Léon Degrelle

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Leon Degrelle

Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle (June 15, 1906 – April 1, 1994) was a Walloon Belgian politician, who founded Rexism and became a foreign volunteer of the Waffen SS (becoming the leader of the 28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonien). After World War II, he was a prominent figure in promoting National Socialism and Historical Revisionism.

Contents

Before the war

Degrelle was born in Bouillon.

After studying at a Jesuit college and later studying for a Law doctorate at the Université catholique de Louvain, he worked as a journalist for the conservative Roman Catholic periodical Christus Rex. During his time at this publication he became attracted to the ideas of Charles Maurras and French Integralism. Until 1934, Degrelle worked as a correspondent for the paper in Mexico, during the Cristero War that opposed Catholic (Cristero) and anti-clerical forces. Impressed with the former, he led a militant tendency inside the Catholic Party, which he formed around the Éditions de Rex he founded. The Éditions drew its name from the battle cry of the Cristeros: Viva Cristo Rey y Santa María de Guadalupe, alluding to Christ the King.

His actions inside the Catholic Party saw him come into opposition with the mainstream of the same Party, many of whom were monarchist conservatives or centrists. The Rexist group separated itself from the Catholic Party in 1935, after a reunion in Kortrijk. The newly formed party was heavily influenced by Fascism and Corporatism (but also included several elements interested solely in Nationalism or Ultramontanism); it had a vision of social equality that drew comparisons with Marxism, but was nevertheless strongly anti-communist (anti-Bolshevik). The party also came to denounce political corruption in Belgian politics. Drawing its major support from Wallonia and French-speaking middle classes in Brussels and Flanders, Rexism had a Flemish ideological competitor in the Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond which advocated an independent Flanders and exclusive use of the Dutch language.

In 1936, Degrelle met with Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, both of them providing Rexism with funds (2 million lire and 100,000 marks) and ideological support. Elections in that year had given the Parti Rexiste 21 deputies and 12 senators - though it was in decline by 1939, when it managed to win only 4 seats in each Chamber. The party progressively became anti-semitic and soon established contacts with nationalists movements around Europe. Degrelle notably met with Falange leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera and the Iron Guard's Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.

During this time (mid 1930s), Degrelle became acquainted with the cartoonist Hergé. In a volume published after his death (Tintin mon copain), the Rexist leader claimed that his years of journalism had inspired the creation of Tintin - ignoring Hergé's statements that the character was in fact based on his brother, Paul Rémi.

Military service

When the war began, Degrelle approved of King Leopold III's policy of neutrality. After Belgium was invaded by the Germans on May 10, 1940, the Rexist Party split over the matter of resistance. He was arrested as a suspected collaborator, and evacuated to France, being released by the Germans when the Occupation began. Degrelle returned to Belgium and proclaimed reconstructed Rexism to be in close union with National Socialism - in marked contrast with the small group of former Rexists (such as Theo Simon and Lucien Mayer of the Catholic resistance) who had begun fighting against the German occupiers from the underground. In August, Degrelle started contributing to a German newsource, Le Pays Réel (a reference to Charles Maurras).

He joined the Walloon legion of the Wehrmacht, which was raised in August 1941, to combat against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, and Degrelle himself joined it in combat. Lacking any previous military service Degrelle join as a private soldier, only later becoming an officer. Initially, the group was meant to represent a continuation of the Belgian Army, and fought as such during Operation Barbarossa - while integrating many Walloons that had volunteered for service. The Walloons were transferred from the Wehrmacht to the control of the Waffen SS in June 1943, becoming the 5th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Wallonien.

Severely wounded at Cherkasy in 1944, Degrelle steadily climbed in the Schutzstaffel hierarchy after the inclusion of Walloons in the Waffen-SS, being made a SS-Obersturmbannführer in the early months of 1945. He received the Ritterkreuz from Hitler's hands (he later claimed Hitler told him "if I had a son, I wish he'd resemble you"). He was later awarded the oakleaves (mit Eichenlaub), a unique distinction for a foreign volunteer.

Refuge

After Germany's defeat, Degrelle fled to Denmark and eventually Norway, where he commandeered a Heinkel He 111 aircraft[1], allegedly provided by Albert Speer. He was severely injured in a crash-landing on the beach at San Sebastian in Northern Spain. The government of Francoist Spain initially refused to hand him over to the Allies (or extradite him to Belgium) by citing his health condition. After further international pressures, Francisco Franco permitted his escape from hospital, while handing over a look-alike; in the meanwhile, José Finat y Escrivá de Romaní helped Degrelle obtain false papers. In 1954, in order to ensure his stay, Spain granted him Spanish citizenship under the name José León Ramírez Reina, and the Falange assigned him the leadership of a construction firm that benefitted from state contracts. Belgium convicted him of treason in absentia and condemned him to death by shooting.

His six children were taken away from his wife and put in different European orphanages. he managed to search them and re-unite his family in Spain.

While in Spain, during the time of Franco, he started as a manual worker, and eventually reached the status of a construction enterpreneur. He did not hide himself, maintained a high standard of living and would frequently appear in public and in private meetings in a white uniform featuring his German decorations, while expressing his pride over his close contacts and "thinking bond" with Adolf Hitler. He continued to live untormented when Spain became democratic after the death of Franco.

