(C) Mourning the Ancient

'German racialism has been deliberately distorted. It never was an anti-"other race" racialism. It was a pro-German racialism. It was concerned with making the German race strong and healthy in every way. Hitler was not interested in having millions of degenerates, if it was in his power not to have them. Today one finds rampant alcohol and drug addiction everywhere. Hitler cared that the German families be healthy, cared that they raise healthy children for the renewal of a healthy nation. German racialism meant re-discovering the creative values of their own race, re-discovering their culture. It was a search for excellence, a noble idea. National Socialist racialism was not against other races, it was for its own race. It aimed at defending and improving its race, and wished that all other races did the same for themselves.'
-Léon Degelle

[Below: Léon Degrelle, circa 1928.]

[Below: Léon Degrelle.]

[Below: Belgian nationalist group the Rexist Party is seen here on parade in Brussels in 1942.]

[Below: The Rexist Party.]

[Below: Léon Degrelle speaking at the Rexist National Congress, July 10, 1938.]

[Below: Full photo of that above. Poor condition but at least we get to see it until a better one surfaces.]

[Below: Léon Degrelle stepping onto a plane.]

[Below: The description of this is basically 'In the factories, in the countryside, in the street, in the sports halls, hundreds of thousands of exhuberant listeners.'.]

[Below: Rexist rally. Check out the giant hand. Very cool.]

[Below: Another massive Rexist rally.]

[Below: 'Rexist campaigns intensify'. I wonder what the brooms mean they are carrying? Perhaps symbolic for sweeping away the filth and corruption.]

[Below:
'La victoire écrasante de REX
En avant pour la victoire totale'

(REX's crushing victory
Onwards to total victory).]

[Below:
'Le Roi A Reçu Leon Degrelle
L'audience s'est Prolongeé
pendant une heure et vingt minutes'.

(The King Received Leon Degrelle
The audience was prolonged
for one hour and twenty minutes).]

[Below:
'Portrait de Léon Degrelle, jeune poète mélancolique de dix huit ans, par le grand peintre ardennais Albert Raty'.

(Portrait of Léon Degrelle, young melancholic poet of eighteen years, by the great Ardennes painter Albert Raty).]

[Below:
Here is some Jewish propaganda comparing Léon Degrelle to Adolf Hitler - what a compliment!

'Le Vrai Visage de REX'.

(The Real Face of REX).]

[Below:
'Nous qui sommes peuple! s'écriait Léon Degrelle'.

(We who are the people! cried Léon Degrelle).]

[Below:
'Avec les enfants des ouvriers'.

(With the children of the workers).]

[Below:
'Distribution de la soupe pour les grévistes'.

(Distribution of soup for the strikers).]

[Below:
'Léon Degrelle parmi les "gueules noires"'.

(Degrelle among the "black faces").]

[Below: 'Le 10 mai, Léon Degrelle est incarcéré et livré au deuxième bureau français.
Il connaîtra un calvaire horrible dans 21 prisons.
Ses compagnons seront massacrés à Abbeville, le 20 mai 1940.
Les Journaux, la radio annonceront sa mort.
Il réapparaîtra, barbu, anéanti, deux mois plus tard sauvé par miracle.'.

(On May 10, Léon Degrelle was imprisoned and handed over to the second French office.
He will experience a horrible ordeal in 21 prisons.
His companions were massacred in Abbeville on May 20, 1940.
The newspapers and the radio announced his death.
He will reappear, bearded, devastated, two months later saved by a miracle).]

[Below:
'Léon Degrelle fusillé
après un simulacre de jugement?'.

(Léon Degrelle shot
after a mock trial?).]

[Below:
'Le doute n'est plus permis
Degrelle et Van Severen
ont été fusillés... '.

(There is no longer any doubt that
Degrelle and Van Severen
were shot...).]

[Below: Degrelle speaking to the first volunteers of the Walloon legion as they prepare to depart Belgium (Brussels, August 8, 1941).]

[Below: Belgian politician Léon Degrelle (center) stands in formation with fighters from the Belgian volunteers who are on their way to fight in the Soviet Union. Belgium, August 15, 1941

[Below: Degrelle speaking to the first volunteers of the Walloon legion as they prepare to depart Belgium (Brussels, August 8, 1941).]

[Below: Degrelle left his successful political career behind to join the fight against communism. Here we see him during a physical after joining the Waffen-SS.]

[Below: Degrelle boards the train to the Russian front.]

[Below: A young Degrelle in a Stahlhelm. He left for the Russian front on August 8, 1941 as a simple soldier of the 1st Company.]

[Below: Standarte of the 1st Company.]

[Below: Degrelle's 'soldbuch' or military ID.]

[Below: Close-up.]

[Below: 42 degrees below zero.]

[Below: Degrelle is awarded the Iron Cross.]

[Below: Christmas 1942: the Walloon Legion return home for a short leave after a hundred battles. Here Degrelle's daughters inspect his Iron Cross.]

