“Nevertheless, the invaders divided these peasants into three groups; those in one group were bound, and eleven of them placed in a ditch, where they were afterwards found dead, their skulls fractured by the butts of German rifles.“During the night of August 10th German cavalry entered Velm in great numbers. The inhabitants were asleep. The Germans, without provocation, fired on M. Deglimme Gevers’ house, broke into it, destroyed furniture, looted money, burnt barns, hay and corn stacks, farm implements, six oxen, and the contents of the farmyard. They carried off Mrs. Deglimme, half naked, to a place two miles away. She was then let go, and was fired upon as she fled, without being hit. Her husband was carried away in another direction and fired upon. He is dying. The same troops sacked and burned the house of a railway watchman.
“Nevertheless, the invaders divided these peasants into three groups; those in one group were bound, and eleven of them placed in a ditch, where they were afterwards found dead, their skulls fractured by the butts of German rifles.
“During the night of August 10th German cavalry entered Velm in great numbers. The inhabitants were asleep. The Germans, without provocation, fired on M. Deglimme Gevers’ house, broke into it, destroyed furniture, looted money, burnt barns, hay and corn stacks, farm implements, six oxen, and the contents of the farmyard. They carried off Mrs. Deglimme, half naked, to a place two miles away. She was then let go, and was fired upon as she fled, without being hit. Her husband was carried away in another direction and fired upon. He is dying. The same troops sacked and burned the house of a railway watchman.
“Farmer Jef Dierick, of Neerhespen, bears witness to the following acts of cruelty committed by Germancavalry at Orsmael and Neerhespen on August 10th, 11th, and 12th:—
“An old man of the latter village had his arm sliced in three longitudinal cuts; he was then hanged head downwards and burned alive. Young girls have been raped and little children outraged at Orsmael, where several inhabitants suffered mutilations too horrible to describe. A Belgian soldier belonging to a battalion of cyclist carabiniers, who had been wounded and made prisoner, was hanged; whilst another, who was tending his comrade, was bound to a telegraph pole on the St. Trond road and shot.
“An old man of the latter village had his arm sliced in three longitudinal cuts; he was then hanged head downwards and burned alive. Young girls have been raped and little children outraged at Orsmael, where several inhabitants suffered mutilations too horrible to describe. A Belgian soldier belonging to a battalion of cyclist carabiniers, who had been wounded and made prisoner, was hanged; whilst another, who was tending his comrade, was bound to a telegraph pole on the St. Trond road and shot.
“On Wednesday, August 12th, after an engagement at Haelen, Commandant Van Damme, so severely wounded that he was lying prone on his back, was finally murdered by German infantrymen firing their revolvers into his mouth.
“On Monday, August 10th, at Orsmael, the Germans picked up Commandant Knapen, very seriously wounded, propped him up against a tree, and shot him. Finally they hacked his corpse with swords.
“In different places, notably at Hollogue sur Geer, Barchon, Pontisse, Haelen, and Zelck, German troops have fired on doctors, ambulance bearers, ambulances, and ambulance wagons carrying the Red Cross.
“At Boncelles a body of German troops marched into battle carrying a Belgian flag.
WHY THE GERMANS COMMIT ATROCITIES.“True strategy consists in hitting your enemy, and hitting him hard. Above all you must inflict on the inhabitants of invaded towns the maximum of suffering, so that they may become sick of the struggle and may bring pressure to bear on their Government to discontinue it. You must leave the people through whom you march only their eyes to weep with.“In every case the principle which guided our general was that war must be made terrible to the civil population, so that it may sue for peace.”BISMARCK.
WHY THE GERMANS COMMIT ATROCITIES.
“True strategy consists in hitting your enemy, and hitting him hard. Above all you must inflict on the inhabitants of invaded towns the maximum of suffering, so that they may become sick of the struggle and may bring pressure to bear on their Government to discontinue it. You must leave the people through whom you march only their eyes to weep with.
“In every case the principle which guided our general was that war must be made terrible to the civil population, so that it may sue for peace.”
BISMARCK.
“On Thursday, August 6th, before a fort at Liége, German soldiers continued to fire on a party of Belgian soldiers (who were unarmed, and had been surrounded while digging a trench) after these had hoisted the white flag.
“On the same day, at Vottem, near the fort of Loncin, a group of German infantry hoisted the white flag. When Belgian soldiers approached to take them prisoners the Germans suddenly opened fire on them at close range.
“Harrowing reports of German savagery at Aerschot have reached the Belgian Government at Antwerp from official local sources. Thus on Tuesday, August 18th, the Belgian troops occupying a position in front of Aerschot received orders to retire without engaging the enemy. A small force was left behind to cover the retreat. This force resisted valiantly against overwhelmingGerman forces, and inflicted serious losses on them. Meanwhile, practically the whole civilian population of Aerschot, terrorized by the atrocities committed by the Germans in the neighbouring villages, had fled from the town.
“Next day, Wednesday, August 19th, German troops entered Aerschot, without a shot having been fired from the town and without any resistance whatever having been made. The few inhabitants that remained had closed their doors and windows in compliance with the general orders issued by the Belgian Government. Nevertheless, the Germans broke into the houses and told the inhabitants to quit.
“In one single street the first six male inhabitants who crossed their thresholds were seized and shot at once, under the very eyes of their wives and children.
“In one single street the first six male inhabitants who crossed their thresholds were seized and shot at once, under the very eyes of their wives and children.
