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FrançaisFort Breendonk is a Belgian fortress at Willebroek that the SS ran as a prison camp, the SS-Auffanglager Breendonk, from 20 September 1940 to 4 September 1944. It is a national memorial today, open daily from 9.30am to 5.30pm with last entry at 3.30pm, and adult admission is €11 (about $12, £9).
Breendonk was not an extermination camp, and calling it a concentration camp is not quite right either. It was an Auffanglager, a reception and detention camp: a prison where people were held, interrogated, tortured and in many cases killed, and from which most survivors were deported onward to camps in Germany and occupied Poland. The distinction matters because it describes what actually happened here.
What is Fort Breendonk?
Fort Breendonk is a Belgian army fort of 1906 to 1913 that the SS requisitioned in 1940 and used as a prison camp for four years. Fort Breendonk was built as part of the second ring of the National Redoubt defending Antwerp, measuring roughly 200 by 300 m, covered by a five-metre layer of earth and ringed by a water-filled moat, and it was already militarily obsolete by the Second World War.
The prisoners held here were Jews, members of the resistance, political prisoners and hostages taken from the general population. Between 400 and 500 of them were Jewish; most of the rest were left-wing resistance members or people held as hostages. Jewish prisoners were segregated from the others until 1942, after which they were moved to the Mechelen transit camp at Kazerne Dossin and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Two SS officers commanded the camp: Philipp Schmitt from August 1940 to November 1943, then Karl Schönwetter until August 1944. Flemish collaborationist paramilitaries guarded it alongside German SS units, which is one of the harder parts of the history the memorial does not avoid.
How many people died at Fort Breendonk?
3,590 prisoners are known to have been held at Fort Breendonk during the war. 303 of them died or were executed inside the fort itself, 185 of those by execution, and a further 1,741 died in other camps after being deported from here. Those figures are the ones the historical record supports, and they are the ones the memorial and the standard reference works use.
The 303 who died at Breendonk were killed by execution, by torture, by starvation, by disease and by exposure. Forced labour on the fort’s earthworks, carried out by hand in all weather, was itself a method of killing. The execution posts, the gallows and the torture chamber are all preserved on the site.
Numbers between 3,500 and 3,600 appear in different accounts because the prisoner registers are incomplete. Where a source gives a round 3,500, it is describing the same population. The rewriting of that figure downwards, or the merging of the 303 who died here with the 1,741 who died elsewhere, is the most common error in guides to this site.
Where is Fort Breendonk?
Fort Breendonk stands at Brandstraat 57 B, 2830 Willebroek, in the province of Antwerp, roughly 20 km (12.4 mi) south of Antwerp and 25 km (15.5 mi) north of Brussels. The fort sits west of the Brussels-Scheldt maritime canal, just off the A12, on the line between Antwerp and the capital.
Do not put Brandstraat into a satnav. The memorial asks visitors to enter one of two other addresses instead: Rijksweg, 2830 Willebroek or Dendermondsesteenweg 309, 2830 Willebroek. Its coordinates are 51.0564° N, 4.3414° E.
The site is in Belgium‘s densest transport corridor, so reaching it without a car is straightforward. The section on getting there below sets out the train and bus options that the memorial itself publishes.
When was Fort Breendonk opened to the public?
Fort Breendonk opened to the public as a memorial on 19 August 1947, almost three years after the liberation of Belgium. The Belgian state chose to preserve the fort rather than clear it, and survivors of the camp took part in turning it into a memorial.
Between the German withdrawal and that opening, the fort had a short second life as an internment camp: Belgian authorities used it to hold collaborators and German prisoners of war. It has been a national memorial since 1947, with commemorations held annually.
What is the history of Fort Breendonk?
Fort Breendonk was built between 1906 and 1913 to defend Antwerp, fought once, and then spent thirty years obsolete before the SS put it to a different use. During the siege of Antwerp in 1914 it was shelled by German howitzers firing from beyond the range of its own guns, and it was badly damaged before surrendering.
