BY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE FINANCE COMMISSION.
DECREE CONCERNING THE DENUDATION OF THE CAPITAL.
DECREE CONCERNING THE DENUDATION OF THE CAPITAL.
In the event that the Capital is at risk of imminent capture, this decree shall take effect:
The war is not over. The fall of Brussels is neither the end of our struggle nor its defeat. As such, the goals of our movement remain the same and conditions for their success are unchanged. Having failed to defend itself by want of valour, Brussels has condemned itself to the fate of conquered cities. She must be utterly desolated. Our enemies shall inherit only a city of ash; their premature cries of victory shall shrivel in their throats when they are confronted by the sight of this mausoleum.
(1) Culture
Every artefact integral to the Belgian culture is be evacuated if possible. Any artefact that cannot be transported is to be destroyed. The Bolshevist legions cannot be allowed to seize our national culture - better to suffocate your own child than give it over to the rape of the enemy. The national museums and libraries and the private collections are marked for priority. Once these institutions have been liberated of their possessions, they are marked for destruction.
(2) Finance
All treasure that remains in the capital is booty for the enemy. Banking houses, houses of credit and all other financial institutions are to be sacked for the benefit of the war effort. Records of debts, liabilities and obligations are to be destroyed. Specie reserves that can be easily transported should be. In other circumstances, however, they must be disposed off in such a way as to be irretrievable. The Fascist mantra remains black before red or gold: we cannot be bound by materialist concerns when the strength of the movement emanates from its followers.
(3) Literature
Any and all records of policy, both our own and that of our predecessors, are to be immediately destroyed. No effort should be made at preservation or evacuation. The national records, the archives of the Chamber and Senate, the endless memoranda of the civil service and the public agencies - all must be obliterated. If there is any lingering record that there has ever been a Belgium, this mission shall be a failure. Our objective is not just to practically deprive the enemy of intelligence or useful information; we must destroy the past in order to preserve the future.
(4) Architecture
The inspiration here must be as the Vandals to Rome and the Mongols to Baghdad. Every building, structure and edifice held in credit by our enemies must be rendered unrecognisable. They have already done much of our dirty work for us - now finish the job. Remember, every palace of the mighty reduced to ruins is one less home for a Bolshevist brothel and one less staging-post for liberal hegemony. Moreover, a people who clutch to monuments of obsequiousness and deference to undeserving ideals cannot be emancipated. For the true cause to prevail, we must smash such idols.
Every artefact integral to the Belgian culture is be evacuated if possible. Any artefact that cannot be transported is to be destroyed. The Bolshevist legions cannot be allowed to seize our national culture - better to suffocate your own child than give it over to the rape of the enemy. The national museums and libraries and the private collections are marked for priority. Once these institutions have been liberated of their possessions, they are marked for destruction.
(2) Finance
All treasure that remains in the capital is booty for the enemy. Banking houses, houses of credit and all other financial institutions are to be sacked for the benefit of the war effort. Records of debts, liabilities and obligations are to be destroyed. Specie reserves that can be easily transported should be. In other circumstances, however, they must be disposed off in such a way as to be irretrievable. The Fascist mantra remains black before red or gold: we cannot be bound by materialist concerns when the strength of the movement emanates from its followers.
(3) Literature
Any and all records of policy, both our own and that of our predecessors, are to be immediately destroyed. No effort should be made at preservation or evacuation. The national records, the archives of the Chamber and Senate, the endless memoranda of the civil service and the public agencies - all must be obliterated. If there is any lingering record that there has ever been a Belgium, this mission shall be a failure. Our objective is not just to practically deprive the enemy of intelligence or useful information; we must destroy the past in order to preserve the future.
(4) Architecture
The inspiration here must be as the Vandals to Rome and the Mongols to Baghdad. Every building, structure and edifice held in credit by our enemies must be rendered unrecognisable. They have already done much of our dirty work for us - now finish the job. Remember, every palace of the mighty reduced to ruins is one less home for a Bolshevist brothel and one less staging-post for liberal hegemony. Moreover, a people who clutch to monuments of obsequiousness and deference to undeserving ideals cannot be emancipated. For the true cause to prevail, we must smash such idols.
Brussels must be returned to the mud-huts and marshlands from which it first arose. The soldiers of Fascism must forebear themselves against allowing the welfare of the populace to obstruct their duty. By their laxity and infirmness, the people have opened the gates to the Bolshevists; their fate is their own. I cannot summon a single drop of pity for a city which failed to defend itself; Brussels is fit to serve only as the foundations of our new capital, which shall exceed all others before it and after in grandeur.
Once this decree has been achieved, priority personnel shall report for evacuation.
Signed and ordered,
DR. R. VANDERMEER.
STATE COMMISSIONER.
DR. R. VANDERMEER.
STATE COMMISSIONER.
