.

People danced to Glenn Miller's jazz
and swing.

The American pop culture
became part of the Belgian culture,

but their popularity also translated
into sexuality and love.

There were countless short
but passionate relationships

between Belgian women
and their liberators,

the so-called one-night stands.

And at the same moment
long-term relationships flourished too.

More than 600 Belgian w*r brides
and 130 newborns moved over to Canada.

There were also quite a few Flemish women
who fell in love with a Polish Liberator

in East-Flanders,
West-Flanders or Antwerp.

They often stayed in Belgium
after the w*r out of fear

of returning to the Polish homeland

that had fallen
under the communist regime.

The collaboration in Wallonia
during the Second World w*r

is often described as a pale imitation
of what happened in Flanders.

But the charismatic Léon Degrelle
proved otherwise.

He was convinced that there
was more Germanic blood

than French blood in the bloodline
of the Walloons.

He founded Rex in 1935,
a far-right Catholic,

nationalistic political party

and during his first election he got 11,5%
of the votes in '36.

He was also a very charismatic speaker
whose style reminds us of Mussolini.

Rex openly embraced anti-semitism
and anti-parliamentarism

following the model of German Nazism,

which led to a defeat during
the national elections in '39.

[announcer, in German]
It is sheer madness, Degrelle exclaims,

to believe that bolshevism German

can bring us the slightest civilization
or renewal.

If the Soviets spread across Europe,

the middle class would disappear,
but you workers would be gone too.

[Bart] Degrelle founded the Walloon Legion
to fight on the Eastern Front.

In 1944, the last militants
go into exile in the Third Reich.

The Rexist militia was also responsible
for the Courcelles m*ssacre.

On August 17th, 1944,
the Rexist Mayor of the city of Charleroi,

Oswald Englebin, was k*lled in Courcelles
by armed partisans of the resistance.

His wife and son were also k*lled.

As a vengeance,
eight people were k*lled that day.

The next morning another 15 men
and four women were shot in Courcelles.

A total of 27 randomly chosen people
were m*rder*d

by members of the Rexist group.

A week later there was an official
reprisal from the Germans.

Twenty hostages who were detained
for carrying forbidden weapons

were ex*cuted in Charleroi.

[man, in French] Charles Brogniez,
Joseph Bureau, Léon Coton, Paul Coton,

Raymond Delvaux,
Marguerite Depasse, Oscar Deulin,

Léon Gilles,
Elisabeth De Ridder, Pierre Harmignie,

Roger Hoslet, Edmond Huberland,
Louis Jasmes, Suzanne Lebas,

Augusta Longneaux,
Léonce Mayence, Victor- François Michel,

Auguste Nolard, Arthur Stilmant.

[man, in French]
Classifieds in the Journal La Meuse.

First day of Liberation.

Urgent.

The Trouillard Rottenführer Léon Degrelle

wants to exchange for gold dollars

paintings of great value
representing fallen characters

as well as the painting Defeat,

an unpublished work
by the talented painter Adolf Hitler.

Write to Berchstengaden, Villa Abri.

[Bart] Robert Vekemans,
a 31-year-old engineer,

heard on British radio
that Tournai had been liberated.

He immediately left Antwerp
and went to the town of Boom,

where he went looking for expl*sives
under the bridge.

The next morning,

when he heard that the English
were approaching, he hurried to stop them.

He tried to explain that the bridging b*mb
had been mined,

but that he could lead him to Antwerp
taking another route.

[violin music plays]

[Bart] The Germans were still in Antwerp,

but that didn't stop the locals
from greeting their liberators.

By noon, 50 British tanks
had already entered the city.

The German troops
and the Flemish collaborators

were powerless
against the armored vehicles.

[violin music plays]

[people cheering and clapping]

Here in Antwerp, the different
resistance organizations joined forces,

which means that the White Brigade,
the Secret Army, the Independent Front,

the NKB and Group G joined forces
in a new Battalion

of 600 resistance fighters,
led by Eugène Colson.

They managed to give the Antwerp docks
intact into Allied hands.

