The Limburg Enigma

This paper focuses on the expulsion of thousands of refugees and immigrants – the majority of whom were Jewish – from Antwerp to Limburg in eastern Belgium during the winter of 1940. The expulsion to Limburg has been explored in general terms in previous research, and there are conflicting opinions about its reasons. Understanding the identities of the people expelled and analyzing the expulsion within its chronological context shows that this was not exclusively a localized Belgian phenomenon. It appears that beyond the broad military context of the expulsion of foreigners from coastal areas ahead of the invasion of Britain known as Operation Sea Lion, this was also part of German policy regarding the Jews, as such persecution and expulsion primarily targeted Jews of Eastern European origin. This policy was enacted in the Reich and its annexed territories between the summer of 1940 and early 1941.