The Unknown Dead: Civilians in the Battle of the Bulge

By Peter Schrijvers

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813123526
• ISBN13: 9780813123523
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.3" x 9.4"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Not only soldiers fight in wars

What did I know about the Battle of the Bulge before I read this book? Well, not very much, even though I read about war and warfare all the time. Watching Band of Brothers I got the impression that Easy Company more or less saved the day for everybody involved in the Allied offensive, and well, that was it. No more Hitler and no more WWII. Not so. And that's quite clear after reading The Unknown Dead. However, I didn't learn that much about the war per se, even though quite a few pages talk about different battles and offensives and personal experiences et cetera. What I did learn, however, was that there were more people on the battlefield than just the Allied forces and the stubborn Germans. There were regular people present as well, and the sufferings these people who happened to be in the middle of the fighting were, to say the least, extremely horrific. This becomes very clear throughout the book, and Schrijvers does an amazing job telling the stories about these somewhat forgotten people. From time to time it might feel a little repetitive, but then again, the sufferings they had to endure WERE repetitive. And the only way to make the reader aware of how it really was is to tell it all, so this isn't really much of an issue. However, what I liked the most about the book was the honesty, or in other words, the fact that Schrijvers never hesitates to - sometimes in quite gruesome detail - describe scenarios where not just the Germans and especially the Waffen SS and Gestapo executed people in cold blood or committed other mindless atrocities. The GIs too could be ruthless killers and totally lacking any sense of moral or discipline in the ways they interacted with the horrified civilians. This might be extremely uncomfortable to some, but hey, that's the way it was, and if you cannot deal with the fact that not all Allies were good and honest heroes, then the problem is with your look on reality, and not with Schrijvers' book. All in all The Unknown Dead is as interesting as it is necessary, and I really do hope that Peter Schrijvers decides to write other books such as this one about other important battles in the WWII.

Excellent a must read

This book is a must read for everyone intrested in the Battle of the Bulge! It is about a "forgotten" fact of this battle, the suffering of the civilians. Untill now in every book about this Battle, hardly any information can be found about the Belgian population and how they suffered. Most historians and writers wrote untill now that there were only very limited casualties among the civilians. This book proves that this is not correct! The Belgian people did not only suffer from the Germans in this Battle, also due to the military action of the American and British armed forces many civilians died! Bombings by the American forces caused terrible suffering. In this book - which is a must read - we get another picture of the Battle of the Bulge and the suffering is has caused.