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Attention: the War Dead Register only lists Belgian fallen soldiers.  
The War Dead Register provides basic personal information (name, first name, date and place of birth, etc.) and does not contain military files (giving a complete overview of the military career). According to date of birth the files are kept either by the Royal Military Museum or by the Defence archives service. The files safeguarded at the Military Museum can be consulted on site (Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels). The files kept up till now by Defence are currently transferred to the General State Archives.
The date on which they will be once again available has not yet been determined.   

 

Archives of the Royal Military Museum 

Documentation Centre 
Parc du Cinquantenaire 3
1000 Brussels
E-mail : cdoc.klm-mra@warheritage.be   
Website: www.warheritage.be

Cemetery details

Where?
Krijgsbaan 100, 2660 Hoboken
 
View on map

History

In 1911 the city of Antwerp purchases the Schoonselhof in view of establishing the city cemetery. However, the Great War breaks out before the first body can be laid to rest.  
In order to bury the fallen from the wide Antwerp area - and especially those passing away in the military hospital deployed in Berchem during the First World War - a court is set up for each nationality. Even in death, differences remain.   
The first deceased soldier, a German, is buried here on 28 August 1914 and many casualties follow. The final arrangement of this military cemetery comes about after the 1918 armistice. Even shot civilians are interred in the honours court. 
After the Second World War plots are set up for Belgian servicemen, civilian victims and foreign servicemen. 

 

Casualties

777 First World War – 133 Second World War – 3 Korean War

 

Description

The honours court is a large rectangular site bordered by hedges and lanes, with water features and large trees making for a serene atmosphere. The typical Belgian bluestone with bronze plaque marks each grave. 
Belgian graves
The city of Antwerp decides to go against the method applied to other honours courts and buries some Antwerp veterans (passing away after the war) among the military war dead, with identical headstones. A Congolese man in Belgian service is also buried here, far from his native country. A Belgian in American service is to be found at the Schoonselhof as well. 
Commonwealth graves
These 1,489 graves are marked with white headstones. In many of these graves rest servicemen who die on 16 December 1944, when a V-bomb hits the Rex cinema where countless soldiers are watching the show. The Schoonselhof is one of the largest dedicated to the Second World War in Belgium. 
French graves
The French dead are buried under simple crosses with their names on plaques. The fallen of Arab or North African descent lie under a horseshoe-shaped tombstone. In the centre of the honours court a monument pays tribute to the French who perished in Antwerp in 1914.
Italian, Portuguese and Russian graves
The graves of Italian, Portuguese and Russian soldiers are situated between the Belgian and British honours courts. Most of them were prisoners of war put to work by the Germans. They lie in separate plots with their own headstone models.