During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
between 1914 and 1918, approximately one million
Belgians
Belgians ( nl, Belgen; french: Belges; german: Belgier) are people identified with the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe. As Belgium is a multinational state, this connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultur ...
fled across the border to the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. These refugees were both civilians who were afraid of the war and the alleged atrocities of the Germans, and soldiers who either deserted or were cut off from their army unit.
German advance
Officially Belgium, like the Netherlands, was a
neutral country
A neutral country is a state that is neutral towards belligerents in a specific war or holds itself as permanently neutral in all future conflicts (including avoiding entering into military alliances such as NATO, CSTO or the SCO). As a type of ...
during the war. By 1904 the news had already leaked out that the Germans had a plan to march through
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
to reach
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. Precautionary measures were taken against this, including the introduction of
conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
.
On 4 August 1914
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
invaded
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
without a formal declaration of war. Immediately after the invasion a stream of refugees began to head for the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. On the first day alone 52 Belgian soldiers entered the Netherlands. When, on 10 October 1914, the city of
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, fell to the advancing German army, an estimated 40,000 soldiers and 1 million private citizens fled to the Netherlands. Another estimate from
E.H. Kossmann and
H. Pirenne cites a figure of at least half a million refugees who left
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, , of whom hundreds of thousands went to the Netherlands.
[E.H. Kossmann: ''The low countries 1780-1940'', Oxford, Clarendon Press 1978, p 523. Kossmann tells that according to Pirenne approximately 1.4 million Belgians, about a fifth of the total population, left their country during this period. Many returned quickly. H. Pirenne: ''La Belgique et la Guerre Mondiale'', Paris, Les Presses universitaires de France; New Haven, Yale university press ]928
Year 928 ( CMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* King Rudolph I loses the support of Herbert II, count of Vermandois, who controls the pr ...
pp. 64-65 The fleeing military personnel also contained nearly 1,600 British of the
1st Royal Naval Brigade
The 1st Royal Naval Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Royal Navy which was formed from excess naval reserve personnel. The brigade was formed in August 1914 and assigned to the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division after that division's formation in S ...
, part of the
63rd (Royal Naval) Division, who had been cut off after orders to retreat failed to reach them at the end of the
Siege of Antwerp.
Military refugees
According to
Hague Convention of 1907, as a neutral land in a time of war the Netherlands was obliged to disarm and
intern
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
all military personnel fleeing across its borders.
The first soldiers were accommodated in an empty
barracks
Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...
in
Alkmaar
Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...
. Later, barracks in
Amersfoort,
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
,
Harderwijk
Harderwijk (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city of the Netherlands.
It is served by the Harderwijk railway station.
Its population centres are Harderwijk and Hierden.
Harderwijk is on the western boundary of the Veluwe. The southea ...
and
Oldebroek
Oldebroek () is a municipality and a town in the province of Gelderland. The municipality had a population of in .
Population centres
Topography
''Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Oldebroek, June 2015''
Sport
Oldebroek has been ho ...
were used to intern military personnel. The barracks in Oldebroek were given up again on 1 September 1916. In Alkmaar German soldiers were also accommodated, but because this regularly caused conflict between them and the Belgian soldiers they were moved to
Kamp (Bergen) (in Dutch). To avoid being interned some military personnel attempted to flee to the United Kingdom in civilian clothes.
At Groningen, 1,500 members of the
Royal Naval Division
The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division was a United Kingdom infantry division of the First World War. It was originally formed as the Royal Naval Division at the outbreak of the war, from Royal Navy and Royal Marine reservists and volunteers, who wer ...
were held in the camp they dubbed HMS Timbertown, a name inspired by the wooden huts where they were quartered.
The Dutch named it as "The English Camp" ("Het Engelse Kamp").
