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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10225 ***
+
+THEIR CRIMES
+
+
+
+Translated from the French
+
+
+
+1917.
+
+
+
+
+_It is proposed to devote any profits from the sale of this work to The
+League of Remembrance, or for relief work in Lorraine_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Preface
+
+Introduction
+
+Robbery
+
+Incendiarism
+
+Murder
+
+Outrages on Women and Children
+
+Killing the Wounded
+
+Sheltering behind Women
+
+Martyrdom of Civilian Prisoners
+
+German Excuses: Lies and Calumny
+
+The German Appeal
+
+Appeal by Belgian Workmen
+
+Conclusion
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The purpose of this book is to remind English-speaking people all over
+the Empire and our Allies in America of the wanton destruction and
+unspeakable terror which have overwhelmed the regions of France and
+Belgium occupied by the Boche, and also to quicken a true perception of
+the reparation and punishment due when peace is made with the enemy. In
+many minds time has dimmed the horrors of August and September 1914.
+When war weariness is apt to sap resolution and the possibility of a
+patched up peace is furtively canvassed, the great world of the
+English-speaking race should call to remembrance the inhuman and barely
+credible acts of brutality and bestiality committed in cold blood by the
+German race.
+
+No apology is made for this book. It is a translation of a document
+which has created a profound impression in France. It is an
+authoritative record of German crimes committed on the people of Belgium
+and Northern France, attested by the Mayors of twenty-six French towns.
+Some time ago permission was obtained from the French Committee of
+Publication (the Prefect of Meurthe-and-Moselle, and the Mayors of Nancy
+and Luneville) to produce an English version on condition that the
+translation be an "exact and literal translation." This has been
+completed and the Editor, the Rev. J. Esslemont Adams, an Assistant
+Principal Chaplain with the British Expeditionary Force in France, is
+indebted to the friends who have assisted in producing the work.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+This is a book of horrors, but a book of plain truths! Where have we
+discovered our facts? They are taken from three sources: _First_, Four
+reports issued by the French Commission of Enquiry[1]; and "Germany's
+Violation of the Laws of Warfare," published by the French Ministry of
+Foreign Affairs; _Second_, Two volumes containing twenty-two reports of
+the Belgian Commission[2], and the Reply to the German White Book of the
+15th May, 1915; _Third_, Notebooks found upon a large number of German
+soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and officers, who have been wounded
+or taken prisoners, and translated under the direction of the French
+Government. These valuable records, in which the bandits and their
+leaders have imprudently given themselves away, are real "_pièces à
+conviction_."
+
+These reports in their entirety form an overwhelming indictment. We
+wish that everyone could study them in full. But the books are large,
+running to thousands of pages, and will not find their way to the
+general public.
+
+Yet everyone ought to know how the Germans carry on war. We have
+therefore made selections from these documents in order to compile this
+small pamphlet. A dismal task, this wading through mud and blood! And a
+hard task, to run through all these reports, pencil in hand, with the
+idea of underlining _the essential facts_! You find yourself noting down
+each page, marking each paragraph; and, lo and behold, at the end of the
+book, you have selected _everything_--- that is to say, nothing. One
+might as well start to gather the hundred finest among the leaves of a
+forest, or to pick up the hundred most glittering grains among the sand
+on a beach. All we can do is to take the first examples which come to
+hand. This, then, is not a collection of the most stirring and striking
+German crimes, but simply a book of samples. Until complete statistics
+are forthcoming, two classes of outrage stand out, and must remain ever
+present to the mind: murdered civilians can be counted in thousands;
+houses wilfully burned, in tens of thousands.
+
+For want of time and space we have concerned ourselves here only with
+crimes committed in Belgium and France, and we have had no thought of
+separating the two neighbouring sister nations.
+
+Our part in this work is a modest one. Taking at random a certain number
+of _facts_, we have grouped them under different headings to make
+perusal easier for the reader. To indicate the references would have
+been impossible. Each line would have required a foot-note; the notes
+would have been as long as the text, and both the length of, and the
+cost of producing this pamphlet would have been doubled.
+
+It is enough to state that there is not a single fact published here
+that cannot be verified by our readers in one or other of the documents
+already referred to. Nothing but facts are set down, absolute bare
+facts, and it is for the reader to form his own conclusions. When he has
+studied these "samples," and begins by means of them to learn the truth,
+then, and only then, will he have the right to choose, according to his
+conscience, between remembrance and oblivion, between pardon and
+punishment.
+
+L. MIRMAN, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
+
+G. SIMON, Mayor of Nancy.
+
+G. KELLER, Mayor of Luneville.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The members of this Commission were MM. G. Payelle (Premier
+Président de la Cour des Comptes), A. Mollard (Ministre
+Plénipotentiaire), G. Maringer (Conseiller d'État), E. Paillot
+(Conseiller à la Cour de Cassation)--Rapports et Procès-verbaux, vols
+i., ii., iii., iv., Imprimerie Nationale.
+
+[2] The Commission, consisting of men of the highest position in
+Belgium, is presided over by M. Van Iseghem (Président de la Cour de
+Cassation). Its reports and the "Reply to the German White Book" have
+been published by Berger-Levrault, from which firm we have also "Carnets
+de Route" (J. de Dampierre) and "Paroles Allemandes." "Crimes allemands
+d'après des té-moi gnages allemands," by J. Bédier, is published by
+Colin.
+
+
+
+
+ROBBERY
+
+
+We shall not waste time over the looting of cellars, of larders, of
+poultry yards, of linen-chests, or of whatever can be consumed promptly,
+or immediately made use of by the troops--all these are the merest
+trifles. Let us also dismiss pillage, organised on a large scale by the
+authorities, of all sorts of raw material and industrial machinery: the
+bill on this score will come to several thousand million francs. Let us
+likewise put aside official robberies, committed by governors of towns,
+or provinces, from municipal treasuries (even the treasury of the Red
+Cross at Brussels was robbed), usually under the form of fines, or of
+taxes imposed under transparent pretences. There again there will be
+millions to recover.
+
+We shall deal here with _personal robberies_ only, as distinct from the
+pilfering carried on by hungry soldiers, distinct too from the regular
+contributions levied on a conquered country by an unscrupulous
+administration. These robberies are innumerable, committed sometimes by
+private soldiers, but often by officers, doctors, and high officials.
+Here are some examples.
+
+(1) _Soldier thieves_: They are rougher in their dealings, and kill
+those who offer resistance. It is a case of "Your money or your life."
+Madame Maupoix, aged 75, living at Triaucourt, was kicked to death while
+soldiers ransacked her cupboards. Monsieur Dalissier, aged 73,
+belonging to Congis, was summoned to give up his purse: he declared
+that he had no money; they tied him up with a rope and fired fifteen
+shots into his body. Let us pass quickly over the "soldier
+thief"--merely small fry!
+
+(2) _Officer thieves_: At Baron, an officer compelled the notary to open
+his safe, and stole money and jewellery from it. Another, after going
+through several houses, was seen wearing on his wrists and fingers six
+bracelets and nine rings belonging to women. Soldiers who brought their
+officer a stolen jewel received a reward of four shillings. The
+robberies at Baccarat and Creil were "directed" by officers. At Creil, a
+captain tried to induce Guillot and Demonts to point out the houses of
+the richest inhabitants, and their refusal cost them harsh treatment. At
+Fossé, a French military doctor in charge of an ambulance, conveying two
+hundred patients, and himself wounded, was arrested and taken before a
+captain. The captain told the doctor that he would have him shot, and
+meanwhile opened the doctor's tunic with his own hand, took out his
+pocket-book and appropriated the 400 francs he found in it.
+
+Officers and privates sometimes share the stolen money. From a diary
+belonging to a titled Lieutenant of the Guards, let us quote this
+note:--
+
+    "Fossé. Village entirely burnt. The 7th Company made
+    2000 francs in booty."
+
+From another officer's note-book:--
+
+    "More than 3000 francs booty for the battalion."
+
+Another diary, after the sacking of a place, gives a detailed account
+of the distribution thus:--
+
+    "460 francs for the first lieutenant, 390 francs for the
+    second lieutenant, etc...."
+
+(3) _Doctor thieves:_ At Choisy-au-Bac, two army doctors, wearing their
+brassards, personally sacked the house of a family named Binder. At
+Château-Thierry some doctors were made prisoners: their mess-tins were
+opened and found to be full of stolen articles. After Morhange, a French
+doctor of the 20th Corps remained in the German lines to be near his
+wounded. He was accosted by one of his German 'confrères.'[3] who with
+his own hands stole his watch and pocket-book.
+
+At Raon-sur-Plaine, after the retreat of our troops, Dr. Schneider
+remained behind with thirty wounded. Next day up came a German ambulance
+with Professor Vulpius, a well-known German scientist of Heidelberg
+University, who must have presided over many international medical
+congresses. As soon as he was installed, "Herr Professor" intimated to
+his French fellow-doctors that he was "going to begin with a small
+customary formality." The formality was a simple one: his colleagues
+were to hand over to him "all the money they had on them." "I strongly
+protested" (declared the French doctor, on oath), "but we were compelled
+to hand over our purses and all their contents. Having relieved us in
+this way, he turned to our poor wounded, who were all searched and
+stripped of their money. There was nothing to be done: we were in the
+hands, not of a doctor, but of a regular brute...."
+
+(4) _Royal thieves_: After living about a week in a château near Liége,
+H.R.H. Prince Eitel Fritz, the Duke of Brunswick, and another nobleman
+of less importance, had all the dresses that could be found in the
+wardrobes belonging to the lady of the house and her daughters packed up
+before their own eyes, and sent to Germany.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These thieves are often _facetious_: they give as compensation a
+so-called receipt or bond (in German, of course), which in French means,
+"Good for a hundred lashes," or "Good for two rabbits," or "To be shot,"
+or "Payable in Paris".... They are also _disgusting_. In houses robbed
+by them they leave, by way of visiting cards, excrement in beds, on
+tables, and in cupboards. They are sometimes _unnaturally vicious_. In a
+village of Limbourg they burnt in a stable a stallion valued at 50,000
+francs, and "forced the farmer, his wife and children to witness the
+crime on their knees with their arms raised." Amongst the crowd of
+unfortunate people brought from Louvain to Brussels were thirteen
+priests. The soldiers at a German guard-house stopped the column, and
+ordered the priests to come out. To shoot them? No. They forced them
+into a pigsty, from which they had driven out the only pig. Forthwith
+they compelled most of them to strip off all their clothes, and robbed
+them of everything of value they possessed.
+
+These thieves are _practical_ too. At Dinant, safes were opened with
+oxy-hydrogen blow-pipes, brought expressly for that purpose. They have a
+partiality for safes, and in this connection the story of Lunéville
+deserves recording. A house near the station, belonging to M. Leclerc,
+was set on fire; the walls alone remained standing, and in one of them
+(on the second floor) a safe was left intact. A non-commissioned
+officer, named Weill, with a party blew up the wall with dynamite, and
+the safe was extricated from the rubbish, carried to the station, put on
+a truck, and sent to Boche-land. This man Weill, before the war, often
+came to Luneville on business with hops, was always well received there,
+made himself agreeable and knew everybody. When the Germans settled in
+the unfortunate town he played a very important part, in spite of his
+low rank, in acting as agent, confidential clerk and guide to the
+Commanding Officer.
+
+The robbers are also business-like in their transport arrangements as to
+carriages, military waggons, lorries, and motor cars. At Compiègne,
+where the home of the Orsetti family was sacked, silver plate, jewellery
+and articles of value were collected in the courtyard of the château,
+then classified, registered, packed and "put into two carts, upon which
+they took care to place the Red Cross flag." We read in the note-book of
+a wounded German soldier, under medical treatment at Brussels, "A car
+has arrived at the hospital, bringing war booty, a piano, two sewing
+machines and all sorts of other things."
+
+In 1870, our clocks were in most demand; now, pianos form the
+attraction, and an immense number have been sent to Germany. They are
+the article particularly favoured by the Boche ladies. In a château
+retaken by our troops, an officer left behind a letter from his wife, in
+which is written, "A thousand thanks for the beautiful things you sent
+me. The furs are magnificent, the rosewood furniture is exquisite; but
+don't forget that Elsa is always waiting for her piano."
+
+These women, however, are not all as patient in waiting as Elsa. They
+frequently come and choose for themselves, and preside over the packing.
+They have been seen arriving in motor cars from Strasbourg or Metz, at
+many towns in Lorraine, at Lunéville, Baccarat, and elsewhere.
+
+All note-books, more or less, contain such items as these: "Wholesale
+pillage and abundant loot," "Everything destroyed or sacked," "Looting
+going strong," "Played the piano; looting going strong." This very
+German formula frequently occurs, "_Methodically_ plundered." And again,
+"We have been allowed to plunder; we didn't require to be told twice:
+whole bales of loot."
+
+"_Rethel._ The Vandals could not have done better." (The officer who
+makes this indiscreet admission and seems to protest against the thefts
+committed, writes on the following page: "I have found a silk rainproof
+coat and a camera for Felix.")
+
+"_Courcy._ The village, and the workmen's cottages looted and sacked.
+Atrocious. There is something, after all, in what they say of German
+barbarians."
+
+"_Ottignies._ The village was pillaged. The blond beast has made plain
+what he is. The Huns and the free-lances of the Middle Ages could not
+have done better."
+
+"_Cirey._ During the night incredible things were done: shops sacked,
+money stolen, rapes: enough to make one's hair stand on end."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] We have not found this fact recorded in the Commission's Reports. It
+was told to us, on his return from captivity, by Dr. Marlier, of the
+20th Corps, taken prisoner at Morhange, and Dr. Marlier is the soul of
+honour.
+
+
+
+
+INCENDIARISM
+
+
+In order to punish imaginary crimes, attributed to individuals or
+townships, or without even taking the trouble to discover any kind of
+pretext, the Germans often, especially after looting, set everything on
+fire _so as to make all traces disappear_. Sometimes, as at Courtaçon,
+they compelled the inhabitants to provide the material for burning their
+own houses; or, as at Recquignies, forced prisoners "to set the houses
+of the doctor and mayor on fire with lighted straw." But generally they
+do the work themselves. They have a _special service_ for this, and all
+the requisite incendiary material is carefully prepared; torches,
+grenades, fuses, oil pumps, firebrands, satchels of pastilles containing
+very inflammable compressed powder, etc. German science has applied
+itself to the perfecting of the technique of incendiarism. The village
+is set alight by a _drilled_ method. Those concerned act quite coolly,
+as a matter of duty, as though in accordance with a drill scheme laid
+down and perfected beforehand.
+
+Of course, fire once let loose, these people have to see that it does
+its work completely: accordingly, at Louvain, they destroyed the
+fire-engines and fire-escapes; at Namur, they stopped the firemen at the
+very moment they were preparing to do their duty.
+
+In this way they sometimes wilfully burned down whole blocks of
+dwellings (Lunéville): sometimes an entire district (105 houses at
+Senlis, 112 at Baccarat): sometimes almost a whole town itself (more
+than 300 houses at Gerbéviller, 800 at Sermaize, 1,200 at Dinant, 1,800
+at Louvain[4]). On other occasions they did not leave a house standing
+(Nomeny, Clermont-en-Argonne, Sommeilles).
+
+The complete list of buildings, cottages, farms, villas, factories, or
+châteaux, burned wilfully in this way by hand, will be a formidable one,
+amounting to tens of thousands.[5]
+
+Refinement of cruelty frequently occurs. At Aerschot "women had to
+witness the sight of the conflagration holding their hands up. Their
+torture lasted six hours." At Crévic, the Germans began their sinister
+work by burning a château which they knew belonged to General Lyautey.
+The troops, commanded by an officer, shouted out for Madame and
+Mademoiselle Lyautey "that they might cut their heads off."
+
+The houses destroyed by fire were not always uninhabited. At Maixe, M.
+Demange, wounded in both knees, dragged himself along and fell prostrate
+in his kitchen; his house was set on fire and Madame Demange was
+forcibly prevented from going to the rescue of her husband, who perished
+in the flames. At Nomeny, Madame Cousin, after being shot, was thrown
+into the burning building and roasted. At the same place, M. Adam was
+thrown alive into the flames. Let us note in connection with him, to
+their credit, an act of comparative humanity. Finding that the unhappy
+man was not being burnt fast enough, they ended his misery in the flames
+by shooting him. At Monceau-sur-Sambre, where they set fire to 300
+houses, they confined the two brothers S. in a shed, and the unfortunate
+men were burnt alive.[6]
+
+The soldiers' diaries are filled with descriptions of incendiarism, some
+of which we now quote. "Returned by Mazerulles, which was burnt as we
+passed through, because the engineers found a telephone there connected
+up with the French."[7] "The whole village was in ablaze. Everything
+destroyed in the street, except one small house; in front of the door
+was a poor woman with her six children, her arms raised and begging for
+mercy. And every day it is the same thing."
+
+_Parnx_. "The first village burnt (in Lorraine, on the 10th August);
+after that the fun began. Villages in flames, one after the other."
+Another note-book simply states, "Sommepy--horrible carnage. The village
+entirely burnt; the French thrown into the burning houses; civilians
+with the rest." Another recalls theatrical memories. "The village is
+ablaze; it reminds one of the conflagration of Walhalla in the 'Twilight
+of the Gods.'"
+
+Here is a poet speaking: "The soldiers set up the red cock (_i.e._,
+fire) upon the houses, just as they like." This poet is moved, and
+speaks of "pure vandalism" on the part of his companions in arms. And
+again, a musician writes, "Throwing of incendiary grenades into the
+houses; a military concert in the evening--'Nun danket alle Gott'! (Now
+thank we all our God)." Finally, a Bavarian: "The village
+(Saint-Maurice, Meurthe-et-Moselle) was surrounded, and the soldiers
+posted one yard apart so that no one could escape. Then the Uhlans set
+fire to the place, one house after the other. No man, woman, or child
+could possibly escape. Only the cattle were removed in safety, because
+cattle have some value. Anyone trying to escape was shot. Everything in
+the village was destroyed." We shall see presently that they even went
+so far as to burn ambulances.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] They destroyed by fire the Library at Louvain, with its 200,000
+volumes and its incomparable treasures. By means of shells and fire they
+have injured in one place, totally destroyed in another, wonders of art
+that were an integral part of our human heritage; our Cathedrals at
+Rheims, Arras, Ypres, &c.
+
+[5] Belgium alone accounts for about 20,000.
+
+[6] This fact is quoted in the admirable book by Captain A. de Gerlache,
+entitled "Belgium and the Belgians during the War," published by the
+firm of Berger-Levrault.
