10

Between 1941 and 1945, more than 8,700 young men from the border area of Eupen-Malmedy (Prussian after the Vienna Congress, annexed by Belgium after the Treaty of Versailles) served in the Wehrmacht and an estimated number of them – 3,200/3,400 – never came back. This was the direct consequence of the re-annexation by Germany in May 1940, but can also be seen as a symbol of the tormented past of the region, torn during the interbellum years between pro-German and pro-Belgian factions and struck after the Second World War by a political cleansing which has long prevented a balanced approach to a very recent past. This article will set the enlistment or forced conscription in the Wehrmacht in their real political and social context and study the recruiting mechanisms. The important question of the general attitude and military comportment of these soldiers in the front line is still difficult to resolve, due to the present scarcity of available sources and is a standing invitation to continue historical research into these Zwangssoldaten.