After the ‘Great War' broke out in August 1914, Het Leven published many photos every week until the end of the battle in 1918, showing the slaughter in Europe. Many of these photos have been preserved in the photo collection. Despite press censorship, it was possible to document the current affairs for people in the neutral Netherlands. The first official gas attack launched by the Germans on the Western Front (22 April 1915) was already illustrated on 4 May showing the first primitive gas masks apparently used by the English soldiers. Sometimes Het Leven even had reporters at the scene, for example, reporter and photographer Arthur Tervooren, who recorded the lives of German soldiers in the trenches near Lille in 1916.

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