Mourning | 2014-18.brussels

Men, women and children assembled by a tomb in Evere. The bodies of Belgian soldiers who had died at the Yser were brought back to their places of birth only in 1921, claimed by the families. During German occupation, the process of mourning had been uneasy because of the hope that the men would return, but also by the absence of tombs upon which to grieve.

The results of the Great War were terrifying: 40,000 Belgian soldiers died during the war. Another 5,500 civilians had been victims of the atrocities of 1914, and 2,500 died deported in Germany. These people left tens of thousands of grieving relatives behind. The way in which families overcame the loss inside the private circle remains to be written. Hundred years later, the Great War has not yet revealed all its secrets.