Bio of SS-Standartenführer d.R. Léon Degrelle (1906-1994)

Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle

Date of Birth: 15.06.1906 - Bouillon, Wallonia, Luxembourg (Belgium)
Date of Death: 31.03.1994 - San-Antonio-Park Hospital, Málaga, Andalusia (Spain)

Spouse: Marie Lemay (22.08.1911)

Promotions:
00.08.1941 Schütze (Heer)
12.02.1942 Gefreiter (Heer)
28.02.1942 Oberfeldwebel (Heer)
01.05.1942 Leutnant der Reserve (Heer)
15.05.1943 Oberleutnant der Reserve (Heer)
01.06.1943 SS-Obersturmführer der Reserve (Waffen-SS)
30.01.1944 SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve (Waffen-SS)
01.04.1944 SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve (Waffen-SS) RDA 20.04.1944
01.01.1945 SS-Obersturmbannführer der Reserve (Waffen-SS)
20.04.1945 SS-Standartenführer der Reserve (Waffen-SS)
02.05.1945 SS-Brigadeführer der Reserve (Waffen-SS). Direct promotion in the field in Malente by Heinrich Himmler. The Reichsführer-SS carried out the promotion personally and entered it in the Soldbuch (pay book), but since Himmler had already been relieved of his duties, Degrelle did not claim this rank, not even in the post-war period!

Career:
00.00.1921 Entered the Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix college in Namur, run by the Jesuits
00.00.1924 Began studying law at the Catholic faculty of Namur
00.10.1927 Took over the management of L'Avant-Garde, the student newspaper of Louvain
00.01.1928 Participated in the ransacking of an exhibition of the USSR organized in Brussels
00.00.1929 Editor of “Petit Vingtième” (where Hergé also began)
00.00.1929 - 00.02.1930 Visited Mexico and USA
00.10.1930 Director of the publishing house Christus-Rex who publish Catholic Action brochures
00.00.1930 Founded the Rexist movement
23.04.1933 - 03.05.1933 Went to Germany with two of his collaborators
31.07.1933 Owner of Rex editions
27.07.1936 Met with Mussolini and his foreign minister, Ciano, in Rome
26.09.1936 Received in Berlin by Adolf Hitler and Joachim von Ribbentrop
10.05.1940 - 24.07.1940 Arrested by the Belgian authorities and detained in France
09.09.1940 Created the Rexist paramilitary 'Formations de combat'
04.04.1941 Made an offer (remained secret at the time) to Adolf Hitler, proposing to enlist as a simple soldier in the Heer, the Luftwaffe or the Waffen-SS
20.07.1941 Enlisted in the Legion Wallonie as a private soldier in 1.Zug / 1.Kompanie
08.08.1941 Legion Wallonie renamed to Wallonische Infanterie-Bataillon 373
15.10.1941 The first volunteers of Wallonische Infanterie-Bataillon 373 completed their training, and by the end of that month the decision was made to send them to the front. Because the Legion was too small a formation to fight on its own, the Germans tasked them with the protection of communication lines in the Dniepropietrovsk region in the Ukraine
00.02.1942 Took part in the fighting at Gromowaja-Balka but was evacuated by Leutnant Lisein because he was in "shell-shock"
00.05.1942 Wallonische Infanterie-Bataillon 373 / 97.Infanterie-Division
00.00.1942 Participated in the Caucasus campaign as an orderly officer at the general staff
17.09.1942 Contacted SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner (Kommandeur SS-Division "Wiking") in order to prepare the integration of the Wallonia Legion into the Waffen-SS
19.12.1942 Met with several members of Heinrich Himmler's entourage, including Gottlob Berger
23-24.05.1943 Met with Himmler for the first time in the night meeting
01.06.1943 4th orderly officer on the staff of the SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien
00.10.1943 Chef 3.Kompanie / SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien
13.02.1944 Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien"
27.02.1944 Spoke at a meeting hastily organized at the Palais des Sports in Brussels
00.08.1944 Fought with Kampfgruppe Ruelle in Estonia, at headquarters, without a precise assignment
17.09.1944 Kommandeur 28. SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division "Wallonien"
23.11.1944 Volksführer der Wallonien
24.04.1945 Final appearance among his men, awarding decorations on the occasion
28.04.1945 Left his unit with some of his men
29.04.1945 Had a last conversation with Standartenführer Muller on the road to Lübeck, at Nossinger-Hütte
01.05.1945 Spent the night in Kalkhorst
02.05.1945 Himmler passed by for the first time, without Degrelle being able to meet him. The latter finally manages to meet him in the same day in Bad-Seegeberg, and assures him of his loyalty. As for Himmler, he tells him that he will do what he can to get them to Sweden.
02-03.05.1945 Degrelle followed Himmler's column of vehicles on the night, on the road from Malente to Flensburg. In Kiel, he lost track of the Reichsführer's powerful limousines because of the darkness. Shortly after, his car breaks down, and he leaves, accompanied by Generet, to seek help in Flensburg, while Du Welz keeps an eye on the suitcases contained in the Volkswagen. Degrelle was given another car, and even a German driver.
03.05.1945 Crossed into Denmark boarding a German troop transport ship, accompanied by a German colonel in charge of transport in Denmark.
04.05.1945 Disembarked at Copenhagen at two in the morning. He spends the rest of the night at the embassy. In the days that followed, Degrelle met with several Reich dignitaries, such as Dr. Best and Pancke.
07-08.05.1945 Always accompanied by Robert Du Welz, Degrelle embarked for Oslo, and from there took a Heinkel 111 plane, direction Spain. They barely manage to cross the border, despite the lack of gasoline, and land in disaster on the bay of San Sebastian. Degrelle is injured, including a cast on his arm.
00.00.1954 Naturalized by adoption, under the name “Léon José de Ramirez Reina”
00.12.1954 He reappears in public during a ceremony organized at the Madrid town hall
15.06.1984 remarried to Jeanne Brevet Charbonneau

Awards and Decorations:

