Bijdragen & Bronnen

Hendrik Draye, tegenstander van de uitvoering van de doodstraf

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Abstract

Hendrik Draye, opponent of the carrying out of the death penalty
In this annotated and extensively contextualised source edition, Luc Vandeweyer deals with the period of repression after the Second World War. In June 1948, after the execution of two hundred collaboration-suspects in Belgium, the relatively young linguistics professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, Hendrik Draye, proposed, on humanitarian grounds, a Manifesto against the carrying out of the death penalty. Some colleagues, as well as some influential personalities outside the university, reacted positively; some colleagues were rather hesitant; most of them rejected the text. In the end, the initiative foundered because of the emphatic dissuasion by the head of university, who wanted to protect his university and, arguably, the young professor Draeye. The general public’s demand for revenge had not yet abated by then; moreover, the unstable government at that time planned a reorientation of the penal policy, which made a polarization undesirable. Nevertheless, Luc Vandeweyer concludes, "the opportunity for an important debate on the subject had been missed".

How to Cite:

Vandeweyer, L., (2006) “Hendrik Draye, tegenstander van de uitvoering van de doodstraf”, WT. Tijdschrift over de geschiedenis van de Vlaamse beweging 65(2), 134-152. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/wt.v65i2.12622