page_title: The Holocaust in Belgium
section_title: Belgian collaboration in the Holocaust
hierarchical_section_title: The Holocaust in Belgium / Belgian collaboration in the Holocaust
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Ordonnance en date de 28 octobre 1940 concernant les mesures contre les JuifsEnglish: Order dated 28 October 1940 concerning measures against Jews
context_page_description: The Holocaust in Belgium was the systematic dispossession, deportation, and murder of Jews and Roma in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. Out of about 75,000 Jews in the country in 1940, around 24,000 were murdered during the Holocaust.
  At the start of the war, the population of Belgium was overwhelmingly Catholic. Jews made up the largest non-Christian population in the country, numbering between 70–75,000 out of a population of 8 million. Most lived in the cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi and Liège. The vast majority were recent immigrants to Belgium who had fled persecution in Germany and Eastern Europe, and, as a result, only a small minority actually possessed Belgian citizenship.
  Shortly after the invasion of Belgium, the Military Government passed a series of anti-Jewish laws in October 1940. The Belgian Committee of Secretary-Generals refused from the start to co-operate on passing any anti-Jewish measures and the Military Government seemed unwilling to pass further legislation. The German government began to seize Jewish-owned businesses and forced Jews out of positions in the civil service.
caption: Internal civil service circular outlining the anti-Jewish laws of October 1940
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