Life in Occupied Belgium

[JohnC]

A little while ago I read Tom Isitt's excellent book Riding in the Zone Rouge, in which he relates the hardships and cruelty inflicted upon the civilian population of occuped Belgium. By coincidence I have just acquired a bunch of Belgian Army maps within which the seller kindly enclosed a collection of original documents which brought the point home to me. They all concern the town of Braine-le-Comte, a railway town about 10 miles north-east of Mons. It was overrun by the Germans around 22nd August 1914 and I suppose remained continually so until the Armistice. I've attached some photos below.

The first is an affiche from the town hall dated 24th August, the day after the Battle of Mons, stating "It is at the heart of the town of Braine-le-Comte to thank the multinational soldiers of the 3rd Company of the 84th Regiment for their help in the fire of the town hall, which today is burned by imprudence". Hmm, I wonder who's imprudence?

A week later, notice of a curfew - cafes closed at 9pm, thereafter no gathering in streets or doorways, and in each house the street door to be left unlocked and a window lit.

Followed by notice of the maximum prices in the markets to be charged for groceries.

Then, being a railway town, lodgings were required for German railway workers. No rent to be charged but a daily allowance of 25 or 50 centimes payable according to rank. Acceptance chits from numerous householders.

A letter from the Red Cross informing the Bourgmestre of the death of a townsman in the prison camp of Hesepe (NW Germany). I think he died from exhaustion complicated by a heart condition.

Then, most chilling, a list of deported residents - 507 of them. Many of them died, I haven't counted, but two of whom were removed on 29th October 1918 with the men of 17-35 years. Just a fortnight before the Armistice, the Germans were clearing the town of men of fighting age.

Finally, from 1921, what appears to be a sheet of vouchers enabling the bearer to claim compensation for war damages of 250 francs payable by installments of 10 francs. All but the final payment in January 1961 has been redeemed! At least that's what I think it means.

Anyway, there we are. I guess I always knew this happened, and much, much worse, but it is somehow rather thought provoking to see the evidence at first hand in these old papers.

 

[tomisitt]

Just stumbled across this post. Fascinating collection of documents. Lucky chap.

[Hedley Malloch]

The documents give a flavour of life under German occupation, a neglected aspect of conditions just behind the firing line. The documents mention the deportations, the curfews and the billeting of Germans with locals, but don't give any idea of the other deprivations such as requisitions, the Germanification of towns and villages, the systematic pillaging and destruction of industry and commerce, and the cruelty which accompanied the ruthless discipline to be found in some areas.

Before I began to study life in German occupied territories I was of the view that a British defeat in WW1 would not be entirely bad. Great Britain would benefit from German approaches to education and training, adoption of the German banking system and their policies on corporate governance, all very different - and better - that those found here. I now realise that my view was incorrect. The Germans would have submitted Great Britain to the same régime they imposed on the French and the Belgians and indeed on those other parts of Europe they occupied. Great Britain was right to resist in 1914.

Belguim and France were subject to separate German administrations; conditions in Belgium were possibly less harsh than those in France.

[healdav]

19 hours ago, Hedley Malloch said:

The documents give a flavour of life under German occupation, a neglected aspect of conditions just behind the firing line. The documents mention the deportations, the curfews and the billeting of Germans with locals, but don't give any idea of the other deprivations such as requisitions, the Germanification of towns and villages, the systematic pillaging and destruction of industry and commerce, and the cruelty which accompanied the ruthless discipline to be found in some areas.

Before I began to study life in German occupied territories I was of the view that a British defeat in WW1 would not be entirely bad. Great Britain would benefit from German approaches to education and training, adoption of the German banking system and their policies on corporate governance, all very different - and better - that those found here. I now realise that my view was incorrect. The Germans would have submitted Great Britain to the same régime they imposed on the French and the Belgians and indeed on those other parts of Europe they occupied. Great Britain was right to resist in 1914.

Belguim and France were subject to separate German administrations; conditions in Belgium were possibly less harsh than those in France.

Interestingly, the Luxembourgers were not subject to deportation for forced work, for some reason unknown. However, the Germans got around that by confiscating the ID card of anyone they wanted for work (especially cross border workers; Oh, yes, and long before Schengen!), and simply writing, "STATELESS" against their name!