In May 1940 the fort briefly housed the headquarters of the Belgian army, with King Leopold III as commander-in-chief, until the Belgian surrender on 28 May. The SS requisitioned it shortly afterwards and it opened as a prison camp on 20 September 1940.
For four years it operated as the SS-Auffanglager Breendonk. Prisoners were held in cold, dark casemates, put to forced labour clearing the earthworks by hand, interrogated in a purpose-built torture chamber by the Gestapo, and executed at posts and gallows on the grounds. The camp closed on 4 September 1944 when the Germans withdrew ahead of the Allied advance.
The Austrian-born writer Jean Améry was among the prisoners tortured here, and the essay he later wrote about it is one of the most widely read first-hand accounts of Nazi torture. Willy Kruyt, Todor Angelov, Martial van Schelle and Paul Hoornaert were also held at Breendonk.
What are the visiting hours of Fort Breendonk?
Fort Breendonk is open every day from 9.30am to 5.30pm, and the last entry is at 3.30pm, two hours before closing. That is earlier than most memorial sites and earlier than several guides state, so arriving at four o’clock means not getting in.
The fort closes on 1 January and on 24, 25 and 31 December. It also closes on individual days for commemorations and events, and it announces those on its own site, so check the date before travelling.
How much is the entrance fee for Fort Breendonk?
Adult admission to Fort Breendonk is €11 (about $12, £9), and children under 6 enter free. The 2026 rates are listed below.
- Adults aged 19 and over: €11 (about $12, £9).
- Young people aged 6 to 18, groups of 15 or more, and holders of recognised reduction cards: €9 (about $10, £8).
- Groups of 15 or more accompanied by a Fort of Breendonk guide, aged 19 and over: €4.50 (about $4.90, £3.80).
- Youth groups of 15 or more: €4 (about $4.30, £3.40); with a Fort of Breendonk guide, aged 6 to 18: €3 (about $3.20, £2.60).
- Children under 6: free, as are holders of certain reduction cards.
The Belgian museum pass is accepted here. It costs €64.95 a year, covers participating museums across the country and can be bought at the memorial’s own reception desk.
How long is a typical visit to Fort Breendonk?
A typical visit to Fort Breendonk takes 2 to 3 hours, and the audio guide alone accounts for about two of them. There is no time limit once you are inside, so the constraint is the 3.30pm last entry rather than the closing time.
The route is marked with arrows throughout, indoors and out, so the halls and paths work as a one-way circuit and it is not possible to get lost. Testimony from former prisoners plays on screens along the way, alongside the information panels and the audio commentary.
Allow the full three hours if you intend to read the panels rather than walk past them. Some rooms, including the one holding urns with ashes from other camps and the names of those held here, are normally opened only for guided groups.
How do you get to Fort Breendonk?
Reach Fort Breendonk by car, train or bus, and all three routes are short from Antwerp, Mechelen or Brussels. The 3 options the memorial publishes are listed below.
- By car. Leave the A12 at exit 7 from either direction. From Brussels the exit is signed Willebroek centrum – Fort Breendonk; take the first street on the right, a dead end, which leads to the fort’s car park. From Antwerp the exit is signed Puurs; keep left, turn left, cross the bridge over the A12 and take the first street on the right.
- By train. Take a train to Mechelen and change for Willebroek, which runs hourly. Willebroek station is about a 20-minute walk from the fort. Check Belgian rail times and fares on Omio before you travel, because the Mechelen connection is what determines the day.
- By bus. De Lijn bus 460 (Brussels – Londerzeel – Boom) and 260 (Brussels – Puurs Station) both stop at Fort van Breendonk. From Mechelen, take bus 286 or 287 towards Boom; from Boom, take bus 258 towards Willebroek. The stop is named Fort van Breendonk in every case.
Guided visits are arranged through the memorial rather than joined on the day, and the group rates above are the ones that apply. Booking is done with the Fort itself.
Where can you stay near Fort Breendonk?
