'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
"On Holy Saturday [April 22, 1916], at three in the morning, methodical raids began at Lille in the Fives quarter, in the Marlière quarter of Tourcoing, and at Roubaix. After a suspension on Easter Sunday, the work went on all the week, ending up in the Saint Maurice quarter of Lille.About three in the morning, troops, with fixed bayonets, barred the streets, machine guns commanded the road, against unarmed people.Soldiers made their way into the houses. The officer pointed out the people who were to go, and, half an hour later, everyone was marched pell-mell into an adjacent factory, and from there into the station, whence the departure took place."
Excerpt from an Official Statement of the French Government by Aristide Briand, Prime Minister of France. German authorities seized about 25,000 civilians in April, 1916 from the occupied French cities of Lille, Roubaix, and Tourcoing. Mothers with children under 14 were spared. Girls under 20 were seized if accompanied by a family member. Men were put to work in agriculture, road repair, trench digging, and munitions manufacturing. Women labored as cooks and laundresses for soldiers, and as servants for officers. The order by General von Graevenitz authorizing the deportations claimed they provided a means to provision the population of the occupied territories, which had become 'more and more difficult' because of the 'attitude of England', presumably as evidenced by its blockade of Germany.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 105, 106, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
1916-04-22, 1916, April, Lille, Lille deportation, deportation, deportee
