Rape of Belgium

Not to be confused with Rape in Belgium.

"Rape of Belgium"
Part of World War I

L'exécution des notables de Blégny (The Execution of the Notables of Blégny, 1914), oil-on-canvas painting (1918) by Évariste Carpentier (1845–1922), depicting German soldiers executing Belgian civilians at Blégny during the early months of the German occupation of Belgium (on display at the Blégny-Trembleur administration building).
DateAugust 1914 – 1918
Location
Belgium
Result German occupation of Belgium
Belligerents

German Empire

Belgian civilians
Commanders and leaders
Colmar von der Goltz
Moritz von Bissing
Ludwig von Falkenhausen		 Multiple local leaders
Casualties and losses
Several German soldiers killed
  • Over 6,000 Belgian civilians murdered
  • Tens of thousands deported or imprisoned
Series of war crimes committed by German forces against the civilian population during the invasion and occupation of Belgium.

The Rape of Belgium (French: Viol de la Belgique, lit. 'Violation of Belgium', Dutch: Verkrachting van België) was a series of systematic war crimes, especially mass murder and deportation, by German troops against Belgian civilians, many or most of them real or suspected francs-tireurs and other guerilla fighters, during the invasion and occupation of Belgium during World War I in violation of Belgian neutrality. The neutrality of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Treaty of London of 1839, which had been signed by the German Confederation (of which Prussia was a member). 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. Shortly before the beginning of the war in early August 1914 the German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, had dismissed the treaty of 1839 as a mere "scrap of paper".[a]

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.[2] The Wire of Death, a lethal electric fence maintained by the Imperial German Army to hinder civilians from fleeing the occupation to the Netherlands, resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Belgian civilians. Some 120,000 were forced to work and deported to Germany.[3][4] 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]

War crimes

Atrocities were premeditated in Dinant, Liège, Andenne and Leuven.[6] In Dinant, the German army believed the inhabitants were as dangerous as the French soldiers themselves.[7][8]

Victimisation of civilians

Further information: Massacre of Tamines and Sack of Dinant

German troops, afraid of Belgian guerrilla fighters, or francs-tireurs ("free shooters"), burned homes and murdered civilians throughout eastern and central Belgium, including Aarschot (156 murdered), Andenne (211 murdered), Seilles, Tamines (383 murdered), and Dinant (674 murdered).[9] German soldiers murdered Belgian civilians indiscriminately and with impunity, with victims including men, women, and children.[10] In the Province of Brabant, nuns were forcibly stripped naked under the pretext that they were spies or men in disguise.[11] In and around Aarschot, between 19 August and the recapture of the town by 9 September, German soldiers repeatedly raped Belgian women. Rape was nearly as ubiquitous as murder, arson and looting, if never as visible.[12]

Sack of Leuven

Main article: Sack of Louvain

On 25 August 1914, the German army ravaged the city of Leuven, deliberately burning the university library, destroying approximately 230,000 books, 950 manuscripts, and 800 incunabula.[13] German soldiers burned down civilian homes and shot citizens where they stood,[14] with over 2,000 buildings destroyed and 10,000 inhabitants displaced, of whom 1,500 were deported to Germany. The Germans looted and transferred large quantities of strategic materials, foodstuffs and modern industrial equipment to Germany during 1914. These actions brought worldwide condemnation.[15][16] There were also several friendly fire incidents between groups of German soldiers during the confusion.[8]

Industrial dismantlement

As raw material usually imported from abroad dried up, more firms laid off workers.[17] Unemployment became a major problem and increased reliance on charity distributed by civil institutions and organizations. As many as 650,000 people were unemployed between 1915 and 1918.[18][19]

The German authorities used the unemployment crisis to loot industrial machinery from Belgian factories, which was either sent to Germany intact or melted down. The policies enacted by the Imperial German General Government of Belgium greatly slowed Belgian economic recovery after the end of the war.[20]

