Start My Family Tree Welcome to Geni, home of the world's largest family tree.
Join Geni to explore your genealogy and family history in the World's Largest Family Tree.

Prisoners incarcerated by the Nazis in Fort Breendonk during WWII

view all

Profiles

This project is aimed to gather all known people that were incarcerated within Fort Breendonk by the Nazis, during WWII.

The following text was taken from Wikipedia.

Fort Breendonk (Dutch: Fort van Breendonk, French: Fort de Breendonk) is a military fortification situated at Breendonk, near Mechelen, in Belgium which is best known for its role as a Nazi prison camp (Auffanglager) during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II.

Fort Breendonk was originally built for the Belgian army between 1906-13 as part of the second ring of defenses of the National Redoubt protecting the important port city of Antwerp. It was covered by a five-metre-thick layer of soil for defense against bombings, a water-filled moat and measured 656 by 984 feet (200 by 300 m).

During World War II, the fort was requisitioned by the Germans as a prison camp for detaining Belgian political dissidents, captured resistance members, and Jews. Although technically a prison rather than a concentration camp, the Fort was famous for its prisoners' poor living conditions and for the use of torture.

Most prisoners who were detained at the camp were later transferred to larger concentration camps in Eastern Europe. Of the 3,590 prisoners known to have been imprisoned at Breendonk, 303 died or were executed within the fort itself but as many as 1,741 died subsequently in other camps before the end of the war.

Today, the site is a national memorial and museum which is open to the public.

[books.breendonk.html The Prisoners of Breendonk: Personal Histories from a World War II Concentration Camp / James M Deem]

The National Memorial Fort Breendonk

Testimonies

Panoramas of World War II Landmarks 1945-2007: Fort Breendonk

News: Prisoners of Nazi's Breendonk concentration camp identified (video)

USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia: Fort Breendonk

The Friends of the Fortress of Breendonk