Long after the tide had turned and Brussels became a front-line city, Vandermeer remained in the capital. The State Finance Commission, bereft of a budget, operated via donations from the sympathetic and extortion of the unsympathetic. The gears of her ever-diminishing office continued to turn. Even Radio Brussels continued to violently denounce the London Government, until a shell landed outside the studio mid-broadcast. Vandermeer survived, but Hildegarde did not; the self-styled voice of Fascism was finally silenced. Had the situation not been unravelling so hastily, she could have stopped to appreciate the symbolism.
Eventually, with the city centre was on the verge of breakthrough and the suburbs in enemy hands, she made her escape through a narrow corridor through DeWitt's lines. So late was her departure that the East was already collapsing, and evacuation by plane impossible. So Vandermeer slunk into the Netherlands, acquired a false passport and an assumed identity as a Boer housekeeper, made her way to the Cape and then began the long journey through the African interior by which, finally, she reached Brabantville. For a woman who prized classical comparisons to contemporary events, it was a suitably Aeneid-like appendix to the Homeresque fall of Brussels.
It was not out of a desire for self-sacrifice that she lingered so long; Vandermeer continued to genuinely believe that the cause was undefeated and therefore her survival was more useful to it than an act of grandiloquent suicide. Some of her enemies amongst the Front - and as a woman and a neophyte fascist nonetheless elevated to the cabinet, she had more than a few - charged her with insubordination, suggesting that she desired to be captured rather than go into exile or had even been negotiating with the Bolsheviks.
But the reality was that she was fighting an enemy far more contemptible than DeWitt or his paymasters. Despite her exhortations, the Bruxellois had capitulated with rapidity, not only failing to resist the horde but even inviting them in. She did not begrudge their decision - but she would make them pay for it. Tirelessly, what loyalists she had at her command had plundered the city, a constant machine of destruction that, as the war grew ever more forlorn, became desperate and animalistic. Nothing was spared. A city could not be dismantled in a fortnight, but it could certainly be mangled. There was no malice in her act, vindictive as it was. Brussels had rebelled against Fascist enlightenment, and so it was punished - that was the way of things.
Perhaps fearing that she would not see her cabinet colleagues for some time, if ever again, she had hastily composed a letter, which one of her staff conveyed to the Leader's headquarters. It would thus reach Africa almost a month before it's author:
My Leader,
Know that the withdrawal from the fatherland has done nothing to diminish my confidence in your leadership nor of the prospects of the movement. Every conqueror has experienced such early setbacks; even the great Alexander was once a wandering exile, and the mighty Caesar a prisoner of pirates. These men did not mourn their losses; they learned from them. The final victory is always greater for the hardships and obstacles that preceded it.
If I you shall pardon my expression, the movement deserved to lose Belgium. No excuse can be made for our failure based on the sabotage of internal agents or the limping passivity of the people, legitimate as these complaints are. A conqueror does not lament his enemies; he crushes them. And we manifestly failed in this necessity. We succoured the idea that the Fascist triumph could be achieved within the constraints of an invidious, demoralising system. We flattered the liberal monarchy with our patronage and occupied the existing institutions. We sought collaboration, consensus and compromise. Inevitably, the softening of our militancy disappointed our followers, while these institutions - designed from the onset as perpetuators of the liberal consensus - soon spurned us. Is it any surprise that the people who celebrated our righteous opposition grew disillusioned when we embroiled ourselves in the hateful bodies which we once condemned?
But as I say, errors exist to be rectified. And rectification must begin at once. Unlike the precedents I have cited, we do not retreat into exile or captivity. You are still the master of an entire continent: Africa. If this appears a poor substitute for Brussels, recall that Caesar began as governor of a single Gaulish province and rose to command an empire. In Africa, the Fascist project may begin in earnest. There is no room now for collaboration, dilution of principle and faintness of heart; such counterproductive instincts have been rightfully detached by experience. Unencumbered by these evils, we stand to achieve greatness.
First, we must recognise greatness. As I predicted, the Arenberg dynast rejected our mandate and aligned himself with the Wyngaertist-Bolshevist conspirators. But if he preserved his throne in Brussels, he has forfeited it in Africa. Now is the time to declare your absolute rule. If the purity of the movement is to be recovered, it must start at the very summit. No more petty kings uselessly encrusting the State; no more effeminate, undeserving families demanding respect by right of their distant forefathers. You have conquered Africa - now put it in words. In the language of our worthy ancestors, there is a powerful word, Allwoldend, meaning "all-ruling one". Make yourself the Allwoldend of Africa.
If you shall pardon my failure to deliver you the fatherland, I hope to continue to serve as your loyal servant in the capacity you have provided for me. I shall turn these squalid African lands into an engine of labour and industry. The fruits of conquest shall continue to fuel the cause. Though impoverished in people and culture, this land is rich in natural treasure - enough to sustain the war effort in perpetuity. And so we shall demonstrate that even when saddled with inferior Negro stock and barbarous climate, this movement shall still eclipse backward Bolshevists and their liberal facilitators.
Please bear to accept these modest expressions of consideration from your obedient servant.
With fraternal regards,
Roni Vandermeer