Wartime propaganda

See also: Atrocity propaganda

Regarding depictions of the atrocities in the British press, historian Nicoletta Gullace writes, in agreement with others such as Susan Kingsley Kent, that "the invasion of Belgium, with its very real suffering, was nevertheless represented in a highly stylized way that dwelt on perverse sexual acts, lurid mutilations, and graphic accounts of child abuse of often dubious veracity."[21] In Britain, many patriotic publicists propagated these stories on their own. For example, popular writer William Le Queux described the German army as "one vast gang of Jack-the-Rippers", and described in graphic detail events such as a governess hanged naked and mutilated, the bayoneting of a small baby, or the "screams of dying women", raped and "horribly mutilated" by German soldiers, accusing them of mutilating the hands, feet, or breasts of their victims.[22]

Gullace argues that "British propagandists were eager to move as quickly as possible from an explanation of the war that focused on the murder of an Austrian archduke and his wife by Serbian nationalists to the morally unambiguous question of the invasion of neutral Belgium". In support of her thesis, she quotes from two letters of Lord Bryce. In the first letter Bryce writes "There must be something fatally wrong with our so-called civilization for this Ser[b]ian cause so frightful a calamity has descended on all Europe". In a subsequent letter Bryce writes "The one thing we have to comfort us in this war is that we are all absolutely convinced of the justice of the cause, and of our duty, once Belgium had been invaded, to take up the sword".[23]

Although the infamous German phrase "scrap of paper" (referring to the 1839 Treaty of London) galvanized a large segment of British intellectuals in support of the war,[24] in more proletarian circles this imagery had less impact. For example, Labour politician Ramsay MacDonald upon hearing about it, declared that "Never did we arm our people and ask them to give up their lives for a less good cause than this". British army recruiters reported problems in explaining the origins of the war in legalistic terms.[25]

As the German advance in Belgium progressed, British newspapers started to publish stories on German atrocities. The British press, "quality" and tabloid alike, showed less interest in the "endless inventory of stolen property and requisitioned goods" that constituted the bulk of the official Belgian Reports. Instead, accounts of rape and bizarre mutilations flooded the British press. The intellectual discourse on the "scrap of paper" was then mixed with the more graphic imagery depicting Belgium as a brutalized woman, exemplified by the cartoons of Louis Raemaekers,[26] whose works were widely syndicated in the US.[27] Part of the press, such as the editor of The Times and Edward Tyas Cook, expressed concerns that haphazard stories, a few of which were proven as outright fabrications, would weaken the powerful imagery, and asked for a more structured approach. The German and American press questioned the veracity of many stories, and the fact that the British Press Bureau did not censor the stories put the British government in a delicate position. The Bryce Committee was eventually appointed in December 1914 to investigate.[28] Bryce was considered highly suitable to lead the effort because of his prewar pro-German attitudes and his good reputation in the United States, where he had served as Britain's ambassador, as well as his legal expertise.[29]

The commission's investigative efforts were limited to previously recorded testimonies and have been criticized by many writers,[31] though later investigators have found their conclusions to be substantially vindicated, with most of the dubious claims filtered out.[32][33] Gullace argues that "the commission was in essence called upon to conduct a mock inquiry that would substitute the good name of Lord Bryce for the thousands of missing names of the anonymous victims whose stories appeared in the pages of the report". The commission published its report in May 1915. Charles Masterman, the director of the British War Propaganda Bureau, wrote to Bryce: "Your report has swept America. As you probably know even the most skeptical declare themselves converted, just because it is signed by you!"[29] Translated in ten languages by June, the report was the basis for much subsequent wartime propaganda and was used as a sourcebook for many other publications, ensuring that the atrocities became a leitmotif of the war's propaganda up to the final "Hang the Kaiser" campaign.[34]

Sensational accounts persisted and appeared outside of Britain. For example, in March 1917 Arnold J. Toynbee published in America The German Terror in Belgium, which emphasized the most graphic accounts of "authentic" German sexual depravity, such as: "In the market-place of Gembloux a Belgian despatch-rider saw the body of a woman pinned to the door of a house by a sword driven through her chest. The body was naked and the breasts had been cut off."[35]

