Belgian Military Field of Honor 1914-1918

About

The Belgian Military Field of Honour 1914–1918 (Dutch: Belgisch Militair Ereveld 1914–1918; French: Cimetière d'honneur militaire belge 1914–1918), is a burial site located at the Oostergaarde Cemetery of the Dutch city Harderwijk in Gelderland. Originally, thirty-six soldiers were buried at the site. Nowadays, 349 Belgian soldiers from the First World War are commemorated.

These include 124 individuals whose names feature on a monument because their remains could not be retrieved anymore. The cemetery was inaugurated on 28 September 1963 by the Belgian ambassador. The gravestones are similar to the ones used by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and are varying from the official Belgian gravestones.

The burial site is administered by the Dutch Oorlogsgravenstichting ("war graves foundation"). During the First World War, around 33,000 Belgian soldiers fled to the neutral Netherlands after the Belgian city of Antwerp fell to the German troops in 1914. In compliance with the 1907 Hague Convention, the military refugees were disarmed and interned by the Dutch.

Through the influx of refugees, Harderwijk, where a refugee camp was located, tripled its population. Most of the victims buried...