From a French Perspective?

[Ken Lees]

I am often asked about the experience of the French and Belgian civilian population during the Great War, both in occupied areas and the rest of France.

Sadly, I have to confess to this being yet another gaping hole in my knowledge of the war.

Are there any books (in English) that deal with this subject? And any recommended reading on the subject of post-war reconstruction would also be welcomed.

Ken

[KIRKY]

And me Ken , always wanted to know where they all went during the War .

Tony

[seaJane]

Ken,

I can't remember whether the contributors to A War in Words (editors Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Morris) include French/Belgian civilians but might be worth a check. There's certainly a diary from a German teenage girl.

[Ken Lees]

Ken,

I can't remember whether the contributors to A War in Words (editors Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Morris) include French/Belgian civilians but might be worth a check. There's certainly a diary from a German teenage girl.

Thanks Jane, I have that on the shelf, so I'll take a look.

[SteveMarsdin]

I know of lots of books on the Belgian experience but only in French or Flemish. Kramer and Horne's book (in English) on the atrocities concentrates on the period during and immediately after the fighting in 1914, although it does make reference to the deportations that took place much later.

Steve

[seaJane]

Took me quite a while to track down a post I knew I'd made: Round about Bar-le-Duc by Susanne Rouvier Day deals with being a relief worker in France and living among the civilian population. The Gutenberg version I originally found now has a broken link but this works: https://archive.org/details/roundaboutbarled00daysrich

sJ

PS: From the Preface:

"Twenty months in the war zone ought, one would imagine, to have provided me with countless hair-breadth escapes, thrills, and perhaps even shockers with which to regale you, but the adventures are all those of other people, an occasional flight to a cellar in a raid being all we could claim of danger. And so, instead of being a book about English women in France, it is mainly a book about French women in their own country, and therein lies its chief, if not its only claim to merit.

Humanness was the quality which above all others you asked for, and if it possesses that I shall know it has not been written in vain."

[Ken Lees]

Thanks sJ.

[The Ibis]

You might be interested in France and the Great War 1914-1918 by Leonard Smith, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, and Annette Becker. Its a easy read and covers much of what you're asking about. Annette Becker's father, Jean Jacques Becker, wrote The Great War and the French People about 20 years earlier. Its also an excellent book on the subject.

[The Ibis]

And for the immediate post-war period, there is France and the Après Guerre, 1918--1924: Illusions and Disillusionment by Benjamin Martin.

[Ken Lees]

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Fred van Woerkom]

I am surprised no one has mentioned the late Richard Cobb, one of the foremost historians of France and especially of the French Revolution.

His "French and Germans, Germans and French: A Personal Interpretation of France under Two Occupations 1914-1918/1940-1944" (University Press of New England) should be helpful

Cobb's interest is people and in much of his work he describes his meetings with ordinary people.

In Theodore Zeldin's work there is often a description of what people thought and felt.

All the best,

Fred

[David Filsell]

"The Long Silence: Civilian Life Under the German Occupation of Northern France 1914 - 1918" by Helen McPhail might be of help.

David

[The Ibis]

You might also be interest in reading Demobilising the Mind: France and the Legacy of the Great War 1919-1939 by John Horne. You can download it here: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=31&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjJ1YKg6qDNAhXIax4KHUVxBOI4HhAWCBswAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.h-france.net%2Frude%2Frude%2520volume%2520ii%2FHorne%2520Final%2520Version.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGPGS_QeHnKHaS0HfXCpx-jpEhFOQ&sig2=y1wUw1FVgiw83M9ag6P01Q&bvm=bv.124272578,d.dmo

[yperman]

I strongly recommend 'The Rape of Belgium' by Larry Zuckerman New York University Press. It describes both the individual Belgian civilian's experiences and also the political actions of the Germans. At a more local level 'The reconstruction of Ieper' (Flanders Fields Museum), gives an insight to the politics of how the Flemish reclaimed their city and why they chose to rebuild it in the architectural style it is today. Yperman