Belgian refugees in World War 1: local archives & histories

Twentieth century world wars led to many refugees seeking sanctuary from violence and persecution in other countries. Yet our knowledge and interest in these population displacements is far from consistent. Belgian refugees fleeing the violence of the German invasion in 1914 have been relatively forgotten compared to attention granted the Armenian refugee, or Spanish, Jewish, Czech and Polish refugees fleeing later conflicts.[1] Recently however this gap has narrowed with interest in Belgian refugees by media outlets, and historians in Britain and Belgium.[2] In recovering the history of Belgian refugees we can better address the question of ‘forgetting’ but we can also, through a focus on local history, establish what legacies and personal memories persisted.