Belgian Study Faults Country for

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 000531 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/OHI, EUR/UBI and DRL/SEAS-Ryckman E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KNAR SOCI PHUM BE SUBJECT: Belgian Study Faults Country for Collaboration in Holocaust Ref: (A) 05 Brussels 1973 (B) 06 Brussels 2650 ¶1. (SBU) Summary. A government-commissioned study faults Belgian government and society for collaborating with the Nazi Holocaust and the deportation of Belgian Jews. The study analyzes the reasons for Belgian passivity and cooperation before and during the occupation. Public and private response to the Report has been positive, though somber, and media coverage very thorough. Whether the new Report will encourage reconsideration among supporters of Belgium's far-right, ultranationalist parties Vlaams Belang and National Front in the run- up to the June election is an open question. End Summary. ¶2. (U) On February 13, Belgium's Center for the Study and Documentation of War and Contemporary Society (CEGES) officially presented its comprehensive study on Belgian collaboration during the 1930s and 1940s. (CEGES is a research institute under the Belgian Ministry of Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade and Science Policy, autonomously managed and independent in its views.) The academic research, based on public and private archives in Belgium and elsewhere, finds the Belgian state was a passive collaborator in policies that led to the segregation, deportation, and extermination of Belgian Jews during the Holocaust. According to the study, reasons for Belgian authorities' cooperation with the German occupation were "as much economic as ideological and administrative-legal," and led to an "enlightened authoritarian regime," a sort of Vichy Belgium. ¶3. (U) The Report, entitled "Passive ("Docile") Belgium," was in preparation for nearly three years. It does not recommend legal pursuit of particular officials for their actions, but rather inventories the role public administrations played in persecution and deportation of at least 25,000 of Belgium's 65,000 Jewish citizens. The report sees the history lesson of WWI, which saw Belgium's economy and society decimated by warfare, as a partial explanation of the predisposition not to resist during WWII. Xenophobia mixed with anti- Semitism that was circulating in Belgian government circles during the period led to passive collaboration. The study details the history of Belgian government regulations, participation, and ultimately collaboration, that resulted in the deportation of many thousands to Auschwitz. On the positive side, cases of civic resistance to the Nazi schemes are also noted. The Report concludes that Belgian collaboration during the period was "not worthy of a democracy." ¶4. (U) Reaction from public authorities has been positive towards the thorough airing of the past, but regretful of the dark page of Belgian history the report spotlights. Belgium's Senate, which originally requested the study in 2003, received the final Report at a hearing February 13 presided over by Senate President Anne-Marie Lizin (francophone Socialist). She and other senators welcomed the report's role in clarifying the history. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt issued a statement saying the conclusions of the report should be integrated into schoolbooks and included in the curriculum. Verhofstadt has previously publicly spoken of Belgium's responsibility during the war, particularly during his March 2005 visit to Yad Vashem in Israel. ¶5. (U) Representatives of Jewish organizations and Belgian Holocaust survivors groups welcomed the Report for finally addressing questions that had been put aside for 60 years. As a representative of the Council of Jewish Organizations said, "We knew from our parents who knew, saw and lived through the events what had happened; but this Report is an official step. Belgium finally accepts to recognize its past." The head of the Forum of Jewish Organizations called the report very important; ?We are shocked by the contents of the report, but we congratulate the Belgian state for the courage it took to execute this investigation. The report confirms, for the first time, the involvement of the BRUSSELS 00000531 002 OF 002 Belgian state.? ¶6. (SBU) Comment: Post notes that the Report, although long in gestation, was released in the run- up to important federal elections in June. Given the subtext of the study - that Belgium during the war decade lost its bearings and veered towards xenophobia and passivity in the face of racism ? its release now is meant as a pointed lesson for supporters of today's far-right political parties. Members of the Jewish community in Flanders, and others recently courted by the Vlaams Belang over personal security fears connected with the North African immigrant population, may be recalling that the origins of the far-right parties included overt anti-Semitism. End Comment. ¶7. (U) Post noted previously (reftels) the Holocaust restitution program established in Belgium. The program continues to review and award damages in over 6,000 cases that were filed by victims and their families. Embassy will update that program's status septel. Imbrie