Refugee policies in Belgium

About 25,000 German and Austrian Jews came to Belgium between March 1938 and May 1940. When Belgium capitulated, 13,250 of them were still in Belgium.

Belgian policy towards German Jewish refugees at the end of the 1930s was the most liberal in all of Europe – yet not without contradictions.

Anyone who had illegally managed to enter the country could still expect to be tolerated within the country at the end of 1939. However, anyone who was picked up by the Belgian border police while attempting to flee across the green border to Belgium was in danger of immediate deportation back to the German Reich. Since the early 1930s, however, the toleration of refugees had been dependent on Jewish aid organisations paying for their keep.

The German-language Belgian daily newspaper GrenzEcho [lit. echo of the border] from Eupen (from 25 January 1939) reported almost every day on Jewish men, women and children trying to escape to Belgium.

Émile Vandervelde (1866-1938) was a Belgian social democrat of the first hour. During the First World War, he was in favour of the resistance politics directed against the German occupation. During the Spanish Civil War, he spoke out as a resolute internationalist against Belgian neutrality and promoted the fight against fascism. Even shortly before he died, he fought for Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany to be admitted to Belgium.

The first and biggest detention camp for Jewish refugees was in Merksplas. By accommodating the Jewish refugees in camps, already from October 1938 onwards the refugee committees undermined the policy of the Minister of Justice, who wanted to continue push backs. Anyone registered in Merksplas was automatically granted a tolerated status. By May 1940, on the whole 1,390 men had been living in the camp at various times.

Refugees in the Marneffe detention camp in 1939. Marneffe was set up for Jewish refugee families in mid-1939. Re-education and training courses were offered in the camps. These courses could serve as a preparation for emigration.

Belgian border controls were significantly tightened from May 1938, because after Austria’s annexation to the German Reich in March 1938, thousands of Austrian Jews tried to flee to Belgium. The Belgian border police mercilessly deported both Jewish children and adults they picked up back to the German Reich.

The practice of tolerating Jewish refugees was by no means uncontroversial among the Belgian ruling political class and the population as a whole. Only after the November pogrom of 1938 did a broad consensus emerge that the Jewish refugees who had made it into the country should not be deported. After a high-profile campaign by Emil Vandervelde, chairman of the Belgian Socialist Party, and Max Gottschalk, president of the Comité d’Assistance aux Réfugiés Juifs (Jewish Refugee Aid Organisation), repatriations to the German Reich were officially suspended.

At the beginning of 1939, it was still possible to enter Belgium legally. A visa was granted to those who could prove that they either had a job in Belgium or good prospects of continuing their journey to a third country. Even apprenticeship visas were still being issued at this time – and there were the Kindertransports.

Belgian refugee policy towards German Jews was characterised by pragmatism and humanity until the Germans invaded. Even if there were significant forces in the country propagating the deportation of unwanted refugees, the practice of toleration still prevailed. Anyone who had illegally made it into the country was now allowed to stay. ÄW