WORTELAERS Fl.MareMagnum
Broadside Diploma Front Unique de Belgique / 1914-18 1940-45 / Diplôme d'Honneur / Section: Prisonniers Politiques.
194547585Breendonk: Amicale des Postiers Prisonniers Politiques Rescapés 1945. Original broadside pictorial diploma 24.5x32cm. printed lithograph on cream stock in red gilt and black accomplished in manuscript and rubberstamp. Minor foxing else a fresh Fine example. Exceedingly uncommon diploma awarded to a survivor of the Nazi prison camp at Fort Breendonk outside Antwerp. The camp generally held political prisoners members of the Resistance and Jews who were almost all subsequently dispersed to the larger concentration camp across Eastern Europe. More than 3000 prisoners passed through Breendonk of whom approximately ten percent died or were executed within its walls while half perished following deportation to other camps. The present certificate awarded to a member of the French resistance a mechanic outside Saumur in the Maine-et-Loire department of Western France his arrest part of a massive purge following the assassination of a Dr. Ritter representative of Gauleiter Sauckel in France see Colonel Remy "La Résistance en Anjou Touraine et Orléanais" 1975 Vol. 1 p. 103. The entire town of Saumur was later awarded the Croix de Guerre for its role in the resistance. <br/><br/>Certificate margins adorned with poignant vignettes of camp life men in striped uniforms awaiting execution working in the mines or caught in barbed wire fence. In the case of Huberdeau his first name here spelled "Villiam" he was awarded this diploma for "sa déportation dans le bagnes nazis" "his deportation to the nazi camps". Though no mention is explicitly made to Breendonk it appears that the award was given to survivors of that camp specifically. We find no other examples in the trade auction records of separately catalogued in OCLC as of February 2020. Amicale des Postiers Prisonniers Politiques Rescapés] unknown books
Lorne Bair Rare Books · États-Unis650,00 $US≈ 549,97 €
