Wezembeek-Oppem () is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( ; ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also ...

, in the

Flemish region The Flemish Region (, ), usually simply referred to as Flanders ( ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—alongside the Wallonia, Walloon Region and the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region. ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, east of the centre of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. The municipality only comprises the town of Wezembeek-Oppem proper. On January 1, 2016, Wezembeek-Oppem had a total population of 14,095. The total area is , which gives a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of . It is essentially a suburb of Brussels and was a component of the short-lived

Arrondissement of Brussels-Periphery The Arrondissement of Brussels-Periphery () was an administrative arrondissement in the Belgian Province of Brabant. It existed from 1963 to 1971 and comprised the six municipalities in the Brussels periphery (; ) with language facilities. Hist ...

, although it does not directly adjoin any part of the

Brussels-Capital Region Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital ...

. The

Brussels Ring The Brussels Ring ( or ; ), numbered R0, is a ring road surrounding the Brussels-Capital Region, as well as other smaller towns south of Brussels. It is about long, with two or three lanes in each direction. While most of it is classified a ...

(R0) orbital motorway bisects the municipality. Wezembeek-Oppem is home to a large community of international

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

s, in part because of the presence of the Internationale Deutsche Schule Brüssel (iDSB) in Wezembeek-Oppem itself, and the

British School of Brussels The British School of Brussels (commonly abbreviated to BSB), is an international school in Belgium. It occupies a site of about surrounded by woodland near the Royal Museum of Central Africa in the town of Tervuren, Flemish Brabant, east ...

in nearby

Tervuren Tervuren (; ) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren proper, Vossem and Moorsel. On 1 January 2006, Tervuren had a total population o ...

Languages

Wezembeek-Oppem is one of the six

municipalities with language facilities In Belgium, there are 27 municipalities with language facilities (; ; ), which must offer linguistic services to residents in Dutch, French, or German in addition to their single official languages. All other municipalities – with the except ...

in the

Flemish Region The Flemish Region (, ), usually simply referred to as Flanders ( ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—alongside the Wallonia, Walloon Region and the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region. ...

surrounding the

. Wezembeek-Oppem is the only one of these that does not border Brussels directly since a narrow strip of land belonging to the neighbouring municipality of

Kraainem Kraainem () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality only comprises the town of Kraainem proper. On January 1, 2006, Kraainem had a total population of 13,150. The total area is , whi ...

lies in between the closest city boundary at Stockel (

Woluwe-Saint-Pierre Woluwe-Saint-Pierre ( French, ) or Sint-Pieters-Woluwe ( Dutch, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the eastern part of the region, it is bordered by Etterbeek, Auderghem and Woluwe-Saint-Lambe ...

). When the last official language census was taken in 1947, just under 30% of the population in Wezembeek-Oppem had French as their mother tongue. In 1963, when the official

language border A language border or language boundary is the line separating two language areas. The term is generally meant to imply a lack of mutual intelligibility between the two languages. If two adjacent languages or dialects are mutually intelligible, n ...

was finalised in Belgium, the municipality was designed as officially Dutch-speaking, however with facilities for French-speakers. In 1993, when Belgium was turned into a federation, the municipality was included in the newly established

. The official language is

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

(as everywhere in

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

), but the facility status means citizens have the right to request official documents from the local administration in French, may get primary school education in French as well as certain other public services.

Orphanage in World War II

During the

Nazi German Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

occupation in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Wezembeek was the home of an

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...

set up by the (AJB), a ''

Judenrat A ''Judenrat'' (, ) was an administrative body, established in any zone of German-occupied Europe during World War II, purporting to represent its Jewish community in dealings with the Nazi authorities. The Germans required Jews to form ''J ...

''-like authority forcibly organised by the German occupational force and collaborating with the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. The orphanage was for Jewish children whose parents had been murdered in Nazi

extermination camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

. From August 1944, the AJB, under hard pressure of the ''

Comité de Défense des Juifs The Committee for the Defence of Jews (, or CDJ; , JVD) was a group within the Belgian Resistance, affiliated to the Front de l'Indépendance, founded by the Jewish Communist Hertz Jospa and his wife Have Groisman (Yvonne Jospa) of ''Solidarit� ...

'', decided to hide the children until the end of the occupation. The children were dispersed to Catholic schools, orphanages and other locations. During the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and January 1945, the children survived bombardment by American and British forces while in the basements of homes, schools and orphanages which were occupied by Nazi troops resisting the Allied forces. Children who were at the orphanage and survived include Regina Feld Glinzman (born 1935 as Rosa Feld in Antwerp) and Estelle Alter (born 1936 as Stella Feld in Antwerp).

Education

The

International German School of Brussels International German School of Brussels (, iDSB) is a German international school in Wezembeek-Oppem, Flemish Brabant, Belgium, near Brussels. Founded in 1803, it has around 560 students and 80 staff. Notable former pupils * Sophie Tassignon, Be ...

is located in the municipality. The Heilig Hart College is a school situated in Wezembeek-Oppem.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of Flemish Brabant