This research project deals with the punishment of collaboration in Belgian after WW II from a social-historical perspective. The main question will be how the (suspected) collaborators, actors of justice and society interacted with each other. By studying the punishment of collaboration from the perspective of the different users and actors of justice, new insights are to be expected in the history of the social relations in postwar Belgium. For this, the punishment of collaboration will be studied ‘from below’. This perspective makes it possible to study the involvement of civil society and the suspected) collaborators in the postwar criminal justice system. It is assumed that they did not had a passive attitude towards justice, but tried to influence the criminal proceedings in their favor, for example by making use of the letters of support.

By looking at the practices of the judicial process from the perspective of its users, social relations in the immediate postwar period will come to the surface. Were the (suspect) collaborators isolated from the rest of society during their trial, or could they count on support? Furthermore, this project relates to the question how society interacted with justice in times of crisis and after large-scale violence. Did the experience of the occupation provide an opportunity for renewed relationships between justice, the offender and society? Can we say that a transformation took place because many more people became involved in the justice system immediately after the war?