After its successful invasion in May 1940, a German military government was established in Belgium, bringing the territory under the direct rule of the . Thousands of Belgian soldiers became prisoners of war, and many were not released until 1945. The German administration in Belgium juggled the competing objectives of maintaining order while also extracting material from the territory to use in their war effort. They were assisted by the Belgian civil service, which believed that limited co-operation with the occupiers would result in the least damage to Belgian interests. Belgian Fascist parties, established before the war, in both Flanders and Wallonia collaborated much more actively with the occupiers, helping to recruit Belgians for the German army and were given more power themselves