Much of the wartime publishing in Britain was in fact aimed at attracting American support.[36] A 1929 article in The Nation asserted: "In 1916 the Allies were putting forth every possible atrocity story to win neutral sympathy and American support. We were fed every day [...] stories of Belgian children whose hands were cut off, the Canadian soldier who was crucified to a barn door, the nurses whose breasts were cut off, the German habit of distilling glycerine and fat from their dead in order to obtain lubricants; and all the rest."[36]

The fourth Liberty bond drive of 1918 employed a "Remember Belgium" poster depicting the silhouette of a young Belgian girl being dragged by a German soldier on the background of a burning village; historian Kimberly Jensen interprets this imagery as "They are alone in the night, and rape seems imminent. The poster demonstrates that leaders drew on the American public's knowledge of and assumptions about the use of rape in the German invasion of Belgium."[37]

In his book Roosevelt and Hitler, Robert Edwin Herzstein stated that "The Germans could not seem to find a way to counteract powerful British propaganda about the 'Rape of Belgium' and other alleged atrocities".[38] One attempt was the publication of their own atrocity narrative in The German White Book, which included alleged atrocities committed by Belgian civilians against German soldiers. A 1967 investigation by German jurist Hermann Kantorowicz found 75% of documents within the book to be falsified.[39]

About the legacy of the propaganda, Gullace commented that "one of the tragedies of the British effort to manufacture truth is the way authentic suffering was rendered suspect by fabricated tales".[40] However, historian Linda Robertson faults WWII-era revisionism by American isolationists, who aimed to blame US entry into WWI on British propaganda and thus discredit news of Nazi atrocities. Robertson writes that the reaction against propaganda can also "have the effect of obscuring what happened".[41]

Aftermath

Death toll

The Germans were responsible for the deaths of 23,700 Belgian civilians, (6,000 Belgians murdered, 17,700 died during expulsion, deportation, in prison or sentenced to death by court) and caused further non-fatalities of 10,400 permanent and 22,700 temporary victims, with 18,296 children becoming war orphans. Military losses were 26,338 killed, died from injuries or accidents, 14,029 died from disease, or went missing.[2]

In addition, Germany siphoned off foodstuffs and fertiliser to the German market throughout the occupation. While some amount of Belgian needs were fulfilled by the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the resulting food crisis contributed to an estimated 90,000 indirect excess deaths during the war.[42][43]

Later analysis

In the 1920s, the war crimes of August 1914 were often dismissed as British propaganda. Later, numerous scholars have examined the original documents and concluded that large-scale atrocities did occur, while acknowledging that other stories were fabrications.[44][45][46] There is a debate between those who believe the German army acted primarily out of paranoia, in retaliation for real or believed incidents involving resistance actions by Belgian civilians, and those (including Lipkes) who emphasize additional causes, suggesting an association with German actions in the Nazi era.

According to Larry Zuckerman, the German occupation far exceeded the constraints international law imposed on an occupying power. A heavy-handed German military administration sought to regulate every detail of daily life, both on a personal level with travel restraints[47] and collective punishment,[48] and on the economic level by harnessing the Belgian industry to German advantage and by levying repeated massive indemnities on the Belgian provinces.[49] Before the war Belgium produced 4.4 percent of world commerce.[50] More than 100,000 Belgian workers were forcibly deported to Germany to work in the war economy,[51] and to Northern France[52] to build roads and other military infrastructure for the German army.[53]

Historical studies

Recent in-depth historical studies of German acts in Belgium include:

  • 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.[54]
  • Schuldfragen. Belgischer Untergrundkrieg und deutsche Vergeltung im August 1914 by Ulrich Keller

Horne and Kramer describe some of the motivations for German tactics, chiefly (but not only), the collective fear of a "People's War" (Volkskrieg):