03.03.1942 Eisernes Kreuz II.Klasse
23.03.1942 Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz
21.05.1942 Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse
15.08.1942 Medaille "Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42" (Ostmedaille)
25.08.1942 Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Silber
00.00.194_ Walloon Honor Rexist Badge
20.02.1944 Verwundetenabzeichen in Silber
20.02.1944 Nahkampfspange in Bronze
20.02.1944 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, as SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve and Führer 5. SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade "Wallonien". Degrelle’s Ritterkreuz recommendation reads as follows: “The SS-Sturmbrigade ‘Wallonien’ belongs to the formations of the Heer and Waffen-SS that defied all enemy attacks during the weeks of combat in the Cherkassy pocket, fighting all alone. Degrelle took over leadership of the Brigade after its former brave commander, SS-Sturmbannführer Lucien Lippert, died in battle on the 13.02.1944 after a shot to the chest. Prior to this Degrelle had already distinguished himself several times through his personal bravery, and in his new role he demonstrated outstanding leadership during the decisive breakthrough fighting of the last days. He and his brave Walloons acquitted themselves very well as they struggled side by side with soldiers of the Heer and the Germanic men of the Waffen-SS in a true comradely fashion. I recommend that this brave leader of men be awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes.”
19.03.1944 Nahkampfspange in Silber
19.03.1944 Verwundetenabzeichen in Gold
22.08.1944 Mentioned in Wehrmachtbericht
27.08.1944 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, as SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve and Kommandeur 28. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division "Wallonië". Degrelle’s Eichenlaub recommendation reads as follows: “An enemy attack on the 23.08.1944 that focused against Estonian formations led to the total disintegration of these units. With this the entire west/southwest flank of Dorpat was exposed, and only defended by alarm units of minimal combat minor. Meanwhile, during the morning hours of this day, SS-Sturmbannführer Degrelle was driving to a heavy Kompanie positioned further to the southwest. After discovering the situation he assembled the disorganized units in the vicinity of Lemmatsi that were fleeing towards Dorpat. He reformed them into a Kampfgruppe buttressed by weak German units, and on the very same day he used this unit to create a firm security line along the axis of the main enemy advance. His personal devotion to duty is characterized by the fact that he was able to persuade the less steadfast Estonians to hold their ground by giving his orders to them directly from the trenches themselves. It was only his commitment to the action that prevented an enemy advance towards the city of Dorpat and the consequent cutting-off of friendly elements that were still positioned south of the city.” (According to his soldbuch the awarding was on September 14th, 1944)
14.09.1944 Nahkampfspange in Gold
19.09.1944 Deutsches Kreuz in Gold #643/7 (According to other sources: 09.10.1944)

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Léon Degrelle was born on 15 June 1906 in Bouillon, in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, and baptized five days later as Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle. He was the fifth child of Marie Boever and Édouard Degrelle. Édouard, who came from the French Ardennes, later claimed that he had emigrated to Belgium as a result of the introduction of secularism in France. He made a career as a brewer and became a naturalized citizen before World War I. He was elected to the provincial council of Luxembourg for the first time in 1904 and became a respected conservative politician as a member of the Catholic Party. Marie came from a local bourgeois family whose father had been involved in the founding of the newspaper L'Avenir du Luxembourg.

The Degrelle family was highly religious; as a child, Léon attended Mass every day and attended a preschool run by the Sisters of Christian Doctrine of Nancy. He completed secondary schooling at the Institut Saint-Pierre de Bouillon. From there, he enrolled at the Collège Notre-Dame de la Paix, in Namur, where he read and subscribed to the ideas of Léon Bloy, Charles Péguy, Léon Daudet, and especially Charles Maurras. Degrelle next enrolled at the Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix in Namur to study law. There, however, he became active in clericalist political activism to the detriment of his studies, which he abandoned in 1925 after failing his exams that year.

Shortly after his failure at Namur, Degrelle was admitted into the prestigious Catholic University of Leuven, which awarded him a diploma of candidacy in philosophy and literature on 27 July 1927. That year, Degrelle joined Catholic Action for the Belgian Youth (Action catholique de la jeunesse belge, ACJB), a militant clerical youth organization founded by the priest Louis Picard, whom Degrelle had met while studying in Namur. Again preoccupied with activism and reading, Degrelle was a poor student but encountered some professional success as the director of the student newspaper L'Avant-Garde. At this time, Degrelle also began a successful career as a writer and published several books from 1927 to 1930.

Impressed by Degrelle, Picard encouraged him to become involved in journalism within the ACJB from 1927. The next year, Degrelle began writing pro-monarchy, clericalist pamphlets whose wide circulation brought Degrelle to the attention of Abbé Norbert Wallez, another Catholic priest and an admirer of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who worked as a newspaper director. Degrelle accepted an offer from Wallez to become an editor at his newspaper Le XXe Siècle. In 1929, with Wallez's support, Degrelle traveled to Mexico to report on the Cristero War, a rebellion of Mexican Catholics against the incumbent anti-clerical government. On returning to Belgium, Degrelle dropped out of Leuven after failing to attend the exams for his doctorat de troisième cycle.

In October 1930, Degrelle was asked by the ACJB to take over the management of Christus Rex, a small Catholic publishing house named after the popular youth cult of Christ the King. He accepted, staffed it with young radical Catholic students, started publishing mass-circulation magazines, and, having achieved success with these magazines, expanded its catalog with new periodicals over the next three years. In the same period, he popularized a pair of Marian apparitions at Banneux and Beauraing. He produced leaflets and posters for the Catholic Party ahead of the 1932 election, earning Christus Rex and Degrelle many conservative allies. From January 1931, with Picard's support as chair of the board of directors, Degrelle and his father purchased controlling stakes in the business. Léon assumed total control of Christus Rex by 1933 and used the platform to attack the leadership of the Catholic Party.

After the 1932 election, Degrelle began to refer to Christus Rex as a nationalistic, pro-clerical political movement, which alienated the officially apolitical ACJB. In 1933, the Catholic Party cut its ties with Degrelle, as did the ACJB the following year. To avoid insolvency, Degrelle downsized Christus Rex's staff and obeyed a command from the Bishop of Tournai to cancel a rally in Charleroi to avoid further clashes with the Catholic establishment. Over the interwar years, however, Belgian Catholic politics had split between that Catholic establishment and an authoritarian and radically clerical faction of urban, middle class students who viewed the Catholic Party as being weak and complacent. By 1936, Degrelle, who proved to be a charismatic speaker, had become highly influential amongst the latter group.

"Agitation was [Degrelle's] main characteristic as a student, then as a politician, journalist, and writer. His favorite themes were part of a global tendency in the 1930s: the fight against the corrupt established system, against parliamentary democracy supposedly infiltrated by Freemasons and the Jews."
Dominique Trimbur, historian

In early 1935, Degrelle morphed Christus Rex into the Rexist Party (Rex), an authoritarian, populist, and strongly clerical faction of francophone Catholic student radicals such as José Streel, Jean Denis, and Raphaël Sindic. Rex's first meeting as a political organization, modeled on Italian fascist meetings, was held on 1 May 1935. There, Degrelle declared that Rex desired to reform the Catholic Party. To that end, on 2 November 1935, in an event dubbed the Kortrijk Coup (coup de Courtrai), Degrelle and a party of Rexists interrupted a meeting of Catholic Party leaders at Kortrijk. He denounced the party leaders as corrupt and ineffective, and demanded their resignations. The party leadership responded by expelling Degrelle from the Catholic Party on 6 November, and on 20 November Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey forbade the fraternization of any Catholic priest with Rex. In response, on 23 February 1936, Degrelle announced that Rex would run in the 1936 Belgian general election, the results of which would be announced on 24 May, and on 3 May launched a hastily-organized newspaper, Le Pays Réel, to serve as Rex's mouthpiece.