Six thousand German soldiers
were taken prisoner of w*r.

Some of them were locked up in the cages
of the Antwerp Zoo.

-[somber music plays]
-[birds chirping]

[lion moans]

[animal calls]

[Bart] Marcel Louette, from Antwerp,

was the most important resistance leader
in Flanders.

He founded the White Brigade,

of which the name was an allusion
to the Black Brigade.

The White Brigade
spread anti-German propaganda

and made lists of collaborators.

Most members
of the White Brigade were police officers.

In '43, many of them got arrested
when a member list was found.

Fifty-eight members
were sent to German camps.

The VNV was the most important

collaborating political organization
in Flanders.

Its members saw the occupation
as an opportunity

to break out of their so-called
Belgian chains

and obtain an independent Flanders
under the wings of the Third Reich.

The VNV actively supported
the persecution of Jews.

[man, in Dutch]
Speech by Staff Declercq, VNV.

Flanders must adapt to the new order,

born out of
the National Socialist revolution.

The aim of the VNV is to establish
the new order in Flanders.

This new political order must be based
partly on the principle of leadership,

partly on the elimination and rejection

of all institutions,
groups and expressions

which affect or undermine the organic
unity of the People's Community.

[Bart] In May '41, the Germans forced
the nationalist movements

to establish a unity movement called
the Dietsche Militie - Zwarte Brigade.

The members of the organization
wear a black uniform.

[woman, in Dutch]
Poem by Blanka Gyselen.

Do you know the men of the Flemish Legion,

stepping and falling in line,
to comfort our cowardice?

They clear the paths, they fill the chasm,

they are the professors of the new Faith.

Beat on the windows.
Drum together on the track.

Adorn their path with flowers
and children, wherever they go.

Sing of the Lion and the White Hood.

Hail, our brave ones
of the Flemish Legion.

[piano music plays]

[Bart] The advance in East
and West Flanders

went relatively smoothly,

although there was serious
German resistance

in the town of Tielt,
where the Polish troops

under the command of General Maczek
were involved in some serious combats

in the center of the city.

[man, in Polish]
w*r diary of captain Kazimierz Duda.

Reserve battalion, attacks on the 9th.
The city of Tielt.

The city is conquered.

The losses are very heavy.

Tanks of the armored brigade
inflict heavy losses,

by breaking the columns in Ruysselede.

The road is littered with carts
and bodies of horses and people.

We take a great number of prisoners.
The Germans flee in panic.

The Belgian partisans work
very efficiently with the Polish troops.

[Bart] The Canadians liberated Bruges

while the British advanced towards Leuven,
Diest, and Northern Limburg.

The Americans advanced through Wallonia.

As told in the Hollywood movie
"Monuments Men"

with George Clooney, Matt Damon,
and Kate Blanchett,

a lot of Belgian art was stolen

and shipped to Germany
during the occupation.

For example, in '42, the"Agnus Dei"
by Hubert and Jan van Eyck

was brought to Germany
at a request of Hitler himself.

Hitler wanted to give it a place of honor
in the future Führer Museum.

The Americans continued their own version
of a blitzkrieg through Belgium,

reaching Liège and Hasselt
on September 7th.

But the w*r was far from over for Belgium.

[ominous music plays]

Knokke was only liberated on November 1st

because the German troops fled
from Walcheren over Cadzand Holland,

to here, Belgium, to regroup in Knokke
and Zeebrugge,

because they had great
strongholds over here.

[man, in German]
Excerpt from a letter.

On September 11,
officer Alfred wrote home.

Even if all our allies abandon us,
we will not give up hope.

Once the Führer will let his new weapons
do the talking,

the final victory will follow.

[somber music plays]

On September 8th, the city of Liège
was liberated by the first U.S. Army,

just six days after Belgium was invaded
by the allied troops.

But the liberation of Liège
was really important since from here on

they could cross the Meuse
and advance towards the German border.

A few days earlier here in Fôret-Trooz,
a major m*ssacre took place.