+
+[7] See note at foot of page 31. (this is foot-note 11)
+
+
+
+
+MURDER
+
+
+Not having sufficient space for a complete catalogue, we shall here
+simply mention the judicial murders of Miss Cavell, Eugene Jacquet,
+Battisti, and others, in order to honour the memory of those noble
+victims. For the same reason, as they are now well known to everyone, we
+content ourselves with merely recalling the criminal torpedoing of the
+_Lusitania,_[8] _Ancona, Portugal, Amiral-Ganteaume_.... all merchant
+steamers, without any military character whatever, employed in carrying
+passengers of every nationality, and the last-named crowded with
+refugees.
+
+We may pass over the crimes committed _from a distance_, so to speak, on
+unfortified towns, with fieldpieces, long-range guns, aeroplanes, and
+Zeppelins, merely noting that the Germans _were the first_ to fire
+shells into the centre of towns indiscriminately. If they made an
+exception, it was to aim at the cathedral square, when people were
+leaving after Mass, as at Nancy, or into the market-place at the time
+when women are busiest, as they did at Lunéville.
+
+We only mention here such outrages as were committed at close quarters
+with hand-weapons, bayonets or rifles. The list is a long one. Will the
+exact number of victims ever be known? In Belgium alone it has been
+proved that up to now more than 5,000 civilians have been assassinated:
+grown men, old people, women and children. They slaughtered their
+victims sometimes one by one, sometimes in groups, often in masses. They
+were not content only with killing. At one place they organised round
+the massacre such tragic scenes, and at another displayed such
+refinements of cruelty, that reason falters in face of their acts, and
+asks what terrible madness has brought this race to such low depths? Is
+it possible? Yes, it is. Judge by the following examples:--
+
+At Forêt, the village schoolmaster was shot for refusing to trample
+under foot the national flag, torn down from the front of the school.[9]
+At Schaffen, A. Willem was tied to a tree and burnt alive, and two other
+unfortunate men were buried alive. Madame Luykx and her little girl, 12
+years old, were shot together in a cellar. J. Reynders and his young
+nephew, 10 years of age, were both shot in the street. At Sompuis, an
+old man named Jacquemin, aged 70, was bound to his bed by an officer and
+left there without food for three days, dying soon after his release.
+
+A Westphalian prisoner states, "The commanding officer ordered us to
+shoot two women, and we did so. One of them was holding a child by the
+hand, and in falling she dragged the child over with her. The officer
+gave orders to shoot the child, because it could not be left alone in
+the world." At Rouves, a Government clerk refused to tell a Bavarian
+officer the numbers of the French regiments in the neighbourhood. The
+officer killed him with two shots from his revolver. At Crézancy,
+another officer shot with his own hand young Lesaint, 18 years old, "to
+prevent his being a soldier later on." At Emberménil, Madame Masson was
+shot for having, in absolute good faith, given some wrong information.
+As she was obviously in a state of pregnancy they made her sit down on a
+bench to meet her fate. At Ethe, two priests were shot "for having
+buried some weapons." At Marquéglise, a superior officer ordered the
+arrest of four young fugitives. Learning that two of them came from
+Belgium, he exclaimed, "The Belgians are filthy people," and without
+more ado took his revolver and shot them one after the other. Three were
+killed outright, the fourth expired the following day.
+
+From the crowd of fugitives which left Louvain in flames, the priests
+were singled out, and searched. On one of them, a Jesuit father, by name
+Dupierreux, they found a note-book containing the following note in
+French, "When I used to read about the Huns under Attila devastating
+towns, I smiled. I smile no longer now that I have seen with my own eyes
+the hordes of to-day setting fire to the churches and library of
+Louvain." In front of the assembled troops the priests were placed in a
+semi-circle round the Jesuit Father. The incriminating phrase was read
+out, and then translated into German. The lieutenant said that it
+constituted an incitement to murder, and that the Jesuit must be shot on
+the spot. The sentence was carried out forthwith, and the other
+priests, his companions, were made to bury him where he fell.
+
+At Pin, some Uhlans found two young boys on the road. They tied them by
+the arms to their horses and galloped off. The bodies of the poor lads
+were found a few miles away--their knees were "literally crushed"; one
+had his throat cut and both had several bullets in their heads. At
+Sermaize, a labourer, named Brocard, and his son, were arrested. His
+wife and daughter-in-law, mad with terror, threw themselves into a
+neighbouring stream. The old man broke away, and ran to try and save
+them. The Germans dragged him away.... Four days later Brocard and the
+son, on being liberated, returned home, and after a search, found the
+bodies. The two women, while still in the water, had been shot several
+times through the head. A parish priest named Dergent was taken to
+Aerschot, stripped, and tied to a cross in front of the church; his
+fingers and toes were crushed and broken with the butt-end of a rifle.
+The inhabitants were made to pass in front of him and were each
+compelled to urinate on him in turn; then he was shot and his body
+thrown into the canal.[10]
+
+At Hériménil, during the pillage, the inhabitants were shut up in a
+church, and kept there for four days without food. When Madame Winger,
+23 years of age, and her three young servants, one girl and two boys,
+were too slow in leaving her farm to go to the church, the captain
+ordered his men to fire on them. Four more dead bodies!
+
+The Germans arrived at Monchy-Humières. A group of inhabitants watched
+them marching past. No provocation whatever was offered, but an officer
+thought that he heard someone utter the word "Prussians." He at once
+called out three dragoons, and ordered them to fire upon the group--one
+killed and two wounded--one of the latter being a little girl of four.
+
+At Sommeilles, when the fire--which destroyed the whole place--broke
+out, Madame X. took refuge in a cellar belonging to M. and Madame Adnot,
+who were there, with their four children, the eldest a girl of 11 years.
+A few days after, on returning to the village, our soldiers found the
+seven bodies in the cellar lying in a pool of blood, several of them
+being horribly mutilated. Madame X. had her right arm severed from her
+body; the little girl's foot had been cut off, and the little boy of
+five had his throat cut.
+
+At Louveigné a certain number of men were shut up in a blacksmith's
+shop; in the afternoon the murderers opened the door as if it were a
+pigeon-shooting competition, drove the prisoners out, and shot them
+down--a ghastly group of 17 corpses.
+
+At Senlis the heroic Mayor, M. Odent, and six members of his staff were
+shot.
+
+At Gerbéviller they forced their way into the house of M. and Madame
+Lingenheld; seized the son, aged 36, exempt from service, and wearing
+the badge of the Red Cross, tied his hands, dragged him into the street
+and shot him. They then returned to look for the father, an old man of
+70. Meanwhile the mother, mad with terror, made her escape. On coming
+out she saw her son lying on the ground. As he still showed signs of
+life, they threw paraffin over him and roasted him. The father was shot
+later on with fourteen other old men. More than 150 victims were
+identified in this parish.
+
+At Nomeny, M. Vassé provided shelter for a number of neighbours in his
+cellar. Fifty soldiers got in and set fire to the house. To escape the
+flames the refugees rushed out and were shot one by one as they emerged.
+Mentré was killed first; his son Léon, with his little eight-year-old
+sister in his arms, fell next: as he was not quite dead they put the
+barrel of a rifle to his ear and blew his brains out. Then came the turn
+of a family named Kieffer. The mother was wounded; the father, his boy
+and girl, aged respectively 10 and 3, were shot down. They fell on them
+with fury. Striffler, Guillaume, and Vassé were afterwards massacred.
+Young Mlle. Simonin, 17 years old, and her small sister, afraid to leave
+their refuge in the cellar, were eventually driven out by the flames,
+and immediately shot at. The younger child had an elbow almost blown off
+by a bullet; as the elder girl lay wounded on the ground, she was
+deliberately kicked by a soldier. At Nomeny 40 victims were identified.
+
+And now we come to some of the _wholesale slaughters._ At Louvain, more
+than 100 victims; at Aerschot, over 150; at Soumagne, 165; at Ethe, 197;
+at Andenne, over 300; at Tamines, 400; at Dinant, upwards of 600, of
+whom 71 were women, 34 old men of over seventy, 6 children from five to
+nine years old, and 11 under five. At Aerschot, a first batch of 78 men
+were taken out of the town, and ordered to advance in groups of three,
+holding each other by the hand, when they were made to pass in front of
+some German Military Police, who shot them all at short range with
+revolvers. Others had their hands bound so tightly that many screamed
+with pain: they spent the night lying on the ground, and were shot the
+next day. Many, before execution, were compelled to dig their own
+graves. At Dinant, the victims were placed in two rows, the first
+kneeling, the second standing. Then came the order--"Fire!" At Tamines,
+several hundred men were massed in the Place Saint-Martin, on the bank
+of the Sambre. The assassins stood ten yards away and fired a volley.
+All fell, but some were not wounded. The officer in command ordered them
+to "stand up." A second volley was fired. As soon as the firing
+finished, there was a frightful scene which lasted until the
+evening--the killing of the wounded. Many soldiers, some wearing the
+badge of the Red Cross, approached their victims by the light of small
+lanterns, and passed through their ranks, clubbing them with the butt
+end of their rifles, and stabbing with bayonets. A perfect shambles!
+
+In these horrors we do not discern the musical note, or the
+acknowledgment of the "Old German God." Yet, here is a specimen:--
+
+At Andenne, Colonel Schumann, in command of the Potsdam Rifles,
+organised a grand concert in the evening at the Place des Tilleuls. The
+entertainment ended with a prayer!
+
+It now remains for us to publish a few extracts from note-books found
+upon officers and privates. Some are short items like the
+following:--"Pepinster, 12th August. Burgomaster, Priest and
+Schoolmaster shot, and houses burnt to the ground. We resume our march."
+Another, "Villers-en-Fagne, village in flames. The population had
+notified the French of the approach of the grenadiers; thereupon the
+hussars set fire to the village, the Parish Priest and others being
+shot."
+
+Others enter into details of the executions. "_Leffe._ We shoot everyone
+who fires on our men. We put three, one behind the other, and a Marburg
+rifleman kills them outright with a single shot. It is war to the
+knife."
+
+Another expresses something other than enthusiasm for such work.
+"Considering that the King (of the Belgians) has given orders to defend
+the country by all possible means, we have been ordered to shoot every
+male inhabitant. At Dinant more than 100 were collected in a crowd and
+shot. A dreadful Sunday." Another, an aesthete, writes as follows:
+"During the night many more civilians were shot, so many that we were
+able to count over 200. Women and children, with lamps in their hands,
+were compelled to witness the horrible sight. We afterwards ate our
+rice among the dead bodies. Sadly beautiful." He adds (in shorthand)
+"Captain Hermann was drunk."
+
+Again another: "_Dinant._ We have been firing on everyone who showed
+himself, or on those thrown out of the houses, men or women. The bodies
+lie in the streets, in heaps a yard deep."
+
+A Saxon officer writes: "My company is at Bouvignes. Our men behave like
+vandals: everything is upset; the sight of the slaughtered inhabitants
+defies all description; not a house is left standing. We have dragged
+out of every corner all survivors, one after another, men, women, and
+children, found in a burning cloister, and have shot them 'en masse.'"
+
+The following depositions on the massacres at Nomeny are made by
+prisoners, one a Bavarian officer in the Reserve, the other a private in
+the same regiment. The lieutenant says: "I gathered the impression that
+it was impossible for the officers at Nomeny to prevent such acts. As
+far as I can judge, the crimes committed there, which horrified all the
+soldiers who were at Nomeny later on, must be put down to the acts of
+unnatural brutes." The soldier says, "At five o'clock regimental orders
+were received to kill every male inhabitant of Nomeny, and to raze
+everything to the ground; we forced our way into the houses." Here is a
+more detailed account of a massacre near Blamont. "All the villagers
+fled: it was terrible; their beards thick with blood, and what faces!
+They were dreadful to look at. The dead were all buried, numbering
+sixty. Among them were many old men and women, and one unfortunate woman
+half confined--the whole being frightful to look at. Three children
+were clasped in each other's arms, and had died thus. The Altar and the
+vaulting of the church were destroyed because there was a telephone[11]
+communicating with the enemy. This morning, 2nd September, all the
+survivors were expelled. I saw four small boys carrying away on two
+sticks a cradle containing a baby of five or six months. All this is
+dreadful to see. Blow for blow: thunder against thunder! Every thing is
+given up to pillage. I also saw a mother with her two children; one had
+a big wound on the head, and one eye knocked out."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] They have decorated the pirates who sank the _Lusitania_. They glory
+in the crime, and have even struck a commemorative medal in its honour.
+
+[9] In this case, and many of the following ones, the reader is
+requested to note, and remember, the _motive_ for the murders.
+
+[10] This cruel treatment of the Abbé Dergent, priest of Gelrode, near
+Louvain, is reported by a neutral witness, Father G., a student at
+Louvain. The German soldiers accused the Belgian priests of every
+conceivable crime; the Assistant-Priest of Sainte-Gertrude (Louvain),
+who was remonstrating with a soldier, received this reply: "We are
+Catholics too, but you are pigs and black devils." In Belgium about one
+hundred of the clergy were massacred. Note further that in this
+unfortunate country _doctors_ were particularly ill-treated;
+thirty-seven being shot in the small parishes, while more than one
+hundred and fifty disappeared altogether from large towns.
+
+[11] To whom did it belong, and where was it? Telephones exist in every
+district of Meurthe-et-Moselle. Besides, our army installed field
+telephones which were not all destroyed at the time of their retreat. It
+is a most foolish pretext, yet where can one find a more stupid one than
+this? A German official communiqué, in order to prove that the general
+rising of the people had been organized for a long time, declares, "that
+depôts of arms were installed, where each rifle bore the name of the man
+for whom it was intended." It is absolutely clear that this applies to
+arms taken from civilians by order of the local authorities in Belgium
+and France, and deposited at the Town Hall, every weapon bearing the
+name of its owner. Would they have taken that for an arsenal? No, stupid
+as they may be, they are not so foolish as that. They feign stupidity
+simply because they know very well that the conscience of the civilized
+world is beginning to be moved.
+
+
+
+
+OUTRAGES ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN
+
+
+We might write a long and heartbreaking chapter on this pitiful subject,
+but let the following suffice. The Report of the French Commission of
+Enquiry concludes with these words, "Outrages upon women and young girls
+have been common _to an unheard-of extent_." No doubt the bulk of these
+crimes will never come to light, for it needs a concatenation of special
+circumstances for such acts to be committed in public. Unfortunately and
+only too often these circumstances have existed, _e.g._, at
+Beton-Bazoches and Sancy-les-Provins, a young girl, and at St.
+Denis-les-Rebaix, a mother-in-law and a little boy of eight years old,
+and at Coulommiers a husband and two children, were witnesses to
+outrages committed on the mother of the family. Sometimes the attacks
+were individual and sometimes committed by bodies of men, _e.g._, at
+Melen-Labouxhe, Margaret W. was violated by twenty German soldiers, and
+then shot by the side of her father and mother. They did not even
+respect nuns.[12]
+
+They did not even spare grandmothers (Louppy-le-Château,
+Vitry-en-Perthois ...).
+
+Nor did they respect children.... At Cirey, a witness (a University
+professor), whose statements one of us took down a few days after the
+tragedy, cried to a Bavarian officer, "Have you no children in Germany?"
+All the officer said in reply was, "My mother never bore swine like
+you."
+
+Now and then they let themselves loose on a whole family; at Louppy, the
+mother and her two young girls aged thirteen and eight, respectively,
+were simultaneous victims of their savagery.
+
+The outrages sometimes lasted till death. At Nimy, the martyrdom of
+little Irma G. lasted six hours till death delivered her from her
+sufferings. When her father tried to rescue her he was shot, and her
+mother was seriously wounded. Indeed, it was certain destruction to any
+frenzied parent who tried to defend his child. A clergyman of Dixmude
+says, "The burgomaster of Handzaeme was shot for trying to protect his
+daughter." And how many other cases have occurred! We have not the heart
+to continue the list.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] See the report of the French Commission (vol. i., page 35). See
+also, in the "Reply to the White Book," p. 500, the moving letter of
+Cardinal Mercier to von Bissing: "My conscience forbids my divulging to
+any tribunal the information, alas, only too well substantiated, which I
+possess. Outrages on nuns have been committed ..."
+
+
+
+
+KILLING THE WOUNDED
+
+
+There are _great numbers_ of wounded who, on their solemn oath, have
+related how, when lying on the field of battle, they saw their wounded
+comrades "finished off" by rifle or revolver shots, or by blows from
+butt-ends, or by bayonet stabs, or kicked to death by German soldiers,
+non-commissioned officers, and even by officers.[13]
+
+We cannot pause to analyse these innumerable depositions. There is other
+evidence. How often, when a counter-attack has put us in possession of
+ground lost the day before, have we found poor fellows "finished
+off"--with their throats cuts, as in the case of the two sergeants of
+the 31st Chasseurs at the Pass of Sainte-Marie, or "with their own
+bayonets driven into their mouths," like the poor little fellow of the
+17th. The enemy often runs amok like this:--"On August 23rd, the Curé of
+Réméréville tended Lieutenant Toussaint (who passed out first at the
+Forestry School in July). When he fell in battle, this young officer was
+bayoneted by all the Germans who passed near him, and his body was a
+mass of wounds from head to feet." At Oudrigny "a German officer met a
+French vehicle showing the Red Cross flag, and loaded with ten wounded.
+He deployed his company, and fired two volleys at it." At Bonviller, an
+officer murdered nine French wounded, stretched helpless in a barn, by
+shooting them through the ear. On 23rd August at Montigny-le-Tilleul, M.
+Vital was caught in the act of tending a French soldier, L. Sohier by
+name, wounded in the head and side. Such a crime deserved punishment,
+and the wretches first shot the orderly and then the patient.
+
+At Ethe they set a shed on fire and roasted more than twenty wounded who
+were lying there.
+
+We all know the celebrated order of General Stenger in the region of
+Thiaville (Meurthe-et-Moselle):--"No prisoners are to be taken. All
+prisoners, whether wounded or not, must be slaughtered."
+
+It was not only in Lorraine that such orders were given. Listen to the
+depositions of a German soldier: "The same day we saw eighteen other
+Frenchmen. Lieutenant N. told us to shoot them as he did not know what
+else to do with them."
+
+Read this letter found at L'Éçouvillon in a German trench which we
+recaptured: "Every day we take many prisoners, but they are shot at once
+as we no longer know where to put them."
+
+Think of the diary in which a German soldier near Peronne recorded his
+impressions of the day: "They lay in heaps of ten or twelve, some dead
+and some still living. Those who could still walk were marched off.
+Those who were wounded in the head or lungs, and could not lift
+themselves up, were finished off with a bullet. That is the order which
+we got."
+
+A German soldier, while being nursed in a hospital at Nancy, confided to
+Dr. Roemer that the wound in his stomach "had been inflicted on him by a
+German N.C.O. because he refused to finish off a wounded Frenchman."
