Kapos & Collaborators
Franciscus Amelinckx – Kapo
Sentenced to 20 years of forced labor.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Victor Baele – Kapo
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Felix Brusselaers – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Karel Carleer – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Carlier Frans De Saffel – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Cuyt Edmond – Kapo
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Valéry De Vos – Kapo
Escaped and tried in absentia. Sentenced to death.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Guillaume Hermans – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
René Hermans – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Adolf Lampaert – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Jans Pellemann – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Eugène Raes – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Leo Schmandt – Kapo
Sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Gaston Vandevoorde – Kapo
Sentenced to death and pardoned by Royal Decree.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Henri Van Borm – Kapo
Acquitted.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Franz Van Hul – Kapo
Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Frans Van Neck – Kapo
Sentenced to death and pardoned by Royal Decree.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Petrus Van Praet – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Georges Vermeulen – Kapo
Sentenced to death and executed by Dutch troops on April 12, 1947.
Related trial: Breendonk Trial (Mechelen, March 5 – May 7, 1946).
Appendix W
(Paraphrase) Statement made by Valentine Verdickt to the Belgian Police
Antwerp, November 17, 1944
At the and of August 1940, the Fort of Breendonk, near to wich Madame Verdickt lived was taken over by the Germans. One day, she received a call from SS-Sturmbannführer Philipp Schmitt. He was accompanied by his driver Hertel, a member of the Wehrmacht. Madame Verdickt thinks that Schmitt was a member of the Gestapo because he had on his collar and his kepi a ‘Death Head’. Schmitt asked for a room with board and Madame Verdickt dare to refuse. She wanted to move to another house and went to see Mayor Fromont who advised her to stay where she was. Later, six other German and also Schmitt’s wife, who was fetched from Germany, came and so the Germans virtually took possession of the whole house while Madame Verdickt was left with one room and a bedroom. The Verdickt family had to do their cooking in the wash-house which also served as a living room. Madame Verdickt was forced to cook for the eight men for twenty belgian francs a day. For this sum they insisted on having an egg in the morning and meat at midday and the evening. Washing was also included in this price. Madame Verdickt naturally could not ‘make do’ for this price and was therefore compelled to buy meat, etc, on the black market. She could not complain as Schmitt told her that if she was asked black market prices, she was to inform him, and he would have the people shut up in the fort. In addition to Schmitt and his wife the following also lodged in the house: Alfred Herter, Arthur Prauss (nicknamed the ‘animal tamer’), Kurt Zimmerman, Walter Mueller, Criminal Commissar Leys and Walter Willems.
During the month of September 1940, the first prisoners arrived at the fort, four in number. Among them was a man called Galante of Brussels. The Sunday after the arrival of the prisoners, Galante’s wife came to leave a parcel for her husband. Madame Verdickt received the parcel after obtaining permission from Schmitt who was drunk. After Madame Galante was left, the packet was opened by Zimmerman but Madame Verdickt took it from him to look at it. She saw that it contained bread, smocked meat and butter, but she told Zimmerman that there was nothing but bread. Zimmerman took the packet to the fort and she thinks that Galante received it.
At that time they had practically no furniture in the fort and Madame Verdickt believed the prisoners had to sleep on the floor. There was no water and the prisoners had to get permission to come and draw water from the house. Later on the prisoners were brought in every day amongst whom were Freedman and his two sons. They were tailors from Brussels. It is thought that the father is dead as he was taken to Germany. The sons are now free and came to see Madame Verdickt after the liberation. Among the other prisoners were Member of the Parliament, Van Kesbeeck and Bouchery from Malines, Fisher of Brussels, Mayor fromont of Willebroeck and rené Dillen of Antwerp whom she thinks was taken to Germany. There were many others who she cannot remember now.