The source of the collective fantasy of the People's War and of the harsh reprisals with which the German army (up to its highest level) responded are to be found in the memory of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1, when the German armies faced irregular Republican soldiers (or francs-tireurs), and in the way in which the spectre of civilian involvement in warfare conjured up the worst fears of democratic and revolutionary disorder for a conservative officer corps.[55]

The same authors identify a number of contributory factors:

  • inexperience leading to lack of discipline amongst German soldiers
  • drunkenness
  • 'friendly fire' incidents arising from panic
  • frequent collisions with Belgian and French rearguards leading to confusion
  • rage at the stubborn and initially-successful defense of Liège during the Battle of Liège
  • rage at the slightest Belgian resistance, because they were not seen as a people entitled to defend themselves
  • prevailing animosity towards Roman Catholicism among elements of the German army
  • ambiguous or inadequate German field service regulations regarding civilians
  • failure of German logistics later leading to uncontrolled looting[56]

Recent studies conducted by Ulrich Keller have put the reasoning of Horne and Kramer into question. Keller claims that the reason for the brutal German behavior in the first few months of the invasion was due to the existence of a substantial Belgian partisan movement. He claims the organized resistance was led by the Garde Civique. As evidence he points to German medical records which show a substantial number of German soldiers wounded by shotguns[c] which were neither in use by the Germans nor by French nor Belgian rearguard units, as well as testimony from German soldiers and regimental war diaries.[58]

Keller's claims have led to an argument among historians which led to a conference being held in 2017 in which his claims met with a mixed response. While the evidence provided by Keller may hint at a more than merely sporadic resistance by irregular Belgian fighters, historians criticised his selection of sources and argued the need for additional research, particularly on the Belgian role in 1914 and the key question how widespread the irregular resistance had been, to make his case.[59]

Further critique was subsequently published by Horne and Kramer.[60] A more ambivalent review was written by Markus Pöhlmann, who critiques both Horne and Kramer, and Keller for being overly one-sided in their use of and trust in sources. (Belgian civilians in the former case, German military sources in the latter). Pöhlmann writes that Keller misunderstood the Belgian military disposition at the start of WWI in his conclusion of organised resistance, arguing that widespread spontaneous civilian involvement (and German confusion regarding actions taken by Belgian or French military units) was more likely, and that Keller was overly zealous in downplaying the scale of German atrocities. However, he states that the key argument from Horne and Kramer, that German fear was an irrational leftover from the Franco-Prussian war, was unconvincing. German military order did collapse in an unprecedented way, but this was influenced by the stress of their experiences with a hostile Belgian population.[61] Outside Germany, the majority of international scholars reject Keller's work due to his "uncritical and selective" use of sources.[62][63]

Legacy

At a commemoration ceremony on 6 May 2001, in the Belgian town of Dinant, attended by Belgium's defense minister Andre Flahaut, World War II veterans, and the ambassadors of Germany, France and Britain, state secretary of the German Ministry of Defence, Walter Kolbow, officially apologized for a massacre of 674 civilians that took place on 23 August 1914, in the aftermath of the Battle of Dinant:

We have to recognize the injustices that were committed, and ask forgiveness. That is what I am doing with a deep conviction today. I apologise to you all for the injustice the Germans committed in this town.[64]

Mr Kolbow placed a wreath and bowed before a monument to the victims bearing the inscription: To the 674 Dinantais martyrs, innocent victims of German barbarism.[65][66]

