Breendonk | |
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Village | |
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  Breendonk Location in Belgium | |
| Coordinates: 51°03′N4°20′E / 51.050°N 4.333°E | |
| Country |  Belgium |
| Region | Flemish Region |
| Province | Antwerp |
| Municipality | Puurs-Sint-Amands |
| Area | |
| • Total | 6.43 km2 (2.48 sq mi) |
| Population (2021) [1] | |
| • Total | 3,052 |
| • Density | 470/km2 (1,200/sq mi) |
| Time zone | CET |
Breendonk is a village in the municipality of Puurs-Sint-Amands in the province of Antwerp, Belgium, with a population of 3,000, halfway between Brussels and Antwerp.
Its name stems from the medieval Bredene Dunc, which translates as "wide mound" or "a dry spot in the marshes."
In the 19th century, it was known for its beautiful Neo-Gothic church and the lavish mansion of the Earl de Buisseret. Both were destroyed by the Belgian army at the start of World War I because they obstructed the gunner's view from the local fortifications.
From the 20th century on, it was best known for its fortification at Fort Breendonk, built in 1909. It was judged that Antwerp, being continental Europe's second-most important port, needed two circles of fortifications for its defence. Breendonk's fortification was part of the outer defensive ring. These fortifications were built on the same site previously occupied by Roman fortifications; this site was selected because it was the only source of clean water in what, until the 18th century, was swampland. The modern fortifications fell to the Germans after only a seven-day siege.
During World War II, the fort was briefly used as the General Headquarters of King Leopold III, leading the Belgian armed forces. After his surrender to the Germans, it was transformed into a concentration camp by the Nazis (primarily as a transit camp for transport to Auschwitz). It gained a grim reputation as a place of torture and interrogation for a wide variety of prisoners. Among those to be incarcerated (about 3500 in total; 1733 didn't survive the war) were the linguist Herman Liebaers, fencer Jacques Ochs, Communist Party of Belgium politician Bert Van Hoorick, and anti-Nazi fascist Paul Hoornaert. About 300 people were killed in the camp, and at least 98 people died from deprivation or torture.
The fort is now home to the "Breendonk Fort National Memorial" which provides a historical record of the Nazi terror in Belgium. This museum is referenced for its historical significance in the W. G. Sebald novel Austerlitz.
Breendonk is now most famous for the Duvel Moortgat Brewery where the Belgian beer Duvel (meaning "Devil" in the local South Brabantian dialect of Dutch), is brewed. The brewery reputedly uses the same spring once used by the Romans and World War I fortifications.
The village of Breendonk was merged in 1977 into the municipality of Puurs, while the fort and surrounding area east of the A12 road (leading from Antwerp to Brussels) became part of the municipality of Willebroek.
For most of its history, what is now Belgium was either a part of a larger territory, such as the Carolingian Empire, or divided into a number of smaller states, prominent among them being the Duchy of Brabant, the County of Flanders, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, the County of Namur, the County of Hainaut and the County of Luxembourg. Due to its strategic location as a country of contact between different cultures, Belgium has been called the "crossroads of Europe"; for the many armies fighting on its soil, it has also been called the "battlefield of Europe" or the "cockpit of Europe".
Mechelen is a city and municipality in the province of Antwerp in the Flemish Region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Mechelen proper, some quarters at its outskirts, the hamlets of Nekkerspoel (adjacent) and Battel, as well as the villages of Walem, Heffen, Leest, Hombeek, and Muizen. The river Dyle (Dijle) flows through the city, hence it is often referred to as the Dijlestad.
Puurs is a former municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. It is located in the Flemish Region. The municipality comprised the towns of Breendonk, Liezele, Kalfort, Ruisbroek and Puurs proper. There is also the hamlet of Kalfort. In 2021, Puurs had a total population of 17,684. The total area is 33.41 km2 (13 sq mi).
The National Redoubt was a strategic defensive belt of fortifications built in Belgium. The National redoubt was the infrastructural cornerstone of Belgian defensive strategy from 1890–1940.
Breda is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has 185,072 inhabitants on 13 September 2022 and is part of the Brabantse Stedenrij; it is the ninth largest city/municipality in the country, and the third largest in North Brabant after Eindhoven and Tilburg. It is equidistant between Rotterdam and Antwerp.
