Between the devil and the deep blue sea - University of Canterbury

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In the camps, they were treated like civilian refugees, although military personnel helped
with the preparation of food, as well as with general supervision. 115
While the escaped POWs were burdensome, deserters from the Gelman Anny
were much more troublesome. The historian, Susanne Wolf, has estimated that anything up
to 20,000 German soldiers defected and made their way to the Netherlands between 1916
and 1918. 116 Unlike escaped POWs, the Dutch had no obligations to deserters, but they
could not force them to return home, nor could they intern them. The military tried to deal
with foreign deserters in a similar manner to escaped POW s. They were allocated to
municipalities, although they had to pay their own way. Not surprisingly, the government
was unwilling to pay the cost incurred in dealing with deserters; it had not asked them to
come and only let them stay for humanitarian reasons. I 17 While it recognised some
responsibility to the deserters, it would not allow their family members into the
N etherlands. 1l8 Yet the military learnt a vast amount about the Gennan armies from
deserters and in this respect they were an invaluable source of infonnation. 119 For the same
reason, the defectors often sold information to the Allies. To limit their potential as spies
and smugglers, military authorities restricted the areas in which deserters could move. 120 By
mid-1917, the foreigners posed such a problem that the government set up a special camp
115 For example: Commander of the Field Army to Commanders of Divisions III, IV and Cavalry Brigade and
Commander in Limburg, 13 November 1918, in ARA, "Archiefvan het Hoofdkwartier Veldleger" entry no. 2.13.16,
inventory no. 322.
116 Zanten and Kramers both estimated around 10,000 German deserters lived in the Netherlands during the war (J. H.
Zanten, "De zorg voor vluchtelingen uit het buitenland tijdens den OQ1'log" [Care for refugees from abroad during the
war] in Brugman (ed.), Nederland in den oorlogstijd. p. 352; Kramers, "Internering in Nederland 1914 - 1918" p.
23). Susanne Wolf believed the number was double that (Moore et. al., "The Netherlands and Sweden" p. 316).
Another source pointed to 15,000 - 20,000 German deserters in the Netherlands by late 1917 (Anonymous, A
German Deserter's War Experience. (translated by J. Koettgen) New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1917, p. 188), while de
Roodt suggested anything up to 80,000 deserters (Oorlogsgasten p. 242).
117 Commander-in-Chiefto Commander of the Field Army, 12 March 1917, in ARA, "Archiefvan het Hoofdkwartier
Veldleger" entry no. 2.13.16, inventory no. 229.
118 Commander in Limburg to Commander of the Field Army, 20 March 1918, in ARA, "Archief van het
Hoofdkwartier Veldleger" entry no. 2.13.16, inventory no. 330.
119 Information gathering was the responsibility of GS III. See: ARA, "Archief van het Hoofdkwartier Veldleger"
entry no. 2.13.16, inventory no. 325 forreports from deserters in 1918.
120 Nagelhout, "De to elating en internering van belligerente troepen" p. 22.