See also

Bibliography

Annotations

  1. ^ "There is no doubt that our invasion of Belgium, with violation it entailed of that country's sovereign neutrality, and of treaties we ourselves had signed, and the world had respected for a century, was an act of the gravest political significance. Bad was made worse than ever by Bethmans Hollweg's speech in the Reichstag (August 4, 1914). Never perhaps, has any other statesman at the head of a great and civilized people (...) pronounced (...) a more terrible speech. Before the whole world—before his country, this spokesman of the German Government—not of the Belgian!—not of the French!—declared that, in invading Belgium we did wrong, but that necessity knows no law (...) I was aware, with this one categorical statement, we had forfeited, at a blow, the imponderabilia; that this unbelievably stupid oration would set the whole world against Germany. And on the very evening after he made it this Chancellor of the German Empire, in a talk with Sir Edward Goschen (1847–1924), the British Ambassador, referred to the international obligations on which Belgium relied for her neutrality as 'un chiffon de papier', 'a scrap of paper' ... "[1]
  2. ^ German Kultur: In late-19th- and early-20th-century German intellectual discourse, Kultur was often used in a value-laden sense to denote deep national and spiritual development, encompassing learning, the arts, moral seriousness, and inner discipline. It was frequently contrasted with Zivilisation ("civilization"), which in nationalist polemics was portrayed as emphasizing outward polish, material progress, and technical refinement. During the First World War, this Kultur–Zivilisation contrast became a prominent rhetorical frame in German public discourse. In Allied commentary, particularly following reports of atrocities committed during the invasion and occupation of Belgium, the term "German Kultur" was widely reappropriated in an ironic or sarcastic sense, juxtaposing claims of cultural superiority with acts condemned as violations of civilian norms and international law. Contemporary artistic responses to the war, including the emergence of Dada (1916) among German-speaking exiles, rejected not only German nationalist claims but the moral authority of European "culture" itself in the context of industrialized warfare.
  3. ^ This had been previously observed in Read (1941) pp. 94, giving the number of shotgun wounds according to German sources as 108.[57]

Notes

  1. ^ Bülow, Vol. 3, 1932, p. 195–196.
  2. ^ a b Ministére de l'Intérieur, 1914–1918, p. 100.
  3. ^ Cook, 2002, p. 102–107.
  4. ^ De Schaepdrijver, 2014, p. 54.
  5. ^ Lipkes, 2007, p. 13.
  6. ^ Lipkes & 2007,, pp. 573–574.
  7. ^ Horne & Kramer, 2001, chpt. 1.
  8. ^ a b Beckett (Bennett), 1988, p. 62.
  9. ^ Horne & Kramer, 2001, appendix. 1.
  10. ^ Kramer, 2007, pp. 1–24.
  11. ^ Lipkes, 2007, p. 164.
  12. ^ Lipkes, 2007, pp. 164–165.
  13. ^ "Inventaris Onroerend Erfgoed", 2020.
  14. ^ Tuchman, 1962, pp. 340–356.
  15. ^ Rapports (Vol. 1, book 1), 1922, pp. 605–615.
  16. ^ Rapports (Vol. 1, book 2), 1923, pp. 679–704.
  17. ^ Kossmann, 1978, p. 528.
  18. ^ Dumoulin, 2010, p. 131.
  19. ^ Kossmann, 1978, p. 529.
  20. ^ Kossmann, 1978, pp. 533–534.
  21. ^ Gullace, 2002, p. 19.
  22. ^ Gullace, 2002, pp. 18–19.
  23. ^ Gullace, 2002, p. 20.
  24. ^ Gullace, 2002, pp. 21–22.
  25. ^ Gullace, 2002, p. 23.
  26. ^ Gullace, 2002, p. 24.
  27. ^ Wagener & Schneider, eds. (Wachtel), 2007, p. 68.
  28. ^ Gullace, 2002, pp. 26–28.
  29. ^ a b Gullace, 2002, p. 30.
  30. ^ Slater, et al., 2005, p. 317.
  31. ^ Read, 1941, pp. 204–207.
  32. ^ Lipkes, 2007, pp. 696.
  33. ^ Horne & Kramer, 2001, pp. 229–234.
  34. ^ Gullace, 2002, pp. 31–23.
  35. ^ Wagener & Schneider, eds. (Wachtel), 2007, p. 65.
  36. ^ a b Wagener & Schneider, eds. (Wachtel), 2007, p. 64.
  37. ^ Jensen, 2008, p. 30.
  38. ^ Herzstein, 1989, p. 8.
  39. ^ Kantorowicz, 1967.
  40. ^ Gullace, 2002, p. 32.
  41. ^ Robertson, 2007.
  42. ^ Hersch (Vol. 7, no. 1), 1927, p. 59–62.
  43. ^ 1914–1918 Online (Vrints), Oct. 8, 2014.
  44. ^ Horne & Kramer, 2001.
  45. ^ Lipkes, 2007, p. 162.
  46. ^ Hull, 2014, p. 157.
  47. ^ Zuckerman, 2004, pp. 73, 90, 98, 100, 114, 140.
  48. ^ Zuckerman, 2004, p. 78.
  49. ^ Zuckerman, 2004.
  50. ^ Zuckerman, 2004, p. 44.
  51. ^ Zuckerman, 2004, p. 1.
  52. ^ Zuckerman, 2004, pp. 148, 158, 164, 175, 190, 206.
  53. ^ Zuckerman, 2004, inside front flap.
  54. ^ Horne & Kramer, 2001, see book summary.
  55. ^ Horne, May 20, 2000.
  56. ^ Horne & Kramer, 2001, pp. 104, 157, 189–190.
  57. ^ Read, 1941, p. 94.
  58. ^ Keller, 2017.
  59. ^ Scianna, Oct. 27, 2017.
  60. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine (Kramer & Horne), Mar. 1, 2018.
  61. ^ Pöhlmann, 2017.
  62. ^ 1914–1918 Online (Dülffer), Jul.21, 2020.
  63. ^ Lauwers, 2020.
  64. ^ AP, May 6, 2001.
  65. ^ Europe ... (Emsley, ed.), 2003, p. 28.
  66. ^ Guardian (Osborn), May 11, 2001, p. 13.