Rex, which ran on a populist, middle-class, and anti-democratic platform that united several right-wing elements such as anti-communists and war veterans, won 11.5% of the votes cast and 21 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Representatives. This was a ringing defeat of the Catholic Party, which lost much of its previous constituency to Rex in the form of protest votes. Degrelle sought to capitalize on Rex's victory by establishing a party bureaucracy and holding rallies. He also continued to attack the "rotten ones" (pourris) whom he alleged dominated Belgium's political and economic establishment. At the prompting of the dissident Catholic politician Gustave Sap, Degrelle publicly revealed a series of what he termed "politico-financial scandals" (scandales politico-financières), apparently demonstrating collusion between "high finance" and the incumbent government of the former banker Paul Van Zeeland.

Following the election, Degrelle formed alliances with far-right francophone Belgian groups, then traveled to Italy to meet representatives of the Italian National Fascist Party and received subsidies from them. On 26 September 1936, he met with Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler in Germany to establish relations with the Nazi Party. In October, Degrelle returned to Belgium, met secretly with the Flemish National League (Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond, VNV), a Flemish nationalist political party, and agreed to collaborate in the formation of a corporatist state with an autonomous Flanders. He then announced a march of Rexists on the capital, Brussels, for 25 October, inspired by Mussolini's 1922 March on Rome. The government banned the demonstration on 22 October and, with the erosion of Rex's alliances and image caused by their meetings with the VNV and the Nazis, the march fizzled.

In March 1937, Alfred Olivier, who had been among the Rexists elected to the Chamber of Representatives, resigned with his staff. Degrelle ran in the snap election in Brussels to determine his replacement, hoping to spark a chain of by-elections until he could force King Leopold III to call for another general election. The rhetoric and aftermath of the 1936 campaign had, however, inspired Belgian politics to form a united front against Rex to defend democracy. In the election, held on 11 April 1937, Van Zeeland personally ran against Degrelle as the candidate of the governing center-left coalition and defeated him with 76% of the votes cast. Degrelle's momentum was decisively broken, and though he provoked Van Zeeland's resignation in October 1937 after accusing him of receiving financial support from the National Bank of Belgium, Rex's membership withered and its fortunes at the polls continued to decline; in the 1939 general election, Rex received only 4.4% of the popular vote. As the 1930s drew to a close, Rex rapidly transformed into a fascist movement and included increasingly antisemitic rhetoric in its publications.

"[Degrelle] could always command a large and enthusiastic audience, for he was a handsome young man, with dreamy but searching eyes, and a voice that could be impressively thunderous or tender when he spoke (and he almost always did) about small children and his own aged mother. He presented himself as an undaunted crusader fighting for law and order, decency and selflessness, and his attacks on party leaders who had important interests in banks and industries made a deep impression and indeed were not always without justification. After his victory in the 1936 election followed by defeat the next year, he became more overtly national socialist, introducing the theme of anti-Semitism and advocating dictatorship."
E. H. Kossmann, historian

At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Belgium declared its neutrality, which Rex vociferously supported. Degrelle additionally blamed the war on Britain, France, and "the occult forces of Freemasonry and the Jewish finance", precipitating a further decay of Rex's membership and reputation. In January 1940, Degrelle secretly and unsuccessfully requested German funding for a new, pro-neutrality newspaper. Amid the German invasion of Belgium on 10 May 1940, Degrelle was detained by the Belgian government, as were other Rexist leaders not enlisted in the Belgian Army such as Victor Matthys and Serge Doring.

Degrelle was first imprisoned in Bruges, then was transferred to French custody on 15 May 1940 and interrogated at Dunkirk, and then moved to the Camp Vernet internment camp in southern France as the military situation deteriorated amid the Battle of France. Leopold III surrendered at the head of the Belgian Army on 28 May and became a prisoner of war, while France sought an armistice a month later. In German-occupied Belgium, Degrelle was assumed to have been executed. On 22 July, Rexist journalist Pierre Daye discovered Degrelle in Carcassonne with the assistance of Otto Abetz, a German diplomat Degrelle had met in 1936. Daye and Degrelle arrived in Paris on 25 July and were invited to dinner with Abetz, with whom Degrelle spoke at length about expanding Belgium at the expense of France and the Netherlands.

Degrelle returned to Brussels on 30 July, and found that Belgium had been placed under a military administration and that Rex had been reorganized and had formed a militia known as the Combat Formations (Formations de Combat). Degrelle began reasserting his leadership, attempting to establish contact with German leadership through Abetz, and adopting facets of Nazi ideology. In early August, Degrelle returned to Paris to meet on 10 or 11 August with Abetz, now the ambassador to France in Paris, and to attempt to convince him of the validity of his territorial designs with the aid of maps of the Duchy of Burgundy. Also at the meeting, however, was Henri de Man, president of the Belgian Labor Party and one of Leopold III's advisors, as Abetz desired an alliance between Degrelle and de Man. They agreed to a pact and met again on 18 August in Brussels to sign an official agreement, sketching out the possible political future of Belgium as a state with no parties and an all-powerful royal government.

On his return to Brussels, Degrelle met with Belgian notables such as Robert Capelle, Leopold III's secretary, Albert Devèze, a former minister, and Maurice Lippens at his residence on the Drève de Lorraine. He came to no agreement with any of these men, however, and thus could not form a government. This required the support of Leopold III, who disliked Degrelle, and of the Germans, who were unwilling to delegate any power to Rex, and had orders from Goebbels to ignore Degrelle. Leopold III refused to meet with Degrelle or consider him for the office of Prime Minister, and summons to meet with Nazi leadership promised by Abetz were not forthcoming. Degrelle also failed to gain support for a government under his leadership from the Belgian Catholic Church.

With his other ventures flagging, Degrelle returned to attempting to gain power through popular support. He relaunched Le Pays Réel on 25 August and attempted to transform Rex into a mass movement, beginning with a tour of the country in September and the appointment of Doring and newcomers Félix Francq, Rutger Simoens, and Fernand Rouleau to positions of leadership. The revitalized Le Pays Réel achieved some success over late 1940, dramatically expanding the Combat Formations, which began attacking Jewish-owned businesses and engaging in street violence to weaken local governments. Rex remained, however, a minor entity and the disturbances caused by its street violence further angered the German military government, who were collaborating with the Belgian establishment. The Germans ordered the Rexist violence to cease and Rexist leaders complied by the end of 1940.

By 1941, Belgian leaders including Degrelle had realized that the war would be long and that while it was ongoing, the Germans would not delegate any power to the Belgians. Degrelle became increasingly and publicly pro-Nazi until, on 1 January 1941, in Le Pays Réel, and in a speech on 6 January, Degrelle declared his support for the German occupation of Belgium. This new orientation was unpopular within Rex, whose members came to be seen as traitors by most Belgians, and sparked another exodus of disillusioned members.

Following the January declaration, the German military administration of General Alexander von Falkenhausen remained unimpressed by Degrelle but began subsidizing Rex, appointed members to civil office, and allowed it to freely organize. In February, it also decided to seek Belgian enlistees in the National Socialist Motor Corps (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps, NSKK). Degrelle, who had petitioned the military administration for Rexist units in the German armed forces over late 1940, began to recruit Walloons for a Rexist brigade in the NSKK. He promised 1,000 drivers, but only recruited 300. At the same time, Degrelle began courting members of the working class and socialist leaders via Le Pays Réel to replenish Rex's membership, but again achieved little.