+
+Wounded were not only massacred on the field of battle, but field
+hospitals were also the scene of atrocities. At Gomery, in a casualty
+clearing station, under Dr. Sédillot, there were numerous wounded
+remaining in the German lines. A German officer with twenty-five men
+visited the place and inspected it and retired, saying that all was in
+order. But a N.C.O. and a party of soldiers remained in the street
+outside. They were excited and kept shouting, "It is war to the death,"
+and making signs of cutting throats. They rushed in and with their
+revolvers shot down Dr. Sédillot (who happily survived, with others, to
+give evidence), and set fire to the place. Maddened by the flames, the
+wounded (many of whom had had amputations performed on them that very
+morning) leapt from the windows on the first floor and fell into the
+garden, where the executioners picked them up, gathering them in a
+bunch, and shot them. In this way Lieutenant Jeannin and Dr. Charette
+were murdered, and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty officers
+and soldiers--whose wounds should have made them sacred--perished from
+shot or fire after terrible sufferings.
+
+When all is said, however, it is better to kill wounded soldiers by fire
+or sword than by starvation, as the following incident shows: One
+hundred wounded Frenchmen, together with Dr. Bender, were brought to the
+Stenay barracks, and one hundred and eighty more came in shortly
+afterwards; the latter, having been left out unattended on the
+battle-field for five days, were in a terrible condition. Dr. Bender in
+vain begged the Germans for help in getting the wounded men out of the
+ambulances into the hospital. The Boches refused, and simply went on
+sucking their pipes. Though wounded himself, the doctor, with the aid of
+two male nurses (Frenchmen both), had to do the whole thing himself.
+For several days the Boches gave them no food at all. "Our poor fellows
+screamed with hunger,"[14] says the doctor, on oath, and adds, "I had
+sixty badly wounded with me, and begged the German army doctor to
+operate, but he said he had no time. I then asked his leave to operate
+myself, but his reply was, "You are in the German lines, and must
+conform to our rules." The doctor ends his pathetic evidence with the
+words, "Nearly all these unhappy men died of neglect."
+
+We have seen doctors, like Professor Vulpius, actually steal money; but
+of all the types of Boche doctors, the most hideous is the hero of the
+following tale, taken from the deposition of Dr. Bender. "A French
+soldier, at Stenay, was under my treatment. He had a wound in his
+foot--not very severe, which did not need an operation at all. What was
+my astonishment to find that a German army surgeon had amputated his
+thigh? I could not help expressing my indignation, and the surgeon's
+only reply was, "He will be a man the less against us in the next
+war."[15] They will deny these crimes to-morrow, but in 1914 they
+gloried in them.
+
+On the 18th of October a Silesian newspaper published an article sent
+from the front by a N.C.O., in which he says, "Men who are particularly
+tender-hearted give the French wounded the 'coup de grace' with a
+bullet, but the others cut and thrust as much as possible. Our enemies
+fought bravely ... whether they are slightly or badly wounded our brave
+Fusiliers spare the Fatherland as far as possible the expensive trouble
+of looking after numerous enemies. In the evening, with prayers of
+thanksgiving on our lips, we go to sleep." Are these mere boastings of
+crimes? No. The article was submitted to the Captain of the Company who
+certified it as correct and counter-signed it. The N.C.O., the Captain,
+the Silesian public, the whole German nation were delighted to see this
+abominable story of murder and shame appear in the paper under the
+heading, "A Day of Honour for our Regiment."[16]
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] Report of the French Commission, vol. iii.
+
+[14] He adds that certain orderlies--Lorrainers, belonging to the German
+Army--supplied them with food on the sly.
+
+[15] French chivalry could hardly believe that a doctor would amputate a
+wounded enemy's limb without absolute necessity and in mere revenge, but
+such cases are, alas, not rare. See the awful tales of torture in the
+"Journal d'un Grand Blessé en Allemagne," by Charles Hennebois (pp. 137,
+146), and the statement of a German doctor (p. 87), "Your doctors in
+France perform amputations as they please on our wounded. The order has
+therefore been given to amputate without hesitation, as reprisals, every
+damaged limb."
+
+[16] Let us quote, to show the mental "make-up" of certain Germans, the
+conditions in which Captain Coustre of the 108th and Captain Lesourd of
+the 50th met their deaths. They were wandering over the battle-field
+where the enemy had been repulsed. They heard a cry for help. There was
+a soldier in one place and an officer in another who asked for a drink.
+They stopped and leant over them to give them a drink from their flasks
+when the wounded men blew their brains out.
+
+
+
+
+SHELTERING BEHIND WOMEN
+
+
+Let us call to mind the innumerable instances when the Boches put up
+their hands, or waved a white flag, and cried, "Kamerad," pretending to
+surrender: thus drawing our unsuspecting men towards them and then
+suddenly moving aside, to leave the field open to a party of riflemen or
+a machine-gun hidden away behind them. These are the tricks of cowards,
+which were constantly employed at the beginning of the war, and our men
+(at the cost of many victims) learned at last to guard against them. But
+they have done even more cowardly things than this. There was the German
+officer who, to protect himself from danger while taking observations,
+put three children round him. At Néry, twenty-five persons, women and
+children, were compelled to walk at the side of a Boche column to
+protect it from being enfiladed. Near Malines, six German soldiers who
+were taking with them five young girls, on meeting a Belgian patrol,
+placed the girls all round them to prevent the enemy from firing. At
+Jodoigne they put a Curé in front of them and made him walk with his
+arms folded, and they did the same at Hougaerde to another Curé who was
+killed. A similar fate befell several civilians at Mons. At Senlis, our
+men were firing to cover our retreat, and the Germans took some
+inhabitants out of the houses and made them walk in the middle of the
+streets while they themselves kept along by the walls. Many of these
+unfortunate people were killed. "In numerous places," says the Belgian
+Commission of Enquiry, "the Germans made civilians--men and women--walk
+in front of them." In this way a German column passed through
+Marchienne, pushing ahead of them a body of several hundred civilians.
+They took the road for Montigny-le-Tilleul, where the first important
+battle with the French forces took place. At Sempst, during the fighting
+on the 25th August, men and women were placed in the front rank of the
+firing line. At Erpe, on the 12th September, a German column, attacked
+by a Belgian motor-machine-gun, took out of the houses twenty to
+twenty-five men and young people (including a child of thirteen), and
+made them walk in front in the middle of the road. The machine-gunners,
+seeing civilians in front of them, ceased firing. At Alost, a German
+company attacked the bridge. In front marched some thirty civilians with
+a machine-gun hidden behind them. At Nimy, with the butt-ends of their
+rifles, they drove in front of them 500 men, women and children towards
+the English, who in consequence dared not fire; and in this way the 84th
+and 85th Schleswig Regiments were able to continue their heroic march as
+far as Maubeuge.
+
+When their adversary cannot actually see the human shield that they are
+using, they send a warning. On the 7th September, 1914, the Death's Head
+Hussars shut up all the inhabitants of the village with them in the
+Château of Saint Ouen-sur-Morin, and then, to avoid being shelled,
+informed the English of their "dispositions." They fired on anyone who
+tried to escape. At Mouzon, we saw a number of civilians being pushed in
+front of the enemy with the butt-ends of rifles, and we stopped firing.
+The wretched people moved suddenly to one side of the road, uncovering
+the Germans, and then we fired. The Boches, furious, fired their first
+volley not at us, but point blank at these non-combatants, who were
+decimated.
+
+The cowards chiefly used civilians as shields, but sometimes they also
+made use of prisoners. At Keyem, they pushed one hundred Belgian
+soldiers in front of them, some with their hands tied, and others with
+their arms in the air. At Dixmude, they advanced under the shelter of
+forty disarmed marines who had been taken prisoners. When they got in
+front of our lines our marines shouted, "For God's sake fire, these are
+Germans," and these heroes fell gloriously under the French bullets.
+Such deeds are countless.
+
+The Boches will deny them later on, but in 1914 they did not deny them,
+but rather gloried in them as a "good idea." We can see this from the
+letter of the Bavarian Lieutenant Eberlein, published on the 7th
+October, 1914, by a leading Munich paper, "We had arrested three other
+civilians when a 'good idea' struck me. We made them sit on chairs in
+the middle of the street;--supplications from them, and blows with
+butt-ends of rifles from us. At last they were seated outside in the
+street with their hands convulsively clasped together. I felt sorry for
+them, but the plan worked at once. As I learnt later, the regiment which
+entered Saint-Dié, further to the north of us, had precisely similar
+experiences to our own. The civilians, whom they had put in the same
+way in the middle of the street, were killed by French bullets. I saw
+their dead bodies."[17]
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[17] We have not, so far, come across any attempted justification, by
+German authors, of these cowardly acts; but such we shall have without
+fail. It is probable that the 93 "intellectuals" whose manifesto we
+recall to memory a few pages further on are preparing a fresh "appeal to
+the civilized world" with a view to explaining that the German
+troops--the representatives and trustees of _Kultur_--are authorised by
+God Himself to use _every means_ for the protection of their precious
+lives.
+
+
+
+
+MARTYRDON OF CIVILIAN PRISONERS
+
+
+After having burnt our villages,[18] and shot the inhabitants by dozens
+in some places, and by hundreds in others, they frequently deported all
+or a part of the survivors to Germany. It is impossible at this moment
+to establish the number of those deported, but they were sent off by
+tens of thousands. These unfortunate people, men, women and children,
+who had witnessed and survived fires and massacres, who had seen their
+houses blazing and so many of those dear to them fall under the bullets
+of the assassin, and who were forced in some places to dig graves for
+their victims, and in others to hold a light for the executioners while
+they were finishing off the wounded,--these poor wretches are despatched
+to Germany.[19] What a journey, and what a place of residence!
+
+Let us quote one story among a thousand. "Our escort was commanded by
+two German officers. They were unapproachable. Anyone who tried to speak
+to them was threatened with a revolver. In order that we might get a
+drink, we were made to collect empty meat tins which served as our
+drinking cups until we reached Cassel. We were abused and threatened
+wherever we went. Sometimes they made signs to us that they were going
+to shoot us, or hang us, or cut our heads off. They threw filth at our
+heads and spat in our faces. We were not going to stoop before them; the
+disgrace was not ours. It is they, not we, who are degraded. An officer
+who was present when our march-past took place aimed blows with a
+riding-whip at everyone within his reach. Until we arrived at the
+railway, it was the same at every place where we met soldiers. We
+reached Marche after a nine hours' journey. We were conducted to a room
+marked as having accommodation for 100 soldiers, but they put 400 of us
+in there. The people of the place sent us slices of bread and butter,
+but it was the Germans who ate them. The latter gave us crusts of bread
+to eat. We were abominably cramped; a few managed to stretch themselves
+out, but the air was so poisonous that they could not remain in that
+position. At Melreux station we changed guards. They drove us with the
+butt-ends of their rifles to a spot where a train of cattle trucks was
+standing in the yard, and we had to get in. The previous occupants had
+been cattle, and the trucks had been cleaned in a very perfunctory
+fashion. There was neither straw nor seats. Off we went. Every time we
+stopped at a station the soldiers on guard there insulted us. It was
+even worse when once we arrived in Germany. They opened the doors on the
+platform side, and if we were on a line between two platforms, they
+opened the doors on both sides so as to rejoice German hearts by the
+sight of us. They treated us like wild beasts in a menagerie, and the
+officers and soldiers set the example while the women and children were
+not behindhand with abuse, and made threatening gestures. Our guards
+were applauded as if they were doing something heroic. At one station we
+saw a woman looking out of her window and shouting 'Hurrah!' The journey
+took 35 hours, and during the whole of that time we were only given food
+and drink once, and that thanks only to the Red Cross.[20] We arrived at
+Wilhelmshöhe (Cassel) at 3 a.m. on the 28th August, and were made to
+walk quickly through the streets. Our arrival had been notified, and in
+spite of the early hour, a hostile crowd, abusive and threatening, lined
+the route. The old and the lame could not keep up the pace at which we
+marched. Their companions helped and dragged them along, constantly
+beaten with butt-ends. At length, we arrived at the gaol, where they
+shut us in the cells in lots of three or four at a time. M. Brichet
+(Inspector of Forests) wanted to take his son (aged 14) with him, but
+the gaoler said, 'Not the father and son together.' The prison
+authorities showed their surprise at the sort of criminals who had been
+entrusted to them, as the bulk of them were shopkeepers and artisans.
+
+"Included in the number were the burgomaster of Dinant, a sheriff,
+professors, barristers, and judges. An imbecile, a dozen children of
+about 13, and some old men (one of whom was 81) made up the party. At
+the end of a week, we were assembled in a yard and told that we were not
+under sentence, but were detained in the interests of public safety."
+
+In that prison the poor wretches were treated with much greater severity
+than ordinary prisoners, for they were shut up in cells and had no air.
+"By climbing on a chest one might open the window and see a little bit
+of the landscape. The ordinary prisoners were allowed to do this but we
+were forbidden." There was not a single chair. There was the skeleton of
+an iron bed which was quite useless as there was no mattress. There were
+four blankets, and two bundles of straw which very soon crumbled into
+dust. "One day a week we had an hour in the courtyard, and there we
+walked round and round in single file, being forbidden to walk two by
+two. There was a guard with fixed bayonets always with us. The food was
+absolutely inadequate[21] and we suffered continually from hunger. There
+was a certain Croibien who had been slightly wounded at Dinant by a
+bullet in his arm. His wound, neglected during the journey, had become
+septic and in spite of all his sufferings, nothing was done for him. It
+was not until after several days that it was decided to take him to the
+infirmary where his arm was amputated; he died the next day. Although
+his father and brothers were interned with him, they were not allowed to
+see him again, alive or dead."
+
+M. Tschoffen, public prosecutor at Dinant, the high official who writes
+these lines, finishes his deposition with these words: "They had no
+reason whatever for our arrest, and I do not see any reason that they
+could have for setting us at liberty. One fine day they told us that we
+were going to leave."
+
+Here is another illustration: Before the 28th February, 1915, more than
+10,000 persons, old men, women, and children, who had been deported from
+France to Germany, had been repatriated by way of Switzerland. All those
+who received them on their return were "alarmed at their ragged
+condition and weakness," which was so great that the French Commission
+of Enquiry received special instructions to question these victims. They
+took the evidence of over 300 witnesses in 28 different localities. To
+do justice to their case one ought to quote the whole report--children
+brutally torn away from their mothers, poor wretches crowded for days
+together in carriages so tightly packed that they had to stand up, cases
+of madness occurring among these half-stifled crowds, howling with
+hunger. But we must confine our quotations to a few items of "Kultur."
+"While the men of Combres set out for Germany, the women and children
+were shut up in the village church. They were kept there for a month,
+and passed their nights seated in the pews. Dysentery and croup raged
+among them. The women were allowed to carry excrement only just outside
+the church into the churchyard."--"At least four of the prisoners were
+massacred because they could not keep up with, the column, being
+completely exhausted."--"Fortin, aged 65, and infirm, could not go any
+further. They tied a rope to him, and two horsemen held the ends so that
+he had to keep the pace of the horses. As he kept falling down at every
+moment, they made him get up by poking him with their lances. The poor
+wretch, covered with blood, prayed them to kill him."
+
+"189 inhabitants of Sinceny, who were sent to Erfurt, arrived there
+after a journey of 84 hours, during which each of them got nothing but a
+single morsel of bread weighing less than four ounces. Another convoy
+spent four days on the railway journey and were only fed once, and were
+beaten with sticks and fists and with knife handles." The same
+brutalities were experienced in the German cities through which they
+passed, and very few of the civilian prisoners escaped being buffeted by
+the infuriated crowds or being spat upon.
+
+So much for the journey. Now for what happened to them after their
+arrival! "The declarations made to us show clearly that the bulk of the
+prisoners almost collapsed from hunger. After food had been distributed,
+when anything was left, you saw some of them rush to the neighbourhood
+of the kitchens; hustled and beaten by the sentries, these unfortunates
+risked blows and abuse to try and pick up some additional morsels of
+the sickening food. You saw men, dying of hunger, picking up herring
+heads, and the grounds of the morning's decoction."
+
+At Parchim, where 2,000 French civilians from 12 to 77 years of age were
+interned, two starving prisoners who asked for the scraps left over were
+beaten with the butt-ends of rifles to such an extent that they died of
+their wounds. The young son of one of them who tried to protect his
+father was tied to a stake for a week on end.
+
+On oath, Dr. Page deposes: "Those who had no money almost died of
+hunger. When a little soup was left, a crowd of unfortunates rushed to
+get it, and the non-commissioned officers got rid of them at last by
+letting the dogs loose on them." But what is the need of all these
+details and of all this evidence? Look at the 10,000 who came back after
+being repatriated and see what the bandits have done to them. Reader,
+summon up your courage and peruse to the bitter end the conclusions of
+the Official Commission of Enquiry. "It is impossible to conceal the
+melancholy and indignation we felt on seeing the state of the
+'hostages'[22] whom the Germans had returned to us after they had
+kidnapped them in defiance of the rights of nations. During our enquiry
+we never ceased hearing the perpetual coughs that rent them. We saw
+numbers of young people whose cheerfulness had disappeared apparently
+for ever, and whose pale and emaciated faces betrayed physical damage
+probably beyond repair. In spite of ourselves we could not help thinking
+that scientific Germany had applied her methodical ways to try and
+spread tuberculosis in our country. Nor were we less profoundly moved to
+thought by the sight of women mourning their desolated hearths and
+missing or captive children, or by the moral impression left on the
+faces and bearing of many prisoners by the hateful regime which was
+intended to destroy, in those who were subjected to it, the feeling of
+human dignity and self-respect."[23]
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[18] _Prisoners_, as well as wounded, have very often been massacred on
+the field of battle. As to the treatment that prisoners--French,
+Belgian, Russian and English--have undergone in German camps, it is a
+pitiful tale that we do not intend to begin here. Some day it must be
+written. With the actual evidence before us, the lot of the German
+prisoners in England, Russia and France must be compared with that of
+ours in Germany. The most indifferent reader will feel his heart stirred
+within him, and will hesitate to say whether we were "generous," or
+whether we were "fools."
+
+[19] We speak of those who have left--but what of those who have
+remained in Belgium and France, under the German heel? The time has not
+yet come for writing this piece of history, but we cannot refrain from
+referring to the sufferings of these children of the North, boys and
+girls, torn from their families, carried off like bands of slaves to
+other invaded regions to be employed on forced labour. France has
+apprised the neutral countries of these facts: Will they remain silent?
+
+[20] Further on it will be seen that much worse happened on numerous
+other journeys.