Inline references

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    1. Book 3 (2003). Emsley, Clive (1944–2020) (ed.). War, Culture and Memory. p. 28.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) ISBN 978-0-7492-9611-7, 0-7492-9611-9 (paperback); OCLC 81880979 (all editions), 971415484, 1110234867.
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26,338 = 1,164 + 25,174 (Killed or died of wounds/accidents: officers + enlisted)

14,029 = 407 + 13,622 (Died of disease or missing: officers + enlisted)

40,367 = 26,338 + 14,029 (Total military losses)
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General references

    1. Vol. 1 (1952): European Relations From the Congress of Berlin to the Eve of the Sarajevo Murder. ISBN 0-3132-2402-1.
    2. Vol. 2 (1953): The Crisis of July 1914. From the Sarajevo Outrage to the Austro-Hungarian General Mobilization. ISBN 0-3132-2403-X.
      1. Via Internet Archive.
    3. Vol. 3 (1957): The Epilogue of the Crisis of July 1914. The Declarations of War and of Neutrality. ISBN 978-0-3132-2404-1, 0-3132-2404-8.
  • Bertrand, J. (1921) [1919]. "Le martyre de la province de Liège en 1914" ["The Martyrdom of the Province of Liège in 1914"] (originally published as 2 pamphlets, 16 pages each) (in French). Cover illustrated by Edmond Van Offel (1871–1959). Borgerhout, Antwerp: Imprimerie nationale L. Opdebeek [National Printing House, L. Opdebeek] → Lode Opdebeek (1869–1930). OCLC 1400716792 (all editions).
    1. Via 2013 reprint (in French). Published by Eglise romane de Tohogne [Romanesque Church of Tohogne].
    2. Pdf of original – via Royal Library of Belgium (Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België; abbreviated as KBR). KBR 16307238.
      1. "Avant-propos" ["Forward"]. pp. 2–3.
      2. "Baelen". pp. 3–4.
      3. "Barchon". pp. 4–6.
      4. "Berneau". pp. 6–7.
      5. "Blégny-Trembleur". pp. 7–10.
      6. "Herve". p. 10.
      7. "Louveigné". pp. 10–12.
      8. "Magnée". pp. 12–13.
      9. "Melen". p. 13.
      10. "Olne". pp. 13–15.
      11. "Soumagne". pp. 15–17.
      12. "Retinne". p. 17.
        13. Pamphlet N° 2 begins at p. 18
      13. "Retinne" (continued). p. 18.
      14. "Sprimont". pp. 18–19.
      15. "Visé". pp. 19–22.
      16. "Wandre". pp. 22–26.
      17. "Warsage". pp. 26–27.
      18. "Haccourt". pp. 27–28.
      19. "Hermée". p. 28.
      20. "Heure-le-Romain". pp. 28–29.
      21. "Liège". pp. 29–32.
      22. "Ils ont agi par ordre" ["They Acted on Orders"]. p. 32.
    1. "Evidence and Documents Laid Before the Committee on ... " – via HathiTrust (Library of Congress).
    2. "Report of the Committee on ... " – via Internet Archive (UMass Boston).
    3. "Report of the Committee on ... " (PDF) – via Wikimedia Commons (USC Libraries).
    4. "Report of the Committee on ... " – via Google Books (Cal Berkeley).
Main article: Germany's Aims in the First World War
    1. Via Internet Archive.
    2. Via Internet Archive (Trent University).
Originally published in Germany → Fischer, Fritz (1908–1999) (1961). Griff nach der Weltmacht – Die Kriegszielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914/18 [Reach for World Power – Imperial Germany's War Aims, 1914–1918] (in German). Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag und Druckerei GmbH – via Internet Archive (Kahle/Austin Foundation).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) LCCN 62-46856, LCCN 65-77404 (3rd ed.; 1964); OCLC 896545978 (all editions).