“The German troops then retired for the day, only to return in greater numbers on the next day, Thursday, August 20th.
“They then compelled the inhabitants to leave their houses and marched them to a place two hundred yards from the town. There, without more ado, they shot M. Thielemans, the Burgomaster, his fifteen-year-old son, the clerk of the local judicial board, and ten prominent citizens. They then set fire to the town and destroyed it.
“The following statement was made by CommandantGeorges Gilson, of the 9th Infantry of the Line, now lying in hospital at Antwerp:—
“I was told to cover the retreat of our troops in front of Aerschot. During the action fought there on Wednesday, August 19th, between six and eight o’clock in the morning, suddenly I saw on the high road, between the German and Belgian forces, which were fighting at close range, a group of four women, with babies in their arms, and two little girls clinging to their skirts. Our men stopped firing till the women got through our lines, but the German machine guns went on firing all the time, and one of the women was wounded in the arm.
“These women could not have got through the neighbouring German lines and been on the high road unless with the consent of the enemy.“All the evidence and circumstances seem to point to the fact that these women had been deliberately pushed forward by the Germans to act as a shield for their advance guard, and in the hope that the Belgians would cease firing for fear of killing the women and children.
“These women could not have got through the neighbouring German lines and been on the high road unless with the consent of the enemy.
“All the evidence and circumstances seem to point to the fact that these women had been deliberately pushed forward by the Germans to act as a shield for their advance guard, and in the hope that the Belgians would cease firing for fear of killing the women and children.
“This statement was made and duly certified in the Antwerp hospital on August 22nd by Commandant Gilson in the presence of the Chevalier Ernst N. Bunswyck, Chief Secretary to the Belgian Minister of Justice, and M. de Cartier de Marchienne, Belgian Minister to China.
“Further German atrocities were continuously being brought to notice and made the subject of official and expert inquiry by the proper authorities.
“In publishing the above statements the only comment the Press Bureau can offer is, that these atrocities appear to be committed in villages and throughout the countryside with the deliberate intention of terrorizing the people, and so making it unnecessary to leave troops in occupation of small places, or to protect lines of communication.In larger places, like Brussels, where the diplomatic representatives of neutral Powers are eye-witnesses, there appear to have been no excesses.”
Such was the document issued by the Press Bureau. I have quoted it word for word(emphasizing only in italics or in heavy type certain passages).
PRIMITIVE SAVAGERY.“Their utter contempt for the established usages of international intercourse, and even for the ordinary decencies of life, was displayed in their brutal treatment of the French and Russian Ambassadors, in the stripping naked of the wives of Russian officials, in the atrocities they have since committed in Belgium, in their seizure of hostages, in their homicidal mine-laying in the North Sea. In all these matters one seems to discern a sudden lapse into primitive savagery.”—Dr. Dillon in theContemporary Review.
PRIMITIVE SAVAGERY.
“Their utter contempt for the established usages of international intercourse, and even for the ordinary decencies of life, was displayed in their brutal treatment of the French and Russian Ambassadors, in the stripping naked of the wives of Russian officials, in the atrocities they have since committed in Belgium, in their seizure of hostages, in their homicidal mine-laying in the North Sea. In all these matters one seems to discern a sudden lapse into primitive savagery.”
—Dr. Dillon in theContemporary Review.
The following is the second report issued by the Belgian Commission of Inquiry, and which was published by the British Official Press Bureau on September 15th, 1914.
To M. Carton de Wiart, Minister of Justice, Antwerp.
Sir,—The Commission of Inquiry has the honour to make the following report on acts of which the town of Louvain, the neighbourhood, and the district of Malines have been the scene.
The German Army entered Louvain on Wednesday, August 19th, after having burned down the villages through which it had passed.
As soon as they had entered the town of Louvain the Germans requisitioned food and lodging for their troops. They went to all the banks of the town and took possession of the cash in hand. German soldiers burst open the doors of houses which had been abandoned by their inhabitants, pillaged them, and committed other excesses.
The German authorities took as hostages the mayor of the city, Senator Van der Kelen, the Vice-Rector of the Catholic University, and the senior priest of the city,besides certain magistrates and aldermen. All the weapons possessed by the inhabitants, even fencing swords, had already been given up to the municipal authorities and placed by them in the Church of St. Pierre.
In a neighbouring village, Corbeek Loo, on Wednesday, August 19th, a young woman, aged twenty-two, whose husband was with the Army, and some of her relations, were surprised by a band of German soldiers. The persons who were with her were locked up in a deserted house, while she herself was dragged into another cottage, where she was assaulted by five soldiers.
Fate of 16-year-old Girl.
In the same village on Thursday, August 20, German soldiers fetched from their house a young girl, about sixteen years old, and her parents. They conducted them to a small deserted country house, and while some of them held back the father and mother, others entered the house, and, finding the cellar open, forced the girl to drink. They then brought her on to the lawn in front of the house and assaulted her. Finally they stabbed her in the breast with their bayonets.
When this young girl had been abandoned by them after these abominable deeds, she was brought back to her parents’ house, and the following day, in view of the gravity of her condition, she received extreme unctionfrom the parish priest and was taken to the hospital of Louvain, as her life was despaired of.
On August 24 and 25 Belgian troops made a sortie from the entrenched camp of Antwerp and attacked the German army before Malines. The Germans were thrown back on Louvain and Vilvorde.