+
+[21] "We got one pound of black sour bread per diem. In the morning we
+had a tepid decoction intended for coffee; at mid-day a pint and a half
+of thick soup, and at night rather less than a pint of thin soup. On
+three occasions only did we get potatoes, but never once meat. Cabbage
+soup was the usual thing and after a certain time it turned our
+stomachs. Certain prisoners were employed in chopping up the cabbages to
+make sauerkraut, and they had to keep the broken leaves, as these were
+used up for our soup."
+
+[22] Through an old habit, the Commission makes use of this word; they
+are not "hostages," of course.
+
+[23] It must also be noted that when the Commissioners making the
+enquiry saw the repatriated people, they had had some time in which to
+recover, first in Switzerland, and then in France. The arrival of these
+pitiable drafts gave rise (even among those of the Swiss people who were
+in principle the least hostile to Germany) to such a feeling of horror
+for their executioners that the Kaiser took warning and thought it wiser
+to suspend the repatriations for several months. For the welcome and the
+kind care which our poor martyrs received at the hands of the Swiss, our
+grateful thanks and salutations are due!
+
+
+
+
+GERMAN EXCUSES: LIES AND CALUMNY
+
+
+The Boches have taken up three positions in succession. In the first
+place, in their speeches, in their writings and by commemorative
+pictures and medals, _they have gloried in their misdeeds_, thus
+declaring that Kultur is above morality (as stated by their writer,
+Thomas Mann), and that the right of German might is above everything.
+Then, in the second place, when they discovered that in the world
+outside them there was something known as a "moral conscience," not
+understood by them, but still to be reckoned with, _they cynically
+denied the charges_. Finally, when they were driven from this second
+trench, when simple negation became impossible, _they had perforce to
+explain their crimes_.
+
+Their commonest explanation is this, "Civilians fired on us."[24] The
+French Commission of Enquiry came to the following conclusion on this
+point: "This allegation is false, and those who put it forward have been
+powerless to give it the appearance of truth, even though it has been
+their custom to fire shots in the neighbourhood of dwellings, in order
+to be able to affirm that they have been attacked by innocent
+inhabitants, on whose ruin or massacre they had resolved."
+
+Enquiries conducted by high magistrates have established the fact that
+German officials are very frequently guilty of premeditated lies. It is
+probable, all the same, that many German soldiers, on entering Belgium
+or France, were obsessed by the idea of civilians firing on them. The
+cry of a soldier trembling with fear, drunk, or thirsting for
+pillage--"Man hat geschossen (they have fired)"--is enough for a
+locality to be delivered up at once to the wildest fury. "When an
+inhabitant has fired on a regiment," said a soldier at Louvain, "the
+place belongs to the regiment." What a temptation for a Boche soldier to
+fire a shot that will at once unloose pillage and massacre!
+
+Some mistakes have _possibly_ been made which could have been avoided by
+the least enquiry. Read this admission recorded in his diary by a Saxon
+officer: "The lovely village of Gué-d'Hossus has been given over to the
+flames, though innocent in my opinion. I hear that a cyclist fell off
+his machine and that his fall caused his rifle to go off of itself. As a
+consequence there was firing in his direction. Then, the male
+inhabitants were simply hurled straight away into the flames. Such
+horrors will not be repeated, we must hope ... There ought to be some
+compulsion to verify suspicions of guilt in order to put a check on this
+indiscriminate shooting of people."
+
+The only shots fired at them inside, or in the neighbourhood of,
+villages have been those of French or Belgian soldiers covering their
+retreat. Sometimes this has been discovered, but too late, and they have
+continued their crimes--in order to justify them.
+
+Here is the statement of a neutral: "In one village they found corpses
+of German soldiers with the fingers cut off, and instantly the officer
+in command had the houses set on fire and the inhabitants shot.... In
+the same district a German officer was billeted with a famous Flemish
+poet; the officer behaved courteously, was treated with consideration,
+and allowed himself to talk freely: his complaint was the misdeeds of
+his soldiers. Near Haelen, he told his host, he had to have a soldier
+shot on finding in his knapsack some fingers covered with rings: the
+man, on being questioned, admitted that he had cut them off the bodies
+of the German dead."[25]
+
+In exceptional cases an enquiry is held; and in every such instance the
+truth is discovered and massacre prevented.
+
+At the end of August, Liebknecht,[26] a member of the Reichstag, set out
+in his car for Louvain. He came to a village where there was
+considerable excitement going on. The Germans had just found three of
+their men lying dead on the road, and accused the peasants of being
+responsible for the deed. Liebknecht examined them, and was not long in
+obtaining proof that the Germans had been killed by Belgian riflemen. At
+Huy there were shots in the night; two soldiers wounded; the populace
+accused; the mayor arrested and condemned to death; but he knew that
+there were no Allied troops in the neighbourhood, and also that his own
+people had not fired a shot. "Shoot me, if you like," he said calmly,
+"but not before extracting the bullets from the wounded." The officer,
+less of a brute than some, gave his consent to this. The bullets in the
+wounds were German bullets. But the Germans do not even require a
+pretext to take action. Their first crime, to our knowledge, was on
+August 4th. Some officers dashed up to Herve in a car, challenged two
+civilians while crossing the bridge and, without giving them time to
+answer, shot them down with revolvers.
+
+In their private diaries they accuse one another, each throwing on his
+neighbour the responsibility for crimes committed. A cavalryman writes:
+"It is unfortunately true that the worst elements of our Army feel
+themselves authorised to commit any sort of infamy. This charge applies
+particularly to the A.S.C." A bombing officer: "_Rethel_, September 2nd.
+Discipline becoming lax. Brandy. Looting. The blame lies with the
+_infantry_." An infantry officer: "Discipline in our company
+excellent--a contrast with the rest. The _Pioneers_ are not worth much.
+As for the _Artillery_, they are a band of brigands." A final extract
+seems to be the only one that gives the truth: "Brin ... _troops of all
+arms_ are engaged in looting."
+
+It has been possible sometimes to prove premeditation. On the 17th
+August, a German officer was billeted with a Belgian magistrate. Their
+talk turned on Dinant. "Dinant," said the officer, "is a condemned
+town!" M. X ..., of Dinant, happening to be in another town, made the
+acquaintance of a German officer, who said to him on August 20th, "You
+come from Dinant? Don't go back. It's a bad place, and will be
+destroyed." Troops on their march towards Andenne announced in villages
+through which they passed that they were going to burn the town and
+massacre the inhabitants. At Louvain, a German officer, treated
+generously by a middle-class family, and appreciating their courtesy,
+rushed to their house on the 25th at 11 o'clock in the morning,[27] and
+earnestly pressed his hosts to leave without delay, refusing to give
+them any explanation. The family, puzzled and perturbed by his appeal,
+went off and so escaped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the eyes of the moralist the worst of all their crimes will perhaps
+be this, that the wretches tried to dishonour Belgium, after first
+assassinating her. They have dared to say, write, and proclaim publicly,
+and affirm to Neutrals, that Belgian women and girls had mutilated
+German wounded soldiers, blinding them with scissors or with boiling
+water. The reports of the Belgian Commission of Enquiry have been
+replied to in a counter report[28] published as a German White Book.
+This enquiry and these documents will live in history. In centuries to
+come they will hang as a heavy weight on the Kaiser's memory and the
+conscience of Germany. Listen to the pathetic conclusion of the Belgian
+reply: "Before God and before man, the Belgian Government has no
+hesitation in giving this as its opinion of the conduct of the German
+Government towards the Belgian nation: 'He is twice guilty who violates
+the rights of others and then attempts, with singular audacity, to
+justify himself by imputing to his victim faults that were never
+committed.'"[29]
+
+It still remains to be explained how, by what means, by what deadly
+influences, this German nation, consisting of men who, as individuals,
+are not all brigands, has reached and been led to this state of
+savagery? In the preparations for this _collective madness_ of a
+people, what part has been played by its leaders of thought and its
+politicians, by race and by education? This is a disturbing phenomenon
+which students of mental disease[30] will study later, but on the
+examination of which we cannot here embark. It is not for us to seek the
+pathological cause for this moral decay--this decadence. We have only to
+note its _effects_.
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[24] Need it be noted here that even if in any locality an imprudent
+civilian had fired a shot, it would still remain--in accordance with the
+Hague Convention, International Law, and plain morality--a veritable
+crime to massacre in a heap, haphazard, and without enquiry, so many
+innocent souls?
+
+[25] L.H. Grondijs, "Les Allemands en Belgique," p. cxix. (Paris,
+Berger-Levrault, Publishers).
+
+[26] Liebknecht was too honest and embarrassing a witness for Germany.
+He has been thrown into prison. We salute him.
+
+[27] The martyrdom of Dinant began on August 24th; that of Louvain on
+the 25th August, at 5 p.m.
+
+[28] It may be recalled that commissions of enquiry, at which _both_
+sides should be represented, were offered by Belgian Socialists to
+German Socialists, by Belgian Freemasons to German Freemasons, by
+Belgian Bishops to German Bishops. Three proposals. Three refusals!
+
+[29] France has suffered from similar calumny. We alluded above (note,
+p. 37) to the declaration of a German army doctor that orders were given
+to amputate, as a reprisal, "all wounded limbs." So _we_ are said to have
+done that? A monstrous lie, which will be spurned indignantly by all who
+know the honourable traditions of our ambulances and of our French
+doctors. The _method of systematic lying_ has been shown to the life in
+connection with the use of asphyxiating gas. The Boches made immense
+preparations for the use of this gas. When their organization was
+complete, they took care, before acting, to publish each day for a week
+in their communiques, little notes announcing that the enemy were
+"making wide use of this new method of warfare,"--a statement contrary
+to fact, and known by them to be so, but one that was calculated to
+mislead public opinion. When they considered that public opinion was
+sufficiently "prepared," they launched their deadly gases and their
+flaming liquids; and we needed a long time, needed also to overcome our
+moral hesitation, to make sure of our defence and our reply. _Cynical
+lying_ with the Germans is not only admitted, but _gloried in_. When it
+was completely proved that, in order to start the war of 1870, Bismarck
+had committed _forgery_. Professor Hans Delbrück exclaimed, "Blessed is
+the hand that forged the Ems despatch."
+
+[30] Who, except the specialist in mental diseases, can deal with this
+proclamation of the Kaiser to his Army of the East?: "Remember that you
+are the chosen people! The Spirit of the Lord has descended upon me as
+Emperor of the Germans! I am the instrument of the Most High. I am His
+sword. Woe and death unto those who resist my will! Woe and death unto
+those who believe not in my mission!"
+
+
+
+
+THE GERMAN APPEAL
+
+
+APPEAL TO THE CIVILISED WORLD
+
+Now that we have reached the close of this book of horrors, let us
+impanel the 93 Germans of light and learning, and confront them with the
+words of their own manifesto:
+
+"As representatives of German Science and Art, we the undersigned,
+declare that:--
+
+"It is not true that Germany provoked this War....
+
+"It is not true that we have criminally violated the neutrality of
+Belgium....
+
+"It is not true that our soldiers have made any attack on the life or
+property of a single Belgian citizen without being forced to it by sheer
+necessity....
+
+"It is not true that our troops brutally destroyed Louvain....
+
+"It is not true that we have conducted warfare in defiance of
+International Law. Our soldiers commit neither undisciplined acts nor
+cruelties....
+
+" ... In this struggle we shall continue to the end to act as a
+civilised nation, to whom the heritage of a Goethe, a Beethoven or a
+Kant is as sacred as our own hearth and home. We answer for that in our
+own name and on our honour."[31]
+
+And since irony is more powerful than abuse, let us set down here,
+without a word of comment, a few German utterances:--
+
+The Kaiser: "We are the salt of the earth. God created us to civilise
+the world."
+
+The Cardinal-Archbishop of Cologne: "It is with God that our soldiers
+set out for this war that has been inflicted upon us, and in which we
+are fighting for the sacred treasures of Christianity, and for its own
+particular gift, Kultur."
+
+Dryander, a Protestant Minister, and preacher to the Royal Court at
+Berlin: "On our side we are fighting with a self-control, a conscience,
+and a gentleness unexampled perhaps in the history of the world."
+
+Professor Lasson: "Our characteristics are humanity, gentleness,
+conscience--the Christian virtues. In a world of evil, we stand for
+love, and God is with us."
+
+And, finally, this older and memorable saying of their great philosopher
+Hegel: "The destiny of the German race is to supply the sustaining
+pillars of Christian teaching."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[31] Speaking of honour, it is as well to recall here the reply made by
+a German officer to the schoolmaster at Chanteheux. The schoolmaster
+quite simply pledged his word of honour that no inhabitant had fired:
+"You French pig," the brute shouted, "don't talk of honour--you have
+none."
+
+
+
+
+APPEAL BY BELGIAN WORKMEN
+
+
+800,000 copies of this pamphlet had already been sent out when the world
+rang with the tragic appeal of the Belgian workmen to their brother
+workers in other lands. This appeal ought to be fixed on the door of
+every factory and workshop. Every worker, every citizen, should study
+it. We regret that we cannot reprint it here in full, but the following
+extracts will at least give an idea of this new crime committed by
+Germany:--
+
+    "Workers,--In the name of the international bonds that
+    unite all workmen, the working classes of
+    Belgium--threatened, without exception, with slavery,
+    deportation, and forced labour for the enemy's
+    gain--send to the working classes in other lands a
+    supreme appeal.
+
+    "Germany, as you know, attacked and terrorised Belgium
+    in 1914 for having defended her right to neutrality and
+    her faith and honour.
+
+    "Germany has been martyrizing Belgium. She has from that
+    moment onwards turned the land into a prison: the
+    frontiers are armed against Belgians like a battle
+    front.. All our constitutional liberties have been
+    abolished. There is no longer safety anywhere; the
+    life of our citizens is at the mercy of the
+    policeman,--arbitrary, limitless, pitiless ... Belgian
+    industrial idleness has been the creation of the
+    Germans, maintained by them for their own profit.[32]
+    To these 500,000 unemployed they have for the last month
+    been saying: 'Either you will sign a contract to work
+    for Germany, or you will be reduced to slavery.' In
+    either case, it means exile, deportation, forced labour
+    in the interests of the enemy, and against the interests
+    of our country: formidable punishments, the cruellest
+    ever invented by tyranny for the punishment of
+    crimes--and what _are_ the crimes alleged?... On the
+    western front, Belgian workmen--your brothers and
+    ours--are being forced to dig trenches, to build
+    aviation camps, to fortify the German lines, and when
+    the victims, in spite of everything, are firm in their
+    refusal to take part in work forbidden by International
+    Law, they are starved and beaten into illness, wounded,
+    and sometimes even _killed_.
+
+    "In Germany, they are turned on to work in mines, and at
+    lime-kilns, quite regardless of their age, profession,
+    or trade. Youths of seventeen, old men of seventy, are
+    deported in haphazard masses. _Is not this a revival of
+    ancient Slavery with all its horrors_?... Do you know,
+    brothers, what the Germans throw to their victims by way
+    of pay? 30 pfennigs (3d.) a day!
+
+    "Workers: _Never forget that the soldiers-who are_
+    _acting as the torturers or our Belgian workmen are
+    themselves German workers!_
+
+    "In the depths of our distress, we count on you. It is
+    for you to act! For ourselves, even if brute force
+    succeeds for the moment in reducing our bodies to
+    servitude, we shall never give our consent.
+
+    "A final word: Whatever tortures we may undergo, we do
+    not wish for Peace except with the independence of our
+    country and the triumph of justice.
+
+    "THE WORKMEN OF BELGIUM."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[32] By levying on Belgium a war contribution which already exceeds
+£40,000,000--by transporting to Germany food, merchandise and various
+products to the value of more than £200,000,000--by seizing and
+despatching to their own country the greater portion of our raw
+material, machines and accessories--by issuing threatening edicts to
+prevent localities from using the unemployed on their own important
+works of public utility.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+What is our object?
+
+Is it to incite our soldiers to commit, if chance arises, atrocities
+like theirs? We repudiate with horror a thought such as that.
+_Defensive_ reprisals (asphyxiating gas, liquid fire, etc.) are
+sometimes indispensable. Reprisals for _revenge_ would be unworthy of
+us. But--without speaking of personal punishments, demanded by outraged
+conscience, and essential in order that the two indivisible principles
+of right and of responsibility may still exist in the world--we must
+make it absolutely impossible for the Wild Beast to break out again. And
+how, when the settling time draws near, and, in spite of weariness, a
+new effort is needed to realise conditions of peace with guarantees for
+the future--how could the Allied Nations accept the sacrifices still
+demanded of them, if they remained in ignorance?
+
+It is not enough for these crimes to be known by Governments and by a
+few hundred people with leisure and inclination to read collections of
+great volumes. They must be known by everybody, by the entire people, by
+the People, who--in our proud and free countries--control, support,
+direct their Governments and are the sole masters of their own destiny.
+
+Our peoples ought to know the crimes committed in the name of "Kultur,"
+in order, at all costs, to take the precautions necessary to prevent for
+ever their return. That is our first object. The second is this: to all
+our martyrs we have a sacred duty--that of remembrance. There, where
+they fell, we shall doubtless carve their names in stone or bronze. But
+what of a time further away? When, after the long sufferings of this
+war, freed humanity takes up again its works of peace, we shall see the
+Germans reappear in every land, at every cross-road--men of commerce,
+industry, finance, science, men of the people and of society--in every
+place where those of all countries, all races and all colours meet and
+rub elbows. And what is our attitude to be? Our answer is this: So long
+as the nation in whose name and by whose hands these atrocities have
+been committed has not herself solemnly cast from her the scoundrels who
+dragged her into such decadence, we shall consider that it would betray
+our martyrs for us even to rub shoulders with their executioners, and
+that until the day arrives--if it ever does arrive--of a striking moral
+repentance, to _forget_ would be to _condone_.
+
+L. MIRMAN, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
+
+G. SIMON, G. KELLER, Mayor of Nancy. Mayor of Lunéville.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Crimes, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10225 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #10225 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10225)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Crimes, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Their Crimes
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: November 24, 2003 [EBook #10225]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEIR CRIMES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THEIR CRIMES
+
+
+
+Translated from the French
+
+
+
+1917.
+
+
+
+
+_It is proposed to devote any profits from the sale of this work to The
+League of Remembrance, or for relief work in Lorraine_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Preface
+
+Introduction
+
+Robbery
+
+Incendiarism
+
+Murder
+
+Outrages on Women and Children
+
+Killing the Wounded
+
+Sheltering behind Women
+
+Martyrdom of Civilian Prisoners
+
+German Excuses: Lies and Calumny
+
+The German Appeal
+
+Appeal by Belgian Workmen
+
+Conclusion
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The purpose of this book is to remind English-speaking people all over
+the Empire and our Allies in America of the wanton destruction and
+unspeakable terror which have overwhelmed the regions of France and
+Belgium occupied by the Boche, and also to quicken a true perception of
+the reparation and punishment due when peace is made with the enemy. In
+many minds time has dimmed the horrors of August and September 1914.
