Léon Degrelle was a Belgian Walloon politician. He rose to prominence in Belgium in the 1930s as the leader of the Rexist Party.
He formed the SS Division Walloon which fought on the Eastern Front.
At the conclusion of the war Degrelle was wanted by the Belgian authorities so began his escape attempt.
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What a great story.
Hope you find more stories like this one — 🙂
Interesting .. its not often you see through the eyes of a devout nazi without wanting to throw up..
I first learned about Léon Degrelle from an episode of "Nazi Collaborators" (S1.E4) on the History Channel back in 2011. Fascinating episode. I highly recommend it.
I'm a WWII miniature war gamer, and the episode inspired me to write a scenario based on Degrelle and his unit's heroic actions during the Battle of the Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket in 1944.
I first learned about him during Christmas 1997. I was in 8th grade and got the graphic novel "Witches Cauldron" about the units actions in Ukraine. I still have it in mint condition and its very well written and drawn. It is very raw showing how bad it was. I highly recomend it.
Excellent story, shame it's about a traitor. Thanks for the history, take care.
There's a channel called In Respect of Maurice de Wilde that has many, many videos about Degrelle and the Belgians during the war.
This man was a Hero and one of Europe's greatest sons.
It always makes me cringe to hear stories about ardent Nazis, especially when they cite anti-Communism as their prime motivation. National Socialism in all it's forms (Nazism, Fascism, Spanish Falangists, British Union of Fascists, Ustasha, and on and on) is a Left-wing ideology that opposed Communism – another Left-wing ideology – primarily because they were competing bitterly for which vision of Leftism would dominate, and secondly because Soviet Communism was seen by National Socialists as "internationalist" and "Jewish". Hitler and his followers conflated Jews with Communism. If you were a Jew, you were a Communist, and if you were a Communist, you were a Jew. If it could be shown that you were a Communist and not Jewish, then you were simply a puppet of Jews. The irony is that Stalin was an ultra-Nationalist who promoted the agitprop of Internationalism to appeal to Western Communists and Socialists who were steeped in the idea that Communism was universalist and all-inclusive. LOLZ. Anyway, this guy was a Holocaust denying piece of filth.
Leon Degrelle’s was a genuine Hero. The Best of the Axis. Him and Blessed Karl were the Last Knights of Europe. I’ve read Degrelle’s book Burning Souls, very interesting. What happened to his family and the splitting up of his children was criminal.
Nazi War Criminal
As a Belgian, I view him as traitor. But I also see him as a daring warrior. Unfortunately, he picked the wrong side, even if he saw himself as an opponent of communism.
That is some story. It would make a great movie, particularly given how conflicted he was.
Bad man but great story.
Well, I will agree that communists aren't people.