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Rape of Belgium

The Rape of Belgium was a series of systematic war crimes, especially mass murder and deportation, by German troops against Belgian civilians during the invasion and occupation of Belgium during World War I.

Not to be confused with Rape in Belgium.

Rape of Belgium

4 August 1914 (1914-08-04)-23 November 1918 (1918-11-23)

At least 23,700 killed

33,100

120,000 subjected to forced labour and deported to Germany[1][2]

The neutrality of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Treaty of London of 1839, which had been signed by Prussia. However, the German Schlieffen Plan required that German armed forces advance through Belgium (thus violating its neutrality) in order to outflank the French Army, concentrated in eastern France. The German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, dismissed the treaty of 1839 as a "scrap of paper".[3] Throughout the war, the German army systematically engaged in numerous atrocities against the civilian population of Belgium, including the intentional destruction of civilian property; German soldiers murdered over 6,000 Belgian civilians, and 17,700 died during expulsions, deportations, imprisonment, or death sentences by court.[4] The Wire of Death, maintained by the German Army to kill civilians trying to flee the occupation, was used to murder over 3,000 Belgian civilians, and 120,000 were forced to work and deported to Germany.[1][2] German forces destroyed 25,000 homes and other buildings in 837 communities in 1914 alone, and 1.5 million Belgians (20% of the entire population) fled from the invading German army.[5]: 13 

The Rape of Belgium: The Untold Story of World War I by Larry Zuckerman

Rehearsals: The German Army in Belgium, August 1914 by Jeff Lipkes

German Atrocities 1914: A History of Denial by John Horne and Alan Kramer.

[27]

Schuldfragen. Belgischer Untergrundkrieg und deutsche Vergeltung im August 1914 by Ulrich Keller

(1914)

Destruction of Kalisz

German war crimes

(1904–1907) – an earlier atrocity in German South West Africa (now Namibia)

Herero and Namaqua genocide

Leipzig War Crimes Trials

a proclamation endorsed by 93 prominent German intellectuals in 1914 in support of German military actions.

Manifesto of the Ninety-Three

Kamerun campaign atrocities

German atrocities of 1914

(2014). "Violence and Legitimacy: Occupied Belgium, 1914–1918". The Low Countries: Arts and Society in Flanders and the Netherlands. 22: 46–56. OCLC 948603897.

De Schaepdrijver, Sophie

Green, Leanne (2014). "Advertising war: Picturing Belgium in First World War publicity". Media, War & Conflict. 7#3 (3): 309–325. :10.1177/1750635214557534. S2CID 144471627.

doi

Gullace, Nicoletta F. "Allied Propaganda and World War I: Interwar Legacies, Media Studies, and the Politics of War Guilt" History Compass (Sept 2011) 9#9 pp 686–700

Horne, J.; Kramer, A. (1994). "German 'Atrocities' and Franco-German Opinion, 1914: The Evidence of German Soldiers' Diaries". Journal of Modern History. 66 (1): 1–33. :10.1086/244776. ISSN 0022-2801. JSTOR 2124390. S2CID 154171062.

doi

Jones, Heather (2014). "The Great War: How 1914–18 Changed the Relationship between War and Civilians". The RUSI Journal. 159#4 (4): 84–91. :10.1080/03071847.2014.946698. S2CID 153631019.

doi

Nelson, Robert L. (2004). "Ordinary Men in the First World War? German Soldiers as Victims and Participants". Journal of Contemporary History. 39#3 (3): 425–435. :10.1177/0022009404044448. ISSN 0022-0094. JSTOR 3180736. S2CID 162374776.

doi

Wilson, Trevor (1979). "Lord Bryce's Investigation into Alleged German Atrocities in Belgium, 1914–1915". Journal of Contemporary History. 14#3 (3): 369–383. :10.1177/002200947901400301. ISSN 0022-0094. JSTOR 260012. S2CID 159629719. sees the Bryce report as exaggerated propaganda

doi

Wegner, Larissa: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.

Occupation during the War (Belgium and France)

Debruyne, Emmanuel: , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.

Intimate Relations between Occupiers and Occupied (Belgium and France)