12 Facts About Cyriel Verschaeve

Cyriel Verschaeve was a Flemish nationalist priest and writer who collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War.

Cyriel Verschaeve was recognised as the spiritual leader of Flemish nationalism by the ideology's adherents and a Nazi propagandist.

Cyriel Verschaeve was ordained in 1897 and then continued his studies at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany.

Cyriel Verschaeve returned to Belgium in 1911 to become a parish priest at Alveringem in West Flanders.

Cyriel Verschaeve was involved in the development of the Frontbeweging, a Flemish autonomous group that eventually became the Frontpartij.

On 12 August 1917 Cyriel Verschaeve penned a second so-called "Open Letter" calling for better rights for beleaguered Flemish servicemen.

Cyriel Verschaeve became involved with recruitment to the Flemish Legion in 1941.

Cyriel Verschaeve was convinced the Soviet Union was the greatest danger to peace and culture in Europe; he was strongly anti-communist and a convinced supporter of Nazism.

Cyriel Verschaeve told Himmler at this meeting that, while he rejected Nazi paganism, he thought Nazism could become complementary to the salvific message of the Church, as long as it remained political and activist.

Until the end of the successful Allied offensive against the Nazi Wehrmacht in western Belgium, Cyriel Verschaeve continued calling upon young Flemish, Catholic, adolescent boys to volunteer in the Waffen-SS foreign legions against Stalin and "Satanic Bolshevism".

Cyriel Verschaeve remains a celebrated figure amongst the more extreme ends of Flemish nationalism, and a symbol of disgraceful Flemish nationalism to French-speaking Catholics.

Cyriel Verschaeve wrote extensively on philosophy, adopting a dramatic, poetic writing style.