Leon Degrelle
1906 – 1994 Belgian Leader of the Rexist movement; Waffen-SS officer
Belgian Rexist leader who became a decorated Waffen-SS volunteer and unrepentant exile.
- Religion
- A militant Catholic who launched Rexism from Catholic publishing and cast his fascism in Catholic-national terms before drifting toward Nazi paganism in the SS.
- Affiliations
- Founder of the Rexist Party; commander of the Walloon Legion in the Waffen-SS. No occult ties.
Degrelle built the Rexist movement out of Catholic activism in the 1930s, then collaborated with the Germans and fought on the Eastern Front in the Waffen-SS. Condemned to death in absentia after the war, he escaped to Spain. He remained an outspoken Holocaust denier and admirer of Hitler until his death in 1994.
Connections
- associate of Adolf Hitler — An admirer Hitler reportedly praised as an ideal son.
- associate of Heinrich Himmler — Served in the Waffen-SS Himmler commanded.