Inventory of the Georges Lebrun Collection on living conditions for Belgian and Allied soldiers in German POW camps during World War II

In 2023, Georges Lebrun donated to CegeSoma a remarkable collection of archival materials from German prisoner-of-war camps during World War II. To build this collection, he drew data from ‘Le grand livre d’or du prisonnier de guerre belge, 1940–1945’ then contacted former prisoners of war and their families, primarily in Flemish and Walloon Brabant, asking if they still possessed any archives he could obtain.

This collection consists almost exclusively of items documenting the experiences of Belgian prisoners of war, primarily French-speaking, but also French, Polish, and Yugoslav. Most of the materials consist of correspondence received by the prisoners themselves and letters they wrote to their wives, other family members, relatives, and friends. The collection also includes some five hundred photographs taken in POW camps: group portraits, as well as scenes of sporting and cultural life in the camps. Finally, it also contains, to a lesser extent, items such as ration cards, identity documents, notes, certificates, etc.

These documents shed very interesting light on living conditions in German POW camps.

The inventory compiled by Gertjan Desmet (Inventaris van de Verzameling Georges Lebrun. Stukken inzake de levensomstandigheden van Belgische en geallieerde soldaten in de Duitse krijgsgevangenenkampen tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Brussels, 2026) is accessible online via AGATHA and can also be downloaded for free in PDF format.