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Confédération Nationale des Prisonniers Politiques et Ayant Droits (Association, Belgi

CNPPA

Flag of CNPPA - Image by Ivan Sache, 10 January 2010

Presentation of CNPPA
Flag of CNPPA

See also:

Belgium

Presentation of CNPPA

CNPPA (Confédération Nationale des Prisonniers Politiques et Ayant Droits - National Confederation of Political Prisoners and their Heirs), was founded on 28 September 1946.

The main achievement of the CNPPA was the consideration of "concentration plant pathologies" for the calculation of the pensions of the former political prisoners, with gender equity. These measures were adopted only in 1973, while the first law prescribing the status of political prisoners had been adopted in 1947.
The CNPPA rejects the "national reconciliation", that would offer amnisty to all Belgians who collaborated with the German occupants during the Second World War. They accepted on 30 June 1961 the Vermeylen Law, that allowed the rehabilitation of repentant collaborationists.

In 1950, Nicolas Monami, one of the leaders of the CNPPA, offerred his mediation to the king and the political parties during the "Royal Question" crisis. He contributed to convince King Leopold III to delegate his powers to Crown Prince Baldwin, who was appointed Lieutenant General of the Kingdom on 11 August 1950 and crowned on 17 July 1951, one day after his father's abdication.

Ivan Sache, 10 January 2010

Flag of CNPPA

The section of the FNC (Fédération Nationale des Combattants) of "Awans-Bierset et environs" owns a rare copy of the CNPPA flag, sewn by Irène Cornet, the former secretary of the section.
The flag, in apparent proportions 10:11 is white with six vertical light blue stripes, a red triangle pointing downwards charged with a black "B", and the golden writing "C.N.P.P.A." in the upper part of the flag, the letters being placed in the white stripes and the dots in the blue stripes.
A black and white photo dated 1951 shows two leaders of the CNPPA in front of something that could be a flag of a similar design, with only three blue stripes and the writing "CNPPA-NCPGR", which seems to indicate that at the time the confederation grouped Walloon and Flemish members. This is confirmed by the posters calling to a demonstration against amnisty either in French or Dutch flanking the putative flag.

The design of the flag recalls the prisoners' uniforms in the concentration camps; the red triangle charged with a "B", sewn on the uniform, indicated a Belgian political prisonner. The red triangle is now, especially in Belgium, a symbol of resistance to the fascist ideology and the attempts of negation or amnisty of the crimes committed by the Nazis and their allies.

Ivan Sache, 10 January 2010