ABSTRACT
In Liège, as in every other Belgian city and town, in May 1940, local officials came into direct contact with the occupying authority. These Belgian mayors and other elected officials were faced with a crisis and with a new political reality. Life had to be returned to normal as quickly as possible, but this would be a new normality. Daily existence and the business of local government would now take place in a context in which the Germans would play a regular and overriding role. Notwithstanding the new legal and administrative ordering in the country, local officials nonetheless had to deal with the immediate and pressing needs of the population. Citizens had to be fed and housed. The duty of the city of Liège, its mayor, the Socialist Joseph Bologne, its elected councilors and its administrative staff, was to return life to its ordinary routines in these exceptional times as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
