To re-establish Order | 2014-18.brussels

On 25 November 1918, three days after his entry in the capital, King Albert greets the kingdom’s highest magistrates on the steps of the Palace. This gesture symbolised official support to their position during the occupation. Indeed, the Belgian judiciary had managed to continue its work throughout the period. This had of course been a delicate cohabitation, and caused many heated discussions. At the end of the war, this more or less forced cooperation with the occupant had to be forgotten.

Indeed, the judiciary had an essential role to play in the after-war, as it was its task to pursue the multiple forms of collaboration with the enemy. From 1919 to 1923, the magistrates laboriously studied thousands of files left by the occupation, under the watchful eye of the people, who were striving for revenge.