She helped the prisoners when they came to her for water, and although Schmitt’s wife knew this, she did not betray her. Madame Verdickt gave them bread, butter and meat. She bought the bread for herself, whilst she managed to save the butter and meat from the Germans who lodged with her. She and her husband sometimes gave their food to the prisoners. They continued to give the prisoners food as long as the men were allowed to to drew water from her house, which was until about the end of 1942. On April 5, 1941, the above namer Germans left and went live in the villa belongings to De Nayer who was known as Het Kasteeltje. Madame Verdickt had then to provide accomodation for Alfred Hertel and some NCOs of the Wehrmacht from time to time. Schmitt wanted her to cook of them at Het Kasteeltje, but she refused. As long as the German,s lodged with her Madame Verdickt was able to see Madame Schmitt quarrelled with her husband who was a drunkard and had several mistresses. Madame Schmitt was a native of Hoboken (New Jersey, USA) and her maiden name was Ilse Birkholz. Her husband appears to have always been a ne’er-do-well and was turned out of his house, or so Madame Schmitt told to Madame Verdickt. She saw once Ilse Schmitt put a stamp on a document for a man from Duffel, whose name she cannot recall. Madame Schmitt did this without her husband’s knowledge, in order to prevent the young man from being sent to Germany. Later, it was discovered that this document was not in order and he was summoned to the Wehrbestelle at Antwerp. Madame Verdickt went with him, but they took the papers from him and he had to go to the doctor, but instead he went to the hiding.
Born April 5, 1914, in Hoboken, New Jersey (USA), Ilse Schmitt-Birkholz was the daughter of Johannes Birkholz and Elisabeth Weidlich, German immigrants who returned to Germany shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. Her father reportedly died on the Western Front in late 1914. Before the Second World War, Ilse worked as a secretary in Potsdam, where she later met Philipp Schmitt. Their marriage, approved in accordance with the SS racial marriage regulations (Heiratsbefehl), took place sometime before the German invasion of Belgium in 1940. When Schmitt assumed command of Fort Breendonk, Ilse joined him in Belgium. The couple first resided in the Verdickt house, near the fortress, before moving on April 5, 1941, to a villa in Willebroek known locally as Het Kasteeltje (little castle). In 1941, Ilse temporarily returned to Germany, but came back to Belgium in 1942 after new regulations permitted the employment of police officers’ wives. She was then engaged as a secretary at the camp, officially working under her husband’s command.
Accounts of her behavior inside Breendonk vary sharply. Several postwar testimonies and secondary sources describe her as cruel and mocking toward prisoners, sometimes ordering punishments or humiliating inmates. Others, however, recall that she occasionally intervened to protect certain detainees, including women and individuals close to the Verdickt family. These contradictory statements have never been reconciled by judicial or archival evidence, and should therefore be treated with caution. Following Schmitt’s removal from command in late 1943, Ilse served for a time with the Sicherheitspolizei in Antwerp and later at the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. She was arrested in February 1948 in Berlin by agents of the US Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). Claiming her American birth as grounds for repatriation to the United States, she sought recognition of American nationality — a petition that was formally denied. Transferred to Belgium as a witness in the prosecution of her husband, she spent several months under interrogation but was never indicted. She was eventually repatriated to Germany. Later, a German investigation into her possible participation in war crimes was reopened but closed in 1989 for lack of evidence. Her subsequent fate remains unknown.
Philipp Schmitt himself was convicted by a Belgian military tribunal on November 25, 1949, and executed on August 8, 1950, at Hoboken (Antwerp) — becoming the last person to be executed in Belgium. The case of Ilse Birkholz-Schmitt thus remains one of the many peripheral yet revealing dimensions of the Breendonk tragedy: a figure suspended between proximity to atrocity, partial complicity, and historical obscurity. No archival source to date establishes her active participation in murders or deportations, but her intimate presence within the administrative machinery of one of the most feared SS installations in occupied Belgium underscores the complex and often unsettling roles played by women within the Nazi system.
In 1942, a Jews prisoner from Brussels, Madame Verdickt doesn’t remember his name, told her that he had received so many blows that he was going to try and escape. She could see that his face was very swollen and he told her that it was Arthur Prauss who ill-treated him. He had some clothes placed in a sack in the shes beside the house. After changing and leaving his prison clothes in the shed he asked her what time a bus left for Brussels. He went to Willebroek and it appears that a poulterer of Schaafstraat called Van Ingelghen who was about thirty-five yards old took him by bicycle to the tram in Londerzeel. She learned later from the brothers Freetman that he got away to Switzerland. Enquiries were made by the Germans and she was obliged to say that she had found the prison clothes in the shed.
It was thanks to Madame Schmitt that Madame Verdickt and her husband were not shot, as the German lodgers were drunk at the time and they wanted to shot them both with their pistols. After this, the prisoners where not more allowed to fetch water from the Verdickt’s house unless escorted. However, as long as they were allowed to come to the house she heard from them details of the ill-treatment they had to endure at the fort, particularly at the hands of Prauss and Mueller.
