Original WWII Belgian collaboration August Borms bust

This August Borms bust is in good condition and was originally released from the estate of the family of a Belgian collaborator.It was produced 1940 in Belgium by the famous sculptor Hildebert Derre and made with plaster.The bust has a lot of details and was found in the city of Antwerp and it is signed by the sculptor on the right side and dated with 1940.Dimensions: 54 x 31 x 24 cm.August BormsAugust Borms was born on 14 April 1878 in Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) and was a Flemish nationalist foreman.He is a controversial figure in the history of the Flemish Movement because of his collaboration with the German occupiers during the First and Second World War.In May 1940 the Second World War broke out and August Borms was deported to France with other Nazi-minded Flamingants and Rexists.He spent a short time in the camp of Saint-Cyprien, but was released among the first and was back in Antwerp on 10 July.He again collaborated with the German Reich, albeit less prominently, because he condemned the rivalry between the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV) and the DeVlag.However, he remained a loyal visitor to many collaboration meetings.He spoke, among other things, at the equalized IJzerbedevaart, for the DeVlag and for the Flemish Waffen-SS Legion.In the late summer of 1944 he emigrated to Germany, where he was disabled as a result of a traffic accident.In September 1944, Jef Van de Wiele appointed him advisor to the Vlaamsche Landsleiding, a shadowy 'Flemish government' in exile in Germany.As a result of his accident, he was admitted to a Berlin hospital.A few weeks after the Fall of Berlin, a nurse, Baroness Alette de Wykerslooth de Rooyestein, reported him to the Belgian government.Back in Belgium an arrest followed and in October 1945 the trial. He was again sentenced to the death penalty.This judgment was upheld on appeal in January 1946.Two days before his 68th birthday, he came before the firing squad in the gendarmerie barracks in Etterbeek.Hildebert DerreHildebert Derre was born on 11 July 1886 in Antwerp and was a well-known Belgian sculptor.During the First World War, Hildebert and his family emigrated to the Netherlands.He taught there, among others, to the then Princess Juliana, daughter of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Hendrik.This made him famous, which gave him commissions as a sculptor of heads.After the First World War, Hildebert Derre made, in addition to religious work, mainly portrait busts and heads, usually in plaster and sometimes in bronze.He was involved in the furnishing of various pavilions for the 1930 World's Fair and during the war he made busts of several Belgian collaborators.A very scarce and rare buste for the collaboration or World War II collection!Article number: 7918