Leon Degrelle, an unrepentant Belgian Nazi who found haven in Spain after World War II, died in the southern Spanish city of Malaga on March 31. He was 87 and died of heart failure spurred by a pulmonary ailment.
Degrelle, who headed the fascist movement in Belgium from the 1930s to the end of the war was responsible for the deportations and deaths of about 25,000 Jews in Belgium between 1941 and 1944.
In the 1930s, Degrelle created a fascist movement called Rex, which collaborated with the German Nazis and which succeeded in placing several members in Parliament.
The Nazi SS used Degrelle’s group of collaborators to search out and deport Jews to the death camps, recalled Belgian historian Maxime Steinberg.
Degrelle also founded and commanded the German army’s Walloon Legion in 1941.
Degrelle, who became an SS general, was known to have met with Adolf Hitler several times and was called “the Nazis’ man in Belgium.” Hitler once praised Degrelle as the son he would have liked to have had.
Degrelle also fought with the Nazis on the Eastern Front and was awarded the Iron Cross. In 1944, Hitler personally bestowed on him the coveted Knight’s Cross.
Historian Steinberg expressed regret that “justice could not be done before a Belgian court.”
Degrelle was condemned to death by his own country after the war, but he fled to Spain, where he found haven among the followers of fascist leader Francisco Franco. Degrelle was given Spanish citizenship, effectively removing any chance of being extradited to Belgium.
Although Belgium asked the Spanish government for his extradition several times, the Spaniards would not comply.
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