Resistance during the Second World War

On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded Belgium. A week later, on 17 May, the Germans captured Leuven after fierce fighting. What followed was a period of more than four years of occupation.

As early as 1941, the first resistance cells emerged in Leuven, and local branches of the Partisans and the National Royal Movement were established. The first attacks took place in 1943, and towards the end of the war, the Leuven area saw nothing short of a civil war between the “whites” and the “blacks”.

Who were the Partisans, the members of the National Royal Movement and the Secret Army, and what did they want?

On this walk, we use big and small stories from Leuven to sketch the situation during four years of war and bring a number of almost forgotten resistance fighters back into the spotlight.