Language:
French
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
Les Cahiers de la Mémoire Contemporaine
Angaben zur Quelle:
8 (2008) 99-138
Keywords:
War crime trials
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews History 1939-1945
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Argues that Belgian authorities in London played a rather important role in preparing judgements for German war crimes: Marcel de Baer was President of the War Crimes Commission at the London International Assembly and Henri Rolin its Deputy president. Their activity on the international level was, however, not matched by initiative on the national level, though both were members of the legislativ council charged with preparing law texts for the government. Despite a document by the Prime Minister in November 1942, stating that Belgium would do all it could to overcome legal insufficiencies concerning war crimes, only an order was given concerning acts committed by foreigners outside Belgian territory. In public, the minister of Justice, Antoine Delfosse, seemed however, deeply involed in these matters, and was appointed President of the Belgian War Crimes Commission after the war. Reflects on the reasons for the Belgian failure to act at home: anticipation of international decisions as guidelines and relations between Delfosse and those in the government, who prioritized punishing collaborators, i.e. traitors, rather than the German enemy. Argues that no legal or other complications justified tha fact that the Belgian authorities in London, though well aware by December 1942 of the extermination of Jews and the dramatic situation of the Jews in Belgium, remained passive. As of 1943 they could have filled the existing legal gap and enacted a law concerning deportations and persecutions, which would have enabled Belgium to indict the Germans after the war. However, the question of crimes against the Jews in Belgium and the punishment of their perpetrators, did not concern Belgian authorities in London during the war.
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