Stay in Mechelen or Antwerp rather than in Willebroek, because both are 20 to 25 minutes away by road and both have the hotels, food and evening the village does not. Mechelen is the closer of the two and puts you beside Kazerne Dossin, the transit camp from which Jews were deported from Belgium, which is the site most people pair with Breendonk. Compare hotels in Mechelen if you are making two days of it.
Antwerp works better if the memorial is one stop in a longer trip, since it has the rail connections onward and a full choice of accommodation. Brussels is also within an hour, which makes Breendonk a feasible half-day from the capital.
Whichever you choose, plan the memorial for the morning. The last entry at 3.30pm rules out an afternoon visit tacked onto something else, and the site is not one to rush through in the ninety minutes before closing.
What should you know before visiting Fort Breendonk?
Treat Fort Breendonk as a memorial and a burial place, because that is what it is, and behave as you would at a war grave. Keep your voice down, stay on the marked route, and do not touch the structures or the objects on display.
The fort is cold. The casemates hold their temperature all year and are noticeably colder than outside even in summer, so take a layer regardless of the season. Visitors in winter describe shivering indoors in a hat and a coat.
The content is unsparing. Guides at Breendonk do not soften the account of what was done here, including for school groups, and the torture chamber and execution ground are part of the standard route. Think about whether a child in your party is ready for that before you buy the ticket, rather than after.
What do we think about Fort Breendonk?
I visited Fort Breendonk in November 2021, alone, and I was glad of it. This place makes me quiet. I was not the only visitor: a handful of foreign tourists and a school group of about thirteen-year-olds were going round at the same time.
I moved closer to hear what their guide was telling them, and she did not make any of it sound less gruesome than it was. She talked about how the guards treated the prisoners and how many people died here. I still do not know how I would tell a group of children about the history of Breendonk, or whether I could, but those children were listening. They were not messing about when the teachers looked away. They asked questions after each explanation.
I wondered whether they were less sensitive to the stories, whether Breendonk is simply history to them. I did not ask. I hope nobody ever becomes insensitive to what happened here, and I hope there will always be teachers and guides willing to explain it.
Later I came across a second group, adults, foreign visitors, being led into a room that is normally shut. Their guide let me go in with them. “Lucky” is the wrong word for it: that room holds urns containing ashes from several concentration camps, and the names of the more than 3,500 people who were held at this one.
The visit ends where it starts, at the entrance. Does the place make you happy? Obviously not. Should you go? Yes. A part of Belgian, European and world history is explained here properly and kept alive so that new generations do not forget it. Walking through the halls it feels as though nothing has been changed. The cold inside, with me shivering in a hat and a winter coat, sat oddly against the blue sky and the grey walls outside.
If you are building the rest of a trip around it, our guide to things to do in Belgium covers the lighter days that a visit here needs on either side of it.
WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips
The 5 tips below come from that November visit and from re-checking the memorial’s own practical page in 2026. Two of them correct times and routes that are still printed wrongly elsewhere.
- Arrive before 3.30pm, not before 4.30pm. The last entry is two hours before the 5.30pm closing time, which the memorial states on its own practical page. Guides that give the last admission as one hour before closing, at 4.30pm in summer or 4pm in winter, will send you to a locked gate.
- Wear more than the weather asks for. The casemates stay cold all year. On a November visit a hat and a winter coat were not enough to stop the shivering, and the temperature difference between the grounds and the interior is the thing visitors remember alongside the exhibits.
- Put Rijksweg into the satnav, not Brandstraat. The memorial’s postal address is Brandstraat 57 B, but it asks drivers to navigate to Rijksweg, 2830 Willebroek or Dendermondsesteenweg 309 instead. Leave the A12 at exit 7 from either direction and take the dead-end street to the car park.
- Go by train to Willebroek, not to Mechelen and then a taxi. Trains run hourly from Mechelen to Willebroek station, and it is a 20-minute walk from there. From Brussels, De Lijn bus 460 or 260 stops directly at Fort van Breendonk.
