Belgian Army (part of the National Redoubt of Antwerp)
Operated by
SS
Commandant
Philipp Schmitt (August 1940–November 1943)
Karl Schönwetter (November 1943–August 1944)
First built
1906–13
Operational
20 September 1940 – 4 September 1944
Inmates
Jews, political prisoners, resistance members, hostages
Notable inmates
Jean Améry, Willy Kruyt, Martial van Schelle, Todor Angelov, Paul Hoornaert
Website
www.breendonk.be
Fort Breendonk (Dutch: Fort van Breendonk, French: Fort de Breendonk) is a former military installation at Breendonk, near Mechelen, Belgium, which served as a Nazi prison camp (Auffanglager) during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II.
Originally constructed between 1906 and 1913 as part of the second ring of the National Redoubt defending Antwerp, Fort Breendonk was used by the Belgian Army and was covered by a five-metre thick layer of soil for defense against artillery fire, a water-filled moat and measured 656 by 984 feet (200 by 300 m).[1] It was used in both World War I and World War II by which time it had become militarily obsolete.
Fort Breendonk was requisitioned by the Schutzstaffel (SS) shortly after the Belgian surrender on 28 May 1940 and used as a prison camp for the detention of political prisoners, resistance members, and Jews. Although technically a prison rather than a concentration camp, it became infamous for the poor living conditions in which the prisoners were housed and for the torture and executions which were carried out there. Most detainees were subsequently transferred to larger concentration camps in Eastern Europe. 3,590 prisoners are known to have been held at Fort Breendonk during the war of whom 303 died or were executed in the fort itself while 1,741 others subsequently died in other camps before the end of the war.[2] In Belgian historical memory, Breendonk became symbolic of the barbarity of the German occupation.
The camp was evacuated ahead of the Liberation of Belgium by the Allies of World War II in September 1944. It was briefly repurposed to detain Belgian collaborators. It was declared a "national memorial" in 1947 and has subsequently been open to the public as a museum. Many of the camp's personnel were subsequently tried for their wartime actions in Belgian courts.
^USHMM Encyclopedia.
^Deem, James M. (2015). The Prisoners of Breendonk: Personal Histories from a World War II Concentration Camp. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 2. ISBN 9780544096646.
FortBreendonk (Dutch: Fort van Breendonk, French: Fort de Breendonk) is a former military installation at Breendonk, near Mechelen, Belgium, which served...
From the 20th century on, it was best known for its fortification at FortBreendonk, built in 1909. It was judged that Antwerp, being continental Europe's...
German officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS) who served as commandant of FortBreendonk, a Nazi prison camp in German-occupied Belgium during World War II....
died in captivity. The Germans requisitioned the former Belgian army FortBreendonk, near Mechelen, which was used for torture and interrogation of political...
be seen at the Gross-Rosen, and Theresienstadt camps, as well as at FortBreendonk in Belgium. At the Monowitz camp (also known as Auschwitz III), the...
Gefen. p. 309. ISBN 9789652292797. Cruise Travel. August 1982. p. 44. FortBreendonk (Nazi Camp): Pictorial essay. Mentions local torture chamber via Internet...
commandant in Dachau (1933–1939), went on to become camp commandant at FortBreendonk, Belgium SS-Sturmbannführer Robert Erspenmüller, first warden of the...
free. FortBreendonk was used by the Nazis as a political prison camp. It is kept in its World War II state and is open for visiting. FortBreendonk and...
(1917-1977): Franklemon was arrested on August 4, 1943, and imprisoned at FortBreendonk. On March 14, 1944, a German court-martial sentenced him to six years...
subject of the song De Brug van Willebroek by Wannes Van de Velde. FortBreendonk "Wettelijke Bevolking per gemeente op 1 januari 2018". Statbel. Retrieved...
services with auxiliary staff and provided guards for the prison camp at FortBreendonk. It also published a newspaper entitled De SS Man. The group claimed...
the time Allied forces liberated the camps. The former Belgian army fort at Breendonk, near Mechelen, was requisitioned by the Nazis and used for detainment...
of Amnesty International. Joseph Goldenberg Arrested in early 1942 FortBreendonk concentration camp from September 1942 to March 1943, died there on...
fighter. He was born in Ixelles on 23 May 1924 and died on 10 May 1943 in FortBreendonk. He was hanged by the Germans for assassinating the Belgian collaborator...
openings were covered in barbed wire. This example is preserved at FortBreendonk. Interior of a covered goods wagon used to transport Jews and other...
used for the transport of Belgian Jews to camps in Eastern Europe. The openings were covered in barbed wire. This example is preserved at FortBreendonk....
Army. In 1940, the German army requisitioned a former Belgian army fort at Breendonk and transformed it into an Anhaltelager or prison camp. Initially...
Schmitt on 8 August 1950, the camp commander of the concentration camp FortBreendonk. Although the Belgian Penal Code stipulated that the death penalty had...
Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History Kazerne Dossin FortBreendonk Luxembourg was in the vicinity of the Battle of the Bulge offensive...
1920 Tour de France. He was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in FortBreendonk and Buchenwald concentration camp before dying in Mittelbau-Dora concentration...
wrote about both her (and her friend, Miriam Sokol)'s imprisonment in FortBreendonk. Elizabeth Depelsenaire (née Sneyers) grew up in the bourgeois milieu...
August 1942 after the SiPo-SD threatened to imprison local officials in FortBreendonk. Outside Antwerp, the Germans used coercion to force the Belgian police...
German administration established a prison camp in FortBreendonk, a former Belgian military fort. Inmates were largely political prisoners, though a...
Resistance movement. In early 1943, he was arrested and interned in the FortBreendonk concentration camp, where he was executed in late November 1943. In...
(conservateur du Mémorial national du fort de Breendonk), Le projet pédagogique du Mémorial National du Fort de Breendonk, p. 1. John Nichol and Tony Rennell...
Schmitt born 10 November 1902. Commandant of the concentration camp FortBreendonk and the SS-Sammellager Mecheln. Tried and Executed 9 August 1950 44291...
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