+When war weariness is apt to sap resolution and the possibility of a
+patched up peace is furtively canvassed, the great world of the
+English-speaking race should call to remembrance the inhuman and barely
+credible acts of brutality and bestiality committed in cold blood by the
+German race.
+
+No apology is made for this book. It is a translation of a document
+which has created a profound impression in France. It is an
+authoritative record of German crimes committed on the people of Belgium
+and Northern France, attested by the Mayors of twenty-six French towns.
+Some time ago permission was obtained from the French Committee of
+Publication (the Prefect of Meurthe-and-Moselle, and the Mayors of Nancy
+and Luneville) to produce an English version on condition that the
+translation be an "exact and literal translation." This has been
+completed and the Editor, the Rev. J. Esslemont Adams, an Assistant
+Principal Chaplain with the British Expeditionary Force in France, is
+indebted to the friends who have assisted in producing the work.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+This is a book of horrors, but a book of plain truths! Where have we
+discovered our facts? They are taken from three sources: _First_, Four
+reports issued by the French Commission of Enquiry[1]; and "Germany's
+Violation of the Laws of Warfare," published by the French Ministry of
+Foreign Affairs; _Second_, Two volumes containing twenty-two reports of
+the Belgian Commission[2], and the Reply to the German White Book of the
+15th May, 1915; _Third_, Notebooks found upon a large number of German
+soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and officers, who have been wounded
+or taken prisoners, and translated under the direction of the French
+Government. These valuable records, in which the bandits and their
+leaders have imprudently given themselves away, are real "_pièces à
+conviction_."
+
+These reports in their entirety form an overwhelming indictment. We
+wish that everyone could study them in full. But the books are large,
+running to thousands of pages, and will not find their way to the
+general public.
+
+Yet everyone ought to know how the Germans carry on war. We have
+therefore made selections from these documents in order to compile this
+small pamphlet. A dismal task, this wading through mud and blood! And a
+hard task, to run through all these reports, pencil in hand, with the
+idea of underlining _the essential facts_! You find yourself noting down
+each page, marking each paragraph; and, lo and behold, at the end of the
+book, you have selected _everything_--- that is to say, nothing. One
+might as well start to gather the hundred finest among the leaves of a
+forest, or to pick up the hundred most glittering grains among the sand
+on a beach. All we can do is to take the first examples which come to
+hand. This, then, is not a collection of the most stirring and striking
+German crimes, but simply a book of samples. Until complete statistics
+are forthcoming, two classes of outrage stand out, and must remain ever
+present to the mind: murdered civilians can be counted in thousands;
+houses wilfully burned, in tens of thousands.
+
+For want of time and space we have concerned ourselves here only with
+crimes committed in Belgium and France, and we have had no thought of
+separating the two neighbouring sister nations.
+
+Our part in this work is a modest one. Taking at random a certain number
+of _facts_, we have grouped them under different headings to make
+perusal easier for the reader. To indicate the references would have
+been impossible. Each line would have required a foot-note; the notes
+would have been as long as the text, and both the length of, and the
+cost of producing this pamphlet would have been doubled.
+
+It is enough to state that there is not a single fact published here
+that cannot be verified by our readers in one or other of the documents
+already referred to. Nothing but facts are set down, absolute bare
+facts, and it is for the reader to form his own conclusions. When he has
+studied these "samples," and begins by means of them to learn the truth,
+then, and only then, will he have the right to choose, according to his
+conscience, between remembrance and oblivion, between pardon and
+punishment.
+
+L. MIRMAN, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
+
+G. SIMON, Mayor of Nancy.
+
+G. KELLER, Mayor of Luneville.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The members of this Commission were MM. G. Payelle (Premier
+Président de la Cour des Comptes), A. Mollard (Ministre
+Plénipotentiaire), G. Maringer (Conseiller d'État), E. Paillot
+(Conseiller à la Cour de Cassation)--Rapports et Procès-verbaux, vols
+i., ii., iii., iv., Imprimerie Nationale.
+
+[2] The Commission, consisting of men of the highest position in
+Belgium, is presided over by M. Van Iseghem (Président de la Cour de
+Cassation). Its reports and the "Reply to the German White Book" have
+been published by Berger-Levrault, from which firm we have also "Carnets
+de Route" (J. de Dampierre) and "Paroles Allemandes." "Crimes allemands
+d'après des té-moi gnages allemands," by J. Bédier, is published by
+Colin.
+
+
+
+
+ROBBERY
+
+
+We shall not waste time over the looting of cellars, of larders, of
+poultry yards, of linen-chests, or of whatever can be consumed promptly,
+or immediately made use of by the troops--all these are the merest
+trifles. Let us also dismiss pillage, organised on a large scale by the
+authorities, of all sorts of raw material and industrial machinery: the
+bill on this score will come to several thousand million francs. Let us
+likewise put aside official robberies, committed by governors of towns,
+or provinces, from municipal treasuries (even the treasury of the Red
+Cross at Brussels was robbed), usually under the form of fines, or of
+taxes imposed under transparent pretences. There again there will be
+millions to recover.
+
+We shall deal here with _personal robberies_ only, as distinct from the
+pilfering carried on by hungry soldiers, distinct too from the regular
+contributions levied on a conquered country by an unscrupulous
+administration. These robberies are innumerable, committed sometimes by
+private soldiers, but often by officers, doctors, and high officials.
+Here are some examples.
+
+(1) _Soldier thieves_: They are rougher in their dealings, and kill
+those who offer resistance. It is a case of "Your money or your life."
+Madame Maupoix, aged 75, living at Triaucourt, was kicked to death while
+soldiers ransacked her cupboards. Monsieur Dalissier, aged 73,
+belonging to Congis, was summoned to give up his purse: he declared
+that he had no money; they tied him up with a rope and fired fifteen
+shots into his body. Let us pass quickly over the "soldier
+thief"--merely small fry!
+
+(2) _Officer thieves_: At Baron, an officer compelled the notary to open
+his safe, and stole money and jewellery from it. Another, after going
+through several houses, was seen wearing on his wrists and fingers six
+bracelets and nine rings belonging to women. Soldiers who brought their
+officer a stolen jewel received a reward of four shillings. The
+robberies at Baccarat and Creil were "directed" by officers. At Creil, a
+captain tried to induce Guillot and Demonts to point out the houses of
+the richest inhabitants, and their refusal cost them harsh treatment. At
+Fossé, a French military doctor in charge of an ambulance, conveying two
+hundred patients, and himself wounded, was arrested and taken before a
+captain. The captain told the doctor that he would have him shot, and
+meanwhile opened the doctor's tunic with his own hand, took out his
+pocket-book and appropriated the 400 francs he found in it.
+
+Officers and privates sometimes share the stolen money. From a diary
+belonging to a titled Lieutenant of the Guards, let us quote this
+note:--
+
+    "Fossé. Village entirely burnt. The 7th Company made
+    2000 francs in booty."
+
+From another officer's note-book:--
+
+    "More than 3000 francs booty for the battalion."
+
+Another diary, after the sacking of a place, gives a detailed account
+of the distribution thus:--
+
+    "460 francs for the first lieutenant, 390 francs for the
+    second lieutenant, etc...."
+
+(3) _Doctor thieves:_ At Choisy-au-Bac, two army doctors, wearing their
+brassards, personally sacked the house of a family named Binder. At
+Château-Thierry some doctors were made prisoners: their mess-tins were
+opened and found to be full of stolen articles. After Morhange, a French
+doctor of the 20th Corps remained in the German lines to be near his
+wounded. He was accosted by one of his German 'confrères.'[3] who with
+his own hands stole his watch and pocket-book.
+
+At Raon-sur-Plaine, after the retreat of our troops, Dr. Schneider
+remained behind with thirty wounded. Next day up came a German ambulance
+with Professor Vulpius, a well-known German scientist of Heidelberg
+University, who must have presided over many international medical
+congresses. As soon as he was installed, "Herr Professor" intimated to
+his French fellow-doctors that he was "going to begin with a small
+customary formality." The formality was a simple one: his colleagues
+were to hand over to him "all the money they had on them." "I strongly
+protested" (declared the French doctor, on oath), "but we were compelled
+to hand over our purses and all their contents. Having relieved us in
+this way, he turned to our poor wounded, who were all searched and
+stripped of their money. There was nothing to be done: we were in the
+hands, not of a doctor, but of a regular brute...."
+
+(4) _Royal thieves_: After living about a week in a château near Liége,
+H.R.H. Prince Eitel Fritz, the Duke of Brunswick, and another nobleman
+of less importance, had all the dresses that could be found in the
+wardrobes belonging to the lady of the house and her daughters packed up
+before their own eyes, and sent to Germany.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These thieves are often _facetious_: they give as compensation a
+so-called receipt or bond (in German, of course), which in French means,
+"Good for a hundred lashes," or "Good for two rabbits," or "To be shot,"
+or "Payable in Paris".... They are also _disgusting_. In houses robbed
+by them they leave, by way of visiting cards, excrement in beds, on
+tables, and in cupboards. They are sometimes _unnaturally vicious_. In a
+village of Limbourg they burnt in a stable a stallion valued at 50,000
+francs, and "forced the farmer, his wife and children to witness the
+crime on their knees with their arms raised." Amongst the crowd of
+unfortunate people brought from Louvain to Brussels were thirteen
+priests. The soldiers at a German guard-house stopped the column, and
+ordered the priests to come out. To shoot them? No. They forced them
+into a pigsty, from which they had driven out the only pig. Forthwith
+they compelled most of them to strip off all their clothes, and robbed
+them of everything of value they possessed.
+
+These thieves are _practical_ too. At Dinant, safes were opened with
+oxy-hydrogen blow-pipes, brought expressly for that purpose. They have a
+partiality for safes, and in this connection the story of Lunéville
+deserves recording. A house near the station, belonging to M. Leclerc,
+was set on fire; the walls alone remained standing, and in one of them
+(on the second floor) a safe was left intact. A non-commissioned
+officer, named Weill, with a party blew up the wall with dynamite, and
+the safe was extricated from the rubbish, carried to the station, put on
+a truck, and sent to Boche-land. This man Weill, before the war, often
+came to Luneville on business with hops, was always well received there,
+made himself agreeable and knew everybody. When the Germans settled in
+the unfortunate town he played a very important part, in spite of his
+low rank, in acting as agent, confidential clerk and guide to the
+Commanding Officer.
+
+The robbers are also business-like in their transport arrangements as to
+carriages, military waggons, lorries, and motor cars. At Compiègne,
+where the home of the Orsetti family was sacked, silver plate, jewellery
+and articles of value were collected in the courtyard of the château,
+then classified, registered, packed and "put into two carts, upon which
+they took care to place the Red Cross flag." We read in the note-book of
+a wounded German soldier, under medical treatment at Brussels, "A car
+has arrived at the hospital, bringing war booty, a piano, two sewing
+machines and all sorts of other things."
+
+In 1870, our clocks were in most demand; now, pianos form the
+attraction, and an immense number have been sent to Germany. They are
+the article particularly favoured by the Boche ladies. In a château
+retaken by our troops, an officer left behind a letter from his wife, in
+which is written, "A thousand thanks for the beautiful things you sent
+me. The furs are magnificent, the rosewood furniture is exquisite; but
+don't forget that Elsa is always waiting for her piano."
+
+These women, however, are not all as patient in waiting as Elsa. They
+frequently come and choose for themselves, and preside over the packing.
+They have been seen arriving in motor cars from Strasbourg or Metz, at
+many towns in Lorraine, at Lunéville, Baccarat, and elsewhere.
+
+All note-books, more or less, contain such items as these: "Wholesale
+pillage and abundant loot," "Everything destroyed or sacked," "Looting
+going strong," "Played the piano; looting going strong." This very
+German formula frequently occurs, "_Methodically_ plundered." And again,
+"We have been allowed to plunder; we didn't require to be told twice:
+whole bales of loot."
+
+"_Rethel._ The Vandals could not have done better." (The officer who
+makes this indiscreet admission and seems to protest against the thefts
+committed, writes on the following page: "I have found a silk rainproof
+coat and a camera for Felix.")
+
+"_Courcy._ The village, and the workmen's cottages looted and sacked.
+Atrocious. There is something, after all, in what they say of German
+barbarians."
+
+"_Ottignies._ The village was pillaged. The blond beast has made plain
+what he is. The Huns and the free-lances of the Middle Ages could not
+have done better."
+
+"_Cirey._ During the night incredible things were done: shops sacked,
+money stolen, rapes: enough to make one's hair stand on end."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] We have not found this fact recorded in the Commission's Reports. It
+was told to us, on his return from captivity, by Dr. Marlier, of the
+20th Corps, taken prisoner at Morhange, and Dr. Marlier is the soul of
+honour.
+
+
+
+
+INCENDIARISM
+
+
+In order to punish imaginary crimes, attributed to individuals or
+townships, or without even taking the trouble to discover any kind of
+pretext, the Germans often, especially after looting, set everything on
+fire _so as to make all traces disappear_. Sometimes, as at Courtaçon,
+they compelled the inhabitants to provide the material for burning their
+own houses; or, as at Recquignies, forced prisoners "to set the houses
+of the doctor and mayor on fire with lighted straw." But generally they
+do the work themselves. They have a _special service_ for this, and all
+the requisite incendiary material is carefully prepared; torches,
+grenades, fuses, oil pumps, firebrands, satchels of pastilles containing
+very inflammable compressed powder, etc. German science has applied
+itself to the perfecting of the technique of incendiarism. The village
+is set alight by a _drilled_ method. Those concerned act quite coolly,
+as a matter of duty, as though in accordance with a drill scheme laid
+down and perfected beforehand.
+
+Of course, fire once let loose, these people have to see that it does
+its work completely: accordingly, at Louvain, they destroyed the
+fire-engines and fire-escapes; at Namur, they stopped the firemen at the
+very moment they were preparing to do their duty.
+
+In this way they sometimes wilfully burned down whole blocks of
+dwellings (Lunéville): sometimes an entire district (105 houses at
+Senlis, 112 at Baccarat): sometimes almost a whole town itself (more
+than 300 houses at Gerbéviller, 800 at Sermaize, 1,200 at Dinant, 1,800
+at Louvain[4]). On other occasions they did not leave a house standing
+(Nomeny, Clermont-en-Argonne, Sommeilles).
+
+The complete list of buildings, cottages, farms, villas, factories, or
+châteaux, burned wilfully in this way by hand, will be a formidable one,
+amounting to tens of thousands.[5]
+
+Refinement of cruelty frequently occurs. At Aerschot "women had to
+witness the sight of the conflagration holding their hands up. Their
+torture lasted six hours." At Crévic, the Germans began their sinister
+work by burning a château which they knew belonged to General Lyautey.
+The troops, commanded by an officer, shouted out for Madame and
+Mademoiselle Lyautey "that they might cut their heads off."
+
+The houses destroyed by fire were not always uninhabited. At Maixe, M.
+Demange, wounded in both knees, dragged himself along and fell prostrate
+in his kitchen; his house was set on fire and Madame Demange was
+forcibly prevented from going to the rescue of her husband, who perished
+in the flames. At Nomeny, Madame Cousin, after being shot, was thrown
+into the burning building and roasted. At the same place, M. Adam was
+thrown alive into the flames. Let us note in connection with him, to
+their credit, an act of comparative humanity. Finding that the unhappy
+man was not being burnt fast enough, they ended his misery in the flames
+by shooting him. At Monceau-sur-Sambre, where they set fire to 300
+houses, they confined the two brothers S. in a shed, and the unfortunate
+men were burnt alive.[6]
+
+The soldiers' diaries are filled with descriptions of incendiarism, some
+of which we now quote. "Returned by Mazerulles, which was burnt as we
+passed through, because the engineers found a telephone there connected
+up with the French."[7] "The whole village was in ablaze. Everything
+destroyed in the street, except one small house; in front of the door
+was a poor woman with her six children, her arms raised and begging for
+mercy. And every day it is the same thing."
+
+_Parnx_. "The first village burnt (in Lorraine, on the 10th August);
+after that the fun began. Villages in flames, one after the other."
+Another note-book simply states, "Sommepy--horrible carnage. The village
+entirely burnt; the French thrown into the burning houses; civilians
+with the rest." Another recalls theatrical memories. "The village is
+ablaze; it reminds one of the conflagration of Walhalla in the 'Twilight
+of the Gods.'"
+
+Here is a poet speaking: "The soldiers set up the red cock (_i.e._,
+fire) upon the houses, just as they like." This poet is moved, and
+speaks of "pure vandalism" on the part of his companions in arms. And
+again, a musician writes, "Throwing of incendiary grenades into the
+houses; a military concert in the evening--'Nun danket alle Gott'! (Now
+thank we all our God)." Finally, a Bavarian: "The village
+(Saint-Maurice, Meurthe-et-Moselle) was surrounded, and the soldiers
+posted one yard apart so that no one could escape. Then the Uhlans set
+fire to the place, one house after the other. No man, woman, or child
+could possibly escape. Only the cattle were removed in safety, because
+cattle have some value. Anyone trying to escape was shot. Everything in
+the village was destroyed." We shall see presently that they even went
+so far as to burn ambulances.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] They destroyed by fire the Library at Louvain, with its 200,000
+volumes and its incomparable treasures. By means of shells and fire they
+have injured in one place, totally destroyed in another, wonders of art
+that were an integral part of our human heritage; our Cathedrals at
+Rheims, Arras, Ypres, &c.
+
+[5] Belgium alone accounts for about 20,000.
+
+[6] This fact is quoted in the admirable book by Captain A. de Gerlache,
+entitled "Belgium and the Belgians during the War," published by the
+firm of Berger-Levrault.
+
+[7] See note at foot of page 31. (this is foot-note 11)
+
+
+
+
+MURDER
+
+
+Not having sufficient space for a complete catalogue, we shall here
+simply mention the judicial murders of Miss Cavell, Eugene Jacquet,
+Battisti, and others, in order to honour the memory of those noble
+victims. For the same reason, as they are now well known to everyone, we
+content ourselves with merely recalling the criminal torpedoing of the
+_Lusitania,_[8] _Ancona, Portugal, Amiral-Ganteaume_.... all merchant
+steamers, without any military character whatever, employed in carrying
+passengers of every nationality, and the last-named crowded with
+refugees.
+
+We may pass over the crimes committed _from a distance_, so to speak, on
+unfortified towns, with fieldpieces, long-range guns, aeroplanes, and
+Zeppelins, merely noting that the Germans _were the first_ to fire
+shells into the centre of towns indiscriminately. If they made an
+exception, it was to aim at the cathedral square, when people were
+leaving after Mass, as at Nancy, or into the market-place at the time
+when women are busiest, as they did at Lunéville.