- Some rooms open only for guided groups. The room holding urns of ashes from other camps and the names of those held at Breendonk is normally closed to individual visitors. It was open on that visit only because a guided group was going in. If seeing it matters to you, arrange a guided visit with the Fort rather than relying on the audio guide.
About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand account in this post comes from the visit she made to Fort Breendonk in November 2021. The team has covered Belgium for independent travellers ever since the blog began, including its memorial sites, museums, transport and places to stay, and updates this page when opening hours, admission prices and access routes change.
I remember going there a couple years ago and it is such a strange, sad feeling you get when walking through the main building. It is not a concentration camp, I had heard of before I traveled to Belgium however I am glad I got the chance to explore, although it is a very sad place. I too wrote about my experience, here is the link to my post if you would like to read it. https://abookofmaps.blogspot.ca/2014/03/breendonk-concentration-camp-place-of.html
It’s liek you say: not a happy place, but one I do think you should visit, especially if you want to understand Belgian and European history a bit.
Fascinating read and history Sofie.
It is a tragic tale that such a fortress was built to protect the people of Belgium yet turned out to be a place of such horror for them.
This article is also very fitting as we are at the 70th anniversary of the liberation of so many concentration camps. Only yesterday the BBC were recalling their news reports from that time and making radio broadcasts as to what western journalists saw.
I myself have visited Auschwitz, probably the most famous concentration camp at all. Thankfully your article helps to highlight that there were so many of these horror locations across Europe during those dark days.
Like you say, I hope history does not dampen down the reality and somberness of these events. We are supposed to learn from history and hopefully future generations will sense this as being as real as we do today.
Hey, that’s strange, I just had to approve your comment here while you’ve commented so often already!
I’m glad you found it interesting Guy (or was I going to call you “Dude”?:p).
It is quite ironic, isn’t it. And I’m afraid it’s not the only time that happened. I’ve got a post scheduled about another fort in Belgium that was built to protect Belgium against attacks, but kind of failed to do so.
I have yet to visit Auschwitz myself. It’s something I want to do, but also not. I’m sure you know what I mean.
It’s important to keep writing and talking about things like this, so that they’re never forgotten or minimalized.
Strange, maybe I should enter my name as “Due” to get auto approval ;-)
Yes, I fully understand how you feel about Auschwitz. I must admit that when I was there the emotion of all that I saw didn’t hit me. I’m not saying I am heartless at all. I think it was a sub-conscious self defence mechanism. I think if I fully comprehended emotionally what I was seeing then I wouldn’t be able to handle it. (Hope that makes sense.)
I hope you do make it there one day. Purely because so many people suffered there, it is an enduring monument and we owe them our respect for all that they suffered.
Hope to see your second Belgium related article at some point :-)
I think you should.
It makes sense. I’m afraid the opposite would be true for me. I’m pretty sensitive. When I see horrid stuff on the news, it can haunt me for days and I have to force myself not to think about it anymore. Which is why I’ve actually stopped watching the news. I read the papers, that’s bad enough.
But I’ll definitely go one day. I just need to make sure I plan something fun to do afterwards.
Oh I’ve got maaaaany articles on Belgium planned for the following two months :-)
This was great. However, I do have a question. In this case, we shall be taking public transit. Sometimes there are short cuts or helpful hints. Would it be better to travel to Fort Breendonk from Antwerp or Brussels? Wish you would have put a bit of information about “getting there.” Thanks for the tips about it being cold! That is very helpful as one of the family is extremely sensitive to cold temperatures.
Hey Johannes,
The public transport connections can change throughout the year and I have over 600 posts on this blog. It would be too much work for me to keep them all up-to-date if I’d have to include bus connections and the like.
That’s why I prefer not giving that information, rather than having it be incorrect.
However, you can always check the website of De Lijn (buses in Flanders) or the NMBS (trains in Belgium) for up-to-date information.
Hope you have a great visit!