1. Benoît Majerus (University of Luxembourg)
Why the Holocaust does not matter?
Explaining the (non-)participation of policemen in the arrest of
Jews in Belgium during World War Two

2. Structure of the presentation
Introduction
Arresting Jews in Brussels
Arresting Jews in Antwerpen
Arresting people in Belgium
Conclusion

3. Introduction
Making lists of British and American citizens in
Brussels
Summer 1940
Arresting Belgian officers in Brussels
Summer 1942
As auxiliary forces
Hypothesis
History of Jewish persecution and history of police
cooperation : crossed story

4. Arresting Jews in Brussels
Two major requests during the summer 1942
July 1942
Oberfeldkommandantur
Refusal is argumented on a general level
September 1942
Sipo-SD
Refusal is argumented on a general level
Individual transfer of Jews to the German police till
autumn 1943

5. Arresting Jews in Antwerpen
Razzias of summer 1942 (1)
15 August
No direct participation
27 August
No direct participation
Failure because policemen were distributing leaflets

6. Arresting Jews in Antwerpen
Razzias of summer 1942 (2)
28 August
Execution by the police of Antwerp
11/12 September
==> « war crime » (Herman Van Goethem)
Individual arrests till autumn 1942 only ?

7. Arresting people in Belgium
No national policy till autumn 1942
Introduction of forced labor (october 1942)
Depends entirely on local authorities
Since mid-1941 : general stop in Brussels (?)
Not the case in Antwerpen
Local police does arrest people for the Germans till november
1942
Not the case for the gendarmerie
Not known for other larger cities
Example Liège

8. Conclusion (1)
Two « real » historiographic difficulties
Arresting Belgian officers (Brussels)
Disobeying an order (Antwerp)
Historiography
« resistance » and « Leopold » → « Belgique docile »
From « footnote » to all-explaining factor

9. Conclusion (2)
« Decentralise » anti-Jewish policy
Stop telling a linear story : making lists → arrests
Sociology is more interesting than law
Stop proving it was legally wrong
Integrate in larger narrative on occupation and war
Has been fruitful for Eastern Europe
Or is there a Western European specificity ?
Occupation but no war

10. Selectif bibliography
Doorslaer Rudi (éd.), La Belgique docile: les autorités belges et la
persécution des Juifs en Belgique, Bruxelles, Luc Pire, 2007, vol.2.
Majerus Benoit, Occupations et logiques policières. La police bruxelloise en
1914-1918 et 1940-1945, Bruxelles, Académie royale de Belgique, 2007.
Meinen Insa, De Shoah in België, Antwerpen, De Bezige Bij Antwerpen, 2011.
Monjardet Dominique, Ce que fait la police : sociologie de la force publique,
Paris, La Découverte, coll. « Textes à l’appui. Série Sociologie », 1996.
Saerens Lieven, Vreemdelingen in een wereldstad : een geschiedenis van
Antwerpen en zijn joodse bevolking (1880-1944), Tielt, Lannoo, 2000.
Goethem Herman van, « La convention de La Haye, la collaboration
administrative en Belgique et la persécution des Juifs à Anvers,
1940-1942 », Bijdragen tot de eigentijdse geschiedenis, 2006, p. 117–197.