Because most barracks were too small to cope with the stream of military refugees, tent camps were swiftly erected nearby. Close to Amersfoort,
Camp Zeist was constructed from wooden barracks on the orders of minister of war Nicolaas Bosboom. Officially the camp was called
Internment Camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
Amersfoort - Military Camp at Zeist. In 1916 the interred military personnel began the construction of a monument to show their appreciation of the hospitality received. The camp later went on to be used as the site of the
Scottish Court in the Netherlands used to try those suspected of the bombing of
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'', a Boeing ...
over
Lockerbie
Lockerbie (, gd, Locarbaidh) is a small town in Dumfries and Galloway, south-western Scotland. It is about from Glasgow, and from the border with England. The United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census recorded its population as 4,009. The town ...
, Scotland, on 21 December 1988.
From 1917 onwards separate camps were established for
deserters
Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which ar ...
. Additionally, separate villages were built for married soldiers nearby the camps so that their families could live in the area. Some examples of these villages were called: Albert's Dorp, Elizabeth-Dorp, Nieuwdorp, Leopold’s Dorp, Heidekamp, Boschkant en Moensdorp. The word "dorp" means "village" in Dutch.
Over the course of time a greater and greater number of interned military personnel were put to work in Dutch businesses, where most Dutch males had had to join the army as part of the conscription effort. In total 46.2% of all military personnel were employed in this manner.
On 11 November 1918 the war ended, but only once the Netherlands had signed the truce agreement could interned military personnel be released and allowed to return home.
349 Belgian military refugees are buried or commemorated at the
Belgian Military Field of Honour 1914–1918, located in the
Oostergaarde Cemetery of
Harderwijk
Harderwijk (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city of the Netherlands.
It is served by the Harderwijk railway station.
Its population centres are Harderwijk and Hierden.
Harderwijk is on the western boundary of the Veluwe. The southea ...
,
Gelderland
Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...
.
Civilian refugees
The first civilian refugees to arrive in the Netherlands were accommodated in the provinces of
Limburg,
Brabant Brabant is a traditional geographical region (or regions) in the Low Countries of Europe. It may refer to:
Place names in Europe
* London-Brabant Massif, a geological structure stretching from England to northern Germany
Belgium
* Province of Bra ...
and
Zeeland. The refugees - men, women, children and others in need of assistance had great difficulty moving with what they were able to bring with them. Above all
Putte
Putte () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality includes the towns of Putte, Beerzel, and the hamlets and . The town of Putte is around east of Mechelen. In 2021, Putte had a total population of 18,109 ...
,
Roosendaal and
Bergen op Zoom received so many refugees that they had to spend their first nights on the streets.
Due to their large numbers, the refugees were distributed around the Netherlands. The other provinces had to receive refugees and distribute them over their various districts. The first negotiations on the return of 900,000 Belgian refugees began on October 12, 1914. In May 1915 there were still 105,000 civilian refugees in the Netherlands, a number which remained more or less unchanged for the rest of the war. As with the military refugees, the return of the last civilian refugees to Belgium began at the end of 1918. In January and February 1919, the last Belgian citizens returned to their country.
Initially, the government relied mainly on private citizens to take in civilian refugees, but out of fear of anti-German riots and protests among refugees, it was decided to establish guarded refugee camps. The first camp was
Nunspeet. After that, camps were opened at
Ede,
Amersfoort,
Bergen op Zoom,
Roosendaal,
Tilburg
Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...
,
Hontenisse
Hontenisse (population in 2002: 8,014) is a former municipality in the southwestern Netherlands, in the municipality of Hulst in the province of Zeeland. The municipality covered an area of 115.78 km² (of which 3.53 km² water).
On January 1, 20 ...
,
Baarle-Nassau
Baarle-Nassau () is a municipality and town in the southern Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. It had a population of in . The town is the site of a complicated borderline between Belgium and the Netherlands, with 22 small ...
,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
,
Scheveningen
Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (''wijk'') of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is po ...
,
Oldebroek
Oldebroek () is a municipality and a town in the province of Gelderland. The municipality had a population of in .
Population centres
Topography
''Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Oldebroek, June 2015''
Sport
Oldebroek has been ho ...
and
Veenhuizen.
