Important note
Photos provided on this website are not an endorsement of any political idea or of war. War is one of the most regrettable human activities.
All photos on this page are copyright Robert Mary and may only be reproduced with his express permission. You may contact me here
The museum
Entrance Panel
Belgium has not been
spared the horror of Nazism and its concentration camps.
The fortress of Breendonk is a moving and striking example. It is one of the best conserved camps in Europe.
On september 20th 1940 Sturmbannführer Philip Schmitt brought his first victims to Breendonk. The Fort became officially the Auffanglager Breendonk, a transit camp; a major centre for the Sicherheitspolizei-Sicherheitsdienst.
During the first year of the Occupation, the Jews made up half the total number of prisoners. From 1942 onwards and the creation of the «vezammelkamp» (reception camp) at the Dossin barracks where the Jews were assembled before their departure towards the east and the extermination camps, most of the Jews disappeared from Breendonk, which gradually became a camp for political prisoners and members of the Resistance.
On the 22nd of September 1941, a first convoy of Belgian political prisoners was transferred from Breendonk and from the citadel of Huy to the concentration camp of Neuengamme close to Hamburg. Other convoys were to follow …
Prisoners stayed on average three months at the fortress before being deported towards the concentration camps in Germany, Austria or Poland.
The regime set up here by the Nazis hardly differed from that of an official concentration camp. The undernourishment and the forced labour wore down the body and mind. The ever-present physical cruelty sometimes caused the death of prisoners.
Initially, the camp was only guarded by a few German SS and a detachment of the Wehrmacht. In September 1941, the Wachtgruppe of the SD arrived as back up. This time, these were no longer German SS but mainly Flemings.
In total, around 3500 persons, including around thirty women, were subjected to the “Hell of Breendonk”, as Franz Fischer calls it in his memoirs.
Around half of these 3.500 did not come back from the camps alive.
After the Liberation, on the 4th of September 1944, the Fortress served as a prison for collaborators and became known as "Breendonk II". Initially, the local resistance used it to lock up the “inciviques” or collaborationists. Certain excesses took place during this period. On the 10th of October 1944, the order of evacuation was given and the prisoners were transferred to the Dossin barracks in Malines.
Subsequently, Breendonk became an official internment centre of the Belgian State, until it was designated a National Memorial by the law of 19th of August 1947.
You
may contact museum authorities there.
The official website of
the Museum stands here.
The Sherman Firefly in Klein-Willebroek village is a monument in remembrance to the 11th Armoured Division and Robert Vekemans. The bridge next to this monument was on the allied route to Antwerpen. Other infos stand at Warmuseums.com
Location information
The museum is located
at Breendonk
Fort Breendonk
Brandstraat, 57
B-2830-Willebroek
BELGIUM
Opening hours:
Daily from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm (last admission: 4.30 pm).
The Sherman is located
at:
Louis De Naeyerkaai, 2830, Willebroek
By car:
* From the “ring” of
Brussels : way-out Nr 7bis (direction: A12; Antwerpen-Boom). After
12 miles, way-out 7: Breendonk-Willebroek.
* From Antwerpen : A12 (direction Brusse/Bruxelles). Way-out 7: Breendonk-Willebroek.
* From Gent (Gand): motorway A14/E17 (direction Sint-Niklaas-Antwerpen). Way-out
15 (“Temse”). Then direction Willebroek.
Personal note
This is definitely worth a visit such a remembrance place. You will discover
the hanging place, the torture room, the "bedrooms" with poor sanitary facilities,
a place with names of all concentration camps in Europe. This is a real testimony
to the horror of Nazi regime.
Important note: toilets are free, you will discover also an interesting shop
with many books.