+
+We only mention here such outrages as were committed at close quarters
+with hand-weapons, bayonets or rifles. The list is a long one. Will the
+exact number of victims ever be known? In Belgium alone it has been
+proved that up to now more than 5,000 civilians have been assassinated:
+grown men, old people, women and children. They slaughtered their
+victims sometimes one by one, sometimes in groups, often in masses. They
+were not content only with killing. At one place they organised round
+the massacre such tragic scenes, and at another displayed such
+refinements of cruelty, that reason falters in face of their acts, and
+asks what terrible madness has brought this race to such low depths? Is
+it possible? Yes, it is. Judge by the following examples:--
+
+At Forêt, the village schoolmaster was shot for refusing to trample
+under foot the national flag, torn down from the front of the school.[9]
+At Schaffen, A. Willem was tied to a tree and burnt alive, and two other
+unfortunate men were buried alive. Madame Luykx and her little girl, 12
+years old, were shot together in a cellar. J. Reynders and his young
+nephew, 10 years of age, were both shot in the street. At Sompuis, an
+old man named Jacquemin, aged 70, was bound to his bed by an officer and
+left there without food for three days, dying soon after his release.
+
+A Westphalian prisoner states, "The commanding officer ordered us to
+shoot two women, and we did so. One of them was holding a child by the
+hand, and in falling she dragged the child over with her. The officer
+gave orders to shoot the child, because it could not be left alone in
+the world." At Rouves, a Government clerk refused to tell a Bavarian
+officer the numbers of the French regiments in the neighbourhood. The
+officer killed him with two shots from his revolver. At Crézancy,
+another officer shot with his own hand young Lesaint, 18 years old, "to
+prevent his being a soldier later on." At Emberménil, Madame Masson was
+shot for having, in absolute good faith, given some wrong information.
+As she was obviously in a state of pregnancy they made her sit down on a
+bench to meet her fate. At Ethe, two priests were shot "for having
+buried some weapons." At Marquéglise, a superior officer ordered the
+arrest of four young fugitives. Learning that two of them came from
+Belgium, he exclaimed, "The Belgians are filthy people," and without
+more ado took his revolver and shot them one after the other. Three were
+killed outright, the fourth expired the following day.
+
+From the crowd of fugitives which left Louvain in flames, the priests
+were singled out, and searched. On one of them, a Jesuit father, by name
+Dupierreux, they found a note-book containing the following note in
+French, "When I used to read about the Huns under Attila devastating
+towns, I smiled. I smile no longer now that I have seen with my own eyes
+the hordes of to-day setting fire to the churches and library of
+Louvain." In front of the assembled troops the priests were placed in a
+semi-circle round the Jesuit Father. The incriminating phrase was read
+out, and then translated into German. The lieutenant said that it
+constituted an incitement to murder, and that the Jesuit must be shot on
+the spot. The sentence was carried out forthwith, and the other
+priests, his companions, were made to bury him where he fell.
+
+At Pin, some Uhlans found two young boys on the road. They tied them by
+the arms to their horses and galloped off. The bodies of the poor lads
+were found a few miles away--their knees were "literally crushed"; one
+had his throat cut and both had several bullets in their heads. At
+Sermaize, a labourer, named Brocard, and his son, were arrested. His
+wife and daughter-in-law, mad with terror, threw themselves into a
+neighbouring stream. The old man broke away, and ran to try and save
+them. The Germans dragged him away.... Four days later Brocard and the
+son, on being liberated, returned home, and after a search, found the
+bodies. The two women, while still in the water, had been shot several
+times through the head. A parish priest named Dergent was taken to
+Aerschot, stripped, and tied to a cross in front of the church; his
+fingers and toes were crushed and broken with the butt-end of a rifle.
+The inhabitants were made to pass in front of him and were each
+compelled to urinate on him in turn; then he was shot and his body
+thrown into the canal.[10]
+
+At Hériménil, during the pillage, the inhabitants were shut up in a
+church, and kept there for four days without food. When Madame Winger,
+23 years of age, and her three young servants, one girl and two boys,
+were too slow in leaving her farm to go to the church, the captain
+ordered his men to fire on them. Four more dead bodies!
+
+The Germans arrived at Monchy-Humières. A group of inhabitants watched
+them marching past. No provocation whatever was offered, but an officer
+thought that he heard someone utter the word "Prussians." He at once
+called out three dragoons, and ordered them to fire upon the group--one
+killed and two wounded--one of the latter being a little girl of four.
+
+At Sommeilles, when the fire--which destroyed the whole place--broke
+out, Madame X. took refuge in a cellar belonging to M. and Madame Adnot,
+who were there, with their four children, the eldest a girl of 11 years.
+A few days after, on returning to the village, our soldiers found the
+seven bodies in the cellar lying in a pool of blood, several of them
+being horribly mutilated. Madame X. had her right arm severed from her
+body; the little girl's foot had been cut off, and the little boy of
+five had his throat cut.
+
+At Louveigné a certain number of men were shut up in a blacksmith's
+shop; in the afternoon the murderers opened the door as if it were a
+pigeon-shooting competition, drove the prisoners out, and shot them
+down--a ghastly group of 17 corpses.
+
+At Senlis the heroic Mayor, M. Odent, and six members of his staff were
+shot.
+
+At Gerbéviller they forced their way into the house of M. and Madame
+Lingenheld; seized the son, aged 36, exempt from service, and wearing
+the badge of the Red Cross, tied his hands, dragged him into the street
+and shot him. They then returned to look for the father, an old man of
+70. Meanwhile the mother, mad with terror, made her escape. On coming
+out she saw her son lying on the ground. As he still showed signs of
+life, they threw paraffin over him and roasted him. The father was shot
+later on with fourteen other old men. More than 150 victims were
+identified in this parish.
+
+At Nomeny, M. Vassé provided shelter for a number of neighbours in his
+cellar. Fifty soldiers got in and set fire to the house. To escape the
+flames the refugees rushed out and were shot one by one as they emerged.
+Mentré was killed first; his son Léon, with his little eight-year-old
+sister in his arms, fell next: as he was not quite dead they put the
+barrel of a rifle to his ear and blew his brains out. Then came the turn
+of a family named Kieffer. The mother was wounded; the father, his boy
+and girl, aged respectively 10 and 3, were shot down. They fell on them
+with fury. Striffler, Guillaume, and Vassé were afterwards massacred.
+Young Mlle. Simonin, 17 years old, and her small sister, afraid to leave
+their refuge in the cellar, were eventually driven out by the flames,
+and immediately shot at. The younger child had an elbow almost blown off
+by a bullet; as the elder girl lay wounded on the ground, she was
+deliberately kicked by a soldier. At Nomeny 40 victims were identified.
+
+And now we come to some of the _wholesale slaughters._ At Louvain, more
+than 100 victims; at Aerschot, over 150; at Soumagne, 165; at Ethe, 197;
+at Andenne, over 300; at Tamines, 400; at Dinant, upwards of 600, of
+whom 71 were women, 34 old men of over seventy, 6 children from five to
+nine years old, and 11 under five. At Aerschot, a first batch of 78 men
+were taken out of the town, and ordered to advance in groups of three,
+holding each other by the hand, when they were made to pass in front of
+some German Military Police, who shot them all at short range with
+revolvers. Others had their hands bound so tightly that many screamed
+with pain: they spent the night lying on the ground, and were shot the
+next day. Many, before execution, were compelled to dig their own
+graves. At Dinant, the victims were placed in two rows, the first
+kneeling, the second standing. Then came the order--"Fire!" At Tamines,
+several hundred men were massed in the Place Saint-Martin, on the bank
+of the Sambre. The assassins stood ten yards away and fired a volley.
+All fell, but some were not wounded. The officer in command ordered them
+to "stand up." A second volley was fired. As soon as the firing
+finished, there was a frightful scene which lasted until the
+evening--the killing of the wounded. Many soldiers, some wearing the
+badge of the Red Cross, approached their victims by the light of small
+lanterns, and passed through their ranks, clubbing them with the butt
+end of their rifles, and stabbing with bayonets. A perfect shambles!
+
+In these horrors we do not discern the musical note, or the
+acknowledgment of the "Old German God." Yet, here is a specimen:--
+
+At Andenne, Colonel Schumann, in command of the Potsdam Rifles,
+organised a grand concert in the evening at the Place des Tilleuls. The
+entertainment ended with a prayer!
+
+It now remains for us to publish a few extracts from note-books found
+upon officers and privates. Some are short items like the
+following:--"Pepinster, 12th August. Burgomaster, Priest and
+Schoolmaster shot, and houses burnt to the ground. We resume our march."
+Another, "Villers-en-Fagne, village in flames. The population had
+notified the French of the approach of the grenadiers; thereupon the
+hussars set fire to the village, the Parish Priest and others being
+shot."
+
+Others enter into details of the executions. "_Leffe._ We shoot everyone
+who fires on our men. We put three, one behind the other, and a Marburg
+rifleman kills them outright with a single shot. It is war to the
+knife."
+
+Another expresses something other than enthusiasm for such work.
+"Considering that the King (of the Belgians) has given orders to defend
+the country by all possible means, we have been ordered to shoot every
+male inhabitant. At Dinant more than 100 were collected in a crowd and
+shot. A dreadful Sunday." Another, an aesthete, writes as follows:
+"During the night many more civilians were shot, so many that we were
+able to count over 200. Women and children, with lamps in their hands,
+were compelled to witness the horrible sight. We afterwards ate our
+rice among the dead bodies. Sadly beautiful." He adds (in shorthand)
+"Captain Hermann was drunk."
+
+Again another: "_Dinant._ We have been firing on everyone who showed
+himself, or on those thrown out of the houses, men or women. The bodies
+lie in the streets, in heaps a yard deep."
+
+A Saxon officer writes: "My company is at Bouvignes. Our men behave like
+vandals: everything is upset; the sight of the slaughtered inhabitants
+defies all description; not a house is left standing. We have dragged
+out of every corner all survivors, one after another, men, women, and
+children, found in a burning cloister, and have shot them 'en masse.'"
+
+The following depositions on the massacres at Nomeny are made by
+prisoners, one a Bavarian officer in the Reserve, the other a private in
+the same regiment. The lieutenant says: "I gathered the impression that
+it was impossible for the officers at Nomeny to prevent such acts. As
+far as I can judge, the crimes committed there, which horrified all the
+soldiers who were at Nomeny later on, must be put down to the acts of
+unnatural brutes." The soldier says, "At five o'clock regimental orders
+were received to kill every male inhabitant of Nomeny, and to raze
+everything to the ground; we forced our way into the houses." Here is a
+more detailed account of a massacre near Blamont. "All the villagers
+fled: it was terrible; their beards thick with blood, and what faces!
+They were dreadful to look at. The dead were all buried, numbering
+sixty. Among them were many old men and women, and one unfortunate woman
+half confined--the whole being frightful to look at. Three children
+were clasped in each other's arms, and had died thus. The Altar and the
+vaulting of the church were destroyed because there was a telephone[11]
+communicating with the enemy. This morning, 2nd September, all the
+survivors were expelled. I saw four small boys carrying away on two
+sticks a cradle containing a baby of five or six months. All this is
+dreadful to see. Blow for blow: thunder against thunder! Every thing is
+given up to pillage. I also saw a mother with her two children; one had
+a big wound on the head, and one eye knocked out."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] They have decorated the pirates who sank the _Lusitania_. They glory
+in the crime, and have even struck a commemorative medal in its honour.
+
+[9] In this case, and many of the following ones, the reader is
+requested to note, and remember, the _motive_ for the murders.
+
+[10] This cruel treatment of the Abbé Dergent, priest of Gelrode, near
+Louvain, is reported by a neutral witness, Father G., a student at
+Louvain. The German soldiers accused the Belgian priests of every
+conceivable crime; the Assistant-Priest of Sainte-Gertrude (Louvain),
+who was remonstrating with a soldier, received this reply: "We are
+Catholics too, but you are pigs and black devils." In Belgium about one
+hundred of the clergy were massacred. Note further that in this
+unfortunate country _doctors_ were particularly ill-treated;
+thirty-seven being shot in the small parishes, while more than one
+hundred and fifty disappeared altogether from large towns.
+
+[11] To whom did it belong, and where was it? Telephones exist in every
+district of Meurthe-et-Moselle. Besides, our army installed field
+telephones which were not all destroyed at the time of their retreat. It
+is a most foolish pretext, yet where can one find a more stupid one than
+this? A German official communiqué, in order to prove that the general
+rising of the people had been organized for a long time, declares, "that
+depôts of arms were installed, where each rifle bore the name of the man
+for whom it was intended." It is absolutely clear that this applies to
+arms taken from civilians by order of the local authorities in Belgium
+and France, and deposited at the Town Hall, every weapon bearing the
+name of its owner. Would they have taken that for an arsenal? No, stupid
+as they may be, they are not so foolish as that. They feign stupidity
+simply because they know very well that the conscience of the civilized
+world is beginning to be moved.
+
+
+
+
+OUTRAGES ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN
+
+
+We might write a long and heartbreaking chapter on this pitiful subject,
+but let the following suffice. The Report of the French Commission of
+Enquiry concludes with these words, "Outrages upon women and young girls
+have been common _to an unheard-of extent_." No doubt the bulk of these
+crimes will never come to light, for it needs a concatenation of special
+circumstances for such acts to be committed in public. Unfortunately and
+only too often these circumstances have existed, _e.g._, at
+Beton-Bazoches and Sancy-les-Provins, a young girl, and at St.
+Denis-les-Rebaix, a mother-in-law and a little boy of eight years old,
+and at Coulommiers a husband and two children, were witnesses to
+outrages committed on the mother of the family. Sometimes the attacks
+were individual and sometimes committed by bodies of men, _e.g._, at
+Melen-Labouxhe, Margaret W. was violated by twenty German soldiers, and
+then shot by the side of her father and mother. They did not even
+respect nuns.[12]
+
+They did not even spare grandmothers (Louppy-le-Château,
+Vitry-en-Perthois ...).
+
+Nor did they respect children.... At Cirey, a witness (a University
+professor), whose statements one of us took down a few days after the
+tragedy, cried to a Bavarian officer, "Have you no children in Germany?"
+All the officer said in reply was, "My mother never bore swine like
+you."
+
+Now and then they let themselves loose on a whole family; at Louppy, the
+mother and her two young girls aged thirteen and eight, respectively,
+were simultaneous victims of their savagery.
+
+The outrages sometimes lasted till death. At Nimy, the martyrdom of
+little Irma G. lasted six hours till death delivered her from her
+sufferings. When her father tried to rescue her he was shot, and her
+mother was seriously wounded. Indeed, it was certain destruction to any
+frenzied parent who tried to defend his child. A clergyman of Dixmude
+says, "The burgomaster of Handzaeme was shot for trying to protect his
+daughter." And how many other cases have occurred! We have not the heart
+to continue the list.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] See the report of the French Commission (vol. i., page 35). See
+also, in the "Reply to the White Book," p. 500, the moving letter of
+Cardinal Mercier to von Bissing: "My conscience forbids my divulging to
+any tribunal the information, alas, only too well substantiated, which I
+possess. Outrages on nuns have been committed ..."
+
+
+
+
+KILLING THE WOUNDED
+
+
+There are _great numbers_ of wounded who, on their solemn oath, have
+related how, when lying on the field of battle, they saw their wounded
+comrades "finished off" by rifle or revolver shots, or by blows from
+butt-ends, or by bayonet stabs, or kicked to death by German soldiers,
+non-commissioned officers, and even by officers.[13]
+
+We cannot pause to analyse these innumerable depositions. There is other
+evidence. How often, when a counter-attack has put us in possession of
+ground lost the day before, have we found poor fellows "finished
+off"--with their throats cuts, as in the case of the two sergeants of
+the 31st Chasseurs at the Pass of Sainte-Marie, or "with their own
+bayonets driven into their mouths," like the poor little fellow of the
+17th. The enemy often runs amok like this:--"On August 23rd, the Curé of
+Réméréville tended Lieutenant Toussaint (who passed out first at the
+Forestry School in July). When he fell in battle, this young officer was
+bayoneted by all the Germans who passed near him, and his body was a
+mass of wounds from head to feet." At Oudrigny "a German officer met a
+French vehicle showing the Red Cross flag, and loaded with ten wounded.
+He deployed his company, and fired two volleys at it." At Bonviller, an
+officer murdered nine French wounded, stretched helpless in a barn, by
+shooting them through the ear. On 23rd August at Montigny-le-Tilleul, M.
+Vital was caught in the act of tending a French soldier, L. Sohier by
+name, wounded in the head and side. Such a crime deserved punishment,
+and the wretches first shot the orderly and then the patient.
+
+At Ethe they set a shed on fire and roasted more than twenty wounded who
+were lying there.
+
+We all know the celebrated order of General Stenger in the region of
+Thiaville (Meurthe-et-Moselle):--"No prisoners are to be taken. All
+prisoners, whether wounded or not, must be slaughtered."
+
+It was not only in Lorraine that such orders were given. Listen to the
+depositions of a German soldier: "The same day we saw eighteen other
+Frenchmen. Lieutenant N. told us to shoot them as he did not know what
+else to do with them."
+
+Read this letter found at L'Éçouvillon in a German trench which we
+recaptured: "Every day we take many prisoners, but they are shot at once
+as we no longer know where to put them."
+
+Think of the diary in which a German soldier near Peronne recorded his
+impressions of the day: "They lay in heaps of ten or twelve, some dead
+and some still living. Those who could still walk were marched off.
+Those who were wounded in the head or lungs, and could not lift
+themselves up, were finished off with a bullet. That is the order which
+we got."
+
+A German soldier, while being nursed in a hospital at Nancy, confided to
+Dr. Roemer that the wound in his stomach "had been inflicted on him by a
+German N.C.O. because he refused to finish off a wounded Frenchman."
+
+Wounded were not only massacred on the field of battle, but field
+hospitals were also the scene of atrocities. At Gomery, in a casualty
+clearing station, under Dr. Sédillot, there were numerous wounded
+remaining in the German lines. A German officer with twenty-five men
+visited the place and inspected it and retired, saying that all was in
+order. But a N.C.O. and a party of soldiers remained in the street
+outside. They were excited and kept shouting, "It is war to the death,"
+and making signs of cutting throats. They rushed in and with their
+revolvers shot down Dr. Sédillot (who happily survived, with others, to
+give evidence), and set fire to the place. Maddened by the flames, the
+wounded (many of whom had had amputations performed on them that very
+morning) leapt from the windows on the first floor and fell into the
+garden, where the executioners picked them up, gathering them in a
+bunch, and shot them. In this way Lieutenant Jeannin and Dr. Charette
+were murdered, and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty officers
+and soldiers--whose wounds should have made them sacred--perished from
+shot or fire after terrible sufferings.