On September 5th, the Germans
attacked the Dumonceau farm,

where 100 members of the Secret Army
were hiding.

The Germans were pushed back

and the resistance group
only lost five men.

But the next day the Germans
returned with a bigger unit.

After a short and uneven fight,
they burned down the farm and the castle.

Thirty-six resistance men
were k*lled on the spot.

The others
were taken to the citadel of Liège.

About 20 of them were shot that evening
on the dam bridge of l'île Monsin.

The Secret Army was founded
by Charles Claser,

who was born in the city of Aalst
and studied military school in Namur.

Their main actions came after the landing
of the Allied forces in Normandy.

They had 54,000 members
and they were sabotaging train traffic,

bridges, and communication lines.

The Secret Army also managed
to capture many German soldiers

and make their retreat more difficult.

Charles Claser was betrayed to the Germans
by collaborator Prosper Dezitter.

Charles Claser
died in a concentration camp.

Prosper Dezitter, nicknamed
"The most ruthless spy",

infiltrated in resistance groups
and passed on

the lists of the members
to the German Secret Field Polizei.

Because of his betrayal,

a lot of people were arrested
and sent to concentration camps.

His partner in crime
was Florentine Giralt.

As Dezitter had lived in Canada,

his strength was his knowledge of English
and his Canadian past,

which made him very credible
in his role as a British agent.

He had several aliases, Captain Jackson,

Jack the Canadian, Willie Jackson,
Willie Williams.

Sometimes he helped the resistance groups
to find weapons

which increased his credibility.

The resistance magazine
"La Voix des Patriotes"

published a warning under the title
"A Couple of Scumbags."

They were responsible for the death
of more than 300 people.

Both were ex*cuted in 1948.

Diary Kenneth Taylor, Geel,
Friday, September 8th, 1944.

"Moved up nearly to canal at midnight
on a dark night.

Whilst waiting to cross,
a chap in decoy set off a 75 grenade

which blew his head off.

I was talking to him minutes earlier
and had just walked away.

The sight of this brought one back
to reality after the last few weeks

and did not induce a very happy frame
of mind for the operation.

We made crossing in two places
with two as*ault boats

and a few Recce boats."

[Bart] On September 9th,
the south of Geel was reached

in the heavy days of fighting
that followed,

the Allied and German parties
were completely mixed up.

[ominous music plays]

[man, in French]
Diary of Freddy Verhaegen, Brigade Piron.

September 22nd, 1944, Maeseyck.

When we come to Maeseyck, we are warned
that there is an SS officer in town.

A formidable man, who walks around
wearing the uniform of a German officer,

always armed to the teeth.

He and two accomplices
terrorize the whole town.

We move ahead.
Then we shout: "Here he is."

We surround the house where he is hidden.

Our man jumped out of the window
overlooking the garden.

A man from the 4th platoon
shoots him through the head.

On him we find 4,000 francs
and a revolver.

The people jump on the man,

tearing off his clothes,
spitting in his face.

He is dragged into town
on a wheelbarrow.

His body sways in the wheelbarrow,
spilling out of it from time to time,

causing the people
to spit and kick him even more.

This sight sickens me deeply.

[ominous music plays]

[Bart] Not far from Geel, the liberators
found the secret cemetery of Beverlo.

Here, the German Army ex*cuted
and buried dozens of resistance fighters.

German soldiers called this place
cynically the garden of roses.

The street repression
took place in two waves,

the first during the liberation

and the second
after the surrender of Germany

and the return of surviving deportees
in the spring of 1945.

One of the biggest problems
was the disarmament of the resistance

and it landed in the agenda

of the political priorities
in liberated Belgium.

On October 3rd, '44,

Eisenhower sent out a day order
to pay homage to the Belgian resistance,

but also with a call
to lay down their weapons.

About 53,000 Belgian collaborators
were convicted

and of the 2940 people sentenced to death,

only 242 appeared
in front of the firing squad.

After a while,
the sentences the collaborators got

were drastically shortened
and many were even given amnesty.

