East Belgians in the Wehrmacht and the Reichsarbeitsdienst, 1940–1945. Biographical Turning Points and Adaptive Stances in the Beck-Peissen Family
(2024) The Impact of War Experiences in Europe — ISBN: [9783111128467], p. 127-164, published
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- Abstract
- The period between 1919 and 1945 is a key chapter in the history of East Belgium. It has been the object of numerous publications and research projects. Yet, the individual perspective, which gives a more personal insight into people’s lives, has not always been given credit. Not until 2017 did academic research take serious interest in a biographical approach of this period. For volume 4 of the book series Grenzerfahrungen (2014–2025), the authors, including the author of the present contribution, decided to delve into their own family histories. From a methodological point of view, historians Andreas Fickers and Christoph Brüll proposed the concept situativer Opportunismus (‘situation-based opportunism’) to explain actions, reactions and non-actions of individuals at certain turning points of history or in their lives. Because of the negative connotation of the word ‘opportunism’ in everyday language, we prefer the phrasing adaptive stances or strategies. The concept can help explain the different attitudes of many conscripts for the Wehrmacht and RAD from different border areas annexed by Nazi Germany. Research for the present contribution is based on ego-documents from the author’s own family archives. Complementary information was gathered from personal files at the Archives Service for War Victims in Brussels, at the Belgian Armed Forces documentation centre in Evere, at the Bundesarchiv, documents kept at CEGESOMA and at the Resistance Museum in Brussels.
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Beck, P. (2024). East Belgians in the Wehrmacht and the Reichsarbeitsdienst, 1940–1945. Biographical Turning Points and Adaptive Stances in the Beck-Peissen Family. In Nina Janz & Denis Scuto (Hg.) (ed.), The Impact of War Experiences in Europe (p. p. 127-164). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111128467-005