Belgians in the Spanish Trenches

Paul Nothomb, a former student at the military academy and reserve officer in the Belgian army served as a volunteer in the Spanish Republican air force. His book, Belgians in the Spanish Trenches, published in 1937, was the product of his experiences there and in Belgium following his return after being wounded. The book provides a chronicle of the participation of the Belgian volunteers during the first months of the conflict and, as well as praising them, denounced what he considered the repressive measures taken by the Belgian government when they returned home. 

The number of Belgians who volunteered for the International Brigades differs from one source to another. In a report from late 1938, the Belgian Communist Party (PCB) gave the number as 2,499. In contrast, calculations made at the request of Foreign Minister – and later Prime Minister -Paul-Henri Spaak put the figure at between 600 and 800. Spaak also received an independent report that estimated there were between 1,000 and 1,200 volunteers.  Nevertheless, putting aside the conflicting numbers proposed by contemporaries, there is one thing about the Belgian volunteers that commands respect, and this is something that Nothomb’s book emphasizes: the people who went to Spain to fight for their  political values and ideals also had to face Belgian law. 

Belgium adopted a position of strict neutrality with regard to the war in Spain and it adhered unconditionally to the Non-Intervention Agreement. To this end, it passed laws on selling arms and recruiting volunteers to prevent Belgian nationals from doing anything that might call its position into question. All those who returned to Belgium after serving in Spain would be subject to legal proceedings. 

From the start of the war until March 1937 when the anti-recruitment law came into effect, the government used all the means at its disposal, and especially military legislation, to dissuade Belgian citizens from going to Spain to fight.  

Nothomb himself was a victim of this law. On May 9, 1937 the Ministry of Defence informed him that he had been dismissed. Others faced confinement to barracks, courts martial, and prison sentences. The punitive measures of the 1937 anti-recruiting law also affected those who, even if they did not go to Spain themselves, were involved in the organization that recruited volunteers within Belgium.