Seventy-five years after the w*r,
there were still 27 Belgian collaborators

that received an extra pension from Berlin
for loyalty and obedience

that was guaranteed to them in '41
by Hitler himself.

And apparently,
a guarantee given by Hitler

is enough for the modern
Germany of Angela Merkel

to keep that absurd promise.

[people chanting]

[ominous music plays]

[man moaning]

[Bart] In 1950, the last Belgian
w*r execution took place in Hoboken.

It was the former German commander
of Fort Breendonk, Philipp Schmitt,

who was the only German
being ex*cuted in Belgium.

[violin music plays]

[dramatic music plays]

[hammer knocks]

[men yelling]

Because my grandfather
was a Belgian resistance fighter,

he was here
as a "Nacht und Nebel" prisoner.

In fact, he was slowly sent into death.

He had to stand in his isolation cell
for days,

in this upright position without moving,
really without moving.

He couldn't move since the walls
were covered with a kind of chalk.

So when the SS discovered chalk marks
on his prison uniform,

they knew my grandfather had been leaning,

and then he got punished and tortured.

My grandfather's hands were tied
behind his back like this.

And then it was hung on this hook
and pulled up to the ceiling.

It really dislocates your shoulders.

And then they made him crash
with his knees on this sharp object.

After the w*r, my grandfather
never wanted to be seen in the naked.

He never wanted anybody to see his scars

or the holes
that were burned into his back,

even not the mommy,
even not my grandmother.

The surrealistic thing here in Breendonk
was that some of the torturers

were Flemish SS people,
so they spoke the same language.

The most infamous was Richard De Bodt.

After the liberation of Belgium,
Richard De Bodt fled with the Germans,

but after that he managed to change name
and camp.

He served in the U.S. Military
as an interpreter

and after
that he served in the French Army.

In 1946, he was sentenced to death,
but he was absent.

He only got caught in 1951
and in the end, he did not get ex*cuted.

He died in prison.

Wilchar and Jacques Ochs were two artists
who were imprisoned in Breendonk.

They pictured the hard life during
their stay in the barracks of Breendonk.

They left behind impressive work
of that period,

that highlighted daily life and emotions
of the prisoners of w*r and their guards.

[man, in Dutch]
Letter from Louis Horemans to his wife,

a few hours before his execution.

Dearest wife, son,
parents and the whole family.

With sadness and sorrow
I have to deliver sad news to you.

Yes, dear wife and son,
the hour has come

when I have to say goodbye to you and
our son Louiske, whom I have not yet seen.

Forever.

[Bart] For the Jews in Belgium,

the liberation was not a time
to celebrate at all.

They waited in fear
for their family to come back.

From Dossin, more than 25,000 people
were deported

Auschwitz-Birkenau and of the deportees,

only 1251 men and women survived.

After the w*r, the victims hardly received
any help from the Belgian state.

The Germans tried to destroy
all the evidence.

But the transport list
with all the names of the deported Jews

was rescued
by Jewish prisoner Maurice Van Rees.

[piano music plays]

Despite the liberation, the w*r was all
but over for Antwerp and its province.

In October,
the German Army started a V offensive.

Very deadly.

Every day, sometimes every hour,

a V1 flying b*mb or V2 rocket
was dropped somewhere.

In December,
one V2 b*mb reached the bloody low point,

as it hit
the crowded cinema Rex in Antwerp.

Six hundred people
were k*lled by the devastating expl*si*n.

Three hundred Allied soldiers
were among them.

During this half-year of V terror,

six thousand missiles were dropped
on Antwerp and its province.

That's an average of 36 attacks a day.

Around 4200 people were k*lled.

Five thousand two hundred people
were wounded or missing

and 50,000 houses
and buildings were destroyed.

[poem "Duizend Soldaten"
by Willem Vermandere]

[Dutch] If you pass their lives
in the west corner…

By rain and northerly winds…

The time turns back when you pass here…

You will find the w*r here…

Yes, it's the w*r that you will find here…

And the grave of a thousand soldiers…

Always someone's father,
always someone's child…

Now deadly silent and forsaken by God…