Originally constructed between 1906 and 1913 as part of the second ring of the National Redoubt defending Antwerp, Fort Breendonk was used by the Belgian Army and was covered by a five-metre thick layer of soil for defense against artillery fire, a water-filled moat and measured 656 by 984 feet (200 by 300 m).

Fort Breendonk was originally built by the Belgian Army in 1906–13 as part of the second ring of defenses of the National Redoubt protecting the important port-city of Antwerp.

[3] It was covered by a five-metre thick layer of soil for defense against bombings, a water-filled moat and measured 656 by 984 feet (200 by 300 m).

The siege of Antwerp begun in September 1914 and Breendonk came under fire from German howitzers out of range of its own guns on 1 October.

However, the Germans successfully breached the Belgian line at Lier and were able to capture the city without making an assault on Breendonk.

Initially most of the prisoners were petty criminals, people deemed anti-social, or who did not conform to the German race laws.

The camp commander Lagerkommandant Philipp Schmitt was known to set his German Shepherd dog (called "Lump")[10] loose on the inmates.

During winter 1942–1943, after the German defeat at Stalingrad, it occurred more than once that inmates, mostly Jewish, were forced by the Flemish SS guards to enter into the extremely cold water of the moat and kept there with a shovel.

Prisoners were then expected to move by hand the carts filled with dirt, pushing and dragging them back and forth over a distance of more than 300 meters.

Rooms were originally designed for no more than 38 people, but frequently housed over 50 inmates sleeping in three-tier bunk beds on straw mattresses.

There were two gathering spaces inside the fort, east and west, each one with a small building, made of brick and without doors, equipped with four holes and one urinal.

Breakfast consisted of two cups of a coffee substitute made of roasted acorns and 125 grams (4.4 oz) of bread.

[14] This was far from enough to sustain a human being, especially considering the intense cold or heat, harsh labour and physical punishments the prisoners were subjected to.

But the respite was short lived also because the SS seized and forwarded to Germany most of the food parcels sent in by the Red Cross.

[15] Conditions in the camp were so cruel and harsh that those who left alive were so weak that their chances of survival at the final destination were severely hampered.

Often prisoners were so sick and weak that they were led straight to the gas chambers or simply died within weeks of their arrival.

Particular controversy surrounds the Flemish SS guards of the camp, who so openly and cruelly turned against their fellow countrymen in support of their Nazi paymasters.

The memoirs of Charles Arnold-Baker, who was the British officer responsible for taking over the camp from the remaining staff, makes reference to this event.

Famed author, philosopher, and journalist Jean Améry (formerly Hans Mayer) was captured by the Nazis in July 1943 while fighting with Belgian Resistance.

[17] Améry discussed his experiences in a book he wrote about the dehumanization that occurred between victim and perpetrator during the Holocaust, a work he entitled At the Mind's Limits.

After VE Day, Eileen Younghusband, a WAAF officer and fluent French-speaker, acted as a guide to RAF personnel visiting the camp.

[23] The Nazi camp commandant, Philipp Schmitt, was tried in Antwerp in 1949 as a war criminal; the court martial sentenced him to death and was shot by a firing squad on 9 August 1950.

In 1947 Fort Breendonk was declared to be a national memorial, recognizing the suffering and cruelty that had been inflicted on Belgian prisoners during World War II.

He had collected thousands of pictures and films of the Third Reich as part of his work for the Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (Cegesoma).