'All for their Good,' a cartoon by Dutch artist Louis Raemaekers, from 'Through the Iron Bars (Two years of German occupation in Belgium)' by Emile Cammaerts Illustrated with Cartoons by Louis Raemaekers.
All for their Good
"In February, 1917, that is to say, at the moment when the Germans were beginning to prepare for their retreat, they committed the savage depredations which are now known to the entire world, and which revolt the universal conscience of mankind.. . . At Noyon, a week after sending off the first batch, on February 17th, the Germans selected fifty young girls who had been expelled from the region of St. Quentin and interned in the town. They were all sent to the north, in spite of the tears and entreaties of their parents, whose anguish was terrible."
Excerpt from the 'Official Report of the French Investigating Commission headed by Georges Payelle, President of the Court of Audits on Operation Alberich, the German strategic retreat of 1917 to a shorter, well-entrenched defensive system. This 'Hindenburg Line' was the Siegfried Zone of four trench lines. Germany deported citizens of occupied Belgium and French both within the occupied zone and to Germany itself. In this case, 'to the north' could have been further into northern France or into Belgium. The Germans evacuated Noyon itself in the retreat.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, p. 32, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
1917-02-17, 1917, January, Operation Alberich, strategic retreat, German strategic retreat, evacuee, evacuees, deportation, deportee