By April, Rex was collapsing from a combination of resignations, defections, popular and sometimes violent hostility from other Belgians, and German indifference. When the military administration appointed new, collaborationist civil servants and officials on 1 April, no Rexists were appointed. In response, Degrelle attacked the military administration in Le Pays Réel and was subsequently chastised in person by Eggert Reeder, the head of civil affairs in the military administration. On 10 April, Degrelle wrote to Hitler to request, without success, permission to enlist in the German military. On 10 May, the VNV, who were favored by the military administration and by Nazi ideology, was ceded Rex's Flemish branch in an agreement that also established Rex and the VNV as the only legitimate parties in German-occupied Belgium. No top-level Rexist leaders, however, were consulted—Rex's Flanders branch had acted independently—and Rex was not given the option of refusing the merger. This opened a rift between Rex and more moderate francophone collaborators, who attacked Rex and Degrelle as being impotent and began forming rival parties. The Germans ignored those rivals, but Rex continued to stagnate over May.

On 22 June 1941, Germany launched an invasion of the Soviet Union. Degrelle joined other prominent Rexists in announcing his support of the invasion, which he hoped would stem Rex's decline. He again went to meet with Abetz in Paris. In his absence, Rouleau unsuccessfully requested permission from the military administration to organize volunteer units for the Eastern Front. When Degrelle returned from France, he repeated the request. Likely because of instructions from Berlin, the military administration granted Rex permission to form a unit of francophone Belgian volunteers. As the Nazis considered Walloons an inferior people to the Flemish, Walloon and Flemish volunteers would be segregated into different units. Walloons would also only be able to enlist in the regular armed forces.

Degrelle announced the permission to organize a volunteer unit at a meeting of the Combat Formations on 6 July and exhorted Rexists to join. Claiming to have Leopold III's support, Degrelle began energetically promoting and organizing his "Walloon Legion" but achieved little. To bolster this venture, Degrelle announced on 20 July that he would enlist as a foot soldier, and gave leadership of Rex to Matthys. As a result, the Walloon Legion ballooned to 850 or 860 volunteers, 730 of whom were Rexists. The force departed Belgium for basic training on 8 August, taking with it much of Rex's provincial leadership. By this time, Degrelle had decided that the Legion was a better political vehicle than Rex, and strove to totally control it. In August, believing Rouleau to be plotting to wrest control of the Legion and then Rex from him, Degrelle ousted him from both.

Beginning in November 1941, the Legion was assigned to anti-partisan operations in occupied Soviet territory. In February 1942 it was attached to the 100th Jäger Division and moved to the frontline, where it engaged in combat with regular Soviet forces for the first time on 28 February. By the end of 1942, the Legion was reduced by attrition to 150 men and would have to rely on new recruitment drives to sustain itself. The Legion's battlefield performance was of great value to Degrelle, who came to be appreciated by German officers. In May, he was made an officer and awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, for his conduct in battle.

As early as September 1941, Degrelle had taken an interest in the Schutzstaffel (SS), a paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party led by Heinrich Himmler, and came to see the SS as the most powerful force in Nazi-occupied Europe. In 1942, Degrelle began lobbying for the integration of Walloons into the SS, and in June made a brief visit to Berlin to meet with Nazi functionaries and Rex's interim leaders. Degrelle did not meet any SS leaders during that trip, but after returning to the front from this meeting, the Walloon Legion was briefly assigned to the command of Waffen-SS general Felix Steiner. Degrelle met Gottlob Berger, head of the SS Main Office, on 19 December. Himmler also personally warmed to Degrelle, and by the end of the year he was persuaded to name the Walloons a Germanic people.

On 17 January 1943, Degrelle gave a speech at an assembly of Rexists in Brussels in which he declared that Walloons were a Germanic people forced to adopt the French language. He proclaimed a new, "Burgundian" nationalism within a pan-German state. Following the speech, Streel and much of Rex's old guard left the party, Walloon competitors to Rex for German favor evaporated, and Degrelle definitively turned his attentions away from Rex and towards the SS. Over the rest of January and February 1943, Degrelle met with Nazi functionaries in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris to gain influence in the Nazi Party.

On 23–24 May 1943, Degrelle met with Himmler near Rastenburg (Kętrzyn) to discuss the transfer of the Walloon Legion from the German Army to the Waffen-SS. On 1 June 1943, the Legion was integrated into the Waffen-SS as the SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien. Degrelle spent the rest of mid-1943 enriching himself and his family with assets seized by the Germans in Belgium and France, and recruiting for the Legion. He purchased a seized Jewish-owned perfume company, and on 29 July 1943 launched a newspaper named L'Avenir that, devoid of the sensational tone and polemics of Le Pays Réel, found immediate financial success. Also in July, Degrelle attended Mass in his hometown in SS uniform and was refused the sacraments per standing orders from the Belgian bishops. In response, Degrelle and his bodyguards apprehended the offending priest and imprisoned him in Degrelle's home, provoking his excommunication by the Bishop of Namur on 19 August 1943. Degrelle successfully appealed to the Legion's chaplain and the German military chaplain service to have his excommunication overturned.

In October and again in November, Degrelle met with Berger, and at his direction wrote to Hitler to denounce the military administration in Belgium and request an SS-run government, only a few days after sending a letter of praise to Reeder. Reeder was made aware of the letter to Hitler and wrote to German field marshal Wilhelm Keitel, then the commander of the regular German armed forces, to denounce Degrelle. Degrelle rejoined the Legion on 2 November, and nine days later arrived in Ukraine with the unit, now numbering about 2,000 men. On 28 January 1944, the Legion was trapped by the Red Army in the Cherkassy pocket. The Legion was savaged in the subsequent fighting, being reduced to 632 men by the time the encirclement was broken in mid-February. Among the casualties were the Legion's commanding officer, Lucien Lippert, who was killed, and Degrelle himself, who had been injured. Degrelle was promoted to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) to replace Lippert, but effective control of the Legion was given to another German SS officer.

Degrelle was flown to Berlin and became, according to historian Nico Wouters, "the poster boy for all European collaborators." On 20 February, Degrelle was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by Hitler. Two days later Degrelle was sent to Brussels to recuperate and was met there by Matthys and Richard Jungclaus, head of the SS in Belgium. Degrelle was received by collaborators in Brussels on 27 February and in Paris on 5 March, and on 2 April the surviving members of the Legion paraded through Charleroi. Degrelle, however, could not translate his military service into political aggrandizement, as the SS desired for him to remain an instrument of propaganda. While on leave, Degrelle tried to make connections with collaborators in Paris and Flanders without success. On 8 July, Degrelle's brother Edouard, who had had no role in Rex but was sympathetic to the party and the German occupation, was shot and killed in his pharmacy in their hometown. In response, German authorities arrested 46 men and Rexist militants murdered another pharmacist. Returning from a speaking tour in Germany, Degrelle arrived in Bouillon on 10 July to demand reprisals. He wrote to Himmler to request the retaliatory killing of 100 Belgian civilians and was ignored, but on 21 July Rexists attached to the Sicherheitspolizei murdered three hostages near Bouillon.

