1917–1944
Jean Burgers was born in Schaerbeek on 6 July 1917. He attended secondary school at the Atheneum of Saint-Gilles, where he excelled in Latin-Mathematics. In 1935, he enrolled at the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the ULB, where he graduated with a degree in electromechanics. As an active member of socialist student groups and of the legendary Cercle du Libre Examen, he took his first steps in the anti-fascist struggle.
On the eve of the war, his future seemed to be mapped out: a life at the side of his great love, Hélène Levat, also a gifted student, who would graduate as a mathematician. During the chaotic early days of the German invasion, they moved together to the south of France, where they got married on 10 June. After their return to Belgium, Jean started working for an electricity company that sent him to La Louvière.
Jean soon reconnects with Robert Leclercq, a childhood friend and former fellow student at the ULB. Together they lay the foundations of what would become the ‘Groupe G’, one of the most efficient sabotage groups of the Second World War. Jean quickly takes charge and is involved in several sensational actions against the German occupier.
The most spectacular of these is the so-called “Grande Coupure” of 15 January 1944: a coordinated attack on the Belgian high-voltage network, which causes a huge power failure. The occupier will need an estimated ten million hours of work to repair the damage. The occupier reacts furiously and feverishly searches for those responsible for this particularly painful blow to the Nazi war industry.
On 17 March 1944, Jean Burgers is arrested. Via the prison of Sint-Gillis and the SS-Auffanglager of Breendonk he is deported to the concentration camp of Buchenwald on 8 May 1944. On 5 September 1944, while Belgium is gradually preparing for exuberant liberation celebrations, Jean is murdered by the SS. He is hanged in Buchenwald.
It is not until the end of April that the tragic news reaches his bosom friend Robert Leclercq, who takes on the thankless task of telling Hélène.
Sources:
● William Ugueux, Le Groupe G, Editions Elsevier Séquoia, 1978.
● Memorial Buchenwald: https://www.buchenwald.de/en/geschichte/biografien/ltg-ausstellung/jean…