Les « Boches du Nord » : ces femmes françaises exilées et leur image en France entre 1914 et 1918

This article deals with the women who were forced to—or chose to—leave the Northern and Northeastern regions of France under German occupation during the Great War. Who were those who left, from 1914 to 1918, the ten departments that had passed under enemy domination? From the first days of the German offensive in 1914, many French people threatened by the German advance left their homes to go to Paris or the Western part of France. Following the invasion, and the stabilization of the front line after November 1914, refugees continued to flock to non-occupied zones—some of them evacuated by the Germans who wanted to get rid of “useless mouths”. How were these women welcomed in these parts of France where many suspected them of having occasionally intimately collaborated with the enemy? What were the devices implemented by the French state to interrogate them, receive them, and accommodate them?