On 22 or 23 July 1944, Degrelle returned to the Legion as it was engaged in the Battle of Narva in Estonia. The Legion was depleted by the fighting and after the battle returned to Germany, where Degrelle was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves on 25 August. On 18 September the Legion was expanded and renamed the 28th Waffen-SS Division and placed under Degrelle's acting command. To staff the Division, Degrelle now made service in the Legion mandatory for all Rexists, many of whom were fleeing the then-ongoing liberation of Belgium, and recruited French collaborators who had fled to Sigmaringen and the Spanish volunteers of the defunct Blue Legion. In December, the Legion was assigned an armored unit was moved back to the front in January 1945. It was destroyed in battle by the Red Army at the Battle of the Oder–Neisse in April.

In November 1944, Degrelle was given the title "Volksführer of the Walloons" by Hitler, and in December was promised control of any Belgian territory that the German armed forces retook in the upcoming Ardennes offensive. Degrelle arrived at the Western Front on 1 January 1945 with a staff of 55. The offensive was a failure, and Degrelle began to plan for an Allied victory. On 30 March, he met with Matthys and Louis Collard, another Rexist leader, and dissolved Rex. In late April, Degrelle abandoned the remains of the Legion near Berlin and headed north. On 2 May, he encountered Himmler near Lübeck and attempted to gain a guarantee of safety for his family from Himmler. He was instead promoted to Oberführer. Degrelle boarded a German naval vessel bound for occupied Norway where, on 7 May, the day of Norway's liberation, Josef Terboven, former Reichskommissar of Norway, put Degrelle and five other men on a Heinkel 111 bound for Francoist Spain and then South America. The next day, the plane crashed on the Beach of La Concha, at San Sebastián, Spain. Degrelle, who had amongst other injuries sustained a broken leg, was hospitalized and detained.

On 15 May, the Spanish government contacted the British government about deporting Degrelle, but not back to Belgium. In response, Belgium, which made Degrelle's repatriation and prosecution a top priority, asked for British and American support in talks with Spain. America and Britain were ambivalent about the matter as Degrelle had not been named a war criminal by the United Nations War Crimes Commission, but were moved into an active role in June by Belgian protests. The British and Americans decided that, since Degrelle had entered Spain as a member of the German armed forces, he should be taken into Allied custody with 30 other German exiles via an American ship, and communicated this desire to Spain. The Spanish government decided it could not extract diplomatic recognition from Belgium in exchange for Degrelle, and instead justified its reluctance to repatriate Degrelle on human rights grounds. On the night of 21–22 August 1946, Degrelle disappeared from the hospital in which he was recuperating. The Spanish government announced that he had left the country and that his location was unknown, and promised to repatriate Degrelle to Belgium if he returned.

The Belgian government had sentenced Degrelle to death in absentia in 1944 and revoked his citizenship on 29 December 1945. With the assistance of the Spanish government, Degrelle went into hiding in the southern Spanish Province of Málaga and was kept informed about Belgian agents posing as tourists visiting the region to locate him. In 1954, Degrelle was adopted by a local woman he had befriended, Matilde Ramírez Reina, and thereby gained Spanish citizenship under the name José León Ramírez Reina. Degrelle made his first public appearance since the war on 15 December 1954 at a ceremony held to honor Spanish volunteers in the German military. This, and a letter Degrelle wrote to the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique offering to stand trial in Belgium if the trial was publicized, provoked a diplomatic breach between Spain and Belgium.

By the 1960s, the Belgian government was content with Degrelle remaining in exile in Spain as long as he remained unprovocative. Degrelle became an increasingly public figure in the 1960s and was frequently discussed by French and Belgian media. He openly associated with other Nazi exiles such as Otto Skorzeny, and wore his SS uniform to his daughter's wedding in 1969, an event reported widely in the Spanish press. On 3 December 1964, Belgium passed a law, named the Lex Degrelliana, that extended the statute of limitations for death sentences issued for offenses against the Belgian state committed between 1940 and 1945 from 20 years to 30. In 1969, Degrelle began a media campaign to be allowed to return to Belgium. At Belgium's request, an arrest warrant for Degrelle was filed the next year by Spanish police but not served, putting an end to the campaign. By the 1980s, Degrelle was living comfortably, having profited from running a construction company that helped build American airbases in Spain, and under his original name. On 31 March 1994, Degrelle died of cardiac arrest in a hospital in Málaga. Belgium definitively blocked Degrelle's return in 1983 and subsequently forbade the repatriation of his remains.

After World War II, Degrelle joined other Nazi exiles in denying the Holocaust. In 1979, ahead of Pope John Paul II's visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, Degrelle wrote an open letter to the Pope. In the letter, Degrelle denied that any systematic killing had taken place at Auschwitz and that the "real genocide" was the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the bombings of Hamburg and Dresden.

In its July–August 1985 issue, the Spanish magazine Tiempo published an interview with Degrelle in which he repeated his skepticism about the Holocaust, and claimed that Josef Mengele, an SS officer stationed at Auschwitz, was an ordinary doctor and that no gas chambers existed at Auschwitz. Violeta Friedman, a survivor of Auschwitz whose family had been gassed on Mengele's orders, decided to sue Degrelle and Tiempo. In August, Friedman was introduced by Jewish community leaders Max Mazín and Alberto Benasuly to Catalan lawyer Jorge Trías for legal counsel and was assured of the support of Israel's then-ambassador to Spain, Shlomo Ben Ami.

The lawsuit went to court in Madrid on 7 November 1985 and was based on the Ley Orgánica 1/82 of 5 May 1982 and the Ley 62/78 of 26 December 1978, protecting the same rights, as Trías realized that it was not possible to sue Degrelle for making his statements under any of the articles of the Spanish Criminal Code which were in force at the time. Friedman and her lawyer thus alleged that Degrelle's statements had sullied the honor of her family as victims of the Holocaust, which Degrelle's lawyer dismissed by stating that Friedman lacked standing as Degrelle had not mentioned her or her family, and motioned for the case to be dismissed. The lower courts were initially favorable to Degrelle, but in 1991 the Supreme Court of Spain ruled in favor of the plaintiff. The court determined that Friedman had standing to sue Degrelle because his statements were not protected by the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution of Spain. According to Trías, the case influenced Spanish law about genocide denial, racism, and xenophobia.

Degrelle married Marie Lemay, the daughter of a French industrialist, on 27 March 1932. The couple had five children. Their marriage became strained during the war as Degrelle kept mistresses in Brussels and Paris, and Lemay had an open affair with an officer of the Luftwaffe until she ended the affair in March 1943 and informed Degrelle of it. The officer, unwilling to end the affair, was found shot in the head and heart near the Degrelle residence on 12 April 1943. Degrelle was cleared of any wrongdoing by Nazi authorities and news of the officer's death was suppressed. Lemay was imprisoned by Belgian authorities and chose not to join Degrelle in Spain. She died in Nice on 29 January 1984. On 15 June 1984, Degrelle married Jeanne Brevet Charbonneau, niece of Joseph Darnand, former commander of the Vichy French paramilitary Milice.