On entering the villages which had been occupied by the enemy the Belgian army found them devastated. The Germans, as they retired, had pillaged and burnt the villages, taking with them the male inhabitants, whom they forced to march in front of them.
Belgian soldiers entering Hofstade on August 25 found the body of an old woman who had been killed by bayonet thrusts. She still held in her hand the needle with which she was sewing when she was killed. A woman and her fifteen or sixteen year old son lay on the ground, pierced by bayonets. A man had been hanged.
At Sempst, a neighbouring village, were found the bodies of two men partially carbonised. One of them had his legs cut off at the knees; the other had the arms and legs cut off. A workman, whose burnt body has been seen by several witnesses, had been struck several times with bayonets, and then, while still alive, the Germans had poured petroleum over him and thrown him into a house to which they set fire. A woman who came out of her house was killed in the same way.
A witness, whose evidence has been taken by a reliableBritish subject, declares that he saw, on August 26, not far from Malines, during the last Belgian attack, an old man tied by the arms to one of the rafters in the ceiling of his farm. The body was completely carbonised, but the head, arms, and feet were unburnt. Further on, a child of about fifteen was tied up, the hands behind the back, and the body was completely torn open with bayonet wounds. Numerous corpses of peasants lay on the ground in positions of supplication, their arms lifted and their hands clasped.
Facts about Louvain.
At nightfall on August 26 the German troops, repulsed by our soldiers, entered Louvain panic-stricken. Several witnesses affirm that the German garrison which occupied Louvain was erroneously informed that the enemy were entering the town. Men of the garrison immediately marched to the station, shooting haphazard the while, and there met the German troops who had been repulsed by the Belgians, the latter having just ceased the pursuit.
Everything tends to prove that the German regiments fired on one another. At once the Germans began bombarding the town, pretending that civilians had fired on the troops, a suggestion which is contradicted by all the witnesses, and could scarcely have been possible, because the inhabitants of Louvain had had to give up their arms to the municipal authorities several days before.
The bombardment lasted till about ten o’clock at night. The Germans then set fire to the town. Wherever the fire had not spread, the German soldiers entered the houses and threw fire grenades, with which some of them seemed to be provided. The greater part of the town of Louvain was thus a prey to the flames, particularly the quarters of the upper town, comprising the modern buildings, the ancient Cathedral of St. Pierre, the university buildings, together with the university library, its manuscripts and collections, and the municipal theatre.
The Commission considers it its duty to insist, in the midst of all these horrors, on the crime committed against civilisation by the deliberate destruction of an academic library which was one of the treasures of Europe.
The corpses of many civilians encumbered the streets and squares. On the road from Tirlemont to Louvain alone a witness counted more than fifty. On the doorsteps of houses could be seen carbonised bodies of inhabitants, who, hiding in their cellars, were driven out by the fire, tried to escape, and fell into the flames. The suburbs of Louvain suffered the same fate.
We can affirm that the houses in all the districts between Louvain and Malines, and most of the suburbs of Louvain itself, have practically been destroyed.
Thousands Sent to Germany.
On Wednesday morning, August 26th, the Germans brought to the station squares of Louvain a group ofmore than seventy-five persons, including several prominent citizens of the town, among whom were Father Coloboet and another Spanish priest, and also an American priest.
The men were brutally separated from their wives and children, and after having been subjected to the most abominable treatment by the Germans, who several times threatened to shoot them, they were forced to march to the village of Campenhout in front of the German troops. They were shut up in the village church, where they passed the night.
About four o’clock the next morning a German officer told them they had better go to confession, as they would be shot half an hour later. About half-past four they were liberated. Shortly afterwards they were again arrested by a German brigade, which forced them to march before them in the direction of Malines. In reply to a question of one of the prisoners, a German officer said they were going to give them a taste of the Belgian quickfirers before Antwerp. They were at last released on the Thursday afternoon at the gates of Malines.
It appears from other witnesses that several thousand male inhabitants of Louvain, who had escaped the shooting and the fire, were sent to Germany for a purpose which is still unknown to us.
Eye-Witness’s Account.
The fire at Louvain burnt for several days. An eye-witness who left Louvain on August 30th gave thefollowing description of the town at that time:—“Leaving Weert St. George’s, I only saw burnt-down villages and half-crazy peasants, who on meeting anyone held up their hands as a sign of submission. Before every house, even those burnt down, hung a white flag, and the burnt rags of them could be seen among the ruins.
“At Weert St. George’s I questioned the inhabitants on the causes of the German reprisals, and they affirmed most positively that no inhabitant had fired a shot, that in any case the arms had been previously collected, but that the Germans had taken vengeance on the population because a Belgian soldier belonging to the gendarmerie had killed an Uhlan.
“The population still remaining in Louvain have taken refuge in the suburb of Héverlé, where they are extremely crowded. They have been cleared out of the town by the troops and the fire.
“The fire started a little beyond the American College, and the town isentirelydestroyed, except for the town hall and the station. Furthermore, the fire was still burning to-day, and the Germans, far from taking any steps to stop it, seemed to feed it with straw, an instance of which I observed in the street adjoining the town hall.
“The cathedral and the theatre are destroyed and have fallen in, as also the library; in short, the town hasthe appearance of an ancient ruined city, in the midst of which only a few drunken soldiers move about, carrying bottles of wine and liqueurs, while the officers themselves, seated in arm-chairs round the tables, drink like their men.”
The Commission has not yet been able to obtain information about the fate of the Mayor of Louvain and of the other notables who were taken as hostages.
