Behind the Lines: WWI's little-known story of German occupation, Belgian resistance, and the band of Yanks who helped save millions from starvation.

by Jeffrey B. Miller

This book has earned a coveted Kirkus Star Review (www.kirkusreviews.com). The last sentence of the review states: "An excellent history that should catapult Miller to the top tier of popular historians." During World War I, the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) initiated, organized, and supervised the largest food and relief drive the world had ever seen. Working in concert with its counterpart in Belgium, the Comite National, the CRB fed and clothed for four years more than 9 million Belgians and northern French trapped behind German lines. Young, idealistic Americans volunteered to be CRB delegates and go into German-occupied Belgium to guarantee the food would not be taken by the Germans. They had to maintain strict neutrality in what they said and did as they watched the Belgians suffer under the harsh German regime. Covering August 1914 through December 1914, this nonfiction book, Behind the Lines, follows a handful of CRB delegates, a twenty-two-year-old Belgian woman, two U.S. diplomats, the head of the CRB, and two Belgians-a businessman and a priest-who team up to fight the German occupation. It is a story that few have heard.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War I, Historical

482 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2014

About the author

Jeffrey B. Miller is proud to say that he's written three books that have become Best Books of the Year (one for Publishers Weekly, two for Kirkus Reviews). He's been a writer, editor, and author for more than forty years. His career includes starting six magazines (city, regional, and national), being editor-in-chief of five inflight magazines, and director of communications for AAA Colorado.

As for books, he has specialized in writing nonfiction books that bring the subject to life for general readers. He is the author of Stapleton International Airport: The First Fifty Years (Pruett Publishing, Boulder, CO, 1983), which was the first history book about a major U.S. airport; and co-author with Dr. Gordon Ehlers of Facing Your Fifties: Every Man’s Reference to Mid-life Health (M. Evans & Co., New York, 2002), which was one of only three health books that Publishers Weekly included in its Best Books of 2002.

More recently, he's the author of three books on the same topic -- America's little-known humanitarian aid that saved nearly 10 million civilians trapped behind the lines in German-occupied Belgium and northern France during World War I. It was through the nongovernmental Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB). The three books are:

1. Behind the Lines, (self-published by Milbrown Press), 480 pages, 2014. It became a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014, with the starred review stating: "An excellent history that should catapult Miller to the top tier of popular historians." The book covers the chaotic beginnings of the CRB food relief, August 1914 through December 1914. In 2021, the Eric Hoffer Book Awards named it the Best Self-Published Book of the Year.

2. WWI Crusaders (self-published by Milbrown Press), 761 pages, 2018. It also became a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2018. The starred review stated: "A tour-de-force history. . . gripping historical narrative. . . A magnum opus that celebrates the qualities of compassion, honor, and humanitarian virtue." A 2018 Bronze Medal winner in
Foreword Magazine's War & Military category. The book covers the full story in great detail, from August 1914 through May 1917 when the last American CRB "delegates" had to leave Belgium because of America's April entry into the war.

3. Yanks behind the Lines (Rowman & Littlefield), 300-pages, October 22, 2020. It earned a Publishers Weekly BookLife Editor's Pick, and won the Colorado Book Awards in the History category. This is a concise overview, organized thematically with chapters on every critical issue. Individual stories are interwoven with the bigger picture of the war and the harsh German rule in occupied Belgium and northern France.

He is currently working on a new book, Deadly News: Life and death with an underground newspaper during World War I.

Reviews

[Jill H.]

I have put this book aside for reading later. It is not a book to read while reading two others at the same time as it needs full concentration. It starts out very well and I will return to it.

[Steven Z. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The centennial anniversary of World War I produced numerous evaluations of the conflict that brought horrific technology to the battlefield and left Europe totally reconfigured and created the ground work for World War II, and the disintegration of the Middle East today. Among the many new books that appeared in 2014 most dealt with the economic, political, and diplomatic components that drove Europe to war in August, 1914, its conduct, and its final conclusion. Few have explored the humanitarian aspects of the war, but this growing genre has produced a number of important works among them is Jeffrey B. Miller’s BEHIND THE LINES, a well-researched and thoughtful narrative designed to acquaint his audience with the Americans who went to Belgium after it was occupied by the Germans and contributed to the effort to save untold millions from starvation.