SS-Sturmbannführer Philipp Schmitt had a dog called Lump which was trained to bite prisoners in the legs.Madame Verdickt saw it bite any times. She had a particularly good view of the fort through a back-window of her house and from there she could see the prisoners working. They had to carry stones on their backs and they were beaten by the guards if they did not move fast enough. She could also see the prisoners who were cutting stones.
They were superintended by the Flemish Waffen-SS De Bodt and Weiss who pelted the prisoners from the hillock with stones and wounded them in the head. She saw many with their head bandaged as a result of this. She heard continued complaints from prisoners concerning De Bodt and Weiss as well as Van Praet from Bornhem (Belgium) who has been arrested and in the prison at Malines. Van Praet was formerly a gardner at the fort but was also a prisoner. One day a lawyer from Vilvoorde whose name she doesn’t know, was working outside her door.
Van Praet who was guarding the prisoners said ‘come on lawyer you are not working with a pen, but with a shovel’. She came between then and Van Praet said to her ‘you better look out, Valeken, or you’ll do the same’, Valeken being the nickname Madame Verdickt was known in the neighbourhood.
In May 1944, the Verdickt were informed that they would have to leave their house as they were not considered to be trustworthy. The Germans wanted them to go further away from the fort so they could not see into the fort. A couple of days later, SS-Sturmbannführer Philipp Schmitt was replaced by SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Schönwetter but he never lodged with the Verdickt. SS-Sturmbannführer Philipp Schmitt is said to have been sent to Denmark but his wide said she would not follow him as she wished for a separation.
Appendix X
List of Civilians who were Employed in Breendonk
Jan De Shutter Beenhouwerstraat, 1, Breendonk. He was a civilian electrician occasionally called to the Breendonk fortress where he was responsible for maintaining the lighting system within the camp’s infrastructure, thus providing technical services to the SS administration without being part of its permanent personnel.
Frans Aloys Amelinckx Zavelweg, Willebroeck. He was a Belgian civilian associated with the Breendonk fortress, was reportedly employed in an administrative-technical capacity under German supervision, providing logistical or clerical assistance to the SS command without holding any formal military rank.
Claymans Willebroeck. He was a civilian resident of Willebroeck, was occasionally employed at the Breendonk fortress to perform manual or logistical duties for the German administration, operating under SS supervision but without formal integration into the camp’s military staff.
L. Moens Willebroeck. He was a civilian from Willebroeck, was cited as a witness in post-war investigations concerning Fort Breendonk; although his full first name is uncertain, evidence suggests he may have been Louis Moens, a local worker familiar with the camp’s surroundings and known to have provided testimony regarding the treatment of prisoners.
Van Achter Puurs. He was a civilian from Puurs, was reportedly employed at Fort Breendonk in a subordinate capacity, performing various maintenance or support tasks under German supervision, though no confirmed record of his first name or exact function has been preserved in the surviving documentation.
Tierens Breendonk. He was a civilian residing in Breendonk, was mentioned among local workers occasionally employed by the German authorities at the fortress, likely for maintenance or supply duties; his first name remains unknown, and no evidence indicates direct participation in acts of brutality or membership in the SS staff.
Franz Carlier Londerzeel. Franz Carleer, a civilian from Londerzeel, was employed at Fort Breendonk during the occupation, reportedly performing auxiliary or technical duties for the German administration under SS supervision, though he held no official military status and appears to have been part of the local labor contingent attached to the fortress.
Appendix Y
Statement given by Petrus Johannes De Shutter, when questioned by the Police in Antwerp
In August 1940, I was called upon by the city of Breendonk to assure the installation of electricity in and around the Fort. I have never been a member of any political organization either or after the war. My work here consisted in the maintenance of lightning and the installation of a new lightning installations. I have never been called upon to instal installations for torture of prisoners. Nor have I ever seen such installation. I did once put a point in a so-called bunker; I heard from prisoners that the bunker served as a torture chamber, and that the point served to work an apparatus which the interrogators brought from Brussels with them. This apparatus was said to have been put on the most sensitive part of the body. The voltage in the camp was 220 volts. Most implements of torture were made by the smith Franz Carlier from Londerzeel here in the smithy. This person left with the departing Germans when they left the area.
The greatest brutes in the camp appeared to be Prauss, of German nationality, De Bodt and Weiss, Flemish Waffen-SS. I did not come into contact with the prisoners. I have never heard the name of the Substitut Sevens of Antwerp. The remaining people were, as far as I know, taken away bu car in the direction of Brussels. What there took place I don’t know. I do not think that people were buried in the camp itself.