Gouda
Gouda may refer to:
* Gouda, South Holland, a city in the Netherlands
** Gouda (pottery), style of pottery manufactured in Gouda
** Gouda cheese, type of cheese originally made in and around Gouda
** Gouda railway station
* Gouda, Western Cape, a s ...
was a separate refugee camp. In Gouda, refugees were first housed in private homes, but at the end of October 1914 they were concentrated in vacant greenhouses at the Steensma nursery. As the greenhouses offered insufficient comfort for so many people, a temporary village was built on the front of the greenhouses, including a church, a school and a hospital. Behind the greenhouses was a village of 64 wooden houses in which approximately 350 people were accommodated. Other camps consisted of tents or barracks with living and sleeping areas.
In the camps refugees were separated into three categories according to their threat level:
* Dangerous or undesirable ''elements''
* Less desirable "elements"
* Decent, but needy
Partly due to the use of this classification, most of the civilians preferred to return to Belgium. In the case of undesirable behaviour, civilian refugees could also be expelled in accordance with the Dutch Aliens Act of 1849.
Artist Leo Gestel
The Dutch artist
Leo Gestel drew around 100 drawings of Belgian refugees.
He completed them in his atelier and gave the proceeds of any sales to the national refugee committee.
File:Leo Gestel Uittocht.jpg
File:Leo Gestel Uittocht Belgische Vluchtelingen 1914.jpg
File:Leo Gestel Vluchtelingen uit België 1914.jpg
File:Leo Gestel Vluchtende Belgen 1914.jpg
Foreign help
In March 1915,
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
donated a sum of 325,000 guilders to the Netherlands so that simple, transportable homes could be built for refugees. Help also came from the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. The British Society of Friends (
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
) donated large amounts for the purchase of wood for the construction of the homes and other facilities. From the United States, there was help from the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
, which paid for, amongst other things, material for making clothes. For example, the camp in
Gouda
Gouda may refer to:
* Gouda, South Holland, a city in the Netherlands
** Gouda (pottery), style of pottery manufactured in Gouda
** Gouda cheese, type of cheese originally made in and around Gouda
** Gouda railway station
* Gouda, Western Cape, a s ...
received 17 sewing machines and large amounts of material. The houses were also constructed at the camps in
Ede ("Danish Village"),
Uden
Uden () is a town and former municipality in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. Since 2022 it has been part of the new municipality of Maashorst.
History
Uden was first recorded around 1190 as "Uthen". However, earlier settlements h ...
("Villa Village"), Gouda,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
(Alida Jacobsdorp) and
Zierikzee.
Electric fence
In 1915 the German army built a 332 kilometre long
electric fence along the border between Belgium and the Netherlands. The
high voltage
High voltage electricity refers to electrical potential large enough to cause injury or damage. In certain industries, ''high voltage'' refers to voltage above a certain threshold. Equipment and conductors that carry high voltage warrant spec ...
electric fence was kept electrified until the end of the war. It is estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 people, including Belgian refugees, died attempting to cross the fence.
Literature
*Evelyn de Roodt, Oorlogsgasten. Vluchtelingen en krijgsgevangenen in Nederland tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog (Zaltbommel 2000) (in Dutch)
*Geert Laporte, ''Belgische geïnterneerden in Nederland gedurende de Eerste Wereldoorlog 1914-1918. Onderzoek naar de levensomstandigheden en de politieke stromingen in de kampen'', Rijksuniversiteit Gent, 1980-1981 (licentiaatsverhandeling) (in Dutch)
See also
*
Belgian Monument (in Dutch)
*
Nunspeet refugee camp (in Dutch)
References
*
*
*
*{{cite web, title=HMS TIMBERTOWN - A story of British servicemen interned in Holland during the Great War of 1914 – 1918, with a focus on the Isle of Lewis, url=http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/englishcamp/lewis/index.html, website=De Eerste Wereldoorlog 1914 - 1918, accessdate=12 July 2017, language=English
Belgium in World War I
1910s in the Netherlands