Deportations

From the beginning of the War, the French government had organised the deportation of German nationals resident within French territory. Similarly, when French troops entered Alsace in 1914, imperial officials and people who were German by extraction were interned. The French concentration camps were distributed across the south and west of France. Germans resident in the Nord Department were deported to the island of Tatihou off the coast of Normandy.
Negotiations were initiated between the German and French governments for the release of the deportees. In order to apply pressure on the French government, the Germans decided to deport inhabitants of the occupied regions in November 1916 and January 1918. The deportees were dignitaries, both men and women.
The 1916 deportees - 300 for the Nord Department - were interned at Holzminden in the Duchy of Brunswick. Living conditions there were bearable, although the prisoners suffered from isolation, hardship and bullying. These first hostages were repatriated in April 1917.
In 1918, women were again sent to Holzminden and the men to Lithuania where internment conditions were much harsher. The prisoners suffered from the cold, a lack of food and drinking water, poor housing conditions, vermin and humiliations. 26 hostages died there.