Miller examines the role of the Commission on Relief in Belgium (CRB) that was established in October, 1914 to import food and ensure its distribution for those in need throughout occupied Belgium. Before the war Belgium was the most highly industrialized and densely populated country in Europe, with a ratio of 652 people per square mile, while in England it was 374 people per square mile. It was a country that was dependent upon food imports for its survival and because of its industrialized base was able to export enough products to more than offset the cost of its food imports. Once the war commenced German wanton acts of destruction and the British naval blockade left Belgium in dire straits. Among the many individuals that Miller discusses who tried to alleviate the growing threat of starvation was the American mining engineer, Herbert Hoover, a man saddled with the great depression of 1929 as his epitaph. Miller presents a much different picture of Hoover as he discusses a person driven to alleviate hunger by developing the organizational structure that would feed over nine million people in Belgium during the war. Hoover’s use of newspapers to pressure allied governments was ingenious as newspapers never seemed to run out of Belgian stories, and Hoover never seemed to run out of stories to supply them! Hoover would develop the CRB and deploy American college students, then studying at Oxford throughout Belgium to assist in the development of a mechanism to acquire, ship, and distribute foodstuffs where they were needed. The CRB eventually secured over $1 billion to purchase food and developed a global logistical system to feed millions. Many of the delegates as they were called risked their lives in the process and Miller’s narrative reflects their historical importance as many thought they were signing up for a six week donation of their time during winter break in December, 1914, but in reality their stint was much longer and impactful than they realized when they left London for Rotterdam.

The impact of the CRB on the world was profound as Dr. Brandon Little argues in the book’s Forward. First, it demonstrated that humanitarian countermeasures could be developed in a time of total war. Second, it awakened hope among the suffering people. Third, the success of the Americans in delivering aid reinforced the belief by Americans in their own exceptionalism. Fourth, the CRB became the conceptual seed for the creation of other international humanitarian agencies. Lastly, the CRB provided a novel approach to an overwhelming wartime problem.

The personal stories of those who made the CRB possible has not been widely circulated, but now after carefully mining the available historical record, including those of his grandparents who were CRB workers, Miller has provided a vivid account of those involved. What emerges is proof that the United States became deeply involved in World War I long before Congress declared war against Germany in April, 1917. Miller provides evidence that the US became involved almost at the outset of the fighting and he concentrates on the unsung heroes like E.E. Hunt, an American freelance journalist who witnessed the carnage of the war and joined the CRB and greatly facilitated its work in the city of Antwerp which was bombarded hourly by the Germans before it finally succumbed. Others that Miller explores in depth include the work of the autocratic Herbert Hoover who believed that to efficiently meet its tasks the CRB needed to be centrally organized and directed. Miller spends a great deal of time examining the bureaucratic infighting among the French Belgian, and American relief agencies and the different personalities involved as they tried to meet the needs of the Belgian people. David T. Nelson, an American Rhodes scholar was the first delegate that joined the CRB who walked into Belgium with only the clothes on his back. Erica Bunge and her banking family are explored in detail as is the work of Eugene van Doren, a Belgian businessman, and Abbe Vincent de Moor, a Catholic priest who published an underground newspaper in Brussels and spied for the British secret service. Miller integrates the lives of many other participants be it CRB delegates, French businessman who wanted to assist in the process, politicians, military leaders in providing a unique insight into what it took to offset the German occupation and feed millions.

