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ups to be accompanied by covering letters pressing for conformance
to the orders. In September 1942, the AJB leaders
were interned in the concentration camp of Breendonck and
charged with insufficient diligence in carrying out German orders.
The AJB president was released after a week and resigned.
Razzias now replaced call-ups, and the AJB’s job was largely
limited to mitigating the suffering of the deportees. Officially,
however, they were permitted to continue their activities. They
set up children’s homes and old-age homes, and their employees
and administrators were “protected,” i.e., not liable for deportation.
The underground took advantage of this status by
introducing some of its people into positions within the AJB
and utilized its resources, despite all the risks involved.
On May 27, 1942, the Nazis issued an order for every Jew
to wear the yellow badge. The Belgian administration refused
to promulgate the order and the Germans were forced to do it
themselves, but a few days later they imposed the task on the
AJB. The Belgian population showed its hostility to this discriminatory
measure, expressing its sympathy in various ways.
By June 1, 1942, Jewish doctors, dentists, and nurses were forbidden
to practice on gentile patients. Previously (March 2 and
May 8), forced labor for the Nazi organization Todt had been
imposed theoretically on all the unemployed, but was in fact
aimed at the Jews, who had been evicted from all economic
pursuit. The underground issued pleas not to submit to these
labor call-ups. By July 1942, summonses were issued to unemployed
Jews to report to Malines for “work in the east.” At
first the summonses were meekly obeyed, but the resistance
movements’ warnings started taking effect and people went
into hiding. As the call-ups provided insufficient numbers of
“volunteers,” the Germans commenced their razzias. The first
convoy of 1,000 Jews left on Sept. 2, 1942. Within five weeks,
10,000 had been deported. Later, the deportations slowed
down. By July 31, 1944, 25,631 victims had been deported in 31
convoys. Only 1,244 of the deportees returned after the war.
Belgian leaders, among them the queen mother Elisabeth and
Cardinal van Roey, intervened on behalf of the small number
of Jews of Belgian nationality, and the Germans agreed to
omit them from expulsion as long as they would not transgress
German laws. This show of tolerance was short-lived.
On Sept. 3, 1943, Jews holding Belgian citizenship were all
rounded up and deported.
Resistance
The Jewish population required time to organize resistance.
Some Jews individually joined the ranks of the Belgian underground.
But after the dissolution of Jewish organizations,
the former social and political groups started regrouping,
mainly for the purpose of mutual social help. Anti-fascist elements
grasped the significance of the persecutions sooner and
formed a group of about 70 Jewish armed partisans, many of
whom fell in the line of duty. An estimated 140 fell, including
those who fought as individuals in the general armed resistance.
The Committee for Jewish Defence (CDJ, recognized
officially after the war as a civilian resistance group affiliated
belgium
to the Front de l’Indépendance) comprised a complete range
of Jewish groups and individuals. It soon realized the need to
hide Jews, and called upon all the Jews to resist and disobey
any German edicts as well as instructions from the AJB. The
Committee developed a vast, well-organized network of activity
for hiding children (an estimated 3,000 children were thus
saved) and adults (an estimated 10,000). In fact, in Belgium a
high proportion of Jews was saved compared to other occupied
countries. Places of hiding, identity papers, food ration
tickets, and money were obtained, and escape routes established
toward Switzerland and Spain. The cultural aspect of
the Jewish resistance groups was remarkable. They distributed
information and propaganda material, established a lending
library, and maintained a Jewish illegal press. The Yiddish paper
Unzer Vort appeared 28 times, and Flambeau in French
and the Vrije Gedachte in Flemish appeared with the help of
the Belgian illegal press.
Contacts were made with numerous non-Jewish organizations
that helped, including Oeuvre Nationale de l’Enfance,
Jeunesse Ouvrière Catholique, the Red Cross, a number of
Catholic institutions, and underground resistance movements.
As time went on, more and more money was needed to keep
alive those in hiding. Millions of francs were contributed by
local Jews and non-Jewish organizations and credit was allotted.
Later, large sums were secretly obtained through Switzerland,
and some came from the Belgian government-in-exile. A
number of people managed to escape from deportation trains
in a feat unique to occupied Belgium. The 20th convoy departing
on April 19, 1943, was attacked in a well-organized action
initiated by the CDJ together with Georges Livchitz and partisans
of Group “G” (an armed resistance group). It enabled several
hundred to escape, although many of them were caught or
killed by the Germans. Another Jewish underground group,
the Ninth Brigade, was organized under the aegis of the Mouvement
National Belge, a more rightist group. A little-known
and rather circumscribed resistance activity was carried out
by the federation of the Zionist parties, which succeeded in
obtaining through Switzerland a few immigration certificates
to Palestine which protected the holders from deportation. At
one point (1941–42) a hakhsharah (agricultural training program)
for members of Zionist youth movements was provided.
According to partial studies and reports by former participants,
there were innumerable cases (not generally known) of
underground activity, including armed attacks on collaborators,
sabotage, and withdrawing those children in hiding who
were exposed and in danger of arrest by the Gestapo.
The Catholic Church on many occasions intervened on
behalf of the Belgian Jews through the work of Cardinal van
Roey, who acted mainly through his secretary Canon Leclef.
On Aug. 4, 1942, he alerted the Vatican to the inhumanity of
the racial laws, pointing out that even Catholics of Jewish origin
were affected. The Church was largely efficacious through
its request to Catholic institutions to hide Jewish children and
to refrain from baptizing them, unless specific permission was
given. When the German-Jewish refugees in Antwerp were
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 283