Fort Breendonk is a former military installation at Breendonk, near Mechelen, in Belgium which served as a Nazi prison camp (Auffanglager) during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II.
Henri-Alexis Brialmont, nicknamed The Belgian Vauban after the French military architect, was a Belgian army officer, politician and writer of the 19th century, best known as a military architect and designer of fortifications. Brialmont qualified as an officer in the Belgian army engineers in 1843 and quickly rose up the ranks. He served as a staff officer, and later was given command of the district of the key port of Antwerp. He finished his careers as Inspector-General of the Army. Brialmont was also an active pamphleteer and political campaigner and lobbied through his career for reform and expansion of the Belgian military and was also involved in the foundation of the Congo Free State.
Duvel Moortgat Brewery is a Flemish family-controlled brewery founded in 1871 in Antwerp Province, Belgium. Its strong golden pale ale, Duvel, is exported to more than forty countries. Duvel is Brabantian, Ghent and Antwerp dialect for devil, the standard Dutch word being duivel. Other popular beers include Maredsous and Vedett.
Beer in Belgium includes pale ales, lambics, Flemish red ales, sour brown ales, strong ales and stouts. In 2018, there were 304 breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries, such as Trappist monasteries. On average, Belgians drink 68 litres of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Merksem is a district of the municipality and city of Antwerp in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It has 44,808 inhabitants as of 2021.
Jacques Ochs, was a Jewish Belgian artist and Olympic fencer in the épée style and competed in the saber, and foil fencing categories.
The Mechelen transit camp, officially SS-Sammellager Mecheln in German, also known as the Dossin barracks, was a detention and deportation camp established in a former army barracks at Mechelen in German-occupied Belgium. It served as a point to gather Belgian Jews and Romani ahead of their deportation to concentration and extermination camps in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust.
The Kazerne Dossin Holocaust memorial is the only part of the Kazerne Dossin: Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights established within the former Mechelen transit camp of World War II, from which, in German-occupied Belgium, arrested Jews and Romani were sent to concentration camps. The aforementioned museum and documentation centre are housed in a new purpose-built complex across the public square.
Despite being neutral at the start of World War II, Belgium and its colonial possessions found themselves at war after the country was invaded by German forces on 10 May 1940. After 18 days of fighting in which Belgian forces were pushed back into a small pocket in the north-west of the country, the Belgian military surrendered to the Germans, beginning an occupation that would endure until 1944. The surrender of 28 May was ordered by King Leopold III without the consultation of his government and sparked a political crisis after the war. Despite the capitulation, many Belgians managed to escape to the United Kingdom where they formed a government and army-in-exile on the Allied side.
Haasdonk is a village and deelgemeente (sub-municipality) of Beveren in East Flanders, Belgium. Haasdonk was an independent municipality until 1 January 1977, when it merged with Beveren as part of the fusion of municipalities in Belgium. It is located about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) west of Antwerp.
The National Royalist Movement was a group within the Belgian Resistance in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. It was active chiefly in Brussels and Flanders and was the most politically right-wing of the major Belgian resistance groups.
The Holocaust in Belgium was the systematic dispossession, deportation, and murder of Jews and Roma in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. Out of about 66,000 Jews in the country in May 1940, around 28,000 were murdered during the Holocaust.
The German occupation of Belgium during World War II began on 28 May 1940, when the Belgian army surrendered to German forces, and lasted until Belgium's liberation by the Western Allies between September 1944 and February 1945. It was the second time in less than thirty years that Germany had occupied Belgium.
Puurs-Sint-Amands is a municipality in the Belgian province of Antwerp that arose on 1 January 2019 from the merging of the municipalities of Puurs and Sint-Amands.
Elizabeth "Betty" Depelsenaire was a Belgian communist, lawyer and feminist. During World War II, Depelsenaire was a member of the anti-Nazi Red Orchestra in Belgium, providing accommodation and safehouses for members of the Soviet espionage group that was associated with Konstantin Jeffremov. Depelsenaire was arrested several times during the war, due to her activities and was finally imprisoned at Bützow, Germany. She survived the war and returned to work as a lawyer in Belgium. In 1946, she wrote about both her 's imprisonment in Fort Breendonk.
Belgian municipality Puurs-Sint-Amands | |
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