Behind the Lines - WWI feeding of Belgium, by an American charity

Lanny Spencer led a discussion of Behind the Lines and tour of the Brussels US Embassy, where we saw grain bags that had contained food donated by the American people.

During WWI, the Commission for Relief in Belgium initiated, organized, and supervised the largest food and relief drive the world had ever known. Working in concert with its counterpart in Belgium, the Comité National, the CRB fed and clothed, for four years, more than 9 million Belgians and northern French trapped behind German lines. The CRB delegates, most of whom were young college students who could speak German and/or French, volunteered to go into the occupied country to guarantee food would not be diverted to the Germans. They had to maintain strict neutrality. Written in a very readable journalistic style.The country was in very bad shape, since the fighting had destroyed much of the canal, road, and railroad systems necessary to transport agricultural goods to get to market. The British had instituted a total food blockade of Europe. Available Belgian food stocks were confiscated by the German Army. Belgium also suffered a severe labor shortage since many of the men capable of farm work were either prisoners of war or forcibly sent to Germany to address their manpower shortages.

Book Club participants received a gift copy of 100th Anniversary Remembered - US and Belgium, a beautiful book commissioned by the American Embassy that memorialized this humanitarian project in Belgium during a time of great need.