Archives of Léon Schillings

• Access: The fonds Léon Schillings can be freely accessed during the opening hours of the reading room.  Reservation.
• Reproduction:  The content of the fonds may be freely reproduced in the reading room. Practical information for requesting a reproduction by CegeSoma personnel can be found here.
• Finding aids: Inventory AA2513

Fonds description:

Archives of Léon Schillings concerning his activities in the Resistance and the SBS service

The archives of Léon Schillings were bequeathed to CegeSoma in 2017 and cover his activities as a resistance fighter and, in the post-war period, as a member of various associations. The fonds holds, among other things, abundant documentation about the liberation of Wallonia. It also contains personal correspondence with other former resistance fighters. The Schillings archives are subdivided into three parts: the first one is a collection of various documents, the second bears on the private and professional life of Léon Schillings, and the third part holds documents about his activities within the Belgian Resistance.

Léon Schillings (1920-2016) entered the Resistance in 1940 and successively became a member of different networks: Clarence, Tégal and finally the Armée secrète. He was recruited by State Security in October 1944 and got based in Switzerland to work on Germany until January 1945. Until the end of hostilities he was assigned to the recruitment and documentation office in Brussels. He was awarded several distinctions for his actions within the Resistance and pursued a career in the textile industry after the war.

For more information :

• Marquet, Victor. Contribution à l’histoire de l’Armée secrète 1940-1944. Bruxelles : Pygmalion/Union des Fraternelles de l’Armée secrète, 6 fasc., 1991-1995. 
• Maerten Fabrice, "La résistance en Belgique durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale", http://www.democratieoubarbari...
• Verhoeyen, Étienne. "Quatrième partie : la résistance". In La Belgique occupée. De l’an 40 à la Libération. Bruxelles : De Boeck-Wesmael, 1994, p. 331-511.
• Debruyne, Emmanuel. Un service secret en exil. L'Administration de la Sûreté de l'État à Londres, novembre 1940 - septembre 1944. CHTP/BEG, 15, 2005, p. 335-355.
• Etienne Verhoeyen & Emmanuel Debruyne." Les années londoniennes". In La Sûreté : essais sur les 175 ans de la Sûreté de l'Etat. Bruxelles:  Politeia, 2005, p. 75-92.
• Bernard, Henri. L’armée secrète, 1940-1944. Gembloux : Duculot, 1986.
• Debruyne, Emmanuel. La guerre secrète des espions belges 1940-1944. Bruxelles : Racine, 2008.
• Debruyne, Emmanuel. C'était Tégal : un réseau de renseignements en Belgique occupée, 1940-1944. Bruxelles : Labor, 2003.

• Maerten, Fabrice. Papy était-il un héros ? Sur les traces des hommes et des femmes dans la résistance pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Bruxelles : Racine, 2020.