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Flemish people also emigrated at the end of the fifteenth century, when Flemish traders conducted intensive trade with Spain and Portugal, and from there moved to colonies in America and Africa. [28] The newly discovered Azores were populated by 2,000 Flemish people from 1460 onwards, making these volcanic islands known as the "Flemish Islands".
These units were all commanded by General Ernst August Köstring (1876−1953). [9] A lower estimate for the total number of foreign volunteers that served in the entire German armed forces (including the Waffen SS) is 350,000. [10] These units were often under the command of German officers and some published their own propaganda newssheets.
During World War I several Flemish soldiers were punished for their active or passive involvement in the Flemish Movement. Ten of these soldiers were sent to a penal military unit in 1918 called the Special Forestry Platoon in Orne, Normandy, France. They were forced to work as woodchoppers in hard living conditions until several months after ...
The Flemish showed a real zest for settling elsewhere, discarding the social fabric that was in place: they were "a brave and robust people, but very hostile to the Welsh and in a perpetual state of conflict with them". [3] The Normans and the Flemish built a line of over 50 castles – most of them earthworks – to protect south Pembrokeshire.
The German occupying authorities, under Von Bissing and influenced by pre-war Pan-Germanism, viewed the Flemish as an oppressed people and launched a policy to appeal to the demands of the Flemish Movement which had emerged in the late 19th century. These measures were collectively known as the Flamenpolitik ("Flemish Policy").
Examples of mimeograph machines used by the Belgian resistance to produce illegal newspapers and publications. Among the first members of the Belgian resistance were former soldiers, and in particular officers, who, on their return from prisoner of war camps, wished to continue the fight against the Germans out of patriotism. [11]
It also hoped to encourage Flemish people to view Germany more favourably, paving the way for an intended annexation of the Greater Netherlands into the Greater Germanic Reich (Großgermanisches Reich). [4] The Germans began actively repatriating Flemish prisoners of war in August 1940. [7] By February 1941, 105,833 Flemish soldiers had been ...
Approximately 560 men were recruited between July and August 1941. [8] In practice, most of the recruits had been active members of the VNV. [7] The creation of the Flemish Legion also forced the Rexist Party, a largely French-speaking group in Belgium, to recruit a "Walloon Legion" rather than the "Belgian Legion" it had originally advocated. [8]