Miller provides an excellent description of the plight of civilians during the German bombardment of Antwerp. He details the disappointment in the lack of British and French aid and the inability of the Belgium military to stem the tide of the German shelling. Interestingly, once the occupation of Belgium is complete, the British government was split over whether to provide aid to Belgium. The military opposed it, with men like Winston Churchill, Lord Kitchener, and Secretary of the Exchequer David Lloyd George arguing that it was Germany’s responsibility to feed the people as the occupying power and fearing that any aid would be seized by the German military. They argued further that “Belgian starvation would create such havoc that the German s would have to pull troops from the western front to maintain order.” (337)Others like Prime Minister Herbert Asquith reluctantly favored aid. The Germans would argue that it was the British blockade that was responsible for the starvation problem and they were willing to cooperate with the allies if and when aid was provided. Other interesting aspects of the book included Hoover’s use of publicity in the United States and England to gain support for his efforts as newspapers and other propaganda tools were employed as a constant conduit to the world of the plight of Belgium. Miller reiterates the problem faced in disbursing relief in that if it was not provided quickly enough the Belgian people might revolt forcing the Germans to crack down even further and worsening an already desperate situation. Miller contrasts the major cities involved in the relief effort. He compares life in Antwerp, which was severely damaged by German bombardment, and Brussels, that allowed the Germans to take over peacefully to avoid being destroyed. Miller also describes life in Rotterdam which was the main transshipment port for aid arriving from England and the United States. The lives of people in these cities were vastly different and for its people their quality of life was based on decisions made by politicians who had little leeway in making choices. Lastly, Miller’s brief biographies of the major historical figures and their actions, as well as his thorough descriptions of the work of the American “Rhodes Scholar and non-Rhodes Scholar delegates” to the CRB are insightful and informative and allow the reader to truly understand the conditions under which they worked and the successes they achieved.

The book is well written but does present a challenge at times to the reader. The edition that I read had pagination issues that for a time made it difficult to read the book. In addition, at times Miller becomes overly engrossed in the bureaucratic infighting that seems to be a constant issue. Periodically, the author gets bogged down in his description of the minutiae that each relief committee is engaged in. Lastly, I would suggest that a more comprehensive citation system be used for those who are interested in the sources that were consulted to assist the reader. However, these shortcomings do not in any way take away from the work that Miller has done in publicizing the American effort to assist the Belgian people during World War I. Miller believes that he has only scratched the surface of his subject and plans two more volumes that the reader can look forward to as the author continues his exploration of the humanitarian role as the war enters 1915.

[Bruce Cline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an extraordinarily interesting read, in no small part because of my previous one-dimensional and unreservedly negative view of Herbert Hoover. Regardless of whatever he did or did not do about the impending Great Depression at the end of his administration, he should also be remembered for his extraordinary humanitarian efforts during WWI where he was largely responsible for coordinating relief efforts that arguable saved millions of Belgians from starvation. Loved this book!

[Sherry Dicer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book provides an abundance of interesting information regarding a little-known clandestine endeavour during WWI, it is that very excessive, detailed description of events that sometimes became extremely tedious in the reading process.
Would consider this a definitely good read for anyone who is a lover of history.

[Sharon Zink · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was really a good book, but it drags in places. Whatever reputation Herbert Hoover had as President of the United States, he was a good organizer. The Belgian people avoided starvation largely because of him.

[frances_loves_writing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent book was thoroughly and extensively researched.

[Terri Wangard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The famous German brutality of WWII was first practiced in Belgium during WWI. By the time of World War I, Belgium was the most industrialized country in Europe, and the most densely populated. It imported 75% of its food.

The Germans kicked off their war by marching through Belgium to get into France and capture Paris. They didn’t expect the Belgians to display nationalistic feeling when they were already divided ethnically, and the Germans were shocked when the Belgians resisted their advance.
Their occupation of Belgium became vicious. Men, women, and children were executed for resisting. Belgian industries were dismantled and transported to Germany, leaving massive unemployment in Belgium. Forty million francs per month was demanded as a contribution to the war. Thousands of men were deported for slave labor in Germany. Movement outside of one’s town or village was forbidden without difficult-to-obtain passes. Imports and exports were stopped, which meant starvation.

Belgian representatives traveled to London, looking for a way to avert the starvation of the country. Herbert Hoover, a wealthy American industrialist who was helping Americans stranded in Europe by the war, volunteered to lead the effort of getting food to Belgium. He was assisted by mostly young, adventurous men, many Rhodes scholars at Oxford.

Neither the British nor the Germans favored the relief effort. Both sides allowed it to continue because Hoover masterfully orchestrated a worldwide PR campaign to highlight the plight of the Belgians and gain universal sympathy that the belligerents couldn’t ignore.

When the American relief delegates had to leave Belgium in 1917 upon the US entry into the war, the still-neutral Netherlands and Spain kept the relief going to feed Belgium.

Fascinating account of Belgium’s WWI experience, much of which was unknown to me.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story, superb writing, in-depth research. Can't wait to read the second in the series-