Appendix Z
Statement given by Petrus Johannes De Shutter, when questioned by the Police in Malines
I was summoned by the City of Breendonk in August 1940 to put the electrical installation of the fort in order. In October 1940, the first prisoners came here, namely a group of about thirty Jews. At first they were fairly few staff here, namely Schmitt, Prauss and Hertel, supported by soldiers of the Wehrmacht who were frequently changed. Later, the staff was increased, and also included Lamotke, Lais, Zimmerman, Mueller, Kanchuster, and later Schönwetter. About the middle of 1941, the Flemish Waffen-SS came, Baele, Lampaert, Pellemans, Raes, De Saffel, Weiss, De Bodt, Brusseleers, Cuyt and Westerlinck. Until about the end of 1943, I went each day to the fort, if not to work the whole day, then for a few hours. After the departure of Schitt and his replacement by Schönwetter, I only came when sent for. I no longer enjoyed confidence, and when I came to the fort I was lead to my place of work by a sentry.
I had to go all over the fort to carry out electrical work. I was assisted in my work by one or more prisoners, so I was able to obtain some information as to what went on there. The staff in general acted in a scandalous way toward the people held prisoner. It was blows of all sorts all day. SS-Sturmbannführer Philipp Schmitt himself did not much, he left it all to SS-Hauptsturmführer Walter Prauss. He did however set his big dog on the prisoners to bite their legs. SS-Hauptsturmführer Walter Prauss: his cruelty passed all belief. Like all SS men he was always in possession of a crop, a bull’s pizzle threaded with steel wire. Without the slightest reason he used to strike the men. I think in the course of the year 1942, I saw him on the side of the cookhouse knock a prisoner unconscious; he kicked and beat him still after he lay on the ground. He decided to bring him back to consciousness, and threw a jug of water over this person. But he was dead. I can not give the name of this person. This occurrence I saw personally. I have heard say that many prisoners died in consequence of blows they received from SS-Hauptsturmführer Walter Prauss. I had an assistant Michel De Breyne, an electrician from Schelle (Belgium), and escaut worman. He was imprisoned in Breendonk for eighteen months and then released. He worked all this time with me. I think he came here about August 1942, until February or March 1944. He should be able to furnish extensive information on the conduct of Prauss, for himself had much to endure on account of it.
SS-Obersturmführer Johann Kantschuster was also very barbarous. It often happened that he was blind drunk and lost control of himself. The prisoners had a great deal to put up with from him. I cannot say exactly when he commenced his duties here. He did not stay long. He stayed with Verbruggen on the road to Willebroeck. Perhaps you can find out there when he was here. I have heard that Kantschuster shot a Jew dead with his pistol. I did not see that myself. I remember now that he was here at Christmas 1942. In the kitchen he hit Marcel Van Hoff of Boom (Belgium) hard while he was laying on, the ground, and he also get a kettle of boiling water or coffee over him. I do not know whether the kettle fell over him or whether it was upset over him by Kantschuster. Moens should know that better.
SS-Oberscharführer Kurt Zimmermann. I only once saw strike, and it was when a prisoner had taken a loaf bread. Often, on the contrary, I saw that he gave a piece of bread to my assistant De Breyne. He was certainly not one of the worst, and I have heard very few complaints about him. SS-Untersturmführer Lais was rather a crafty fellow; he went the gentle way about getting people to make admissions. In general he struck very little. He generally sat in the office interviewing. I cannot say exactly how his conduct toward the Jews was. I found nothing out about it, nor did I hear any complaints. I came little into contact with the Jews. They were shut up separately. SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Lamotke was a treacherous fellow; he struck the prisoners a great deal, or reported them to Prauss who in his turn proceeded to further ill-treatment. I do not know if he killed anyone outright; I do not think so. I cannot remember when or how long he remained here.