The Commission is able to draw the following conclusions from the facts which have so far been brought to its notice:—
In this war, the occupation of any place is systematically accompanied and followed, sometimes even preceded, by acts of violence towards the civil population, which acts are contrary both to the usages of war and to the most elementary principles of humanity.
Brutality Everywhere.
The German procedure is everywhere the same. They advance along a road, shooting inoffensive passers-by—particularly bicyclists—as well as peasants working in the fields.
In the towns or villages where they stop they begin by requisitioning food and drink, which they consume till intoxicated.
Sometimes from the interior of deserted houses they let off their rifles at random and declare that it was the inhabitants who fired. Then the scenes of fire, murder,and especially pillage begin, accompanied by acts of deliberate cruelty, without respect to sex or age. Even where they pretend to know the actual person guilty of the acts they allege, they do not content themselves with executing him summarily, but they seize the opportunity to decimate the population, pillage the houses, and then set them on fire.
After a preliminary attack and massacre they shut up the men in the church, and then order the women to return to their houses and to leave their doors open all night.
From several places the male population has been sent to Germany, there to be forced, it appears, to work at the harvest, as in the old days of slavery. There are many cases of the inhabitants being forced to act as guides and to dig trenches and entrenchments for the Germans. Numerous witnesses assert that during their marches, and even when attacking, the Germans place civilians, men and women, in their front ranks, in order to prevent our soldiers firing.
The evidence of Belgian officers and soldiers shows that German detachments do not hesitate to display either the white flag or the Red Cross flag in order to approach our troops with impunity. On the other hand, they fire on our ambulances and maltreat the ambulance men. They maltreat and even kill the wounded. The clergy seem to be particularly chosen as subjects for their brutality.
Finally, we have in our possession expanding bullets which had been abandoned by the enemy at Werchter, and we possess doctors’ certificates showing that wounds must have been inflicted by bullets of this kind.
The documents and evidence on which these conclusions rest will be published in due course.
(Signed)The President,Cooreman.Members of the Commission,Count Goblet d’Alviella,Ryckmans,Strauss,Van Cutsem.Secretaries,Chev. Ernst de Bunswyck,Orts.
(Signed)
The President,Cooreman.
Members of the Commission,Count Goblet d’Alviella,Ryckmans,Strauss,Van Cutsem.
Secretaries,Chev. Ernst de Bunswyck,Orts.
“The report of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry into the German atrocities in Belgium is perhaps the most appalling document that has ever been submitted to civilised man. It reveals a cruelty more perverse than that of the Boxer or Bashi-Bazuk, and it covers the reputation of the German soldiery with eternal shame.... They themselves have transgressed every law of God and man.”—From theDaily Mail.
“The report of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry into the German atrocities in Belgium is perhaps the most appalling document that has ever been submitted to civilised man. It reveals a cruelty more perverse than that of the Boxer or Bashi-Bazuk, and it covers the reputation of the German soldiery with eternal shame.... They themselves have transgressed every law of God and man.”
—From theDaily Mail.
Can These Things Be True?
Can these cold-blooded deeds of atrocity be true? Is it a fact that they have been proved to the satisfaction of the most exacting critics? Is this “welter of fire, blood, and destruction” to be written finally on the pages of history?
I can only say this:
1. These stories came to us first from responsible correspondents of all our leading newspapers, who took them down for the most part at first hand from eye-witnesses and from the poor victims themselves.
2. A committee of eminent lawyers, assisted by the Belgian Minister of Justice, made a searching inquiry, sifting vague reports from actual facts.
3. The evidence of the atrocities thus collected was formulated in an Official Report to be presented to the President of the United States by the Belgian Delegation of Ministers of State, now on their way to America.
4. The British Official Press Bureau issued, on the 25th August, a statement of the representations made to them, which I have already quoted.
5. The Report of the Belgian Government was confirmed by the French protest against German atrocitieswhich was addressed on September 2nd to the Powers by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
6. Mr. Richard Harding Davis, an eminent American author and correspondent in Belgium of theNew York Tribune, has entirely confirmed, in cables sent to this leading American journal, things he has seen with his own eyes.
7. I have narrated the information given to me verbally by M. Van der Velde himself. “I myself examined the bodies of a peasant and his son which have been cut to pieces by bayonet thrusts.”
8. While at first the reports of these atrocities were received in this country with some reserve, the accumulated and overwhelming evidence, aggravated from day to day since the very commencement of the war, has provoked the public men of England, and every responsible newspaper in the country, as well as all our leading weeklies like theSpectator, theSaturday Review, theNation, theBritish Weekly, and others, into a passionate protest against the inhuman and barbarous methods of warfare that have stained the name of Germany for ever.
9. Germany herself has admitted her wanton deeds, and sought to excuse them in a way that makes her guilt all the more deplorable. We are told that these barbarian atrocities against the civil population and unoffending peasants, the sacking, looting, and burning of towns and villages, are part of the general plan of attack, and that they are accomplished in cold blood forpurely strategical considerations. Unfortunately they are not merely the riotous and isolated outbursts of marauding and buccaneering soldiers.
