Relief in Belgium

The Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) was a mostly American organization that arranged for the supply of food to German-occupied Belgium and northern France during the First World War. It was led by Herbert Hoover. DTN served in the CRB from December 1914 through October 1915 and was one of the first ten CRB delegates, Americans recruited from Oxford and sent to Belgium. He had the necessary understated qualifications of "some experience roughing it, who speak French, have tact, and can get on with the Germans [Hoover]."

Materials included are

- A CRB citation (to the right) which has been given to the archives at the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa.
- Pictures from DTN's tenure in the CRB
- Pictures of a signed cigarette case
- Pictures of four medals received by DTN
- Three drawings (below)
- Three letters from Pres. Herbert Hoover to DTN (below)

If you have further interest in the CRB you can visit a blog by Jeff Miller at http://www.jbmwriter.com/Historical-writings.html

Jeff Miller has written three books on the CRB. The first book in the trilogy is entitled Behind the Lines: Beginnings, 1914 (Milbrown Press, Denver, 2014) and contains much information about DTN and the early days of the CRB. His second book, WW1 Crusaders (Milbrown Press, Denver, 2018), is a detailed account of the the entire time period of the CRB and includes DTN's time in German-occupied Vervins, France. The third book, Yanks Behind the Lines, was published by international book publisher Rowman & Littlefield in October 2020. Mr. Miller describes the third book as "the culmination and the distillation of all my work into one concise history for readers interested in learning more about one of America’s finest hours in humanitarian aid."

Three drawings from Belgium. These are postcard size and are pen-and-ink drawings with no identification as to the artist.

Letters from Herbert Hoover to DTN. The letters were in reply to greetings DTN sent and giving his two books (History of Luther College and Diary of Elisabeth Koren) to Hoover.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse