Sixty years after deporting 35,000 Jews - half its population - to German gas chambers, Belgium has apologized. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt issued the official apology in front of hundreds of people during a ceremony yesterday at the site of the first Belgian railway deportations. "There were too many collaborators in Belgium," Verhofstadt said. "We should have the courage to say it, to acknowledge it and to bear it."
Dr. Avi Becker, secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, attributed the apology to a recently released report on Belgian collaboration with the Nazis. The report "revealed to the Belgians that they were not innocent of collaboration or of taking Jewish property," he said. Becker believes that because many citizens refused to collaborate with the Nazis and helped save of Belgium's Jews, "the Belgians had a very positive self-image and found it difficult to accept that they too had numerous collaborators." Belgium has signed several agreements in the past few years to provide compensation for Jewish property stolen during and after the Holocaust.
Dr. Avi Becker, secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, attributed the apology to a recently released report on Belgian collaboration with the Nazis. The report "revealed to the Belgians that they were not innocent of collaboration or of taking Jewish property," he said. Becker believes that because many citizens refused to collaborate with the Nazis and helped save of Belgium's Jews, "the Belgians had a very positive self-image and found it difficult to accept that they too had numerous collaborators." Belgium has signed several agreements in the past few years to provide compensation for Jewish property stolen during and after the Holocaust.