The Rape of Belgium

Author's note: Some readers may wish to skip this post.  This topic delves into the nature and reasons of the war crimes and atrocities committed by the German army in Belgium in 1914. Discussion of these events are vital to understanding many facets of World War One. But at the same time the events are upsetting to anyone who values human dignity and the rule of law. I have attempted to write about this in such a way as not to be offensive or treat the subject lightly. But no matter how these events are discussed they are horrific even by the standards of war, which are already horrific. Also I must editorialize that the "The Rape of Belgium" was a propaganda term of the day and not a term of my own. It is also worth noting that atrocities occurred in many places and were committed by many different nations in the war and in some cases on a much larger scale. but the events in Belgium have been singled out at this time because these events began in August 1914 and had far reaching consequences throughout the war.

"The Rape of Belgium" was the term used in World War One to describe the mistreatment of Belgian civilians during the war. Though not the first war, nor the last, to see terrible atrocities, World War One the first major war in to be fought in an era with a concept of war crimes. No international laws existed regarding legal action during war until 1899 with the Hague Convention. Prior to World War One all of the major participants of the war had agreed to the Hague Conventions (there was a second convention in 1907) which outlined a legal frame work of how war was to be waged. Prior to the Hague Conventions there were no "rules" in warfare. Historically what was considered acceptable in war was set by unilateral decisions based on religiously and culturally accepted practices and there was no framework to enforce or even agree on what how a war would be fought.

The opening of the 20th century was hoped to be the dawn of a new era in international relations. It was believed that if all nations agreed to follow certain rules in warfare that the worst excesses of war could be minimized.

So at the outset of World War One all the nations involved had agreed to the same rules regarding war. Covering, among other issues, the conduct of legal war, the treatment of civilians, the wounded and prisoners of war. Now that these rules existed they could be broken and hence the era of the war crime began. By the end of the war every major combatant nation would break at least one of the agreements of Hague Conventions and would all be guilty of war crimes.

With this backdrop in place the actions of the German army in Belgium were all the more shocking to the international community which had expected, and hoped, that the world had moved into an era of "civilized" warfare. From the very start World War One very little about it could be called civilized.

The atrocities committed by the German army in Belgium can be put into two primary categories, systemic war crimes and individual war crimes. Both were prevalent and shocking in their effect.

In some ways the easiest, and at the same time the hardest, war crimes to understand are individual crimes. These were crimes committed with limited or no premeditation, independent of any command structure or military protocol. Acts of brutality by individuals or small groups of German soldiers was common in Belgium in the first three months of the war. Murder, rape and looting occurred on a regular basis.

The reason for this threefold. First, the German army was well trained, but not particularly disciplined at the onset of the war. All of Germany's soldiers were conscripts or reservist who had been called to up to fight. Many of the officers had little experience and this lack of experience made it difficult to keep men under control who were inclined to take advantage of the chaos and lawlessness of war. Secondly, there was a general feeling among the rank and file of German army that Belgium's resistance was unneeded. They had been told by their commanders that Belgium would let them pass through to the real war in France and many were not expecting more than token resistance from the Belgian army. But only a few days into the war the German army had lost thousands of men fighting the Belgians. Lives that were lost needlessly in the minds of many German soldiers and the loss of these lives, the live of their comrades, required revenge. Lastly, there was a fear among the German soldiers of the rise of Francs-tireurs (or free shooters) a term used for French guerilla snipers who fought against the Germans a generation earlier in the Franco-Prussian war. Early in World War One the Belgians did use snipers and German soldiers raised on stories of the havoc cause by French guerillas were terrified of this. This fear lead to the death and torment of many civilian. Belgian men were often shot on the spot if they were suspected of being a sniper. Homes and farms were burned as reprisals when the Germans thought that sniper fire had come from that direction. A sad tragedy of the war was the use of Belgian snipers had be rather limited and civilians had not been encouraged to take up arms against the Germans. Much of what was deemed sniper fire behind the front lines was actual friendly fire from other inexperienced German units who miss identified their target.   