+
+When all is said, however, it is better to kill wounded soldiers by fire
+or sword than by starvation, as the following incident shows: One
+hundred wounded Frenchmen, together with Dr. Bender, were brought to the
+Stenay barracks, and one hundred and eighty more came in shortly
+afterwards; the latter, having been left out unattended on the
+battle-field for five days, were in a terrible condition. Dr. Bender in
+vain begged the Germans for help in getting the wounded men out of the
+ambulances into the hospital. The Boches refused, and simply went on
+sucking their pipes. Though wounded himself, the doctor, with the aid of
+two male nurses (Frenchmen both), had to do the whole thing himself.
+For several days the Boches gave them no food at all. "Our poor fellows
+screamed with hunger,"[14] says the doctor, on oath, and adds, "I had
+sixty badly wounded with me, and begged the German army doctor to
+operate, but he said he had no time. I then asked his leave to operate
+myself, but his reply was, "You are in the German lines, and must
+conform to our rules." The doctor ends his pathetic evidence with the
+words, "Nearly all these unhappy men died of neglect."
+
+We have seen doctors, like Professor Vulpius, actually steal money; but
+of all the types of Boche doctors, the most hideous is the hero of the
+following tale, taken from the deposition of Dr. Bender. "A French
+soldier, at Stenay, was under my treatment. He had a wound in his
+foot--not very severe, which did not need an operation at all. What was
+my astonishment to find that a German army surgeon had amputated his
+thigh? I could not help expressing my indignation, and the surgeon's
+only reply was, "He will be a man the less against us in the next
+war."[15] They will deny these crimes to-morrow, but in 1914 they
+gloried in them.
+
+On the 18th of October a Silesian newspaper published an article sent
+from the front by a N.C.O., in which he says, "Men who are particularly
+tender-hearted give the French wounded the 'coup de grace' with a
+bullet, but the others cut and thrust as much as possible. Our enemies
+fought bravely ... whether they are slightly or badly wounded our brave
+Fusiliers spare the Fatherland as far as possible the expensive trouble
+of looking after numerous enemies. In the evening, with prayers of
+thanksgiving on our lips, we go to sleep." Are these mere boastings of
+crimes? No. The article was submitted to the Captain of the Company who
+certified it as correct and counter-signed it. The N.C.O., the Captain,
+the Silesian public, the whole German nation were delighted to see this
+abominable story of murder and shame appear in the paper under the
+heading, "A Day of Honour for our Regiment."[16]
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] Report of the French Commission, vol. iii.
+
+[14] He adds that certain orderlies--Lorrainers, belonging to the German
+Army--supplied them with food on the sly.
+
+[15] French chivalry could hardly believe that a doctor would amputate a
+wounded enemy's limb without absolute necessity and in mere revenge, but
+such cases are, alas, not rare. See the awful tales of torture in the
+"Journal d'un Grand Blessé en Allemagne," by Charles Hennebois (pp. 137,
+146), and the statement of a German doctor (p. 87), "Your doctors in
+France perform amputations as they please on our wounded. The order has
+therefore been given to amputate without hesitation, as reprisals, every
+damaged limb."
+
+[16] Let us quote, to show the mental "make-up" of certain Germans, the
+conditions in which Captain Coustre of the 108th and Captain Lesourd of
+the 50th met their deaths. They were wandering over the battle-field
+where the enemy had been repulsed. They heard a cry for help. There was
+a soldier in one place and an officer in another who asked for a drink.
+They stopped and leant over them to give them a drink from their flasks
+when the wounded men blew their brains out.
+
+
+
+
+SHELTERING BEHIND WOMEN
+
+
+Let us call to mind the innumerable instances when the Boches put up
+their hands, or waved a white flag, and cried, "Kamerad," pretending to
+surrender: thus drawing our unsuspecting men towards them and then
+suddenly moving aside, to leave the field open to a party of riflemen or
+a machine-gun hidden away behind them. These are the tricks of cowards,
+which were constantly employed at the beginning of the war, and our men
+(at the cost of many victims) learned at last to guard against them. But
+they have done even more cowardly things than this. There was the German
+officer who, to protect himself from danger while taking observations,
+put three children round him. At Néry, twenty-five persons, women and
+children, were compelled to walk at the side of a Boche column to
+protect it from being enfiladed. Near Malines, six German soldiers who
+were taking with them five young girls, on meeting a Belgian patrol,
+placed the girls all round them to prevent the enemy from firing. At
+Jodoigne they put a Curé in front of them and made him walk with his
+arms folded, and they did the same at Hougaerde to another Curé who was
+killed. A similar fate befell several civilians at Mons. At Senlis, our
+men were firing to cover our retreat, and the Germans took some
+inhabitants out of the houses and made them walk in the middle of the
+streets while they themselves kept along by the walls. Many of these
+unfortunate people were killed. "In numerous places," says the Belgian
+Commission of Enquiry, "the Germans made civilians--men and women--walk
+in front of them." In this way a German column passed through
+Marchienne, pushing ahead of them a body of several hundred civilians.
+They took the road for Montigny-le-Tilleul, where the first important
+battle with the French forces took place. At Sempst, during the fighting
+on the 25th August, men and women were placed in the front rank of the
+firing line. At Erpe, on the 12th September, a German column, attacked
+by a Belgian motor-machine-gun, took out of the houses twenty to
+twenty-five men and young people (including a child of thirteen), and
+made them walk in front in the middle of the road. The machine-gunners,
+seeing civilians in front of them, ceased firing. At Alost, a German
+company attacked the bridge. In front marched some thirty civilians with
+a machine-gun hidden behind them. At Nimy, with the butt-ends of their
+rifles, they drove in front of them 500 men, women and children towards
+the English, who in consequence dared not fire; and in this way the 84th
+and 85th Schleswig Regiments were able to continue their heroic march as
+far as Maubeuge.
+
+When their adversary cannot actually see the human shield that they are
+using, they send a warning. On the 7th September, 1914, the Death's Head
+Hussars shut up all the inhabitants of the village with them in the
+Château of Saint Ouen-sur-Morin, and then, to avoid being shelled,
+informed the English of their "dispositions." They fired on anyone who
+tried to escape. At Mouzon, we saw a number of civilians being pushed in
+front of the enemy with the butt-ends of rifles, and we stopped firing.
+The wretched people moved suddenly to one side of the road, uncovering
+the Germans, and then we fired. The Boches, furious, fired their first
+volley not at us, but point blank at these non-combatants, who were
+decimated.
+
+The cowards chiefly used civilians as shields, but sometimes they also
+made use of prisoners. At Keyem, they pushed one hundred Belgian
+soldiers in front of them, some with their hands tied, and others with
+their arms in the air. At Dixmude, they advanced under the shelter of
+forty disarmed marines who had been taken prisoners. When they got in
+front of our lines our marines shouted, "For God's sake fire, these are
+Germans," and these heroes fell gloriously under the French bullets.
+Such deeds are countless.
+
+The Boches will deny them later on, but in 1914 they did not deny them,
+but rather gloried in them as a "good idea." We can see this from the
+letter of the Bavarian Lieutenant Eberlein, published on the 7th
+October, 1914, by a leading Munich paper, "We had arrested three other
+civilians when a 'good idea' struck me. We made them sit on chairs in
+the middle of the street;--supplications from them, and blows with
+butt-ends of rifles from us. At last they were seated outside in the
+street with their hands convulsively clasped together. I felt sorry for
+them, but the plan worked at once. As I learnt later, the regiment which
+entered Saint-Dié, further to the north of us, had precisely similar
+experiences to our own. The civilians, whom they had put in the same
+way in the middle of the street, were killed by French bullets. I saw
+their dead bodies."[17]
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[17] We have not, so far, come across any attempted justification, by
+German authors, of these cowardly acts; but such we shall have without
+fail. It is probable that the 93 "intellectuals" whose manifesto we
+recall to memory a few pages further on are preparing a fresh "appeal to
+the civilized world" with a view to explaining that the German
+troops--the representatives and trustees of _Kultur_--are authorised by
+God Himself to use _every means_ for the protection of their precious
+lives.
+
+
+
+
+MARTYRDON OF CIVILIAN PRISONERS
+
+
+After having burnt our villages,[18] and shot the inhabitants by dozens
+in some places, and by hundreds in others, they frequently deported all
+or a part of the survivors to Germany. It is impossible at this moment
+to establish the number of those deported, but they were sent off by
+tens of thousands. These unfortunate people, men, women and children,
+who had witnessed and survived fires and massacres, who had seen their
+houses blazing and so many of those dear to them fall under the bullets
+of the assassin, and who were forced in some places to dig graves for
+their victims, and in others to hold a light for the executioners while
+they were finishing off the wounded,--these poor wretches are despatched
+to Germany.[19] What a journey, and what a place of residence!
+
+Let us quote one story among a thousand. "Our escort was commanded by
+two German officers. They were unapproachable. Anyone who tried to speak
+to them was threatened with a revolver. In order that we might get a
+drink, we were made to collect empty meat tins which served as our
+drinking cups until we reached Cassel. We were abused and threatened
+wherever we went. Sometimes they made signs to us that they were going
+to shoot us, or hang us, or cut our heads off. They threw filth at our
+heads and spat in our faces. We were not going to stoop before them; the
+disgrace was not ours. It is they, not we, who are degraded. An officer
+who was present when our march-past took place aimed blows with a
+riding-whip at everyone within his reach. Until we arrived at the
+railway, it was the same at every place where we met soldiers. We
+reached Marche after a nine hours' journey. We were conducted to a room
+marked as having accommodation for 100 soldiers, but they put 400 of us
+in there. The people of the place sent us slices of bread and butter,
+but it was the Germans who ate them. The latter gave us crusts of bread
+to eat. We were abominably cramped; a few managed to stretch themselves
+out, but the air was so poisonous that they could not remain in that
+position. At Melreux station we changed guards. They drove us with the
+butt-ends of their rifles to a spot where a train of cattle trucks was
+standing in the yard, and we had to get in. The previous occupants had
+been cattle, and the trucks had been cleaned in a very perfunctory
+fashion. There was neither straw nor seats. Off we went. Every time we
+stopped at a station the soldiers on guard there insulted us. It was
+even worse when once we arrived in Germany. They opened the doors on the
+platform side, and if we were on a line between two platforms, they
+opened the doors on both sides so as to rejoice German hearts by the
+sight of us. They treated us like wild beasts in a menagerie, and the
+officers and soldiers set the example while the women and children were
+not behindhand with abuse, and made threatening gestures. Our guards
+were applauded as if they were doing something heroic. At one station we
+saw a woman looking out of her window and shouting 'Hurrah!' The journey
+took 35 hours, and during the whole of that time we were only given food
+and drink once, and that thanks only to the Red Cross.[20] We arrived at
+Wilhelmshöhe (Cassel) at 3 a.m. on the 28th August, and were made to
+walk quickly through the streets. Our arrival had been notified, and in
+spite of the early hour, a hostile crowd, abusive and threatening, lined
+the route. The old and the lame could not keep up the pace at which we
+marched. Their companions helped and dragged them along, constantly
+beaten with butt-ends. At length, we arrived at the gaol, where they
+shut us in the cells in lots of three or four at a time. M. Brichet
+(Inspector of Forests) wanted to take his son (aged 14) with him, but
+the gaoler said, 'Not the father and son together.' The prison
+authorities showed their surprise at the sort of criminals who had been
+entrusted to them, as the bulk of them were shopkeepers and artisans.
+
+"Included in the number were the burgomaster of Dinant, a sheriff,
+professors, barristers, and judges. An imbecile, a dozen children of
+about 13, and some old men (one of whom was 81) made up the party. At
+the end of a week, we were assembled in a yard and told that we were not
+under sentence, but were detained in the interests of public safety."
+
+In that prison the poor wretches were treated with much greater severity
+than ordinary prisoners, for they were shut up in cells and had no air.
+"By climbing on a chest one might open the window and see a little bit
+of the landscape. The ordinary prisoners were allowed to do this but we
+were forbidden." There was not a single chair. There was the skeleton of
+an iron bed which was quite useless as there was no mattress. There were
+four blankets, and two bundles of straw which very soon crumbled into
+dust. "One day a week we had an hour in the courtyard, and there we
+walked round and round in single file, being forbidden to walk two by
+two. There was a guard with fixed bayonets always with us. The food was
+absolutely inadequate[21] and we suffered continually from hunger. There
+was a certain Croibien who had been slightly wounded at Dinant by a
+bullet in his arm. His wound, neglected during the journey, had become
+septic and in spite of all his sufferings, nothing was done for him. It
+was not until after several days that it was decided to take him to the
+infirmary where his arm was amputated; he died the next day. Although
+his father and brothers were interned with him, they were not allowed to
+see him again, alive or dead."
+
+M. Tschoffen, public prosecutor at Dinant, the high official who writes
+these lines, finishes his deposition with these words: "They had no
+reason whatever for our arrest, and I do not see any reason that they
+could have for setting us at liberty. One fine day they told us that we
+were going to leave."
+
+Here is another illustration: Before the 28th February, 1915, more than
+10,000 persons, old men, women, and children, who had been deported from
+France to Germany, had been repatriated by way of Switzerland. All those
+who received them on their return were "alarmed at their ragged
+condition and weakness," which was so great that the French Commission
+of Enquiry received special instructions to question these victims. They
+took the evidence of over 300 witnesses in 28 different localities. To
+do justice to their case one ought to quote the whole report--children
+brutally torn away from their mothers, poor wretches crowded for days
+together in carriages so tightly packed that they had to stand up, cases
+of madness occurring among these half-stifled crowds, howling with
+hunger. But we must confine our quotations to a few items of "Kultur."
+"While the men of Combres set out for Germany, the women and children
+were shut up in the village church. They were kept there for a month,
+and passed their nights seated in the pews. Dysentery and croup raged
+among them. The women were allowed to carry excrement only just outside
+the church into the churchyard."--"At least four of the prisoners were
+massacred because they could not keep up with, the column, being
+completely exhausted."--"Fortin, aged 65, and infirm, could not go any
+further. They tied a rope to him, and two horsemen held the ends so that
+he had to keep the pace of the horses. As he kept falling down at every
+moment, they made him get up by poking him with their lances. The poor
+wretch, covered with blood, prayed them to kill him."
+
+"189 inhabitants of Sinceny, who were sent to Erfurt, arrived there
+after a journey of 84 hours, during which each of them got nothing but a
+single morsel of bread weighing less than four ounces. Another convoy
+spent four days on the railway journey and were only fed once, and were
+beaten with sticks and fists and with knife handles." The same
+brutalities were experienced in the German cities through which they
+passed, and very few of the civilian prisoners escaped being buffeted by
+the infuriated crowds or being spat upon.
+
+So much for the journey. Now for what happened to them after their
+arrival! "The declarations made to us show clearly that the bulk of the
+prisoners almost collapsed from hunger. After food had been distributed,
+when anything was left, you saw some of them rush to the neighbourhood
+of the kitchens; hustled and beaten by the sentries, these unfortunates
+risked blows and abuse to try and pick up some additional morsels of
+the sickening food. You saw men, dying of hunger, picking up herring
+heads, and the grounds of the morning's decoction."
+
+At Parchim, where 2,000 French civilians from 12 to 77 years of age were
+interned, two starving prisoners who asked for the scraps left over were
+beaten with the butt-ends of rifles to such an extent that they died of
+their wounds. The young son of one of them who tried to protect his
+father was tied to a stake for a week on end.
+
+On oath, Dr. Page deposes: "Those who had no money almost died of
+hunger. When a little soup was left, a crowd of unfortunates rushed to
+get it, and the non-commissioned officers got rid of them at last by
+letting the dogs loose on them." But what is the need of all these
+details and of all this evidence? Look at the 10,000 who came back after
+being repatriated and see what the bandits have done to them. Reader,
+summon up your courage and peruse to the bitter end the conclusions of
+the Official Commission of Enquiry. "It is impossible to conceal the
+melancholy and indignation we felt on seeing the state of the
+'hostages'[22] whom the Germans had returned to us after they had
+kidnapped them in defiance of the rights of nations. During our enquiry
+we never ceased hearing the perpetual coughs that rent them. We saw
+numbers of young people whose cheerfulness had disappeared apparently
+for ever, and whose pale and emaciated faces betrayed physical damage
+probably beyond repair. In spite of ourselves we could not help thinking
+that scientific Germany had applied her methodical ways to try and
+spread tuberculosis in our country. Nor were we less profoundly moved to
+thought by the sight of women mourning their desolated hearths and
+missing or captive children, or by the moral impression left on the
+faces and bearing of many prisoners by the hateful regime which was
+intended to destroy, in those who were subjected to it, the feeling of
+human dignity and self-respect."[23]
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[18] _Prisoners_, as well as wounded, have very often been massacred on
+the field of battle. As to the treatment that prisoners--French,
+Belgian, Russian and English--have undergone in German camps, it is a
+pitiful tale that we do not intend to begin here. Some day it must be
+written. With the actual evidence before us, the lot of the German
+prisoners in England, Russia and France must be compared with that of
+ours in Germany. The most indifferent reader will feel his heart stirred
+within him, and will hesitate to say whether we were "generous," or
+whether we were "fools."
+
+[19] We speak of those who have left--but what of those who have
+remained in Belgium and France, under the German heel? The time has not
+yet come for writing this piece of history, but we cannot refrain from
+referring to the sufferings of these children of the North, boys and
+girls, torn from their families, carried off like bands of slaves to
+other invaded regions to be employed on forced labour. France has
+apprised the neutral countries of these facts: Will they remain silent?
+
+[20] Further on it will be seen that much worse happened on numerous
+other journeys.
+
+[21] "We got one pound of black sour bread per diem. In the morning we
+had a tepid decoction intended for coffee; at mid-day a pint and a half
+of thick soup, and at night rather less than a pint of thin soup. On
+three occasions only did we get potatoes, but never once meat. Cabbage
+soup was the usual thing and after a certain time it turned our
+stomachs. Certain prisoners were employed in chopping up the cabbages to
+make sauerkraut, and they had to keep the broken leaves, as these were
+used up for our soup."
+
+[22] Through an old habit, the Commission makes use of this word; they
+are not "hostages," of course.
+
+[23] It must also be noted that when the Commissioners making the
+enquiry saw the repatriated people, they had had some time in which to
+recover, first in Switzerland, and then in France. The arrival of these
+pitiable drafts gave rise (even among those of the Swiss people who were
+in principle the least hostile to Germany) to such a feeling of horror
+for their executioners that the Kaiser took warning and thought it wiser
+to suspend the repatriations for several months. For the welcome and the
+kind care which our poor martyrs received at the hands of the Swiss, our
+grateful thanks and salutations are due!
