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| Some Belgian children waiting for the CRB/CN food. |
At the
start of the war, when the Germans occupied most of Belgium and a thin slice of
Northern France, they refused to feed any civilians. The non-governmental
American-led Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) and its Belgian partner the
Comite National took on the task of trying to feed and clothe nearly 10 million
people trapped behind German lines.
After Herculean
efforts that included getting the Allies and the Germans to agree to the
program and dealing with periodic hurdles thrown up by both sides, the CRB and
CN had a system in place for buying, shipping, preparing and distributing tens
of thousands of tons of food per month. The civilians were staying alive, at
least until the next crisis showed itself.
In late
1916, a major crisis did appear, and one that would not only threaten many
civilians but jeopardize the entire relief effort as well.
The
Germans decided to deport Belgian workers to Germany where the Belgians would
take over jobs so that Germans workers could join the fighting. These “slave
raids” were carried out all across Belgium, from the biggest of cities to the smallest
hamlets.
The
scenes at countless train stations were horrifying similar, as lines of men
from teenagers to those in their late 50s were first reviewed, then commanded to
go either left or right. Left in most cases meant freedom, while right meant
being herded and shoved into cattle cars for a journey of unknown duration and
destination. (Shades of WWII’s Holocaust only 25 years later!)
The
Germans defended their actions by saying they were simply giving work to the
unemployed. The CRB, CN, the Allies, and the rest of the world felt otherwise. Brand
Whitlock, the U.S. Minister to the
Legation in Belgium, summed up how many felt when he said it was “one of the
foulest [deeds] that history ever records.”
The deportations, and the reactions to them, would become a
major part of the story of Belgium and the CRB during World War I. They are
also an important part of my next CRB/Belgium book, which I’m working on right
now. To learn more about this great American humanitarian program, and to read
a sample of my first CRB/Belgium book, Behind the Lines, go to
www.WWIBehindTheLines.com
My
Post: I currently have written about 150 pages of my second CRB/Belgium
book, tentatively titled WWI Crusaders.
While I am not completely happy with all the pages, I am glad that the book is
off to a relatively good start. Most important, I’m now getting a better handle on where the book is going (beyond just the simple outline I had done earlier).
I know
that one of the critical parts to the new book will be the deportations
mentioned above. I’ve already amassed a tremendous amount of research material
about them. Most are heartrending primary accounts of what happened. Some of
these are from Belgians and others are from CRB delegates who were only
observers.
One of
the CRB delegate accounts is from my grandfather, Milton M. Brown. It has been
a fascinating experience to read his impassioned prose about the event. While
he spent every day in Belgium trying hard to act completely neutral (a lynchpin
of the relief work), his true feelings came out in the deportation account he
wrote:
“Even
to us who had no personal interest in the scene, no private grief to result
from what was happening about us there came a stinging hate, an almost
irrepressible impulse to revolt against this relic of barbarism in a modern
world, this savage treatment of an innocent people. And I know that at that
crossroads on that misty, dreary day, I learned more of hatred for the Germans
than I had ever felt before.” He was
26 years old.
I also
have all his diaries and correspondence from that time. Because I was only a
teenager/young adult when I knew him in his late 70s/early 80s, it has been an
interesting process reconciling in my mind those two different people I’ve come
to know.
Milton
only became a CRB delegate in January 1916, so he was not in Behind the Lines, which covered only
1914. I’m happy to report that I can finally write about him in this second
book. I’m looking forward to that.
While
I could not write about my grandfather in Behind
the Lines, I was able to write about my grandmother, Erica Bunge. She was
a 22-year-old Belgian woman.
For
those who might worry that my books are about my family, I should say that my
family is merely a thread in the tapestry of each book. I have researched more
than 50 individuals—most of them CRB delegates—so that their stories well out
number my family tales.
Anyone
who wants to read a sample of Behind the
Lines can find one at the book’s website, www.WWIBehindTheLines.com
End of
Post.
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