SS-Hauptscharführer Alfred Hertel came little in contact with the prisoners. He was in charge of materials, and I heard no complaints of him. SS-Hauptscharführer Walter Müller was a bad person, and hit as often as he got the chance, he was in charge of pay and came little into contact with the prisoners. On all occasions and pretexts however, he ill-treated the prisoners on every opportunity he got. SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Schönwetter, under his command I had less often to came to the fort. According to the prisoners he also dealt them blows very readily. His chief preoccupation was to acquire for himself the belongings of the prisoners. A lady from the Red Cross, Madame Vreven, often came to ask me how many prisoners were present there, and if they had received certain things. Also Mademoiselle Jodogne from Laeken came to ask me similar questions. It appears that all sorts of goods and clothings sent by the Red Cross were retained by Schönwetter. Each time he went on leave he took with him very big boxes in which all sorts of goods were packed which had been hidden in the fort.
I think there was also a SS-Untersturmführer named Kempfer here, but I can no longer remember him. SS-Untersturmführer Steckmann also knocked people about. As for the Flemish Waffen-SS who came later, that is to say in 1941, SS-Oberscharführer Fernand Weiss was the worst of all, followed by SS-Oberscharführer Richard De Bodt. They went about always whip in hand, and stuck in all circumstances and without the slightest reason. Weiss was particularly barbarous; I have seen him strike a man on top of the head so that the blood flowed. From hearsay, I know that he sometimes threw shovel into the water from the fort and made a Jew go in and fetch the shovel out. Many were said to have been drowned in that way. It was generally thought in the fort that Weiss was certainly responsible for the death of about twenty people. It was also said that Weiss and De Bodt had a bet as to who should be the first to kill a Jew. I heard and saw nothing of this. It was also said to have been Weiss who killed the first person. Each time anybody drowned in the moat of the fort, they were dragged out. I think I can say with certainty that no corpses remain lying at the bottom of the moat.
Another man named Baele was also very barbarous. He was in charge of the prisoners who had to clean the offices. He struck and kicked wherever he could. But for some time now he foretold the defeat of Germany, and then began to turn, and attempted to find evidence from people that he had conducted himself well toward the prisoners. That had already begun when Dr. Casman and his sons were held prisoners here. On a certain day he brought a piece of bread to the father Casman, and asked him at the same time if he would bear witness later that he had been good to him. He also tried with Mr. Michel Breyne to give him a paper to the effect that Baele had always behaved well at the fort. Greyne did not do so. I think Baele tried to do the same with other prisoners. It is said, by the way, that Baele has been arrested in Brussels. I was told this by the father-in-law of Mr. Marcel Van Hoof, who lives at Boom on the way from Niel. Baele was said to have gone to a former prisoner to ask for a certificate that he had conducted himself well, but unfortunately for Baele, this ex-prisoner had him arrested.
Lampaert was employed in the office and claimed to have been the first one to deal blows to the prisoners on arrival at the fort. I have, however, never seen him strike, but I learned from the prisoners that he could hit hard. Of Pellemans I can say little; he was employed in the office and I could never get in there while prisoners were there. I have never heard anything particular of Pellemans from the prisoners, or complaints about him. About someone called Raes, I cannot remember. De Saffel also worked in the office; he was the most private of the offices and he was particularly barbarous, always dealing blows. I cannot say if he went in the torture chamber with people. Van De Voorde I knew little. He was here in the last four months, a time that I was less frequently here. I can say little about him. Brusseleers, I cannot remember. I don’t think I knew him. About Cuyt, I know that he also ill-treated the prisoners. Concerning Westerlinck I can say nothing in Particular; there were in general no complaints about him. Van Hul was irascible and brutal, and much ill-treated the prisoners.
Carleer and Van Praet were no better than the Germans or the Flemish SS. They also beat and kicked the prisoners, or carried all sorts of stories to Prauss, who ill-treated the prisoners. Carleer made all the torture implements for the torture chamber; and for the cells – shackles for hands and feet. He also made the ironwork for the scaffold. The woodwork for the scaffold was made by the prisoners themselves. Van Praet spent spent his first time here as a prisoner; he then became sort of chief over the other prisoners, whilst he was still detained here. Although he was a prisoner, he bullied the other people in the usual way. The Germans saw in him a man after their own hearts, and when he was released they engaged him as a gardner. He made himself really barbarous to the prisoners. In the lunchtimes he often sat in the office. He learned that someone from Wallonia was to be released. He made out that he had wangled the liberation, and in this manner managed to get possession of a side of pork from the person. This was generally known at the fort.
