Life in occupied Belgium Lancaster bombers target the Belgian town of
St. Vith in the
Ardennes, 1944. Belgium was run by a
German military government under General
Alexander von Falkenhausen and
Eggert Reeder until July 1944, and then by Reichskommissar
Josef Grohé until liberation. The German government levied the costs of the military occupation on the Belgians through taxes, while also demanding "external occupation costs" (or "
Anti-Bolshevik charge") to support operations elsewhere. In total, Belgium was forced to pay nearly two-thirds of its national income for these charges, a figure equaling 5.7 billion
Reichsmarks. As in all occupied countries in Europe, food, fuel and clothing were strictly rationed by the German authorities. Even with the stringent rationing, the food and materials which civilians should officially have been entitled to were not always available. A significant
black market also existed in the country, supplying food illegally at very high prices to those that could afford it. Information and the press were strictly controlled by the German government and news was greatly restricted. Nevertheless, the sales of collaborationist newspapers like
Le Soir and the newspapers of pro-collaborationist political parties like
Le Pays Réel remained high. A large number of underground newspapers were also published and distributed – the underground paper
La Libre Belgique achieved a circulation of 30,000. factory in
Berlin, August 1943. Occupied Belgium was also targeted by the
Allied bombers from both the British
RAF and American
USAAF. The policy led to high civilian casualties as bombs missed their intended targets and fell on civilian areas. In a raid on the
Erla Motor Works in the Belgian town of
Mortsel (near
Antwerp) in April 1943, just two bombs dropped by the
B-17s of the
U.S. 8th Air Force fell on the intended target. The remaining 24 tons of bombs fell on civilian areas of the town, killing 936 and injuring 1,600 more in just eight minutes. Around 375,000 Belgians also served in labour programs within Germany during the war, working in manual jobs in industry or agriculture for the German war effort. Though nearly 180,000 Belgians signed up before conscription began in 1941, most were conscripted after that date and worked
as forced labour against their will. 200,000 Belgian military prisoners of war, who had been captured in 1940, were also transported to Germany. Most were used as forced labour and paid only a nominal sum. About 80,000 (mainly Flemish) prisoners were returned to Belgium between late 1940 and 1941, VNV appealed directly to a
Flemish separatist agenda, though this message was never the main source of their popularity. Infighting between the groups, particularly VNV and
DeVlag, was considerable. The report also found that many Belgian authorities had been compliant, even active, in the deportation of Jews. in the "divisions" (neither ever greater than brigade strength) fought on the
Eastern Front where the Walloon Legion was nearly annihilated in the
Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket in 1944. After the war, a total of 400,000 Belgians were investigated for collaboration. Of these, around 56,000 were prosecuted. The majority received prison sentences although several hundred were executed. The
Belgian government in exile dealt only with sympathetic resistance groups, like the
Armée Secrète; however, even these umbrella organisations had many different agendas or political ideologies. The Comet Line sheltered downed airmen in
safe houses throughout Belgium. Allied airmen were given civilian clothes and moved from house to house, staying with Belgian families who supported the resistance. The escape lines gave the airmen false identification papers and guided them to neutral or Allied occupied territory. The guides were usually young women. Hundreds of the workers for the escape lines were captured and imprisoned by the Germans and many were executed. As elsewhere, sabotage was employed against enemy military and economic assets, with railway lines and bridges being common targets. The activities of
Groupe G, a small student resistance cell based in Brussels, alone are estimated to have cost the Nazis 10 million man-hours of labour to repair damages done. Direct attacks on German troops and military installations were rarer, yet one estimate puts the number of German soldiers killed by the Belgian resistance in 1941 as higher than in all of France. The resistance were instrumental in saving Jews and Roma from deportation to death camps, for instance the attack on the "
Twentieth convoy" to
Auschwitz. Many Belgians also hid Jews and political dissidents during the occupation, with one estimate putting the number at some 20,000 people hidden during the war. There was also significant low-level resistance, for instance in June 1941, the
City Council of Brussels refused to distribute
Stars of David badges. Certain high-profile members of the Belgian establishment, including
Queen Elizabeth and
Cardinal van Roey, Archbishop of Malines, spoke out against the German treatment of Jews. So far, 1,612 Belgians have been awarded the distinction of "
Righteous Among the Nations" by the
State of Israel for risking their lives to save Jews from persecution during the occupation. Belgian civilians were often subject to retaliation by paramilitaries and German forces for resistance activity. In August 1944, 20 civilians were killed by Rexist paramilitaries in the
Courcelles Massacre in reprisal for a single attack on a Rexist politician.
The Holocaust , near
Mechelen. In mid-1940, nearly 57,000 Jews were living in Belgium out of a population of roughly 8 million. Many had fled to Belgium to escape recent persecution in Germany and elsewhere, meaning that only a minority were Belgian citizens. and economic assets belonging to Jews were seized. Most were sent to the
Auschwitz death camp, although others went to camps at
Bergen-Belsen and
Vittel. The former Belgian army
fort at Breendonk, near
Mechelen, was requisitioned by the Nazis and used for detainment and interrogation of Jews, political prisoners and captured members of the resistance. Of the 3,500 people incarcerated in Breendonk between 1940 and 1944, 1,733 died. Around 300 people were killed in the camp itself, with at least 98 of them dying from deprivation or torture. ==Belgian government and army in exile==