Occupied Belgium

Dirk Martin studied history at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) where he defended his thesis on local political personnel during the interwar period. He was a scientific collaborator at CegeSoma from 1979 to 2016, holding various positions such as head of Archives, head of the Documentation Sector and Acting Director. He is also a member of several official management bodies and associations in the research sector. Notably, he was the Secretary of the Documentation Group of the Federal Scientific Establishments. He left CegeSoma after having been its director from September to December 2016.

Dirk Martin’s research areas were varied. His interests included Belgium’s foreign policy before, during and after the Second World War, communal policy of the interwar period, cultural policy under occupation and, more generally, sources relating to Belgium during the Second World War.

As part of his research, Dirk Martin conducted some fifty interviews between the 1980s and 2001, mostly in Dutch on a variety of themes, but mainly on collaboration and resistance in occupied Belgium. Several of his interviews address these issues at the local level in cities such as Ghent, Leuven and Antwerp. The result of his research on the subject has led to the publication of several key books including De Rijksuniversiteit Gent tijdens de bezetting 1940-1944. Leven put de vijand and Antwerp sous l’Occupation, 1940-1945.

Other interviews with Dirk Martin concern culture and the arts during the occupation (dance, music and literature), Belgians in Great Britain and the United States during the Second World War, propaganda and Belgian trade unionism abroad.

De Rijksuniversiteit Gent tijdens de bezetting 1940-1944 : leven met de vijand
Dirk Martin

Gepubliceerd in 1985 in Gent door Archief van de Rijksuniversiteit Gent

Antwerpen 1940-1945

Dirk Martin, Lieve Saerens

ISBN: 9789085422488 
augustus 2011