Fort Breendonk

Part of my trip to Europe included a tour of the Fort Breendonk prison/internment camp, located in Belgium. The camp, which really is just a level below a concentration camp, was established during World War II by the Nazis in 1940.

Initially the camp was used to detain political prisoners, but it later housed Jewish people, who comprised half the prisoners. The rest of the population were resistance fighters, and other perceived enemies of the regime.

The camp was notorious for its harsh conditions, forced labour, and brutal treatment of inmates. Many prisoners faced torture, starvation, and execution. 

Fort Breendonk served as a transit camp for deportation to concentration/extermination camps such as Auschwitz. After the war, it became a symbol of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust and is now a memorial site, educating visitors about the horrors of totalitarianism.

What is most interesting about this camp is that it was built as a military installation between 1906 and 1913 and used in World War I. This is in stark contrast to many World War II concentration camps in Europe that had their barracks built from wood. These wooden structures were normally destroyed after they were discovered.

The concete walls of Fort Breendonk are intact. You walk through the iron gates and the barb wire, down the halls, through its cold, narrow corridors, seeing the cramped cells. You can enter the torture chamber and see the levers and hooks that tortured the poor souls that were interrogated there. You can see the drains that removed the urine and blood from the floor. You leave the building and stand before the firing squad posts and gallows. You can viscerally feel the suffering that occurred in that building and the fear and terror they must have felt is almost unimaginable.

3,590 prisoners are known to have been held during the war of whom 303 died or were executed in the camp itself. 1,741 of that group died in other extermination camps they were transferred to. Over half the people that went into that pit of hell died.

They show photos of the officers that oversaw the camp. There were 12 senior officers. I saw their faces in a life size board and listened to how they tortured and terrorized the people within. Once the war was over 23 officers and guards were tried by the courts, 16 were sentenced to death, four to life in prison, one to 20 years of forced labour, one to 15 years, and one acquitted.

Touring that prison was one of the most profound experiences of my life. You can read about the Holocaust. You can hear the stories, but until you walk into a building, see the torture chamber, listen to the audio, and see the photos of the people who suffered in that place, do you truly understand the depravity of man?

I kept thinking how one human could do this to another based solely on their religion? How could anyone hate someone because they were Jewish or were political prisoners fighting to free their country?  How did the guards become such blind people that they treated them like animals?

The most profound thing I heard in that place was that the horses had names but the men in that prison had numbers. It was the total breakdown of humanity.

They say that a war happens every three generations because the third generation forgets what took place.

I worry for this world. I worry for humanity. I see how people talk to politicians. I hear people in my own community, people I have known for years, say in open council that we, as councillors should be beaten with a stick. I feel the vitriol!

Fort Breendonk is not only a site of remembrance but also a powerful lesson for us today. It shows how fear, hate, and division can lead to unimaginable cruelty. As a community, we must reflect on these lessons, recognizing the importance of remembering history, not only to honour those who suffered but also to ensure such atrocities are never repeated. It was a sobering experience, one that reinforces the need to remain vigilant against the forces that threaten humanity.

In closing, I want to point out that less than 500 metres away from the horrors of Fort Breendonk, the surrounding community went about their daily lives, either knowingly or unknowingly, a haunting reminder of how close unimaginable cruelty can co-exist with ordinary existence,