Occupation in the Great War

From 1914 to 1918, a vast share of Belgian territory, together with ten French departments  experienced, or rather were subjected to, German occupation. Although short-lived in certain towns and villages, it dragged on in others.

The experience of war for civilians in occupied zones was quite different from that of their compatriots located in the ‘free zone’. Under the German yoke, they were forced to work for the enemy, whilst their brothers fought for their nation. The occupier inflicted a cruel moral and material ordeal, that was continuously toughened due to an increasingly glaring shortage of resources and manpower for the Germans. According to witness reports by those who were unfortunate to go through the same ordeal, once more, during the Second World War, that of the Great War was unquestionably harsher.