    1. Via HathiTrust (Wisconsin). Retrieved 14 February 2017.
    2. Via Internet Archive (Wisconsin). Retrieved 14 February 2017.
    1. English: A Diplomatic Diary (3 sources via HathiTrust). London, New York, Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton. Doubleday, Page and Company. 1917. LCCN 17-29362; OCLC 405884 (all editions).
      1. Via Internet Archive (UC Riverside).
    2. français: La Belgique pendant la guerre [Journal From Our Legation in Belgium]. Translated from English by Louis Marie Alexandre d'Ursel (1886–1969). Paris: Librairie Hachette et Compagnie. 1918.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) BnF 32163562q; LCCN 19-7499; OCLC 1176986156 (all editions).
      1. Via BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Philosophie, histoire, sciences de l'homme, 8-M-18585).
      2. Via HathiTrust (UCLA).
The contents of this book were first published in the New York Tribune as a continuous daily series of thirty-six installments, appearing without interruption from 4 November 1917 through 9 December 1917 (Vol. 7: issue nos. 25921–25956). The datelines were from Brussels, July 4, 1914, through December 10, 1914. The series was published under the collective title, The Rape of Belgium – A Journal of the American Legation at Belgium – The Diary of Hugh Gibson, Witness. It was copyrighted in 1917 by Doubleday, Page & Company by Otis Fenner Wood (1868–1939), whose father, Fernando Wood (1812–1881), was, twice, Mayor of New York City – from 1855 to 1857 and from 1860 to 1861.
Each installment carried the following subheading (with slight variations):
"The secretary of the American Legation in Belgium, seeing everything, kept a personal diary of Germany's immortal sin. The seal of neutrality is broken, and here is one of the great documents of the war."
The author, Hugh Gibson, served as Secretary of the United States Legation in Brussels from 1914 to 1916, during the early years of the German occupation of Belgium. The United States subsequently elevated its Mission in Brussels to the status of an Embassy in 1919.
  • Green, Leanne (PhD).
    1. "Advertising War: Picturing Belgium in First World War Publicity". Media, War & Conflict (quarterly). 7 (3). Sage: 309–325. December 2014.
      2. Publication: LCCN 2008-254017; ISSN 1750-6360, ISSN 1750-6352; OCLC 228110138 (all editions), 643111977.
      Article: doi:10.1177/1750635214557534; S2CID 144471627; JSTOR 26001042; OCLC 9990293954, 1051909013.
      Presented at the 2013 Memory Conflict and Space Conference at Liverpool Hope University.
    2. "Advertising War: Pictorial Publicity, 1914–1918" (PhD dissertation). Manchester Metropolitan University. 2015. OCLC 1367107655, 1065390328.
      1. Pdf via Manchester Metropolitan University (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
    1. In Part 2: "L'Exécution des Notables de Blégny" (PDF). pp. 69–.
    1. Via Google Books (limited preview).
    Reviewed works:
    1. Jahr, Christoph [in German] (1998). Gewöhnliche Soldaten: Desertion und Deserteure im deutschen und britischen Heer 1914–1918 [Ordinary Soldiers: Desertion and Deserters in the German and British Armies 1914–1918]. Series: Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Nr. 123 [Critical Studies in Historiography, no. 123] (in German). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. LCCN 98-220444; ISBN 978-3-5253-5786-6, 3-5253-5786-9; OCLC 39873715 (all editions).
    2. Latzel, Klaus [in German] (1998). Deutsche Soldaten, nationalsozialistischer Krieg? Kriegserlebnis, Kriegserfahrung 1939–1945 [German Soldiers, National Socialist War? War Experience, Wartime Experiences 1939–1945] (in German). Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh. LCCN 98-210118; ISBN 978-3-5067-4470-8, 3-5067-4470-4; OCLC 40305849 (all editions).
    3. Reimann, Aribert [in German]. Der Grosse Krieg der Sprachen: Untersuchungen zur historischen Semantik in Deutschland und England zur Zeit des Ersten Weltkriegs [The Great War of Languages: Studies in Historical Semantics in Germany and England During the First World War] (in German). Essen: Klartext Verlag. LCCN 2002-399186; ISBN 978-3-8847-4858-9, 3-8847-4858-0; OCLC 45741743 (all editions).
    4. Ulrich, Bernd [in German]. Die Augenzeugen: Deutsche Feldpostbriefe in Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit 1914–1933 [The Eyewitnesses: German Field Post Letters in the War and Post-War Period 1914–1933] (in German). Essen: Klartext Verlag. LCCN 98-158594; ISBN 978-3-8847-4590-8, 3-8847-4590-5; OCLC 38287291 (all editions).
    5. Ziemann, Benjamin (1997). Front und Heimat: Ländliche Kriegserfahrungen im südlichen Bayern 1914–1923 [Front and Home Front: Rural War Experiences in Southern Bavaria 1914–1923] (in German). Essen: Klartext Verlag. OCLC 98101911 (all editions); ISBN 978-3-8847-4547-2, 3-8847-4547-6; OCLC 37034889 (all editions).
    1. Wegner, Larissa (8 October 2014). "Occupation During the War (Belgium and France)". Archived from the original on 3 May 2015.
    2. Debruyne, Emmanuel (8 June 2016). "Intimate Relations Between Occupiers and Occupied (Belgium and France)". Archived from the original on 1 March 2017.
    3. Kramer, Alan Richard [in German] (24 January 2017). "Atrocities". Archived from the original on 1 March 2017.
    1. Via Google Books (limited preview).
  • Spraul, Gunter [in German] (2016). Der Franktireurkrieg 1914. Untersuchungen zum Verfall einer Wissenschaft und zum Umgang mit nationalen Mythen [The Franc-Tireur War of 1914: Studies on the Decline of a Scholarly Field and the Treatment of National Myths] (in German). Frank & Timme. ISSN 1860-1960; ISBN 978-3-7329-0242-2, 3-7329-0242-0; OCLC 945181231 (all editions).
    1. Via Google Books (limited preview).
    1. Pdf via Wikimedia Commons (PDF).
    2. Via HathiTrust (4 copies).
    3. Via Internet Archive (UC San Diego).
    1. Special issue: "La Belgique héroïque et martyre" ["Belgium Hero and Martyr"]. 1915.
      1. Via Project Gutenberg (in French). OCLC 24179299 (all editions).
      2. Via HathiTrust (Harvard) (in French).
      3. Via Internet Archive (UCLA). (in English). OCLC 648561420 (all editions), OCLC 78776327 (all editions).
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