Degrelle had a great influence in the post-war resurgence of fascism. Beginning in 1949, Degrelle began to publish books and give interviews in which he praised the Nazis, denied the Holocaust, attempted to distort the historical record, and aggrandize himself. Degrelle's work formed a large amount of the 20th century, French-language historiography of Belgium during the war until it was refuted by Belgian historian Albert de Jonghe in the 1970s. Degrelle was also influential among post-war far-right groups in Belgium and West Germany, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 2010s, Italian journalist Alessandro Orsini embedded himself with neo-fascist militias in Italy and reported that Degrelle's writings were required reading among them.

Degrelle's estate in Málaga became a port of call for neo-Nazis. He established connections with neo-Nazis such as the Spanish Circle of Friends of Europe (Círculo Español de Amigos de Europa, CEDADE), which networked with neo-Nazi groups throughout Europe through Degrelle and Skorzeny. In the 1960s, a portrait of Degrelle appeared in a work by Werner Haupt for the HIAG, a Waffen-SS veterans' lobbyist group. He continued to make appearances in German-language, neo-Nazi publications into the 1990s. Degrelle also found friends in the post-Francoist People's Alliance (Alianza Popular, AP), and in Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the far-right National Front party in France, and Michael Kühnen, a leader of the German neo-Nazi movement of the later 20th century.

Prewar photo of Léon Degrelle, subsequently Heer soldier and officer, SS-Standartenfuhrer and commander of the 38th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division, "Wallonien", in the uniform of the Formations de Combat and in front of his villa – Dreve de Lorraine in Brussels. The Formations de Combat was part of the Belgian (Walloon) corporativist/Fascist "Parti Rexiste" - his armband shows the crown impaled with the word "Rex" emblem of the Rexist Party. Degrelle's first formal involvement with the Belgian extreme Right was as a journalist on the newspaper "Christus Rex", a Walloon Roman Catholic revival movement of the same name. However he, and other political radicals, came to be at odds with the majority of "Christus Rex" members and supporters who, generally, were more religious in orientation, and monarchist/reactionary in politics. Consequently, the Radicals split from "Christus Rex" to form the "Parti Rexist", a Fascist-style political party and movement devoted to French nationalism and (at least initially) Italian-style Fascism/corporativism. The Party contested a number of elections in the latter part of the 1930s, but appeared to be past its electoral peak by the eve of World War II (an experience common among western European Fascist parties in this period). Rexism was, arguably, rescued from pending oblivion by the German takeover of Belgium. During this period, Degrelle became the predominant figure and orator of the Party. Following his release from detention as a suspected potential German collaborator, Degrelle lived up to the expectations of his captors by declaring Rexist co-operation with the German invaders. By late 1941, he was unquestioned leader of the Rexist political movement, as well as a Heer soldier. He subsequently moved into the Waffen SS along with the Walloon volunteers to the Wehrmacht, eventually rising to the rank of Standartenfuhrer and command (at least nominal) of the "Wallonien" Waffen SS (at least nominal) Division. By the end of the war, Degrelle was a poster boy of the Waffen SS; whatever about the extent of his actual field command, he was certainly a brave soldier and at least a competent officer, in spite of his lack of formal military training. He became, jointly, the most highly decorated non-German in the German forces, having been awarded the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes. At the end of the war, he escaped into Spanish exile, from which he ran a voluble Nazi apologist/neo-Nazi propaganda operation until his death.



Léon Degrelle as a Leutnant in German Army uniform. The picture was probably taken in 1942 when he was a part of Wallonische Infanterie-Bataillon 373 / 97.Infanterie-Division. In October 1941 the first volunteers of Walloon Legion completed their training, and by the end of that month the decision was made to send them to the front. Because the Legion was too small a formation to fight on its own, the Germans tasked them with the protection of communication lines in the Dniepropietrovsk region in the Ukraine. In February 1942 Degrelle took part in the fighting at Gromowaja-Balka but was evacuated by Leutnant Lisein because he was in "shell-shock". He then participated in the Caucasus campaign as an orderly officer at the general staff until the end of the year.


Oberleutnant der Reserve Léon Degrelle during a march through a Russian village, possibly in 1942. Beginning in November 1941, the Walloon Legion was assigned to anti-partisan operations in occupied Soviet territory. In February 1942 it was attached to the 100. Jäger-Division and moved to the frontline, where it engaged in combat with regular Soviet forces for the first time on 28 February. By the end of 1942, the Legion was reduced by attrition to 150 men and would have to rely on new recruitment drives to sustain itself. The Legion's battlefield performance was of great value to Degrelle, who came to be appreciated by German officers. In May 1942, he was made an officer and awarded the Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse for his conduct in battle



Léon Degrelle and other Legion Wallonie volunteers from Wallonische-Infantrerie-Bataillon 373 receiving communion in the field. In his memoar, Degrelle wrote: "I was the first one to have Catholic chaplains in the Waffen SS. Later chaplains of all denominations were available to all those who wanted them. The Muslim SS division had its own mullahs, and the French even had a bishop." Other pictures from this sequence can be seen HERE.



Front row, from left to right: Prof. Grotow, ROA Leutnant Nikolai Davidenkoff, Oberleutnant der Reserve Léon Degrelle, Dr. Woyclechowski, ROA Hauptmann Yuri Belov, and three unknown officers. The picture was taken on 2 July 1943 in Brussels, Belgium.



This picture was taken in the spring/summer 1943 and it shows Kommandeur of Wallonische Infanterie-Bataillon 373, Hauptmann Lucien Lippert (left), and his deputy, Oberleutnant der Reserve Léon Degrelle. Lippert, a Belgian royalist, joined the Wallonian Legion to prevent it being used as an instrument of Wallonian separatism, allegedly at the request of influential figures close to the King (although without the King's knowledge). Once it became obvious that Degrelle had gained the upper hand and was steering it in a separatist direction - joining the Waffen-SS was the turning point - Lippert made several attempts to leave the Legion. He died before this was possible, disilusioned that the royalists who encouraged him to join Hitler's forces had turned their backs on him as the war moved in the Allies' favour.



Meseritz, 24 May 1943: Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler (second from right, Chef der SS und deutschen Polizei) in conversation with Oberleutnant der Reserve Léon Degrelle (third from right, Stellvertretender Kommandeur Wallonische Infanterie-Bataillon 373) during Himmler's inspection to the Legion Wallonie headquarters before their transfer from Heer to the Waffen-SS. In the night before Himmler and Degrelle had met for the first time at the Reichsführer-SS's private train called "Sonderzug Heinrich", which was on its way to Meseritz, Pomerania. A private meeting to discuss the fate of the Walloon volunteers took place from 11:00 PM on 23 May 1943 until 01:00 AM of 24 May 1943. Other pictures from this sequence can be seen HERE.



