The Unknown Dead: Civilians in the Battle of the Bulge

by Peter Schrijvers

Traditional histories of the hard-fought Battle of the Bulge routinely include detailed lists of the casualties suffered by American, British, and German troops. Conspicuously lacking in most accounts, however, are references to the civilians in Belgium and Luxembourg who lost their lives in the same battle. Yet the most reliable current estimates calculate at approximately three thousand. the number of civilians who perished during the six weeks of fighting. Telling the stories of ordinary people caught up in the maelstrom of war, The Unknown Dead surveys this crucial battle and its consequences from an entirely new perspective. Renowned historian Peter Schrijvers, a native Belgian, describes in vivid detail the horrific war crimes committed by German military units on the front lines and by Nazi security services behind the battle lines, as well as the devastating effects of Allied responses to the enemy threat, including massive bombings of small towns.

During the offensive, inhabitants of the villages of this region of Belgium lived in a state of chaos. Countless men, women, and children were killed in cold blood for aiding American soldiers, and the GIs themselves were often highly suspicious of German-speaking Belgians. Local services ground to a halt, and citizens formed volunteer groups to obtain water and meet other basic needs. Even after the violence had ended and the postwar reconstruction had begun, the small communities remained in turmoil. The countryside was dotted with abandoned land mines and explosives, and the emotional tension between civilians and battle hardened veterans often took years to dissipate. Based on recently discovered sources including numerous personal testimonies, municipal and parish records, and findings of the Belgian War Crimes Commission, The Unknown Dead vividly recounts the experiences of innocents in the violence of one of World War II's seminal battles.

Genres: World War II, History, War, Nonfiction

430 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2004

About the author

Dr. Peter Schrijvers (1963- ) is a Belgian academic and writer of history books. He earned a masters degree in Modern History from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven) an a PhD in US Diplomatic and Military History from the Ohio State University.
Today (2014) he is a Senior Lecturer American and international history at the School of Humanities and Languages, University of New South Wales in Sydney.

Peter Schrijvers mainly writes academic books in English.

*****

Peter Schrijvers doceerde Amerikaanse geschiedenis in Australië, de VS en Zwitserland. Hij publiceerde zes non-fictieboeken over de Tweede Wereldoorlog, onder andere bij Cambridge en Yale, en was te zien op National Geographic. Momenteel is hij curator van Liberation Garden, het nieuwe museum over de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Leopoldsburg. Een hoofd vol vlammen is zijn eerste roman.

Reviews

[Karina Samyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Er is heel wat onderzoek verricht om dit boek zo gedetailleerd te kunnen schrijven. Dat maakt het zo'n interessant en boeiend boek. Een minpuntje, het groter kader wordt niet geschetst.
Hartverscheurende verhalen zijn het. Nutteloze doden en gewonden. Vernielingen op grote schaal. Wreedheden begaan door ss'ers. En dat terwijl de strijd zo ontegensprekelijk was verloren. Maar ook de Amerikanen waren geen doetjes. Dorpjes en stadjes werden meedogenloos gebombardeerd (ook met fosforbommen). Door de onverzettelijkheid van de krankzinnige naziIeiding vielen nog duizenden slachtoffers.
Ik zal met andere ogen door die geliefde dorpjes rijden de volgende keer dat ik er ben. En nogmaals besef je tijdens het lezen de absolute horror en de totale onzin van oorlog.

[Brett Bosley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grim but important look at the fates of civilians during the Ardennes battles of 1944-45. The mental expansion of these experiences to the rest of WW2 combat zones is bitter.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the preface of this book, a former US soldier revisits a village in 1997 where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45. As he talks to one of the lifelong inhabitants, he is astonished to hear that she never left the town throughout the battle, was hiding in the cellar of a stable with her family. The combatants fighting above had been mostly oblivious to the civilians around them, although Peter Schrijvers writes that roughly 3,000 Belgians lost their lives during the operation, the same number, he says, as civilians who died on 9/11. These ones, however, went mostly unaccounted for, and are unremembered. The Unknown Dead consists of a collage-like compilation of hundreds of interviews and firsthand accounts of soldiers and civilians who survived the Ardennes Offensive...and their memories of those who did not. As such, this is book is a valuable historical resource, probably one of the only ones to focus on the minute details of survival of ordinary people in the Ardennes.

However, I doubt this book will interest the more casual reader. First, it is not written to be read straight through from beginning to end--at least, I couldn't manage it. Besides these many brief snippets of details, mostly a numbing litany of the horrors of war (and a few touching moments), there is little structure to speak of. Chapters are loosely organized around region and chronology, but there are few (if any) reoccurring "characters", and the advances/retreats of dozens of military units are mentioned but not followed in any particular order. Specific dates are not consistently mentioned for each anecdote, nor chronologically presented. I found it much easier to read this book by referencing the index, then reading all the pages on one specific town, or one military unit, from beginning to end and then construct a viable "story" in my mind. Writer Cornelius Ryan pulled off a much more lucid narrative of the taking of Arnhem in A Bridge to Far, using a wide scope to analyze events, but also following a dozen or so minor characters from various backgrounds (Allied, Axis, civilian)that all built off of and connected with one another, creating tension and gathering momentum as the operation progressed. Not so here.

A second, more minor issue I had was with the writing. For the most part the writing is decent and the author invisible, one of the better instances I've seen in history books. But every so often the author jumps in with a value judgement or an out-of place adjective that seems to needlessly sensationalize the already bleak material, and is out of place in historical documentation (for example: "A terrifying blast" causes "horrific injuries", or "many others let themselves be gobbled up by the nearest forests"). The facts already speak--shout--for themselves.

[IKO · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een heel sterke en goedgeschreven studie van een aspect van deze brutale veldslag dat vaak in andere boeken over het hoofd wordt gezien. Voor iedereen die geïnteresseerd is in deze fase van de strijd kan ik dit boek enkel aanraden.