[JohnC]

Thank you both for responding. I have just found the paper 'The Experience of Occupation in the Nord, 1914-18' by James Connolly. I've only managed a quick dip so far but it makes interesting reading, focussing on the behaviours of the civilian population. It's France rather than Belgium. Can be downloaded free here.

https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10048745/1/James Connolly - The Experience of Occupation in the Nord - Open Access.pdf

[AOK4]

2 hours ago, JohnC said:

Thank you both for responding. I have just found the paper 'The Experience of Occupation in the Nord, 1914-18' by James Connolly. I've only managed a quick dip so far but it makes interesting reading, focussing on the behaviours of the civilian population. It's France rather than Belgium. Can be downloaded free here.

https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10048745/1/James Connolly - The Experience of Occupation in the Nord - Open Access.pdf

 

Interesting, although his sources are particularly one-sided (no German sources at all). I have been busy a lot with the German occupation mainly in my region (southern West Flanders) and one really should also use contemporary German sources to have a better idea. I sometimes get the feeling that most of the literature about the subject is about trying to prove that the German occupation of 1914-1918 was just a prelude of the national-socialist ideas of WW2 fully ignoring German sources...

Also, there were huge differences between the different areas and a very common remark (which I was lucky to hear from people who were children at the time) was that the "German soldiers shared the little food they had with the civilians while the British who were here at the end of the war preferred to throw away their left-overs over sharing it to the needy population". It must have been a general observation as it is a universal remark often made in interviews.

BTW, one should also read about the occupation by the Belgians and French in Germany after the war. There are very little differences in the experiences for the normal civilian population.

 

[SteveMarsdin]

15 hours ago, AOK4 said:

 

BTW, one should also read about the occupation by the Belgians and French in Germany after the war.There are very little differences in the experiences for the normal civilian population.

 

There are major differences: deportations, appropriation and destruction of industry etc. The occupation had its own horror stories but they didn't compare with the experiences of the Belgian population: I can't comment on Flanders but am very familiar with the situation in Province de Luxembourg.

 

Steve

[AOK4]

Of course there were no mass shootings of civilians, but taking hostages when something had happened, seemed quite a normal practice in French an Belgium occupied Germany.

[Hedley Malloch]

2 hours ago, AOK4 said:

Of course there were no mass shootings of civilians, but taking hostages when something had happened, seemed quite a normal practice in French an Belgium occupied Germany.

 

This is simply not the case. John Horne and Alan Kramer's book, 'German Atrocities 1914: A History of Denial', Yale University Press, 2001, lists 129 incidents in which 'German soldiers deliberately killed' ten or more civilians. Note the word 'deliberately': the accidental or incidental killing of civilians was excluded from their count. Their argument for restricting the number to ten was to keep the count of such incidents to a manageable size! The biggest such execution was at Dinant, Namur where 674 civilians were killed by the Germans on 23 August 1914. H&K list many of the German units involved. See Horne and Kramer, Appendix 1: German Atrocities in 1914: incidents with ten or more civilians killed'.

Most of the incidents listed in H&K occurred in Belgium; for political and administrative reasons, the number of reported French cases is almost certainly understated.  For example, H&K do not include an infamous incident at Orchies (Nord), on 26 September 1914, when 18 French civilians perished in front of a German firing squad.

As you say, these German practices may have been 'normal', but that does not mean to say that they were legal, moral or ethically justifiable.

Edited 4 March , 2020 by Hedley Malloch

[AOK4]

Eum, I said that there were no mass shootings of civilians in Germany during the Belgian and French occupation there and that taking hostages happened during occupation both in Belgium and France by the Germans and in Germany in the post-war occupation.

Edited 4 March , 2020 by AOK4

[JohnC]

I've attached some photos of a German map of the area around Quievrain, roughly midway between Mons and Cambrai. It's made of two strips of 1:60,000 map of the Belgian/French border in the locality, the same area labelled A and B but with different notations, and pasted together with a hand-written key. As far as I can work out it shows the border dispositions of a Landsturm unit; Deggendorf and Hamburg III were Landsturm. I've not managed to decypher the handwriting but the key is obviously a colour-code to the annotations, I can make out Gelb, Grun and a few words here and there. The relevance to this thread is that it shows that the border was obviously enforced, with sentry points and organised crossing points. This surprised me: in my ignorance of life behind the lines I just kind of assumed that the national border had become irrelevant. But obviously not. If anyone can translate the writing I would be most grateful.

Regards, John

[AOK4]

I've seen the map on ebay. It shows the posts of a Landsturm Bataillon on the Belgian-French border.

Edited 25 March , 2020 by AOK4

[JohnC]

Hello Jan. Yep, that's where I got it from! Thanks for confirming the Landsturm connection.

J

[healdav]

On 15/11/2019 at 17:19, JohnC said:

of 250 francs payable by installments of 10 francs. All but the final payment in January 1961 has been redeemed! At least that's what I think it means.

In fact, this is a standard borrowings announcement. It says that you can buy bonds for 250 francs each, and that they will carry an annual interest of 10 francs. The bonds will be redeemed during a draw or by lots, each year for 90 years.

[JohnC]

That makes alot more sense. Thank you.

John