Rape of Belgium

The Rape of Belgium (French: Viol de la Belgique, lit. 'Violation of Belgium', Dutch: Verkrachting van België) was a series of systematic war crimes, especially mass murder and deportation, by German troops against Belgian civilians, many or most of them real or suspected franc-tireurs and other guerilla fighters, during the invasion and occupation of Belgium during World War I in violation of Belgian neutrality. The neutrality of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Treaty of London of 1839, which had been signed by the German Confederation (of which Prussia was a member). However, the German Schlieffen Plan required that German armed forces advance through Belgium (thus violating its neutrality) in order to outflank the French Army, concentrated in eastern France. Shortly before the beginning of the war in early August 1914 the German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, had dismissed the treaty of 1839 as a mere "scrap of paper".

Throughout the war, the German army systematically engaged in numerous atrocities against the civilian population of Belgium, including the intentional destruction of civilian property; German soldiers murdered over 6,000 Belgian civilians, and 17,700 died during expulsions, deportations, imprisonment, or death sentences by court. The Wire of Death, a lethal electric fence maintained by the Imperial German Army to hinder civilians from fleeing the occupation to the Netherlands, resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Belgian civilians. Some 120,000 were forced to work and deported to Germany. German forces destroyed 25,000 homes and other buildings in 837 communities in 1914 alone, and 1.5 million Belgians (20% of the entire population) fled from the invading German army.