Execution site Citadel, l'Enclos des Fusillés

At this site, in the citadel of Liège, there are 414 crosses. At this site, 271 people were executed during World War II. Most of them were Belgian resistance fighters from the Armée Secret, the Front Independance, ore le Mouvement National Belge, for example, who were arrested and imprisoned here until their trial.

They are commemorated, along with other victims, with symbolic graves. In total, there are 317 symbolic graves here. In addition, 98 resistance fighters are still buried here.

On May 21, 1941, the first prisoner was shot at the Citadelle;

ZABEAU Rene, age 31, soldier with the Regiment de Fortresse de Liège at Fort Tancrémont in Pepinster.

After the fort surrendered on May 29, 1940, one day later than the official surrender of Belgium, the captured soldiers were released in June 1940.

On February 2, 1941, however, he was recaptured. He was accused of shooting during the May days of 1940 a German soldier who had surrendered to him and his men. However, the soldier in question tried to escape capture upon which he was shot by Rene Zabeau and his men and died of his wounds. Not a war crime but interpreted by the Germans as intentional, upon which he was sentenced to death.

He was later reburied in the military section of the Saint Walburge district municipal cemetery in Liège.

Even on the day of Christmas Eve 1943, 4 more prisoners were shot;

APPELTANDS Leopold, age 22, Resistance Belgian National Movement
HALLEUX Marcel, no details known
LOYAERTS Georges, 18 years old !
PONSAERDS Jules, age 18 !

And on Boxing Day 1943, 5 more prisoners

BEDNARZ Czesla, age 23
HOLLER Andre, age 22
KWINTA Jean, age 19, Pole
NOE Fernand, age 22
WLODARCZYK Armand, no details known

Among the youngest executed was a boy of the age of 16 ! !

Among them also two brothers. Roger and René Decker from Fouches (province of Luxembourg) who were members of the Armée Secret. René was arrested as early as February 13, 1944. His brother almost a month later on March 9, 1944. Both brothers were executed together with 8 other prisoners on May 24, 1944.

With the Americans approaching, 18 more prisoners were executed on Sept. 2, 1944, and on Sept. 4, 1944, the last 4 prisoners were executed here! Liege was liberated on Sept. 6, 1944, by the U.S. Army.

The other victims were reburied by their families after the war or repatriated to France and the Netherlands.

Among them was STREE Maxime, age 21, from Ougrée (district in Liège). He was arrested on April 7, 1944, on suspicion of being a member of the Resistance. He was executed 6 days later on April 13, 1944. (photo 3)

Among those executed are 10 Polish POWs, 18 Russian POWs and one Spanish prisoner.

The chaplain Mathieu Voncken, age 91, from Schimmert (NL) who assisted the prisoners in their last hours is also buried here. He died in 1971 and is buried in a separate grave to the side of the execution piles. (photo 5)

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski
• bel-memorial.org
• wardeadregister.be