INTRODUCTION

Dealing, once the war was over, with those who collaborated with the German invader has taken a wide variety of forms: extrajudicial executions, purges in the private sector, trials by criminal courts. The analysis in this chapter on Belgium and the Netherlands is restricted to the activities of public authorities, such as the executive and the judiciary. This is a considerable limitation of the scope. The chapter, on the other hand, broadens the view by including the policies that were developed to reintegrate the black sheep after they had served their time in prison. Looking exclusively at the sanctions that were handed out produces, indeed, a one-sided view on the purges. Several measures were taken, some as soon as in 1946–47, to reduce the impact of the punishment.

A comparison of Belgium and the Netherlands is a reasonable and rewarding enterprise. These countries have had a common history during several episodes of their life. Their sizes, geographically and demographically, are similar. But societal and political development during and shortly after the war have taken different courses.

THE PURGE

The number of unpatriotic citizens who suffered punishment (by the authorities) in one or another form was about 80,000 in Belgium and 110,000 in the Netherlands. Those who received prison sentences numbered 48,000 in the first country and 51,000 in the second.