“The only means of preventing surprise attacks from the civil population has been to interfere with unrelenting severity and to create examples which by their frightfulness would be a warning to the whole country.” To prevent “surprise attacks” tortures were inflicted on helpless old men, women, and children, peaceful villagers were hanged, innocent children were savagely sabred by German officers, wounded soldiers and officers shot and mutilated. There was the burning of Visé and the terrible massacre at Seraing, the sacking and plundering of many another harmless village, the bombardment of Malines, and the crowning sacrilege of all, the burning and sacking of Louvain, the torture and massacre of its defenceless people. Abler pens than mine have told the story of these blood-guilty ruffians, and abler historians will yet chronicle for future generations the record of the modern Huns of Attila. “For every vile deed wrought under the impious benedictions of the monarch who is ravaging Europe ample reparation will be exacted.... The memory of them will burn in the heart and mind of every Englishman.” So said theTimes. I affirm this is the feeling of every true Britisher.
It is specially forbidden “To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion. To make improper use of a flag of truce, of the national flag, or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy.”—Hague Convention, Article XXIII.
Wanton Brutality.
I have made it plain from the official documents I have quoted that the German troops violated every item of this article. But in addition to cases of brutality already cited in the official document, the Belgian Mission, while in London, gave me the following:—
On August 19th Aerschot, in North Brabant, with about five thousand inhabitants, was, as already reported, destroyed. It appears that during the three days the German soldiery massacred and pillaged the town, which had not resisted, although there was no military force there whatever.
In the neighbouring village of Diest many of the inhabitants were put to the sword. The wife of Francis Luyckx, aged forty-five, and her daughter, twelve years of age, had, in their terror, taken refuge in a sewer. They were discovered, dragged out, and shot.
The little daughter of Jean Oyyen, a pretty child of nine, was shot, and a man named Andre Willem, agedtwenty-three, the village sexton, was bound to a tree and burned alive.
In the village of Schaffen, near Diest, two men, named Lodts and Marken, both aged forty, were captured and entombed. When exhumed, it was found that they had been buried alive, head downwards. These occurrences—which are only a few of a very long list—had been fully inquired into, and confirmed by the committee of investigation, which was composed of the highest magistrates of Belgium and the chief professors of the Universities.
Statements were made that aged villagers in many places on the Franco-German frontier were hanged to trees; others, after being killed, had their eyes gouged out. In one place fifteen bodies were found mutilated in a heap, and along the whole frontier from Luxemburg to Basle outrages were committed on women, girls, and children.
Mlle. Marie Malet, the daughter of a judicial official in Brussels, who had been sent to London with a party of Belgian girls for safety, stated that she had seen a little girl, a friend of hers, aged ten, savagely sabred by a German officer, merely because she made a remark that the Germans were bullies. The child died an hour afterwards. Mlle. Malet stated that she had been sent from near Brussels with her sister, owing to the insults to which Belgian girls were subjected by German soldiers. Her mother had been wounded and her home looted of food and valuables.
[Image unavailable: BELGIAN PEASANTS WATCHING THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR HOMES BY THE RUTHLESS INVADER. Photo, Daily Mirror.BELGIAN PEASANTS WATCHING THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR HOMES BY THE RUTHLESS INVADER.Photo, Daily Mirror.
The record of German atrocities in Belgium, indeed, rivals that of Alva in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century. The worst Balkan methods were being pursued by the army of the pious Kaiser. At Pontillac, between Liége and Namur, the Burgomaster officially reported that the men of the 17th Hussars from Mecklenburg entered the place, met with no resistance, and demanded food, which the inhabitants at once gave them. After eating and drinking to their full, to the surprise of everyone they rode wildly through the streets emptying their carbines at the windows of the houses. Two Belgian soldiers who were secreted in the village returned their fire. A hot fusillade ensued, and then the Germans deliberately shot down all the villagers they could find. They also seized a M. Lahaye, a member of the Communal Council, and dragged him through the streets with a rope round his neck.
Drunken German Soldiers.
Further details regarding the wild savagery at Aerschot reached the Belgian Government after the issuing of the official report printed in the foregoing pages. It seems that the population of the Belgian provinces overrun by the Germans suffered, not only from the outrages of the troops acting under the orders of their officers, but also from atrocities due to drunken soldiers.
In one town some of them fired their rifles openly into the air and afterwards declared that the inhabitants hadfired on them. On this pretext the people were dragged from their houses, which were then set on fire, and in many cases women and girls were outraged and the men shot. At Aerschot the troops—upon whom the Kaiser and the Austrian Emperor were beseeching God’s blessing—stabled their horses in the church, one of the most beautiful in Belgium, while the troops were set to work to destroy the pictures and fittings in the noble edifice. The Germans accused the son of the Burgomaster of killing the son of a German colonel. This was denied by the Burgomaster’s son, who only fired to defend his mother and sister from gross insults by the soldiery.
“For every evil and unwarrantable act committed in the Western theatre, ample vengeance will be exacted at the other end.”—Times.
“For every evil and unwarrantable act committed in the Western theatre, ample vengeance will be exacted at the other end.”—Times.
The Germans, however, surrounded the town. The inhabitants were then dragged from their homes and the women separated from the men. The latter were divided into batches and forced to run towards the river, the troops laughing at them and firing at them as they ran. One man who escaped by feigning death afterwards returned and counted forty-one bodies of his friends. Many of them had been stabbed by bayonets after being wounded. About one hundred and fifty of the male inhabitants of this place were compelled to watch the German troops shoot the Burgomaster, his son, and the Burgomaster’s brother.
Women Mutilated.
Mr. Adolph Coussmaekrs, a well-known resident of Antwerp, wrote giving nine cases of atrocities committed by the Germans in the districts of Orsmael and Barchon.
I do not reproduce here the nine cases instanced by this gentleman. The wanton mutilation on women and children is revolting and seems incredible.
In addition, there were criminal assaults on women which I cannot dwell upon in these pages; they have been narrated by unimpeachable persons. Mothers had their daughters dragged away from them by shameless officers to a fate that must have driven them to despair. Women and young children were injured by bayonet-thrusts and revolver-shots, and were still suffering from their wounds.
“In no war of modern times has an enemy so distinguished himself by war on civilians as in this. The brutality of the methods employed by the Prussian apostles of ‘culture’ is only equalled by its futility.”—Daily Telegraph.
“In no war of modern times has an enemy so distinguished himself by war on civilians as in this. The brutality of the methods employed by the Prussian apostles of ‘culture’ is only equalled by its futility.”—Daily Telegraph.
300 Men Shot in Cold Blood.
A terrible story of the holocaust at Liége was told to the correspondent of theDaily Mailby a wealthy Dutch cigarette manufacturer who had lived for a long time in Belgium, and was married to a Belgium woman. He stated that on the day of their entry the Germans posted an order on the streets that all arms in possession of private persons must be immediately delivered, under the threat of being shot. The inhabitants complied with the order. Among others, collections of old arms were brought, valued sometimes at hundreds of pounds. The new vandals destroyed all these pitilessly.
“During the first days the Germans paid for everything they took. But later on soldiers produced valueless pieces of paper, on which something had been scribbled which could hardly be read. On Sunday, August 23rd, at midnight, the inhabitants were suddenly awakened by soldiers knocking at the doors. ‘We need immediately two hundred and fifty mattresses, two hundred pounds of coffee, two hundred and fifty loaves of bread, and five hundred eggs,’ they said. ‘If these are not delivered in an hour’s time your hostages will be shot.’ Everybody rushed to the market-place, many people in their night clothes. There stood the mayor, half-dressed.
“After the inhabitants had brought in everything which was demanded they were informed that the whole was a mistake and that they could go to bed. The oldmayor, however, was detained the whole night in the street.
“One day when the soldiers sat down to dinner, an alarm was suddenly beaten in the streets. Soldiers from all the houses were summoned to their regiments. Immediately after, the bombardment of the houses began. The informant took refuge with his wife and children in a cellar, which was constantly filled with smoke from the neighbouring houses, which had caught fire. On Wednesday morning the bombardment ceased and they ventured to the station.
“Here, notwithstanding his protests, and proposals to produce papers, showing that he was a Dutch subject, the cigarette manufacturer was separated from his family, of whom he has since lost sight. He was surrounded by soldiers, who bound his hands behind his back, and with other refugees he was kept at the station many hours. During this time he saw a party of three hundred Belgian civilians, among whom were old men and lads of fourteen or fifteen, driven at the point of the bayonet to a remote spot near the station, where they were all shot before his eyes.
“After a terrible night, he and his group of seventy-six men were set free. They had had nothing to eat or drink for thirty-six hours. All streets and roads in and round Liége were strewn, according to the witness, with bodies of men, women, and children. Among those shot were the mayor, two aldermen, the rector of the University, two deans, and many police inspectors.”
“Our German people will be the grand block on which the good God may complete His work of civilizing the world.”From a speech ofThe Kaiser’s.
“Our German people will be the grand block on which the good God may complete His work of civilizing the world.”
From a speech ofThe Kaiser’s.
The Inferno at Visé.
A correspondent of theHandelsbladwas an eye-witness of the scenes in Visé, near Liége, when it was burned, and told a tale of German barbarity, and of the murder and torture of its helpless inhabitants, of a nature to make one’s blood run cold. As summarized in theDaily Newsthe story is as follows:—
“It was an awful sight. Every house was a mass of flames, through which the streets were hardly visible.
“At the entrance of the Grand Hotel were three disarmed soldiers bound hand and foot. Entering the hotel, I found the floor covered with dead bodies. In that hall of the dead several soldiers stood guard. From this awful, nauseating scene I hurried back to the blinding glare and suffocating heat of the burning villages.
“The correspondent describes how a colleague supported an aged lady found lying near her blazing house. She pleaded, ‘Let me die.’ Poor, unhappy creature, bereft of home and even of adequate clothing, the aged
[Image unavailable: SHOWING THE DESTRUCTION IN THE CHURCH AT VISÉ. Photo, Sport and General.SHOWING THE DESTRUCTION IN THE CHURCH AT VISÉ.Photo, Sport and General.
and defenceless victim of the Kaiser’s gallant army! He adds: ‘We fled from the scene that must for ever blur the scutcheon of the Kaiser, and I pray as long as I live it will never be my task to see such an inferno again.’
“Absolutely incredible was the picture of incidents connected with the burning of Visé by the Germans and the shooting given in private letters which arrived from Eysden, on the Dutch frontier, and seen by theTelegraaf. According to these letters, the Germans alleged that the citizens had fired on the troops. All the inhabitants were then hunted out of their houses to spend the night in the square watching the burning. Men were taken prisoners, and possibly shot, and the rest were driven out of the town, which was given to the flames. Eysden is filled with refugees—one hundred and fifty in one canteen and two hundred and fifty in the Protestant Church, while four hundred have been sent to Maastricht.
“Two trainloads of refugees came into Brussels from the Tirlemont district. The scenes I have witnessed,” telegraphs a Press Association correspondent, “and the stories told by these poor people would melt a heart of stone. Removal from the face of the earth—a phrase of the German papers themselves—continues to be the invader’s idea of how best to deal with unarmed, unoffending villages, the only crime of whose people is that they have fallen in his path.