The was an imprisoned Jew, Walter Obler, who had lived at the rue Mon Seigneur, 14, Brussels. Through his tale-telling and crawling to the invaders, Van Praet managed to get himself made head-man over all the Jew prisoners, and then in fact over all the prisoners. It was he who was in charge of the work. This he made use of to make money. He could detail prisoners for any work he wished, either carpentry, printing, cooking or suchlike; in general something other than labouring with earth. These posts were much sought after, for one was less to ill-treatment. Obler usually sold these advantages. A letter was secretly smuggled out addressed to the family of the person seeking to obtain such a preference. The family were instructed to remit a pre-arranged sum to Mr. Obler somewhere at Brussels. By an agreed sign in one of the future packages, it was made known that the sum was paid over, and if this confirmation was received the applicant received the easiest job. He himself grossly ull-treated the prisoners: it might be said that he beat them to death.
The Germans or Flemish SS were delighted when Obler beat the prisoners. When the packages were allowed to be received, those had to be handed to the head of the room, who handed them out to the addressees. He was naturally the head of the room. He first extracted from the packages what he himself could use. About September 1943, I believe he was released and have learned that he found employment in the Security Police in Brussels. When Prauss went for a prisoners with words and Obler was around, it was who struck first. This Obler was really inhuman here.
Here in the fort, at regular intervals people were shot. No single member of the personnel (Belgian) could then come into the fort. The executions generally took place very early in the morning. The people who were executed, as well as those who died as a result of sickness or ill-treatment were all confined. I have never seen people being buried in the fort. The bodies were taken in the direction of Brussels by van, generally a motor van of the Red Cross. Exactly were people were buried is unknown to me. I knew no Mr. Sevens here in the fort, who you say was brought here on July 29, 1944. I cannot give you the slightest information concerning him. During the last day before the liberation, I came seldom to the fort. I cannot say how the prisoners were taken away or to what destination; or by whom or in what manner this removal was effected; the last to remain here were about fifteen Jews and these were taken to Malines in a moto bus. The last time I came here was to the office, where I was paid, the Wednesday before the liberation. I did not enter into the fort, and do not know if the prisoners were already evacuated then.
(signed) Joannes Petrus De Shutter
Beenhouwerstraat 1, Puurs-Sint-Amands
October 1944, Malines Police
Appendix AA
Statement Given by Frans Aloys Amelinckx
Zavelweg 6, Willenroeck
October 1944, Police in Malines
I was employed at the Fort of Breendonk from the beginning of the month of August 1941, until the daa the Germans ran away from Belgium. My work consisted chiefly of the care of pigs, cows and rabbits. I came into this situation at the request of a young man of Londerzeel, who I only knew by the Christian name ‘Rik’, and who had had enough of it because he had to work on Sundays and could not go to the fair. I cannot imagine why I was kept on because I was not and am not a member of the VNV, the VLAG or of any political organization, nor have I been a member of one; nor have I ever supported the policy of Germany. Among the captives in the fort, I knew a Jew, a certain Obler, who had command over a large group engaged in forced labour. In general, he appeared very brutal, and although I was often absent, I have seen him strike the prisoners. He generally struck with the flat of his hand. He dealt out hard blows, but not so hard as the victims fell to the ground. I have never seen him strike with lash or stick. He struck prisoners for sometimes being in possession of carrot, a cabbage or some pigs-potatoes which they had taken to eat in order to appease their hunger. I never saw him sell pig-potatoes, carrots or roots, nor have I ever heard from the prisoners that he had done such things.
I remember that in the beginning of the year 1942, a considerable sum of money was found by a man under the tiles about the pigsty. I heard that said, but I can give you no exact information about it. I do not know if jewels were also found there, and can give you no useful information concerning the persons who did it there.
I wish I was there to observe that, besides the above-mentioned Obler, another Jewish prisoner was responsible for the care of the pigs, whose name I do not know, and who was known by no other name than the ‘pigman’. I have never seen or heard of this ‘pigman’ ever selling pig-food to the prisoners. I was myself responsible for the pigs about a year ago, when Obler and the ‘pigman’ were away, i. c. away to another prison camp. I never sold anything to the prisoners, but, when I had the opportunity, I gave them some pig-food and some bread. It even happened that I gave the sufferers some tobacco. As I was away so often getting food for the animals, and had to look after the sheep and cows outside the fort, I can give you little information concerning the treatment of the prisoners. But though I was seldom in the courtyard of the fort, I saw the prisoners were heavily beaten, chiefly by a certain Weiss, a Flemish SS, and also a certain De Bort, who was also a Flemish SS, and these superintended the work carried out by the prisoners, which was principally labouring.
