Escaping Nazi Europe: Understanding the Experiences of Belgian Soldiers and Civilians in World War II

This book chronicles the escapes attempted by Belgian soldiers and civilians from Nazi-occupied Europe during the Second World War. Insofar as is practical, the authors have tried to let the subjects speak for themselves by making extensive use of their testimonies preserved in archives in Belgium and the United Kingdom.

The book begins with the stories of soldiers who managed to evade capture in the summer of 1940 and returned home, and the few that decided to continue the fight and joined the Allied forces in the United Kingdom. It also includes the prisoners of war who managed to escape from camps or Arbeitskommando inside the Reich and provides a detailed analysis of their narratives: their motivation for going on the run, their choices on when and how to travel, and the many obstacles they encountered along the way. Most escapees were content to return home, with some then joining resistance organisations, but a small minority were committed to joining the Allies, and further chapters recount their attempts to reach Spain and Switzerland, and the additional problems they encountered in those neutral states.

Final chapters reflect on the penalties inflicted on prisoners of war who were recaptured and on the escapees’ struggle for recognition in the post-war world.

Bernard Wilkin (b. 1982) is Senior Researcher at the State Archives of Belgium. He has published several books and articles on the history of war in Belgium and France, including Aerial Propaganda and the Wartime Occupation of France, French Soldiers’ Morale in the Phoney War (with Maude Williams) and Fighting for Napoleon (with René Wilkin).

Bob Moore (b. 1954) is Emeritus Professor of European History at the University of Sheffield. He has published extensively on the history of Western Europe in the mid-twentieth century, including in this context The British Empire and Its Italian Prisoners of War 1940–1947 (with Kent Fedorowich, 2003), Prisoners of War, Prisoners of Peace (edited with Barbara Hately, 2005) and Prisoners of War: Europe 1939–1956 (2022).