Between the lines – A firsthand testimony of an Alsatian-Lorraine soldier, connected to the Battle of Belleau Wood

In 1871, following the Franco-Prussian War, France was defeated by the German states. As a result, Alsace and part of Lorraine—formerly French territories—were annexed by the newly formed German Empire. Overnight, hundreds of thousands of inhabitants became German citizens by law, without ever leaving their homeland.

Like tens of thousands of Alsatians and Lorrainers of his generation, Charles was later called up to serve in the German army during the First World War. Born on a land that had become German after the 1871 annexation, he wore a uniform he had not chosen, caught between a legal obligation imposed by the state and a deep, personal attachment to France.

This rare testimony recounts the war as lived from within, through the eyes of a young man confronted with a fractured identity, military constraint, and the violence of the conflict. This work has prompted analyses and critical readings by historians and researchers, brought together in the Expert Perspectives section.

A war fought under a flag that was not his own—between two nations, between two allegiances, between two lines.

In 1914, Alsace-Lorraine had belonged to the German Empire since 1871.

Young men born in the region were legally conscripted into the Imperial German Army.

For many of them, however, their attachment to France remained profound. Caught between an administrative reality and an intimate sense of belonging, they experienced the war between two nations, between two lines.

In 2018, on the occasion of the centenary of the end of the First World War, Nadine Amoros undertook to revisit and edit a book project originally initiated by her grandfather in the 1970s.

Drawing on his original writings, she embarked on a process of historical research and contextualization carried out over nearly two years. This work helped to shed light on, expand, and situate the personal testimony within the broader framework of the conflict, ultimately leading to the publication of a volume enriched by her own research.

Relatively few firsthand German testimonies of the fighting at Belleau Wood have been published.

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