Louis Bernheim

Lieutenant-General Louis Bernheim was a Belgian career soldier and general, notable for his service during World War I. He was also notable as one of Belgium's highest ranking soldiers of Jewish origin.

Biography
Bernheim was born into a Jewish family in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels on 1 September 1861. His parents had emigrated to Belgium from Nancy, France in 1858.

Entering the Ecole Militaire in 1878, Bernheim joined the Regiment of Grenadiers as a second lieutenant at the age of 19. He later taught at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels. Rising through the ranks rapidly in the first years of the 20th century, Bernheim was a lieutenant-colonel in the 7th Regiment of the Line at the time of the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914.

He was promoted to command the 3rd Brigade during the Siege of Antwerp in September 1914 and commanded his unit during the fighting around the Nete. In November 1914, he was promoted to major-general and, in 1915, was given command of the 1st Army Division in the Steenstraet section of the Yser Front. During an inspection of his troops at the front in September 1915, Bernheim was severely wounded by an enemy artillery shell but returned to service after just two months' convalescence. In March 1916, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General. In 1917, the Frontbeweging, a Flemish Movement group, became important in the 1st Army Division and Bernheim was attacked by Flamingant soldiers for his attempts to suppress it.

In September 1918, he was placed in command of a group of three army divisions on the Yser during the Belgian advance in the Hundred Days' Offensive. Berheim's units were notably involved in the capture of the important forest at Houthulst. After the end of the war, he was promoted Inspector General of the Infantry and he officially retired from the army in 1926. Among the awards received by Bernheim during his career was the Légion d'honneur and the Order of the Bath.

Bernheim died in 1931 while visiting his daughter in Paris. As a freethinker, he had demanded to be cremated at his death and, because Belgian law did not permit it at the time, was cremated in France. His funeral was attended by King Albert I and the former prime minister Charles de Broqueville.

A road in Ixelles is named after Bernheim and there is a statue by Edmond de Valériola of him in the square Marie-Louise.

Honours

 * 1919 : Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold.

Autography

 * La question militaire (1928)