Information board 14-18 Sambre Rouge - Temporary POW Camps

The number of prisoners of war taken during World War I was enormous. Slightly more than 6.6 million soldiers were taken prisoner during the war, 2.250.000 of them by Germany. Once they fell into the enemy’s hands, the French soldiers were forced to do heavy labour and lived under harsh conditions. Most of the prisoners were soldiers, but some were also civilians who ware taken hostage and kept in detention in Belgium or sent to Germany.

Following the battles of the Sambre and Mons, this farm was used as a POW camp, mainly for British prisoners but also for a few Frenchmen, for several months. Ince the entrance was closed, the building was very easy for the German authorities to guard. With its three storeys for storing grain and hay. It housed some fifty prisoners, who worked the fields during the day, guarded by German soldiers.

Interestingly, the Germans also requisitioned this farm’s barn from 1940 to 1944 as a hangar for their supply trains. The farm is known as the ‘Fourmeau Farm’ because the Fourmeau family acquired it between the two world wars.

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Source

• Text: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Photos: Luc Van Waeyenberge