Triumvirate: Bormshuis – Yserwake – Antwerp City Council
With the unsavory story around front night more brown dung floats to the surface. are the organizer of Frontnacht, iron wakealong with the Bormshuis and the Antwerp City Council a far-right triumvirate.
The fact that Yserwake is the organizer and therefore ultimately responsible for the prohibited event Front Night, where various groups that are affiliated with extreme right-wing and neo-Nazi organizations perform, is now widely known thanks to the great interest in the press.
The iron vigil is visited every year by far-right birds of all sorts. Figureheads and members of the Vlaams Belang are always prominent. Flemish organizations affiliated with the VB such as Outpost and an organization that pays tribute to Eastern Fronters of the Storm Brigade Langemark[1]. A banner with the inscription My father was an Oostfronter and as a Fleming I am proud of thatalso “adorned” the site of the iron watch.
What is less known is that the registered office of IJzerwake VZW is located at the same address as the Bormshuis, nl; Volksstraat 30, 2000 Antwerp[2] – [3].
The Bormshuis is only labeled by the city council of Antwerp as museum and a documentation and archive center on the history of the Flemish movement[4].
The fact that an organization that openly flirts with the extreme right and has its roots in collaboration lives at the same address is nowhere mentioned.
What is also not mentioned is the fact that August Borms collaborated with the enemy during both WW1 and WWII. For the collaborator during World War I, hijation was punishable by death, later commuted to lifelong hard labour, but was released early.
When he teamed up again during WWII, this time with one of the most murderous and ruthless totalitarian dictatorships ever, perhaps the March was full for the Belgian state. Borms was again sentenced to death, but this time the sentence was carried out. Borms was executed on April 12, 1946 in the former gendarmerie barracks in Etterbeek.
There is still a commemoration every year.
This year it was on April 24th[5]. Borms is revered as a detainee by Flemish nationalists.
If you want a brief biography about Borms, I refer you to Wikipedia[6]. For an extensive biography perhaps a second-hand copy of it somewhere August Borms his life, his wars, his deathwritten by Christine van Everbroeck.
The city of Antwerp is criticized[7] because there is no mention of his collaboration on the web page of the city about the Bormshuis (see note 4).
It can also be different, as the municipality of Alveringem proves, which on the Museums page on its website does indeed de radicalization and collaboration van Cyriel Verschaeve mention[8].
The difference with Antwerp is that the mayor and aldermen of Alveringem consists of CD&V politics and not of the burned N-VA.
The name of August Borms has been in the news twice recently.
Last year a brochure was published on the export of the 50ste anniversary of the Flemish Parliament. In that brochure there was room for some figureheads of Flemish nationalism, under the title “A few ‘Flemish heads’ that shaped the emancipation of language and people from Belgian independence to the Second World War”. One of those Flemish heads was August Borms (the other was Staff De Clercq).
After pressure came from various angles, including from Marc Reynebeau who wrote an opinion piece in De Standaard of 21 January 2021, the Forum of Jewish organizations VZW[9], and the sp.a representatives Hannelore Goeman and Caroline Gennezthe Flemish Parliament acknowledged, albeit with great reluctance, that, and I quote: “Although there is an explanation under their photos, they should not have been included in this overview.”.
For those who are still interested, I wrote four articles about it on this blog at the time[10]. The whole story, including the many reactions, are discussed in it.
The second time Borms made the news to the start of the destruction of his grave at Merksem cemetery in June of this year. Just about every newspaper in Flanders wrote an article about it. Grave robbery, I strongly disapprove, is a misdemeanor under the criminal code: art. 453. With from one month to one year and with a fine of twenty-six [euro] up to two hundred [euro] is executed he who commits grave desecration. That also applies to grave collaborators
An additional message to that of the grave robbery was that the Antwerp city council will be responsible for the repair of the grave. This was confirmed to VRT by the district citizen: The district mayor that the city of Antwerp will fully pay for the restoration[11].
A grave is a private matter and Borms’ grave is no exception. In my opinion, the fact that the city of Antwerp is responsible for the restoration only indicates that the grave of Borms is assigned a greater value than the grave of any average Antwerp resident. The fact that the N-VA, led by a descendant of a cooperation family, will not be strange to the service.
Only one conclusion can be drawn from all these reports: the Bormshuis, the Yserwake and the extreme Antwerp City Council form a straight triumvirate, encased in a circle and this circle is complete.
[1] https://www.standard.be/cnt/dmf20220816_96139832
[2] https://www.companyweb.be/company/0479914725/free-pub/16511885
[3] https://bormshuis.wordpress.com/praktisch-2/
[4] https://www.antwerpen.be/info/54e5ab07cea8a7a9028b4bec/bormshuis
[5] https://affverzet.wordpress.com/2022/04/20/zondag-opnieuw-herdenking-august-borms-in-merksem/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Borms
[8] https://www.alveringem.be/vrij-tijd/toerisme/reizen-en-beleven/musea
[10] https://walthersbemoeienissen.blogspot.com/2021/
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