The other primary category of war crimes was systemic war crimes, or crimes committed with the full knowledge, encouragement and premeditation of the German command. The rational for the German leadership was very much the same as the individual German soldiers. Not only was the German leadership furious at Belgium for its refusing to let the German army pass its borders, but also that it was Belgium's appeal to Great Britain that brought Great Britain into the war, a nation Germany had hoped not to face. There was a sense among the German military at all levels that held the Belgian people collective responsibly for their government's actions and therefore that they deserved harsh treatment.  The German military leadership was also fearful of the rise of Francs-tireurs, just as the frontline soldiers were, and felt that a heavy hand was needed to prevent this kind of resistance.

The actions of the German military leadership against the Belgium people consisted first and foremost of a general encouragement by commanding officers for individual soldiers to be brutal. This encouraged the individual crimes noted above, and little effort was made to curtail such actions. Beyond that, the German Army used Zeppelins (airships) to drop bombs on Belgian cities indiscriminately killing civilians. On the ground it was common practice when German army units entered cities or villages to arrest the mayor and the local priest along with a number of random individuals (tp include men, woman and children). Locals were informed if any resistance was incurred the hostages would be killed. In town after town, after someone fought back against the Germans to resist a theft or rape, or if the German unit came under fire from the surrounding countryside (which often turned out to be friendly fire from other German units) the hostages would be executed, often publicly and sometimes in very cruel ways. Towns that the Belgium army had stationed units in to defend would often be burned after they were captured as punishment for harboring their own nation's soldiers. Individuals who resisted having their homes burned were killed.

This was the policy of the German army in the early months of the war. In this time it is estimated that over 6,000 Belgian civilians had were killed, over 25,000 buildings were burned down and over 800 villages and towns were destroyed. Millions of Belgians fled the advance of the German army when stories of the brutality spread. The international press reported these events which led to an general denouncement of Germany. This was the have the at great effect on public opinion in the United States which had been somewhat sympathetic to Germany at the start of the war. When the debates would began in the United States about whether or not to involve itself in the war, the atrocities in Belgium were a powerful argument as to why the Germans had to be defeated.  

To be certain not all German soldiers mistreated civilians. In fact many Germans and German soldiers discounted the stories of what was happening in Belgium as British propaganda. Which, to be fair, did fabricate stories of atrocities that did not happen. A common tale of the time (started by British intelligence services) was that the German army was cutting off the hands and feet children in the territory they occupied. In fact there are accounts of German soldiers be met by citizens on the outskirts of towns begging them not to harm the children, which the German soldiers were confused and appalled by. Exaggerated stories of cruelty actually ended up undermining the credibility of the reports coming out of Belgium and it would not be until after the war until the accounts of atrocities in Belgium were proven to be true. But enough reports came out during the war that it was understood that something terrible had happened.  

By October the German command started to realize that not only were the Belgian people not engaging in armed resistance but also the actions of the German army was alienating neutral nations who could be possibly become potential allies or supporters, in what was become a larger war than was initially anticipated. Discipline began to be enforced and random individual attacks on the Belgium people were curtailed. The systemic war crimes of executions ended, but systemic abuse would continue throughout the war. The goal would change from punishing the Belgium people to using them as a resource in the war. Belgium had had the sixth largest economy in the world before the war. During the war Germany dismantled much of Belgium's industrial equipment and moved it back to Germany to aid in the war effort, over 100,000 Belgians workers were forces to work on German military project or manufacture military materials. The damaging would be lasting and Belgium would never regain its place as world economic power after the war.

Germany's actions so diplomatically isolated itself that it gained few allies and by the end of the war the nations that had declared war on Germany represented of most of the world's population.

After the war no one would be held criminally responsible for the atrocities in Belgium