Throughout the Second World War, there were huge networks of concentration camps established
in many different lands occupied by the Nazis and the German army.
The largest site was Auschwitz where over a million prisoners were killed within the
barbed wire fences, and there were many more sites such as Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Mauthausen.
But there was one fort which was constructed before the First World War in Belgium that
was used by the SS following the Belgium Surrender on the 28th May 1940, and it was used as a
horrific prison camp for resistance members and other prisoners.
Inside here the conditions were terrible, and some of the treatment of prisoners was
brutal torture.
Fort Breendonk was the forgotten Ss torture camp of the Second World War, but what is
it’s story?
Join us today as we find out, and remember to support our channel, please make sure to
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Originally built by the Belgian Army between 1906 and 1913 as part of the second ring of
defences of the National Redoubt, protection Antwerp, Fort Breendonk was considered a important
part of the nation’s defences.
It was used following the German invasion of Belgium in World War 1, and came under
fire from German howitzers in October 1914.
The fort’s garrison did surrender to the Germans, and it was briefly used during the
Second World War but was considered to have been militarily out of action and purpose.
As the Second World War broke out, it was clear that Hitler would target Belgium once
again, and during the German invasion of the land, it served as the headquarters of the
Belgian General Staff under King Leopold III but as the Germans advanced and went forward
towards the fort, it was abandoned.
But then the Belgian Army surrendered, and the fort then became a feared German prison
Camp known as Breendonk I.
It was occupied in May 1940 and then became a prison camp controlled by the SS and also
the SD, who operated in Belgium.
Certain alterations were made, but the first prisoners came to the fort on the 20th September
1940.
To begin with they were mostly petty criminals, or those who did not abide by the German race
laws.
As the war continued, resistance fighters, political prisoners and other hostages were
held at Fort Breendonk, and many Jews held there were later sent to Auschwitz where they
were killed.
The camp was guarded by collaborators to begin with, and also German SS units, and inside
the camp 300 prisoners died.
Around 185 were executed, and many of them died of torture, exposure and starvation and
disease.
Despite this number being much lower than camps such as Auschwitz or Bergen-Belsen,
the prisoners of Breendonk were still unlawfully murdered and killed.
Around 3600 prisoners were held in Breendonk and the camps rules and daily life were very
tough.
When new inmates came to the camp, they were brought to the courtyard where they had to
stand facing a wall before they were processed.
They were forced to not move, and if they did then they were whipped and beaten severely.
The punishment at the camp consisted of regular beatings, and also torture was administered
inside the gunpowder magazine, and also execution occurred by hanging or firing squad.
The inmates were forced to watch any execution that took place to instil fear into their
hearts.
Also the Camp commandant, Phillipp Schmitt also set his dog onto p[risoners regularly,
which would bite and maul them.
Also his wife would wander around the fort ordering guards to whip and beat inmates,
and also she would shout obscenities at them.
But one element of the torture was that severe and needless beatings occurred daily, and
also following the German defeat at Stalingrad, they were inflicted seemingly on prisoners
much worse, and many SS guards forced prisoners to stand in the cold water of the moat in
the winter.
Some of the victims sank into the mud in the moat, and some struggled and drowned in the
fort’s moat.
But all prisoners were forced to work, and this entered around shifting soil to make
sure that the camp was protected by a huge high bank to hide it from the outside.
Prisoners were given hand tools to do this, and the ground was harsh and the soil was
boggy causing carts to sink in the mud, and the work was incredibly tough and a day was
usually over 12 hours long, and prisoners worked 7 days a week.
If they did not respond to the guards quickly, then they were beaten.
Prisoners were housed in the old barracks, which were built from stone and had very poor
ventilation.
They were very cold and damp, and disease spread rather quickly in them.
Rooms were overcrowded, and prisoners only had a single small bucket per room for the
toilet in the night, and many of the sick and weak inmates just let their waste drop
down onto the bunks below, which caused tension in the bunks.
The guards wanted this, and prisoners were allowed to use the toilet twice a day.
Jewish prisoners were segregated and housed in wooden barracks which were very overcrowded
and cold, and other prisoners were housed in small groups.
Food was very rationed, and Jews had the least food and water, and the meals were not enough
to sustain a human being who was forced to work incredibly hard in the heat or cold,
and also partake in physical activity.
But the harsh treatment of prisoners was known outside the fort, but the SS continued to
make things incredible terrible.
As the war continued, there were less chances that a prisoner would have to survive as many
were deported to different camps.
With regards to the torture that occurred inside the camp, many were subject to beatings
and also other punishment such as the manacles and were shackled in strange ways in chains
that would dig into their bodies.
The torture room at Breendonk fortress still has a number of devices inside which were
used by the SS.
A prisoner would be forced into isolation before their torture, and the room they were
held was just big enough so that they could stand upright, and they would not be able
to sit down similar to how an oubliette functioned and worked.
The walls in this room were chalked white, and if a prisoner slumped onto the wall or
leaned on it, and had chalk on their clothes then they would be beaten very severely.
The expectation was that they would stay upright, and this could go on for days and even weeks,
prisoners held in standing cells like at Dachau or Auschwitz.
If prisoners did not give adequate information to their interrogators, the torture would
ramp up.
Prisoners would have their hands bound behind their back, and were then attached to a meathook
which was then used to hoist the prisoner up in the air.
This would cause shoulders to dislocate and muscles to rip and tear, and at the same time
being suspended in the air, SS guards would beat prisoners with pipes and other weapons.
After a while, the pulley system would be released and prisoners would fall onto a wooden
wedge below which would cause injuries to the body.
This continued and continued until the interrogators believed that they had sufficient information.
There was also a gutter inside of the torture chamber, and this was used to drain any blood
or urine that the prisoner would leak as they would lose control whilst they were being
retried.
Other torture methods used included using thumbscrews and head clamps, and prisoners
were often burned with red hot pokers or cigarettes, and they were also electrocuted regularly.
The conditions at the camp were very cruel, and the torture room became infamous to people
outside for it’s brutality.
Many prisoners were sent from the fort to other camps as the war turned, and they were
then killed at these.
On the 4th September 1944, the SS evacuated the fort and all of the remaining prisoners
were sent to Buchenwald and less than 10% of Breendonk’s prison population actually
survived the war such was the cruelty, and the state they were in as they left the fort.
Many of the survivors were haunted to the day they died because of the nightmares inflicted
at Breendonk.
The camp was liberated in late 1944, and it was then used as an internment camp for collaborators,
and was overseen by the British.
Following the war there were war crimes trials held involving guards and workers at Fort
Breendonk, and 18 death sentences were given out.
A few were changed to prison sentences, and the Nazi camp commandant Phillipp Schmitt
was sentenced to death.
He never showed any remorse for his crimes and atrocities inside of the camp.
Today Fort Breendonk is a forgotten part of the concentration camp system, and although
it held roughly 3000 prisoners, it was one of the most brutal and barbaric camps used
the the Nazis and the SS.
The guards inflicted such terror and horror onto the prisoners, and they also used torture
to a barbaric degree where some prisoners were killed by their ordeal.
Fort Breendonk was a horrific place of execution also, and many people suffered here during
the conflict, and although technically a prison rather than a concentration camp, it became
a site of horrific conditions where prisoners were treated awfully.
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