Statement by the Belgian Jean Delmotte, 28 March 1947 (excerpt)

Archivdienst für Kriegsopfer, Belgisches Staatsarchiv, Statut Prisonnier Politique, PP 190343 cal 25063

On 6 June 1943, Camille-Remy Lambert was arrested again and sentenced to one year in prison by the court of the Charleroi Field Command. According to the verdict, he had engaged in black market trading of meat and butter. According to his own and later verified testimony during his application for political prisoner status, he gave this meat and other food to Jews in hiding.

Initially imprisoned in Belgium, he was transferred on 30 September 1943, to Wolfenbüttel Prison, where he arrived on 20 October 1943. Records show that he served a seven-day disciplinary punishment for making handkerchiefs out of his bedding.

His original sentence was due to end on 22 July 1944. On 10 March 1944, the military justice chief inspector responsible for Camille-Remy Lambert ordered:

"In the criminal case [...] the punishment of LAMBERT [...] for the last 3 - three - months of his remaining sentence is suspended until the end of the war."

Letter from the military justice chief inspector to the administration of Wolfenbüttel Prison, 10 March 1944 (excerpt)

NLA Wolfenbüttel

Due to this order, he was able to return to his hometown of Houyet in Belgium in April 1944.

Back in Belgium, he once again resisted the German occupiers and joined the Armée Belge des Partisans. After the war, he frequently changed jobs and places of residence. He married but later left his wife and their daughter.

Camille-Remy Lambert applied for recognition as a “political prisoner” and for the associated compensation. The dispute over recognition between him and the commission handling the application significantly shaped the course of the proceedings, as his motives and behaviour during the occupation and his imprisonment were called into question.

Farmer Emile Marot made a statement to the police in Hoyuet in April 1950, accusing Camille-Remy Lambert of denouncing him during their first arrest and subsequent interrogations. Among other things, Camille-Remy Lambert allegedly told the GestapoThe Gestapo, the Secret State Police of the Nazi regime, was the political police during the Nazi era. that Emile Marot knew of an escape route to England and had contacts with resistance groups in Liège and Namur.

According to the account of Camille-Remy Lambert's lawyer, however, Emile Marot's accusations were slanderous. Former fellow prisoners, such as Jean Delmotte, testified after the war that he had proven himself a "patriot" in prison and had, for example, sabotaged work materials.

Statement by former Belgian prisoner Jean Delmotte regarding Camille-Remy Lambert, 28 March 1947

Archivdienst für Kriegsopfer,
Belgisches Staatsarchiv,
Statut Prisonnier Politique, 
PP 190343 cal 25063

Camille-Remy Lambert rejected the accusation of black-market trading for profit and stated that he had distributed the food for free to hidden Jewish people. For this position, recognition as a "political prisoner" was explicitly possible by law.

The counterargument by the state representative was based on the credibility of Emile Marot's testimony and the findings of the gendarmerie investigation, which identified financial motives behind Camille-Remy Lambert's offences. After reviewing the documents, the approval committee denied the application for "political prisoner" status, as it adhered to the exclusion criteria of the 1947 law and considered the financial motives decisive.

On 10 January 1951, only his resistance activity in 1944, due to his membership in the Armée Belge des Partisans, was recognised as that of an "armed resistance fighter." The duration of his resistance activity was recorded as eight months, from 8 April 1944 to 17 November 1944.

The various national recognition statutes in Belgium were very much tailored to specific resistance actions. The recognition of Camille-Remy Lambert's activity in the Armée Belge des Partisans did not mean that he was also recognised as a political prisoner, since his imprisonment occurred earlier.