Reimond Tollenaere

Reimond Tollenaere (Oostakker June 29, 1909 – Koptsy, near Veliki Novgorod January 22, 1942) was an SS-Untersturmführer (Second Lieutenant) and member of the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (V.N.V.), a right-wing Flemish nationalist party. Tollenaere became active in the Flemish nationalist movement during his law studies at the university of Ghent. He became propaganda leader of the V.N.V. and in 1936 he became a member of parliament. At the beginning of World War II in May 1940 he was arrested by the Belgian authorities and spent some time in prison in France. After his liberation he resumed his political activities. In 1941 after the beginning of operation Barbarossa, the German invasion in the Soviet Union, Tollenaere became active in the recruitment of Flemish volunteers for the Eastern front. He was a volunteer himself and as such he died as a result of friendly fire of the Spanish Blue Division on the Leningrad front, in the region of Veliky Novgorod in January 1942.