Fort Breendonk Fort Breendonk is a fortification built in 1906 as part of the second ring of defenses of the Réduit national around the city of Antwerp , Belgium . Originally one in a chain of fortresses constructed to enable the government to defend the city of Antwerp , which would serve as the main headquarters in times of war , Breendonk was near the town of the same name , about 12 miles southwest of Antwerp . It was covered by a five metre thick layer of soil for defense against bombings , a water - filled moat and measured 656 by 984 feet . During the Second World War , the fort was used by the Germans as a prison camp for detaining Belgian political dissidents , captured resistance members and Jews . Many were tortured or executed within the camp . Today , the site is a national memorial ( " Nationaal Gedenkteken Fort van Breendonk " in Dutch ) and can be visited . World War I . Belgium was invaded in August 1914 by the German army after refusing its request of unhindered passage to northern France . The invasion began on August 4 , 1914 . Eager to reach Paris as soon as possible , the German army concentrated all its efforts towards the south , ignoring Antwerp . Continued Belgian resistance from the north forced German command to attack Antwerp . On September 9 , General Beseler was ordered to attack Antwerp . Siege artillery was sent north , having precipitated the fall of Namur and Maubeuge . Fort Breendonk was first attacked on October 1 , 1914 by howitzer s located 5 to 6 km out of range of the fort ' s own guns . The Germans breached Belgian lines in Lier . The German army could attack Antwerp while avoiding Fort Breendonk . On October 9 , Fort Breendonk surrendered after the fall of Antwerp . World War II . The German army invaded and occupied Belgium in 1940 . Fort Breendonk was obsolete and was no answer to mechanized warfare . The fort was briefly the headquarters of the Belgian command during the first weeks following the invasion , but was abandoned in the face of German advances . The Nazis transformed Fort Breendonk into a prison camp . On September 20 , 1940 , the first prisoners arrived . Initially prisoners were petty criminals , people deemed anti - social , or trespassers of the new race laws . Later on , resistance fighters , political prisoners and innocent hostages were detained as well . Another section was used as a transit camp for Jews being sent to death camps such as Auschwitz . German as well as Flemish SS units guarded this camp . Of the 300 prisoners that died in the camp , 185 prisoners were executed . Many of the rest died of torture or exposure . Most of those that did survive were transported to concentration camp s . The execution poles and gallows are still there , as is a gruesome SS torture chamber . Contrary to popular belief , there were never any gas chambers at Fort Breendonk . 3 , 500 prisoners were incarcerated in Breendonk during its existence , of whom 1 , 733 died before liberation . Most of the non - Jewish prisoners were leftist members of the Belgian resistance or were held as hostages by the Germans . Several hundred people were murdered in the camp through torture , executions , and harsh conditions . In September 1941 , the Belgian Communist prisoners were sent to the Neuengamme concentration camp . Jewish prisoners in Breendonk were segregated from other prisoners until 1942 . Thereafter , Jews were transferred to the Mechelen ( Malines ) transit camp in Belgium , or deported directly to the Auschwitz - Birkenau extermination camp in Nazi - occupied Poland . In total over 15 transports filled with mostly Jews left the camp ; almost no one survived . Upon arrival at the camp , new inmates were brought to courtyard where they would have to stand facing the wall until they were processed into the camp . They were forbidden to move and any motion was severely punished . In the camp , punishment consisted of beatings , torture in a specially designed chamber , hanging or execution by firing squad , either in the camp or nearby . The camp commander Lagerkommandant Philipp Schmitt was known to set his German Shepherd dog ( called " Lump " ) loose on the inmates . His wife was also known to wander the camp , ridiculing the inmates and ordering punishments at whim . Severe and arbitrary beating occurred daily . Once an inmate , a Jewish boy of less than 20 years of age , was unable to continue working . The Flemish SS guards threw him into the moat , he could not swim and they refused to let him out . He struggled for over 15 minutes before finally drowning . Inmates were forced to watch any executions that took place . They were only allowed to use the toilet , which was a large circular vat in the middle of one of the courtyards , twice a day , all together at the same time . They were only given five minutes to do their business . Any longer would mean punishment . But none of the inmates had a watch , so most left after only a minute or so in fear of surpassing their allotted time . This frequently caused bowel problems , cramps and diarrhea . Gallery . The prisoners were subjected to forced labour , which consisted of removing the thick layer of top soil that covered the fort . In the few years Fort Breendonk was used by the Nazis , the millions of cubic meters of soil covering the fort were removed by the prisoners by hand at a gruelling pace . The soil had to be moved to create a high circular earth wall around the fort to hide the camp from view . Prisoners only had hand tools to complete this enormous task and the soil had to be transported to the outer wall via hand carts on a narrow gauge railway system . The ground in the camp was often very soggy causing the rails to sink away in the mud . Prisoners were then expected to move the carts entirely