Oberleutnant der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Stellvertretender Kommandeur Wallonische Infanterie-Bataillon 373) poses next to his photograph at the opening of an exhibition in Brussels, Belgium, about the Légion Wallonie. The picture was taken on 18 June 1943 in honor of his 37th birthday (15 June 1906), and first published on 21 June 1943. Degrelle himself fought on the Eastern Front as part of the 373rd Infantry (Walloon) Battalion (Wallonische Infanterie-Bataillon 373, also “Walloon Legion” - French Légion Wallonie). In June 1943, the battalion was reorganized into the SS Walloon brigade.



The Belgian fascist leader Oberleutnant der Reserve Léon Degrelle of Legion Wallonie gave a speech in Brussels, the Belgian capital, on 27 June 1943. In the podium he mentions Croats, in the context of the fight against Bolshevism and the "united Europe of nations". It should be noted that Degrelle valued Croats as fighters and remained friends with Croatia and Croatian political emigrants until his death in Spain in 1994. In his pamphlet Appel aux jeunes européens, published in August 1992, he condemned the Greater Serbia aggression against Croatia and the persecution of Muslims and Catholics by the JNA and communist forces.



The pictures showing Léon Degrelle were taken at his Villa, Drève de Lorraine, Brussels on August 8th, 1943 (2nd anniversary of the departure of the Legion Wallonie for the Eastern front). The one showing Degrelle surrounded by 27 war reporter in front of his villa was taken the same day. The other pictures showing Germans were taken at the Gare du Nord railroad station and on the "Grand Place" of Brussels, during a visit to that peculiar tourist place. The picture showing the Walloon legionnaire officer with the Walloon badge on the lower part of his left sleeve is SS-Obersturmführer Jean Vermeire. Caption by Eddy DeBruyne, with thanks for the identification efforts. NARA photo Record Group 242, file 242-jrp-75 vierbillken.



SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (smiles to the camera, Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien") with a group of subordinates in the Cherkassy pocket, Ukraine, February 1944. For the 56,000 Wehrmacht soldiers trapped there at the end of January 1944, this siege was perhaps the most brutal, incredibly tiring and mentally draining struggle they had ever experienced. The battle that raged centered on the joint efforts of Heer and Waffen-SS units attempting to free their comrades from other Heer and Waffen-SS units trapped in the Russian rear lines.

SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (left, Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien") and SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Herbert Otto Gille (Kommandeur 5. SS-Panzer-Division "Wiking") during the Battle of Cherkassy Pocket (24 January – 16 February 1944). This picture was taken by SS-Kriegsberichter Briessa with the original press photo caption as follow: "Zu den Durchbruckskämpfen westlich Tscherkassy. Die für die erfolgreichen Durchbruchskämpfe westlich Tscherkassy Ausgezeichneten. Im Vordergrund der vom Führer mit den Schwertern zum Eichenlaub des Ritterkreuzes ausgezeichneten SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Herbert Gille und der mit dem Ritterkreuz ausgezeichnete SS-Hauptsturmführer Leon Degrelle." (On the breakthrough battles west of Cherkasy. Those awarded for the successful breakthrough battles west of Cherkasy. In the foreground, SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS Herbert Gille, who was awarded the Swords to the Oak Leaves of the Knight's Cross by the Führer, and SS-Hauptsturmführer Leon Degrelle, who was awarded the Knight's Cross).

Adolf Hitler (Führer und Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht) congratulates SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Herbert Otto Gille (Kommandeur 5. SS-Panzer-Division "Wiking") during the award ceremony for "Cherkassy Heroes" which were held at the Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze in Rastenburg, East Prussia, on 20 February 1944. At left is another recipient, SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien"), while at right is SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Hermann Fegelein (Verbindungsoffizier der Waffen-SS zum Führerhauptquartier) and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (Chef der SS und deutschen Polizei). Other pictures and video from this sequence can be seen HERE.

SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien") photographed by Walter Frentz at the Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze in Rastenburg, East Prussia, after the award ceremony for the "Heroes of Cherkassy" with Hitler on 20 February 1944. Degrelle’s Ritterkreuz recommendation reads as follows: "The SS-Sturmbrigade ‘Wallonien’ belongs to the formations of the Heer and Waffen-SS that defied all enemy attacks during the weeks of combat in the Cherkassy pocket, fighting all alone. Degrelle took over leadership of the Brigade after its former brave commander, SS-Sturmbannführer Lucien Lippert, died in battle on 13 February 1944 after a shot to the chest. Prior to this Degrelle had already distinguished himself several times through his personal bravery, and in his new role he demonstrated outstanding leadership during the decisive breakthrough fighting of the last days. He and his brave Walloons acquitted themselves very well as they struggled side by side with soldiers of the Heer and the Germanic men of the Waffen-SS in a true comradely fashion."



SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (in front) from 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien" with his Walloon soldiers at the end of the Battle of Cherkassy on the Eastern Front, 8 March 1944. In the foreground is a Soviet 76,2-mm ZiS-3 cannon. Degrelle became acting commander of the brigade after the death of their first commander, Lucien Lippert, on 13 February 1944. Constant fighting and repeated attacks by enemy troops drastically reduced the brigade's members from 2,000 to only 632 men! However, until the German troops were withdrawn from the encirclement, the Russians were unable to penetrate the determined defense of the Belgian volunteers.



SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien") speaks in front of the audience at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris, on Sunday, 5 March 1944 at 10:30 a.m. In his speech, he launches a vibrant appeal to France to support the ongoing battles against the Soviet Communist in the Eastern Front. The picture was taken by André Zucca. Other pictures from this sequence can be seen HERE.



SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (right, Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien") discussing during his visit to the Truppenübungsplatz Beverloo - actually called Leopoldsburg - in Belgium, spring 1944. Military Training Area Beverloo was the assembly and training area for the 12. SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" (SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 and SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25). The picture was taken after the return of the Walloon volunteers to Belgium after the Korsun (a.k.a. "Tscherkassy-Kessel") encirclement. Degrelle dispalys proudly his Ritterkreuz which he received on 20 February 1944. Degrelle then used the armored vehicles and drivers belonging to the 12. SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" to hold his parades at Brussels and Charleroi, so the vehicles were on a temporary "loan" and returned to the Truppenübungsplatz Beverloo after the parades (beginning of 1 April 1944). The officer in the background is unidentified, but probably SS-Sturmbannführer Rolf Kolitz (Kommandeur SS-Panzer-Nachschubtruppen 12).



Award ceremony for the members of 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien" during the brigade's "Return to Homeland" parade from the siege of the Cherkassy Pocket, which were held on 1 April 1944 in Charleroi, Belgium. This picture shows, from left to right: SS-Untersturmführer Roger Wastiau (Adjutant Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien"), SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (Kommandierender General I. SS-Panzerkorps), SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien"), SS- Obersturmführer Marcel Lamproye (Chef 5. Panzerabwehrkompanie), SS-Hauptscharführer Pascal Bovy (in the background, Spiess of 1. Kompanie), SS-Obersturmführer Marcel Bonniver (Chef 4. Sturmgewehrkompanie), and SS-Untersturmführer Jean-Marie Lantiez (Chef Nachrichtenzug). The picture was taken in front of l'église Saint-Christophe by SS-Kriegsberichter Wilfried Woscidlo. Other pictures from this sequence can be seen HERE.



SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien") salutes a column of Wallonie volunteers aboard an Sd.Kfz.251 together with his son during the Sturmbrigade Wallonien's "Return to Homeland" parade which were held in Brussels, Belgium, 2 April 1944. The members of the Walloon Legion paraded along the Anspachlaan (Boulevard Anspach) from south to north, while this photo itself was taken in front of the "Beurs van Brussel" (the Belgian stock exchange building). Degrelle recalled: "I welcomed the Légion Wallonie parade in front of the stock exchange in one of our vehicles. I was beyond excited and felt an indescribable sense of pride as the armored vehicles and other war vehicles passed me with a roar. These vehicles were actually borrowed from Sepp Dietrich, but they were filled with our Belgian soldiers. I greeted every passing vehicle with my right hand raised upwards, a steel helmet covering my head while the Ritterkreuz I had received directly from Hitler around my neck. My other hand is holding my son's hand who were allowed to get on the vehicle and stand with me. It is estimated that around one hundred thousand people welcomed our arrival with great fanfare while throwing mountains of flower bouquets." Other pictures from this sequence can be seen HERE.



The Belgian fascist leader SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien") gives a speech for Walloon soldiers and workers who resided in Berlin. An excerpt from 'Die Deutsche Wochenschau' Nr. 722 - 5 July 1944.

SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (second from right, Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien") raised his hand and saluting in Nazi style, while other Wehrmacht officers around him saluting in traditional military style. The general at left is Generalmajor Karl Rorich (Kommandeur des Truppenübungsplatzes Maria ter Heide und Abschnitts-Kommandeur der Seebefestigungen bei Antwerpen). There is no information about when this picture was taken, but at least before 20 July 1944 when Hitler ordered all Wehrmacht personnel to salute according to Nazi style.

SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur Kampfgruppe "Wallonien") was forbidden to return to combat after winning the Ritterkreuz following the Cherkassy campaign. However, he joined the Wallonien Battalion after it arrived in Estonia, and took a moment to pose with SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Jürgen Wagner (Kommandeur 4. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Brigade "Nederland" and Kommandeur Kampfgruppe "Wagner"), in whose battlegroup the battalion fought. On the right is SS-Obersturmführer Karl Schäfer, who was nominally Degrelle’s aide. He also had the secret mission of reporting Degrelle’s activities to Heinrich Himmler. The picture was taken in August 1944 near Dorpat, Estonia, when part of the Wallonie Sturmbrigade came under the command of Kampfgruppe Wagner. Degrelle and his German aide wore SS-Erbsenmuster (pea-dot pattern) camouflage uniforms. Degrelle even wore an M38 Feldmütze with the same camo, which was the field modification rather than an official troop depot release!

SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur 5. SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade "Wallonien") photographed by Walter Frentz at the Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze in Rastenburg, East Prussia, after the award ceremony with Hitler on 27 August 1944. Degrelle’s Eichenlaub recommendation reads as follows: "An enemy attack on 23 August 1944 that focused against Estonian formations led to the total disintegration of these units. With this the entire west/southwest flank of Dorpat was exposed, and only defended by alarm units of minimal combat minor. Meanwhile, during the morning hours of this day, SS-Sturmbannführer Degrelle was driving to a heavy Kompanie positioned further to the southwest. After discovering the situation he assembled the disorganized units in the vicinity of Lemmatsi that were fleeing towards Dorpat. He reformed them into a Kampfgruppe buttressed by weak German units, and on the very same day he used this unit to create a firm security line along the axis of the main enemy advance. His personal devotion to duty is characterized by the fact that he was able to persuade the less steadfast Estonians to hold their ground by giving his orders to them directly from the trenches themselves. It was only his commitment to the action that prevented an enemy advance towards the city of Dorpat and the consequent cutting-off of friendly elements that were still positioned south of the city.”

SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur 28. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division "Wallonië") in a studio photo taken in September 1944, one month after he received the Eichenlaub to his Ritterkreuz. Apart from the above-mentioned medal, in this picture we can also see other decorations: Deutsches Kreuz in Gold, Nahkampfspange in Gold, Verwundetenabzeichen in Gold, Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Silber, Ostmedaille ribbon, Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse, and Walloon Honor Rexist Badge. Other pictures from this sequence can be seen HERE.



SS-Obersturmbannführer der Reserve Léon Degrelle (Kommandeur 28. SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division "Wallonien") distributes cigarettes to his soldiers. The picture was taken by SS-Kriegsberichter Niquille near Stargard, Pomerania (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek said that the photo was taken on 7 March 1945, while Bundesarchiv said that it was taken at the end of February 1945). The Soviet counter-offensive, launched on 1 March 1945, pushed the Wallonien before it, and over the next few weeks was in almost constant combat throughout Central Pomerania until it reached the Oder near Stettin. The Wallonien, fighting alongside the Langemarck managed to hold a thin strip of land on the eastern bank of the Oder until it was forced back across the river in early April, 1945

The picture posted here show the accident that Léon Degrelle suffered when he was running away from the allies at the end of the World War II. After Germany's defeat, Degrelle fled to Denmark and eventually Norway, where he commandeered a Heinkel He 111 aircraft, allegedly provided by Albert Speer. He was severely wounded in a crash-landing on the beach at San Sebastian in Northern Spain. The government of Franco in 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 benefited from state contracts. Belgium convicted him of treason in absentia and condemned him to death by firing squad. While in Spain, during the time of Franco, Degrelle 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 undisturbed when Spain became democratic after the death of Franco. Other pictures from this sequence can be seen HERE.

Personal file of Léon Degrelle. For other documents about him can be seen HERE.

Source :
Bundesarchiv photo archive
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek photo archive
Charles Verpoorten photo collection
Grégory Bouysse photo collection
"Epic: The Story of the Waffen SS" by Léon Degrelle
"Encyclopédie de l'Ordre Nouveau: Histoire du SOL, de la Milice Française & des mouvements de la Collaboration" by Grégory Bouysse
"Last Blood on Pomerania; Leon Degrelle and the Walloon Waffen-SS Volunteers, February-May 1945" by Tomasz Borowski
"For Rex and for Belgium: Léon Degrelle and Walloon Political and Military Collaboration 1940-45" by Eddy de Bruyne and Marc Rikmenspoel
"From A European anabasis: western European volunteers in the German army and SS, 1940-1945" by Kenneth W. Estes
"Knight's Cross Winners of the Waffen SS" by Marc Rikmenspoel
"The Wallonien: The History of the 5th SS-Sturmbrigade and 28th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division" By Richard Landwehr, Jean-Louis Roba and Ray Merriam
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