“The Germans entered Tirlemont, in the vicinity ofwhich they have been for some days. They were in strong force, mostly cavalry and artillery. The big guns shelled the place, and the cavalry played at war by attacking the flying and panic-stricken populace, shooting and stabbing them at random.
“Never have I seen such a picture of woe as a peasant woman and five children who stood bewildered in the Place de la Gare here, all crying as if their hearts would break. It was a terrible story the woman had to tell. ‘They shot my husband before my eyes,’ she said, ‘and trampled two of my children to death.’
“A German knocked at the door of the house of the Burgomaster at Venne, near the Dutch frontier, and when the Burgomaster’s wife opened the door she was knocked down and killed with the butt end of a rifle.
“A solicitor, who was a member of the Belgian Chamber, and who was staying in the house, rushed to the front door, and he also was instantly knocked down and killed with a bayonet thrust. On hearing of these atrocities the population fled in terror.”
Lancer’s Fiendish Act.
M. Isadore Felix Cruls, a Belgian refugee who arrived in London, had a tragic story to tell. He carried on a prosperous printing business at Saint Jossé, a suburb of Brussels. When hostilities broke out he was called up for service in the Civil Guard, and stationed on the Chaussée de Louvain, the road between Louvain andBrussels. As reported in theDaily Telegraph, he stated:—
“At midnight on August 19th-20th I was on duty on the Chaussée de Louvain watching the refugees come in from the various towns and villages. The road was blocked when I got near. I saw that a party of German Lancers were at the rear of the procession of refugees. I saw one of the Lancers prodding a woman, who had four or five children walking by her side.
“There was an old woman, evidently the mother of the young woman, walking with them. One of the Lancers was amusing himself by pricking this old woman with his lance in order to make her walk along more quickly. The young woman turned round and shouted something at the Lancer, either by way of remonstrance or insult. I was not near enough to hear what she said. The Lancer took up his lance and ran it through one of the little girls who was walking along, clutching the hand of her mother. She was a fair-haired girl of about seven or eight years of age. When the crowd saw this they became infuriated, and a panic ensued. The Lancers bore down upon the people, scattering them in all directions. What became of these people I do not know.”
The Maiden Tribute.
Another story M. Cruls related was told to him by the mother herself. At a village called Leau a squadron of about five hundred Uhlans was marching through the town when they declared that someone had fired at them. On going round to all the houses, searching for firearms, they came to one where the family circle consisted of a grandfather, the father, mother, and a girl of seventeen or eighteen, and a young boy, who, upon seeing the approach of the German soldiers, fled and hid himself. The soldiers came in, and without any questioning fired at and killed the father. They were going to shoot the grandfather when the mother and daughter fell on their knees and begged the soldiers to spare the life of the old man. The officer, or under-officer, of the party then said, “Yes, we won’t trouble about the old people,” and touching the cheek of the young girl with his fingers, he added, with a significant laugh, “Pretty youth is better.” The sequel need not be written here, although the mother of the girl has told it.
A Governess Hanged.
A well-known family in Brussels were staying at their villa at Genck, about six kilometres from the capital. On arrival of the Germans there they entered the villa,smashed everything they could, and stole whatever was of value, “even taking away the wedding-ring that the husband wore on his finger.” They took away the men first, and nobody knows what has become of them. A member of the family and two servants fled from the house in terror, but returned when they saw the German soldiers going.
This is what they saw: “The body of an old lady of seventy years of age lying on the floor with her throat cut. A governess, about thirty years of age—I cannot tell you her nationality—was found hanging from a tree, stark naked and mutilated.”
Although this happened within six kilometres of Brussels, yet no atrocities were known to have been committed in the capital, the Kaiser’s unrestrained savages being there under the eyes of the representatives of the Powers.
A Dutch gentleman named Couzy, of Amsterdam, was staying at Mont, a village in the hills above Comblain au Pont, when war broke out. Having missed the last train which the Belgians ran to Dinant, he was obliged to return to Mont, where he witnessed the arrival of thousands of Uhlans and many batteries of German artillery. Mr. Couzy declared that the treatment of the Belgians by the enemy was merciless. He was witness of many horrible scenes. He was present when, after the discovery of the bodies of two German officers in a horse-dealer’s yard at Comblain au Pont, seventy villagers were brought before the commanding officer. Without question,the officer selected thirty, who were shot without any form of trial whatever. Several of these men were known to Mr. Couzy as honest and trustworthy citizens.
On another occasion a number of villagers were searched for weapons. A young Dutchman, also known to Mr. Couzy, had upon him a razor which he used daily. Immediately he was placed against a wall and shot.
A refugee arriving at Maastricht from Bassenge stated that ten thousand Germans came from the direction of Louvain, and began to burn everything that had been left standing and shoot everyone opposed to them. Two hundred of the villagers were driven out by the Germans and ordered to hold their hands above their heads. Anyone who dropped his hands for an instant was shot, and anyone who looked at or showed sympathy with the victims shared the same fate. They were marched for two hours, and during that time many shots whistled over their heads. The Germans then stopped and threatened that the first who looked back would be shot.
A Senator’s Story.