[Below: Mass meeting in Berlin.]

[Below: Degrelle and Himmler, Spring 1943.]

[Below: The commander of the Walloon Legion Lucien Lippert (left) with his second-in-command Leutnant Léon Degrelle. Lippert was a former Belgian Army general staff officer, July 1943, just before their transfer to the Waffen-SS. Lippert was killed at Cherkasy, Ukraine, on February 13, 1944.]

[Below: A chaplain celebrates mass for the Walloon Legion on the Eastern Front in 1942.]

[Below: Grave of Lieutenant Henri Rue, commander of the 5th Company, killed in the closing days of the war, February 11, 1945 at Krussow in Pomerania.]

[Below: From January 30 to February 17, 1944, the SS Walloon Brigade was surrounded by a massive Soviet force (336,700 vs 60,000 Germans!) near Cherkasy, Ukraine. Degrelle became a commander here and was wounded four times. He and General Gille, (Herbert Otto Gille, a high-ranking German SS officer, and divisional & corps commander of the Waffen SS) broke out suffering 70% casualties, the Walloonian men went from 2,000 men to 632. Gille took command of the Wiking Division during the breakout. A few months later he was awareded the diamonds to his Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords on April 19, 1944.]

[Below: Degrelle speaks at a huge French rally at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, 1944.]

[Below: Degrelle with Joseph Darnand, head of the French Milice.]

[Below: Degrelle looking badass in his leather trench coat.]

[Below: In June 1944 Degrelle went and spoke with Belgian and French workers in twenty Reich factories. His charisma, honesty and genuine warmth attracted eight hundred volunteers to the Walloon division!]

[Below: Léon Degrelle and Fernand Rouleau leaving the Palais des Arts at Brussels. Behind Degrelle is Victor Matthys, the freshly appointed chief deputy of the Rexist Movement.]

[Below: A young and handsome Degrelle.]

[Below: Degrelle in Rexist party uniform and German officers.]

[Below: Rexist newspaper, 1943.]

[Below: Léon Degrelle leaving the recruiting office for the Wallonian Legion in the summer of 1941. When Germany and the Axis attacked communist Russia on June 22, 1941 over 1000 Walloons volunteered immediately, among them Degrelle himself. Since Degrelle was an important political leader in Belgium the Germans offered him a leadership role in the Walloon volunteer force. Modestly, he declined, replying that he couldn't take the commission in good conscience since he had no military training, and that he would prefer to first gain experience in the ranks. That he did, becoming one of the most beloved and capable leaders in WWII.]

[Below: Léon Degrelle after the statement by Victor Matthijs (deputy and acting leader of the Rexist party) regarding the need to unite the groups, namely the Flemish National Union, the Rexist party and the Verdinaso (Verbond van Dietsche Nationaal-Solidaristen - Union of Diets National Solidarists), into one party for the Flemish people led by Staf De Clercq (leader of the Flemish National Union), May 10, 1941.]

'You must train harder than the enemy who is trying to kill you. You will get all the rest you need in the grave.'
-Léon Degrelle

[Below: Léon Degrelle]

[Below: Léon Degrelle (left) and Richard Jungclaus (March 17, 1905 - April 15, 1945). Jungclaus was a German SS-group leader and lieutenant general of police (1943) as well as Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) of Belgium-Northern France.]

[Below: Léon Degrelle and Richard Jungclaus, among others.]

[Below: Léon Degrelle in his Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track with his children by his side during the parade of the SS Sturmbrigade Wallonien in Brussels on April 1, 1944. The Wallonien crossed the city from south to north passing in front of the 'Bourse' (the Belgian Stock Exchange Building).]

'I got to greet the Légion Wallonie parade in front of the stock house on one of our vehicles. I was happier and more proud than ever before when the armored cars and other vehicles drove past me with load noise. These were lent to us by Sepp Dietrich, but they were filled with our Belgian soldiers. I greeted every single machine with my right hand high, my steel helmet on and the freshly received Knight’s Cross on my chest. The other hand was intermittently holding one of my children’s hand who were allowed to climb into the vehicle and stand next to me. The mass, which estimatedly involved around a hundred thousand people, was cheering and threw us piles of flowers.'
-Léon Degrelle

[Below: One hundred thousand citizens of Brussels, Belgium, on April 2, 1944, cheer the Walloon Legion.]

[Below: Legion Walloon parade in Brussels, Degrelle's children are with him.]

[Below: Degrelle and his children.]

[Below: Degrelle and family.]

[Below: Degrelle and his daughter.]

[Below: ...]

[Below: Degrelle and some of the survivors of the Walloon Sturmbrigade after escaping the Cherkassy Pocket. The savage and inhuman battering the brigade withstood resulted in its strength being reduced from 2000 men to 632! Yet despite being grossly outnumbered and out gunned it held its position.]