Breendonk. Een nieuwe geschiedenis.

Lecture and discussion in Dutch featuring guest speaker Dimitri Roden
A conversation with Nico Wouters

Breendonk: What do we really know about this iconic site in Belgian history?

On 5 November, CegeSoma and the Friends of CegeSoma (non-profit organization) are pleased to welcome Dimitri Roden, project lead for the FED-tWIN People@War project at CegeSoma, to mark the publication of his book ‘Breendonk: Een nieuwe geschiedenis’. He will be interviewed by Nico Wouters, director of CegeSoma, in a discussion designed to explore not only the history but also the memory and contemporary significance of this unusual place.

Located between Antwerp and Brussels, covering an area of less than sixteen hectares, Fort Breendonk is one of the most historically significant places in Belgium. In the collective memory, it remains primarily associated with World War II. Between 1940 and 1944, more than 3,600 members of the Resistance, political opponents, and Jews were detained there by the German occupiers. But the fort’s history began long before this period and did not end with the Liberation.

In October 1914, the fort sustained heavy German bombardment. In May 1940, it housed Leopold III and the General Headquarters of the Belgian Army. After the Liberation, Breendonk once again became a detention center: real or suspected collaborators were detained there by the Resistance and later by the Belgian government.

Based on twenty years of research, Dimitri Roden’s book offers an in-depth analysis of what took place in and around the fort. It examines the mechanisms of violence, the behavior of the perpetrators, the prisoners’ survival strategies, and the ways in which this history continued to have an impact after 1945.

By viewing Breendonk as a crossroads of power, violence, and memory, Dimitri Roden offers a new interpretation of this site and its place in Belgian history. Join us at CegeSoma on 5 November!

Dimitri Roden has a Ph.D. in history from Ghent University and a Ph.D. in social and military sciences from the Royal Military Academy (RMA). He previously worked as a historian at the Breendonk National Memorial, served as a research fellow at the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces/WHI, and conducted postdoctoral research at the RMA on collaboration, repression, and military justice. He is currently the project lead for the FED-Twin People@War project at CegeSoma.

Nico Wouters is the director of CegeSoma and a specialist in the history of World War II and the politics of remembrance. He published numerous articles and authored 'Le rail belge sous l'occupation. La SNCB face à son passé de guerre : entre collaboration et résistance' /Bezet bedrijf. De oorlogsgeschiedenis van de NMBS’.  (2023), a book about the history of the NMBS/SNCB during WWII. He also co-authored the book ‘Stad in verzet’ (2024) on the history of the resistance in Antwerp.