“M. Leon Hiard, senator of Hainaut, one of the largest manufacturers in Belgium, lived at Haine Saint Pierre, where before the battle of Mons the Germans requisitioned everything. He states that, revolver in hand, threatening death for unpunctuality or disobedience, the German officers spread terror into the hearts of the inhabitants. At Peronne the mayor, M. Gravis, had very imprudently caused all the arms of the inhabitants to bedeposited at his house instead of the town-hall. He also carried a revolver, and some of his carts had been used to bar a road.” TheDaily Expresscorrespondent continues—
“He was taken before the German general at the town-hall with his secretary. The séance was short. ‘Vous fusillé,’ said the general, and the unfortunate man was led out blindfolded and shot. As the secretary was following him a more kindly officer said in his ear, ‘Mais filez-donc, imbécile,’ and pushed him on one side.
“The body of M. Gravis was propped up against a wall for forty-eight hours as an example to the town. Men were billeted in all the houses, and although in the better houses the officers behaved with some restraint, in the peasants’ cottages unbridled licence was the rule.
“Women were treated infamously, indescribable scenes of debauchery taking place, while all the possessions of the unfortunates were wilfully wasted and destroyed. The fiery-tempered people were being driven to reprisals, so that an excuse for further cruelty might be found.”
What General von Boehn said.
I take the following extract from a long dispatch in theDaily Chronicle, from Mr. E. Alexander Powell, the Special Correspondent of theNew York World:—
“Three weeks ago the Government of Belgium requested me to place before the American people, through the medium of theNew York World, a list of specificand authenticated atrocities committed by German armies upon Belgian non-combatants.
“To-day General von Boehn, commanding the Ninth Imperial Field Army, and acting as mouthpiece of the German General Staff, has asked me to place before the American people the German version of the incidents in question....
“General von Boehn began by asserting that the accounts of the atrocities perpetrated on Belgian non-combatants were a tissue of lies.
“ ‘Look at these officers about you,’ he said; ‘they are gentlemen like yourselves. Look at the soldiers marching past in the road out there. They are most of them the fathers of families. Surely you do not believe that they would do the things they have been accused of.’
“ ‘Three days ago, General,’ I said, ‘I was in Aerschot. The whole town is now but a ghastly, blackened, bloodstained ruin!’
“ ‘When we entered Aerschot,’ he replied, ‘the son of the Burgomaster came into the room, drew a revolver, and assassinated my Chief of Staff. What followed was only retribution. The townspeople only got what they deserved!’
“ ‘But why wreak your vengeance on women and children?’
“ ‘None have been killed,’ the General asserted positively.
“ ‘I’m sorry to contradict you, General,’ I asserted, with equal positiveness, ‘but I have myself seen their mutilated bodies. So has Mr. Gibson, Secretary of the American Legation at Brussels, who was present during the destruction of Louvain.’
“It is War!”
“ ‘Of course, there is always danger of women and children being killed during street fighting,’ said the General, ‘if they insist on coming into the street. It is unfortunate, but it is war.’
“ ‘But how about the woman whose body I saw with the hands and feet cut off? How about the white-haired man and his son whom I helped to bury outside of Sempst, and who had been killed merely because the retreating Belgians had shot a German soldier outside their house? There were 22 bayonet wounds in the old man’s face. I counted them. How about the little girl, two years old, shot while in her mother’s arms by a Uhlan, and whose funeral I attended at Heyst-op-den-Berg? How about the old man that was hung from the rafters of his house by the hands and roasted to death by a bonfire being built under him?’
“The General seemed somewhat taken aback by the amount and exactness of my data. ‘Such things are horrible if they are true,’ he said. ‘Of course, our soldiers, like soldiers in all armies, sometimes get out of hand, and do things which we would never tolerate if we knew it. At Louvain, for example, I sentenced twosoldiers to 12 years’ penal servitude apiece for assaulting a woman.’
“ ‘Apropos of Louvain,’ I remarked, ‘why did you destroy the library? It was one of the literary store-houses of the world.’
“ ‘We regretted that as much as anyone else,’ answered the General. ‘It caught fire from the burning houses, and we could not save it.’
“ ‘But why did you burn Louvain at all?’ I asked.
“ ‘Because the townspeople fired on our troops. We actually found machine-guns in some of the houses; and,’ smashing his fist down upon the table, ‘whenever civilians fire upon our troops we will teach them a lasting lesson. If the women and children insist on getting in the way of bullets, so much the worse for women and children.’
“ ‘How do you explain the bombardment of Antwerp by Zeppelins?’ I queried.
“ ‘The Zeppelins have orders to drop their bombs only on fortifications and soldiers,’ he answered.
“ ‘As a matter of fact,’ I remarked, ‘they destroyed only private houses and innocent civilians, several of them women. If one of those bombs had dropped 200 yards nearer my hotel I wouldn’t be smoking one of your excellent cigars to-day.’
“ ‘That is a calamity which, thank God, didn’t happen,’ he replied.
“ ‘If you feel for my safety as deeply as that, General,’I said earnestly, ‘you can make quite sure of my coming to no harm by sending no more Zeppelins.’
“ ‘Well, Herr Powell,’ said he, laughing, ‘we will think about it, and,’ he continued gravely, ‘I trust that you will tell the American people through your great paper what I have told you to-day. Let them hear our side of this atrocity business. It is only justice that they should be made familiar with both sides of the question.’
“I have quoted my conversation with General von Boehn as nearly verbatim as I can remember it. I have no comments to make.
“I will leave it to the readers of theWorldto decide for themselves just how convincing are the answers of the German General to the Belgian accusations.”