by hand , which were filled with dirt they weighed over 1 ton each , pushing and dragging them back and forth over a distance of more than 300 meters . This regime was imposed for over 12 hours a day , seven days a week , even in the worst of weather conditions . Orders were given only in German , so inmates were forced to learn the basic commands rather quickly or otherwise be punished for failure to obey orders . Prisoners were also forced to salute , march and stand to attention every time a guard passed . Accommodation in the fort consisted of the old barracks . Built from thick stone , these were extremely cold and damp because there were no windows and only minimal ventilation . Each barrack room only had a small coal burning stove , and providing sufficient heating was nearly impossible . Rooms were originally designed for no more than 38 people , but frequently housed over 50 inmates sleeping in three - tier bunk beds on straw mattresses . The top bunks were highly prized real estate . Inmates only had a single small bucket per room for a toilet during the night , and many of the sick and weakened inmates simply allowed their waste to drop down to the lower levels . This caused much fighting in between inmates , which was probably what the guards wanted . Jewish prisoners were segregated from other inmates and housed in specially constructed wooden barracks . These barracks were poorly insulated and over - crowded . Other prisoners were housed in cells , either in small groups or individually . The aim was to isolate certain prisoners for later interrogation and torture . Food was severely rationed for the prisoners and distributed in different quantities to the various types of inmates . Jews received the least food and water . Prisoners were served three meals a day . Breakfast consisted of two cups of a coffee substitute made of roasted acorns and 125 grams ( 4 oz . ) of bread . Lunch was usually 1 bowl of soup ( mostly just hot water ) . Supper was again 2 cups of a coffee substitute made of roasted acorns and 100 grams ( 3 oz . ) of bread ( sometimes with a spoon of marmalade or sugar ) . This was far from enough to sustain a human being , especially considering the intense cold or heat , harsh labour and physical punishments the prisoners were subjected to . For this reason , Fort Breendonk has been described as one of the worst camps in all of Europe . Conditions in the camp were so cruel and harsh that those who left alive were so weak that their chances of survival at the final destination were severely hampered . Often prisoners were so sick and weak that they were led straight to the gas chambers or simply died within weeks of their arrival . The regime in the camp was at least as harsh as in an actual concentration camp . Fewer than 10 % of the nearly 4 , 000 inmates survived the war . Particular controversy surrounds the Flemish SS guards of the camp , who so openly and cruelly turned against their fellow countrymen in blind support of their Nazi paymasters . Breendonk II . The officer of the British Army designated to liberate the camp late in 1944 was himself a German , Charles Arnold - Baker an officer of MI6 . Fort Breendonk was briefly used as an internment camp for Belgian collaborators with the Nazi occupiers . This period of the Fort ' s existence is known as " Breendonk II " . The internees were moved to Dossin Barracks , Mechelen , on 10 October 1944 . Trials of the Flemish SS guards , considered Nazi collaborators , were held during 1946 in Mechelen - including some guards and officials at Fort Breendonk . Of those who were convicted , 14 were sentenced to be executed by firing squad in 1947 . 2 appealed their case and had their sentences revised to life imprisonment . 4 more people were sentenced to life in prison . 1 person to 20 years of prison . 1 person was acquitted . Two guards were sentenced to life but were never caught . The Nazi camp commandant , Philipp Schmitt , was tried in Antwerp in 1949 and sentenced to death . He was shot on the 9th of August 1950 . He never showed any remorse and denied all of the atrocities that occurred at Breendonk , claiming he was merely reeducating the inmates as ordered . Present memorial . In 1947 , Fort Breendonk was declared to be a national memorial , recognizing the suffering and cruelty that had been inflicted on the prisoners during World War II . The fort is now a well - preserved example of the prison camps operated by Nazi Germany during World War II . Fort Breendonk is open to visitors all year round . It is located close to the A12 Brussels - Antwerp road . Pictures of working Nazi interment camps during the war are rare and , for a long time , it was believed that absolutely no pictures of Breendonk during the war existed . But in the early 1970s a batch of photos of the camp was discovered in the possessions of Dutch photographer Otto Spronk . He had collected thousands of pictures and films of the Third Reich as part of his work for the Cegesoma . The collection consisted of 37 pictures depicting the daily order of events in the camp . Roll call , eating , forced labour , and even the SS officers going about their business , relaxed and cheerful as the inmates toiled on . There ' s even a picture of the Nazi camp commandant , Philipp Schmitt playing with his infamous dog ' Lump ' . They were taken by German Nazi photographer Otto Kropf . They were taken for propaganda purposes but never used . All pictures are essentially cliché stills ; none of the daily atrocities or horrors of the camp are shown . But they are the only reference material available . Several of the inmates on the pictures managed to survive the war and were able to identify the others on the pictures and the circumstances in which they were taken .