He continued publishing and polemicizing, voicing his support for national solutions and refused to accept the holocaust lie. He became active in the Spanish National Socialist group Círculo Español de Amigos de Europa (CEDADE), and led its printing press in Barcelona - where he published a large portion of his own writings, including an Open Letter to Pope John Paul II on the topic of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the supposed extermination purpose of which Degrelle called "one big fraud, Holy Father".

Degrelle died from a cardiac arrest in a hospital in Málaga, Spain in 1994.

Regret

To the question, if he regretted anything in national socialistic his past, he answered: Yes, that we did not win.

Military record

  • Degrelle, Léon Joseph Marie
  • SS-Standartenführer d. R. der Waffen-SS
  • Born: 15.06.1906 in Bouillon, Belgium.
  • Died: 31.03.1994 in San-Antonio-Park Hospital, Málaga, Spain.
  • NSDAP-Nr.: [Not a member]
  • SS-Nr.: [None – Walloon Waffen-SS volunteer]

Promotions

Decorations & Awards[2]

  • 22.08.1944 Mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht
  • 20.02.1944 Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross as SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer d. R., and Führer SS-Sturmbrigade “Wallonien” / 8.Armee / Heeresgruppe Süd, Eastern Front
    • 27.08.1944 Oak Leaves to Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross as SS-Sturmbannführer d. R. and Kdr. 5.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzer-Brigade “Wallonien” / Kampfgruppe Wagner / Armee-Abteilung Narwa / Heeresgruppe Nord, Northeastern Front
  • 09.10.1944 Deutsches Kreuz in Gold as SS-Sturmbannführer d. R. and Kdr. 5.SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade “Wallonien” / 5.SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking” / III.(germanische) SS-Panzer-Korps / Armee-Abteilung Grasser / Heeresgruppe Nord, Northeastern Front
  • 21.05.1942 1939 Eisernes Kreuz I. Klasse
  • 13.03.1942 1939 Eisernes Kreuz II. Klasse
  • 14.09.1944 Nahkampfspange III.Stufe (Gold)
  • 19.03.1944 Nahkampfspange II.Stufe (Silber)
  • 30.11.1943 Nahkampfspange I.Stufe (Bronze) (other documents indicate 23.12.1943 and 20 .02. 1944)
  • 25.08.1942 Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Silber
  • 19.03.1944 Verwundetenabzeichen, 1939 in Gold
  • 20.02.1944 Verwundetenabzeichen, 1939 in Silber (another document indicates 23.12.1943)
  • 15.08.1942 Medaille “Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42” (Ostmedaille)
  • The Walloon Honor Rexist Badge (Blood Order)[3]

Quotes

“ German-racialism has been deliberately distorted. It never was anti-”other race” racialism. It was a pro-German racialism. I was concerned with making the German race strong and healthy in every way. Hitler was not interested in having millions of degenerates, if it was his power not to have them. Today one finds rampant alcohol and drug addiction everywhere. Hitler cared that the German families be healthy, cared that they raise healthy children for the renewal of a healthy nation. German racialism meant re-discovering the creative values of their own race, re-discovering their culture. It was a search for excellence, a noble ideal. National Socialist racialism was not against the other races, it was for its own race. It aimed at defending and improving its race, and wished that all other races did the same for themselves. ”

Works in English

See also

Literature

  • Berger, Florian: Ritterkreuzträger mit Nahkampfspange in Gold. Selbstverlag Florian Berger, 2004. ISBN 3-9501307-3-X.
  • Martin Conway: Collaboration in Belgium: Leon Degrelle and the Rexist Movement, 1940-1944, (1993) ISBN 0-300-05500-5
  • Richard Landwehr, Ray Merriam, and Jean-Louis Roba: Wallonien - The History of the 5th SS-Sturmbrigade and 28th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division, ISBN 1-57638-088-2 and ISBN 1-57638-089-0, Excerpt from the introduction)
  • Eddy De Bruyne & Marc Rikmenspoel: For Rex and Belgium - Leon Degrelle and Walloon Political & Military Collaboration 1940-1945, (2004) ISBN 1-87462232-9

External links

References

  1. ↑ Degrelle,p345
  2. ↑ Based on: Mike Miller, Axis Biographical Research, http://www.geocities.com/~orion47, June 10 2005
  3. ↑ The Walloon Honor Rexist Badge, known as the Blood Order, was instituted in 1941. In November 1944, RFSS H. Himmler authorized the award to be worn on German uniform when the Walloon Army formation was transfered to the Waffen-SS. The bronze badge has the Walloon Bergundy Cross with a sword crossing it surrounded by a circle. The French inscription reads Bravery, Honor and Loyalty. Two Gold Rexist badges were issued, one to Leon Degrelle and another to a Walloon chaplain. Also a Gold Rexist badge with Diamonds was issued to Victor Matthys who took over the leadership of the Rexist movement while Degrelle was in combat in the Eastern Front.
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