Reimond Tollenaere

Reimond Tollenaere (June 29, 1909 – January 22, 1942) was a member of the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV), a right-wing Flemish nationalist party in Belgium. He was an active collaborator with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Tollenaere became active in the Flemish nationalist movement during his law studies at the University of Ghent. He was appointed as propaganda leader of the VNV and, in 1936, became a VNV member of parliament. During the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940 he was arrested by the Belgian authorities as a potential subversive and spent some time in prison in France. After being freed following the French defeat, he resumed his political activities in Flanders.

In 1941 after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion in the Soviet Union, Tollenaere was active in encouraging the recruitment of Flemish volunteers for the Eastern Front and eventually joined himself. He was killed by friendly fire from the Spanish Blue Division in January 1942 near Leningrad in the region of Veliky Novgorod.

References

• Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 edited by Philip Rees, 1991, ISBN 0-13-089301-3