1943 in Belgium

Decades:	1920s ; 1930s ; 1940s ; 1950s ; 1960s ;
See also:	Other events of 1943 ; List of years in Belgium

Last updated May 28, 2021

This is a page of the events in the year 1943 in Belgium .

Incumbents

Monarch: Leopold III (prisoner)^[1]
Prime Minister: Hubert Pierlot (in exile)
Head of the occupying Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France: Alexander von Falkenhausen
Head of the administrative staff of the Occupation: Eggert Reeder

Events

13 January – Cardinal van Roey issues a pastoral letter condemning terrorism.^[2]^:854
17 January – Léon Degrelle declares that Walloons are ethnically Germanic.^[2]^:854
20 January – Solo airstrike on the Gestapo's Brussels headquarters by Jean de Selys Longchamps.^[2]^:855
27 February – 750 Belgian police officers and gendarmes placed in detention by the occupying forces.^[2]^:856
7 March – Decree obliging students to spend six months as labourers.^[2]^:854
10 March – Decree confiscating church bells to be melted down for metal.^[2]^:854
15 March – Cardinal van Roey issues a pastoral letter condemning the seizure of church bells.^[2]^:854
5 April – Americans bomb Mortsel, killing over a thousand civilians.^[2]^:855
19 April – Members of the Resistance briefly stop a deportation train carrying Jewish prisoners to Auschwitz concentration camp.
20 April – Resistance attack on the office for conscription of compulsory labour destroys a large part of their files.^[2]^:855
16 July – Honoré Van Waeyenbergh, Rector of the Catholic University of Leuven, sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment for refusing to give the occupying forces access to university enrolment records.^[2]^:855
6 August – Occupying forces confiscate 60% of Belgian textile stock.^[2]^:854
7 September – Bombing of Brussels destroys over a thousand buildings.^[2]^:856
9 November – Resistance distribute an uncensored counterfeit edition of Le Soir ^[2]^:856
6 December – Occupying forces requisition 129,000 tonnes of agricultural produce.^[2]^:854

Arts and architecture

Performances

17 March – First performance of Georges Sion's comedy La Matrone d'Ephèse in the Palace of Fine Arts, Brussels.^[2]^:854

Births

6 March – Noël Devisch, businessman
23 March – Marva Mollet, singer
5 April – Miet Smet, politician
14 April – Norbert De Cuyper, politician
25 April – Jean-Jacques Cassiman, geneticist
3 June – André Ernotte, film director (died 1999)
2 July – Walter Godefroot, cyclist
5 July – André Smets, politician (died 2019)
1 September – Claude De Bruyn, road safety advocate (died 2020)
1 October – Raymond Langendries, politician
5 October – Josly Piette, politician
1 November – Salvatore Adamo, singer
25 November – Victor Albert, politician (died 2005)
1 December – Danny Huwé, journalist (died 1989)

Deaths

27 January – Louis Fonsny, collaborationist newspaper editor.^[2]^:854
15 April – Paul Colin (born 1895), collaborationist art critic
10 May – Arnaud Fraiteur (born 1924), resistance fighter
16 August – Jean de Selys Longchamps (born 1912), fighter pilot
8 October – Gustave De Smet (born 1877), painter

Related Research Articles

Jozef-Ernest van Roey was a Belgian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Mechelen from 1926 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1927. He was significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism in Belgium.

The Royal Question was a major political crisis in Belgium that lasted from 1945 to 1951, coming to a head between March and August 1950. The "question" at stake surrounded whether King Leopold III could return to the country and resume his constitutional role amid allegations that his actions during World War II had been contrary to the provisions of the Belgian Constitution. It was eventually resolved by the abdication of Leopold in favour of his son Baudouin in 1951.

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.

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.

Events in the year 1944 in Belgium.

Events in the year 1916 in Belgium.

Events in the year 1896 in Belgium.

Events in the year 1831 in Belgium.

Events in the year 1865 in Belgium.

The following lists events that happened during 1905 in the Kingdom of Belgium.

Events in the year 1837 in Belgium.

Events in the year 1841 in Belgium.

The following lists events that happened during 1904 in the Kingdom of Belgium.

Events in the year 1895 in Belgium.

Events in the year 1893 in Belgium.

Events in the year 1899 in Belgium.

The following lists events that happened during 1907 in the Kingdom of Belgium.

Events in the year 1874 in Belgium.

Events in the year 1942 in Belgium

Events in the year 1941 in Belgium

References

↑ "Leopold III, king of Belgium". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Alain de Gueldre et al., Kroniek van België (Antwerp and Zaventem, 1987).

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[1] "Leopold III, king of Belgium". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 28 March 2019.

[Kroniek-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Alain de Gueldre et al., Kroniek van België (Antwerp and Zaventem, 1987).

[1]

[2]

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