1st Edition

Escaping Nazi Europe Understanding the Experiences of Belgian Soldiers and Civilians in World War II

By Bernard Wilkin, Bob Moore Copyright 2024
194 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

194 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

194 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book chronicles the escapes attempted by Belgian soldiers and civilians from Nazi-occupied Europe during the Second World War. Insofar as is practical, the authors have tried to let the subjects speak for themselves by making extensive use of their testimonies preserved in archives in Belgium and the United Kingdom. The book begins with the stories of soldiers who managed to evade capture... Read more
Introduction 1. The Belgian Armed Forces 1918–1940 2. Evaders of the First Hour 3. The Belgian Armed Forces in Captivity 4. Escapes From the Reich 5. Escape and Evasion to Neutral States: Spain, Switzerland, Sweden 6. Escape to the South 7. Eastern Odysseys: Escape Through the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 8: The Price of Failure. Epilogue: Memory and Recognition.

Biography

Bernard Wilkin (b. 1982) is Senior Researcher at the State Archives of Belgium. He has published several books and articles on the history of war in Belgium and France, including Aerial Propaganda and the Wartime Occupation of France, French Soldiers’ Morale in the Phoney War (with Maude Williams) and Fighting for Napoleon (with René Wilkin).

Bob Moore (b. 1954) is Emeritus Professor of European History at the University of Sheffield. He has published extensively on the history of Western Europe in the mid-twentieth century, including in this context The British Empire and Its Italian Prisoners of War 1940–1947 (with Kent Fedorowich, 2003), Prisoners of War, Prisoners of Peace (edited with Barbara Hately, 2005) and Prisoners of War: Europe 1939–1956 (2022).