+
+
+
+
+GERMAN EXCUSES: LIES AND CALUMNY
+
+
+The Boches have taken up three positions in succession. In the first
+place, in their speeches, in their writings and by commemorative
+pictures and medals, _they have gloried in their misdeeds_, thus
+declaring that Kultur is above morality (as stated by their writer,
+Thomas Mann), and that the right of German might is above everything.
+Then, in the second place, when they discovered that in the world
+outside them there was something known as a "moral conscience," not
+understood by them, but still to be reckoned with, _they cynically
+denied the charges_. Finally, when they were driven from this second
+trench, when simple negation became impossible, _they had perforce to
+explain their crimes_.
+
+Their commonest explanation is this, "Civilians fired on us."[24] The
+French Commission of Enquiry came to the following conclusion on this
+point: "This allegation is false, and those who put it forward have been
+powerless to give it the appearance of truth, even though it has been
+their custom to fire shots in the neighbourhood of dwellings, in order
+to be able to affirm that they have been attacked by innocent
+inhabitants, on whose ruin or massacre they had resolved."
+
+Enquiries conducted by high magistrates have established the fact that
+German officials are very frequently guilty of premeditated lies. It is
+probable, all the same, that many German soldiers, on entering Belgium
+or France, were obsessed by the idea of civilians firing on them. The
+cry of a soldier trembling with fear, drunk, or thirsting for
+pillage--"Man hat geschossen (they have fired)"--is enough for a
+locality to be delivered up at once to the wildest fury. "When an
+inhabitant has fired on a regiment," said a soldier at Louvain, "the
+place belongs to the regiment." What a temptation for a Boche soldier to
+fire a shot that will at once unloose pillage and massacre!
+
+Some mistakes have _possibly_ been made which could have been avoided by
+the least enquiry. Read this admission recorded in his diary by a Saxon
+officer: "The lovely village of Gué-d'Hossus has been given over to the
+flames, though innocent in my opinion. I hear that a cyclist fell off
+his machine and that his fall caused his rifle to go off of itself. As a
+consequence there was firing in his direction. Then, the male
+inhabitants were simply hurled straight away into the flames. Such
+horrors will not be repeated, we must hope ... There ought to be some
+compulsion to verify suspicions of guilt in order to put a check on this
+indiscriminate shooting of people."
+
+The only shots fired at them inside, or in the neighbourhood of,
+villages have been those of French or Belgian soldiers covering their
+retreat. Sometimes this has been discovered, but too late, and they have
+continued their crimes--in order to justify them.
+
+Here is the statement of a neutral: "In one village they found corpses
+of German soldiers with the fingers cut off, and instantly the officer
+in command had the houses set on fire and the inhabitants shot.... In
+the same district a German officer was billeted with a famous Flemish
+poet; the officer behaved courteously, was treated with consideration,
+and allowed himself to talk freely: his complaint was the misdeeds of
+his soldiers. Near Haelen, he told his host, he had to have a soldier
+shot on finding in his knapsack some fingers covered with rings: the
+man, on being questioned, admitted that he had cut them off the bodies
+of the German dead."[25]
+
+In exceptional cases an enquiry is held; and in every such instance the
+truth is discovered and massacre prevented.
+
+At the end of August, Liebknecht,[26] a member of the Reichstag, set out
+in his car for Louvain. He came to a village where there was
+considerable excitement going on. The Germans had just found three of
+their men lying dead on the road, and accused the peasants of being
+responsible for the deed. Liebknecht examined them, and was not long in
+obtaining proof that the Germans had been killed by Belgian riflemen. At
+Huy there were shots in the night; two soldiers wounded; the populace
+accused; the mayor arrested and condemned to death; but he knew that
+there were no Allied troops in the neighbourhood, and also that his own
+people had not fired a shot. "Shoot me, if you like," he said calmly,
+"but not before extracting the bullets from the wounded." The officer,
+less of a brute than some, gave his consent to this. The bullets in the
+wounds were German bullets. But the Germans do not even require a
+pretext to take action. Their first crime, to our knowledge, was on
+August 4th. Some officers dashed up to Herve in a car, challenged two
+civilians while crossing the bridge and, without giving them time to
+answer, shot them down with revolvers.
+
+In their private diaries they accuse one another, each throwing on his
+neighbour the responsibility for crimes committed. A cavalryman writes:
+"It is unfortunately true that the worst elements of our Army feel
+themselves authorised to commit any sort of infamy. This charge applies
+particularly to the A.S.C." A bombing officer: "_Rethel_, September 2nd.
+Discipline becoming lax. Brandy. Looting. The blame lies with the
+_infantry_." An infantry officer: "Discipline in our company
+excellent--a contrast with the rest. The _Pioneers_ are not worth much.
+As for the _Artillery_, they are a band of brigands." A final extract
+seems to be the only one that gives the truth: "Brin ... _troops of all
+arms_ are engaged in looting."
+
+It has been possible sometimes to prove premeditation. On the 17th
+August, a German officer was billeted with a Belgian magistrate. Their
+talk turned on Dinant. "Dinant," said the officer, "is a condemned
+town!" M. X ..., of Dinant, happening to be in another town, made the
+acquaintance of a German officer, who said to him on August 20th, "You
+come from Dinant? Don't go back. It's a bad place, and will be
+destroyed." Troops on their march towards Andenne announced in villages
+through which they passed that they were going to burn the town and
+massacre the inhabitants. At Louvain, a German officer, treated
+generously by a middle-class family, and appreciating their courtesy,
+rushed to their house on the 25th at 11 o'clock in the morning,[27] and
+earnestly pressed his hosts to leave without delay, refusing to give
+them any explanation. The family, puzzled and perturbed by his appeal,
+went off and so escaped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the eyes of the moralist the worst of all their crimes will perhaps
+be this, that the wretches tried to dishonour Belgium, after first
+assassinating her. They have dared to say, write, and proclaim publicly,
+and affirm to Neutrals, that Belgian women and girls had mutilated
+German wounded soldiers, blinding them with scissors or with boiling
+water. The reports of the Belgian Commission of Enquiry have been
+replied to in a counter report[28] published as a German White Book.
+This enquiry and these documents will live in history. In centuries to
+come they will hang as a heavy weight on the Kaiser's memory and the
+conscience of Germany. Listen to the pathetic conclusion of the Belgian
+reply: "Before God and before man, the Belgian Government has no
+hesitation in giving this as its opinion of the conduct of the German
+Government towards the Belgian nation: 'He is twice guilty who violates
+the rights of others and then attempts, with singular audacity, to
+justify himself by imputing to his victim faults that were never
+committed.'"[29]
+
+It still remains to be explained how, by what means, by what deadly
+influences, this German nation, consisting of men who, as individuals,
+are not all brigands, has reached and been led to this state of
+savagery? In the preparations for this _collective madness_ of a
+people, what part has been played by its leaders of thought and its
+politicians, by race and by education? This is a disturbing phenomenon
+which students of mental disease[30] will study later, but on the
+examination of which we cannot here embark. It is not for us to seek the
+pathological cause for this moral decay--this decadence. We have only to
+note its _effects_.
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[24] Need it be noted here that even if in any locality an imprudent
+civilian had fired a shot, it would still remain--in accordance with the
+Hague Convention, International Law, and plain morality--a veritable
+crime to massacre in a heap, haphazard, and without enquiry, so many
+innocent souls?
+
+[25] L.H. Grondijs, "Les Allemands en Belgique," p. cxix. (Paris,
+Berger-Levrault, Publishers).
+
+[26] Liebknecht was too honest and embarrassing a witness for Germany.
+He has been thrown into prison. We salute him.
+
+[27] The martyrdom of Dinant began on August 24th; that of Louvain on
+the 25th August, at 5 p.m.
+
+[28] It may be recalled that commissions of enquiry, at which _both_
+sides should be represented, were offered by Belgian Socialists to
+German Socialists, by Belgian Freemasons to German Freemasons, by
+Belgian Bishops to German Bishops. Three proposals. Three refusals!
+
+[29] France has suffered from similar calumny. We alluded above (note,
+p. 37) to the declaration of a German army doctor that orders were given
+to amputate, as a reprisal, "all wounded limbs." So _we_ are said to have
+done that? A monstrous lie, which will be spurned indignantly by all who
+know the honourable traditions of our ambulances and of our French
+doctors. The _method of systematic lying_ has been shown to the life in
+connection with the use of asphyxiating gas. The Boches made immense
+preparations for the use of this gas. When their organization was
+complete, they took care, before acting, to publish each day for a week
+in their communiques, little notes announcing that the enemy were
+"making wide use of this new method of warfare,"--a statement contrary
+to fact, and known by them to be so, but one that was calculated to
+mislead public opinion. When they considered that public opinion was
+sufficiently "prepared," they launched their deadly gases and their
+flaming liquids; and we needed a long time, needed also to overcome our
+moral hesitation, to make sure of our defence and our reply. _Cynical
+lying_ with the Germans is not only admitted, but _gloried in_. When it
+was completely proved that, in order to start the war of 1870, Bismarck
+had committed _forgery_. Professor Hans Delbrück exclaimed, "Blessed is
+the hand that forged the Ems despatch."
+
+[30] Who, except the specialist in mental diseases, can deal with this
+proclamation of the Kaiser to his Army of the East?: "Remember that you
+are the chosen people! The Spirit of the Lord has descended upon me as
+Emperor of the Germans! I am the instrument of the Most High. I am His
+sword. Woe and death unto those who resist my will! Woe and death unto
+those who believe not in my mission!"
+
+
+
+
+THE GERMAN APPEAL
+
+
+APPEAL TO THE CIVILISED WORLD
+
+Now that we have reached the close of this book of horrors, let us
+impanel the 93 Germans of light and learning, and confront them with the
+words of their own manifesto:
+
+"As representatives of German Science and Art, we the undersigned,
+declare that:--
+
+"It is not true that Germany provoked this War....
+
+"It is not true that we have criminally violated the neutrality of
+Belgium....
+
+"It is not true that our soldiers have made any attack on the life or
+property of a single Belgian citizen without being forced to it by sheer
+necessity....
+
+"It is not true that our troops brutally destroyed Louvain....
+
+"It is not true that we have conducted warfare in defiance of
+International Law. Our soldiers commit neither undisciplined acts nor
+cruelties....
+
+" ... In this struggle we shall continue to the end to act as a
+civilised nation, to whom the heritage of a Goethe, a Beethoven or a
+Kant is as sacred as our own hearth and home. We answer for that in our
+own name and on our honour."[31]
+
+And since irony is more powerful than abuse, let us set down here,
+without a word of comment, a few German utterances:--
+
+The Kaiser: "We are the salt of the earth. God created us to civilise
+the world."
+
+The Cardinal-Archbishop of Cologne: "It is with God that our soldiers
+set out for this war that has been inflicted upon us, and in which we
+are fighting for the sacred treasures of Christianity, and for its own
+particular gift, Kultur."
+
+Dryander, a Protestant Minister, and preacher to the Royal Court at
+Berlin: "On our side we are fighting with a self-control, a conscience,
+and a gentleness unexampled perhaps in the history of the world."
+
+Professor Lasson: "Our characteristics are humanity, gentleness,
+conscience--the Christian virtues. In a world of evil, we stand for
+love, and God is with us."
+
+And, finally, this older and memorable saying of their great philosopher
+Hegel: "The destiny of the German race is to supply the sustaining
+pillars of Christian teaching."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[31] Speaking of honour, it is as well to recall here the reply made by
+a German officer to the schoolmaster at Chanteheux. The schoolmaster
+quite simply pledged his word of honour that no inhabitant had fired:
+"You French pig," the brute shouted, "don't talk of honour--you have
+none."
+
+
+
+
+APPEAL BY BELGIAN WORKMEN
+
+
+800,000 copies of this pamphlet had already been sent out when the world
+rang with the tragic appeal of the Belgian workmen to their brother
+workers in other lands. This appeal ought to be fixed on the door of
+every factory and workshop. Every worker, every citizen, should study
+it. We regret that we cannot reprint it here in full, but the following
+extracts will at least give an idea of this new crime committed by
+Germany:--
+
+    "Workers,--In the name of the international bonds that
+    unite all workmen, the working classes of
+    Belgium--threatened, without exception, with slavery,
+    deportation, and forced labour for the enemy's
+    gain--send to the working classes in other lands a
+    supreme appeal.
+
+    "Germany, as you know, attacked and terrorised Belgium
+    in 1914 for having defended her right to neutrality and
+    her faith and honour.
+
+    "Germany has been martyrizing Belgium. She has from that
+    moment onwards turned the land into a prison: the
+    frontiers are armed against Belgians like a battle
+    front.. All our constitutional liberties have been
+    abolished. There is no longer safety anywhere; the
+    life of our citizens is at the mercy of the
+    policeman,--arbitrary, limitless, pitiless ... Belgian
+    industrial idleness has been the creation of the
+    Germans, maintained by them for their own profit.[32]
+    To these 500,000 unemployed they have for the last month
+    been saying: 'Either you will sign a contract to work
+    for Germany, or you will be reduced to slavery.' In
+    either case, it means exile, deportation, forced labour
+    in the interests of the enemy, and against the interests
+    of our country: formidable punishments, the cruellest
+    ever invented by tyranny for the punishment of
+    crimes--and what _are_ the crimes alleged?... On the
+    western front, Belgian workmen--your brothers and
+    ours--are being forced to dig trenches, to build
+    aviation camps, to fortify the German lines, and when
+    the victims, in spite of everything, are firm in their
+    refusal to take part in work forbidden by International
+    Law, they are starved and beaten into illness, wounded,
+    and sometimes even _killed_.
+
+    "In Germany, they are turned on to work in mines, and at
+    lime-kilns, quite regardless of their age, profession,
+    or trade. Youths of seventeen, old men of seventy, are
+    deported in haphazard masses. _Is not this a revival of
+    ancient Slavery with all its horrors_?... Do you know,
+    brothers, what the Germans throw to their victims by way
+    of pay? 30 pfennigs (3d.) a day!
+
+    "Workers: _Never forget that the soldiers-who are_
+    _acting as the torturers or our Belgian workmen are
+    themselves German workers!_
+
+    "In the depths of our distress, we count on you. It is
+    for you to act! For ourselves, even if brute force
+    succeeds for the moment in reducing our bodies to
+    servitude, we shall never give our consent.
+
+    "A final word: Whatever tortures we may undergo, we do
+    not wish for Peace except with the independence of our
+    country and the triumph of justice.
+
+    "THE WORKMEN OF BELGIUM."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[32] By levying on Belgium a war contribution which already exceeds
+£40,000,000--by transporting to Germany food, merchandise and various
+products to the value of more than £200,000,000--by seizing and
+despatching to their own country the greater portion of our raw
+material, machines and accessories--by issuing threatening edicts to
+prevent localities from using the unemployed on their own important
+works of public utility.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+What is our object?
+
+Is it to incite our soldiers to commit, if chance arises, atrocities
+like theirs? We repudiate with horror a thought such as that.
+_Defensive_ reprisals (asphyxiating gas, liquid fire, etc.) are
+sometimes indispensable. Reprisals for _revenge_ would be unworthy of
+us. But--without speaking of personal punishments, demanded by outraged
+conscience, and essential in order that the two indivisible principles
+of right and of responsibility may still exist in the world--we must
+make it absolutely impossible for the Wild Beast to break out again. And
+how, when the settling time draws near, and, in spite of weariness, a
+new effort is needed to realise conditions of peace with guarantees for
+the future--how could the Allied Nations accept the sacrifices still
+demanded of them, if they remained in ignorance?
+
+It is not enough for these crimes to be known by Governments and by a
+few hundred people with leisure and inclination to read collections of
+great volumes. They must be known by everybody, by the entire people, by
+the People, who--in our proud and free countries--control, support,
+direct their Governments and are the sole masters of their own destiny.
+
+Our peoples ought to know the crimes committed in the name of "Kultur,"
+in order, at all costs, to take the precautions necessary to prevent for
+ever their return. That is our first object. The second is this: to all
+our martyrs we have a sacred duty--that of remembrance. There, where
+they fell, we shall doubtless carve their names in stone or bronze. But
+what of a time further away? When, after the long sufferings of this
+war, freed humanity takes up again its works of peace, we shall see the
+Germans reappear in every land, at every cross-road--men of commerce,
+industry, finance, science, men of the people and of society--in every
+place where those of all countries, all races and all colours meet and
+rub elbows. And what is our attitude to be? Our answer is this: So long
+as the nation in whose name and by whose hands these atrocities have
+been committed has not herself solemnly cast from her the scoundrels who
+dragged her into such decadence, we shall consider that it would betray
+our martyrs for us even to rub shoulders with their executioners, and
+that until the day arrives--if it ever does arrive--of a striking moral
+repentance, to _forget_ would be to _condone_.
+
+L. MIRMAN, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
+
+G. SIMON, G. KELLER, Mayor of Nancy. Mayor of Lunéville.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Crimes, by Various
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Crimes, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Their Crimes
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: November 24, 2003 [EBook #10225]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEIR CRIMES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THEIR CRIMES
+
+
+
+Translated from the French
+
+
+
+1917.
+
+
+
+
+_It is proposed to devote any profits from the sale of this work to The
+League of Remembrance, or for relief work in Lorraine_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Preface
+
+Introduction
+
+Robbery
+
+Incendiarism
+
+Murder
+
+Outrages on Women and Children
+
+Killing the Wounded
+
+Sheltering behind Women
+
+Martyrdom of Civilian Prisoners
+
+German Excuses: Lies and Calumny
+
+The German Appeal
+
+Appeal by Belgian Workmen
+
+Conclusion
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The purpose of this book is to remind English-speaking people all over
+the Empire and our Allies in America of the wanton destruction and
+unspeakable terror which have overwhelmed the regions of France and
+Belgium occupied by the Boche, and also to quicken a true perception of
+the reparation and punishment due when peace is made with the enemy. In
+many minds time has dimmed the horrors of August and September 1914.
+When war weariness is apt to sap resolution and the possibility of a
+patched up peace is furtively canvassed, the great world of the
+English-speaking race should call to remembrance the inhuman and barely
+credible acts of brutality and bestiality committed in cold blood by the
+German race.
+
+No apology is made for this book. It is a translation of a document
+which has created a profound impression in France. It is an
+authoritative record of German crimes committed on the people of Belgium
+and Northern France, attested by the Mayors of twenty-six French towns.
+Some time ago permission was obtained from the French Committee of
+Publication (the Prefect of Meurthe-and-Moselle, and the Mayors of Nancy
+and Luneville) to produce an English version on condition that the
+translation be an "exact and literal translation." This has been
+completed and the Editor, the Rev. J. Esslemont Adams, an Assistant
+Principal Chaplain with the British Expeditionary Force in France, is
+indebted to the friends who have assisted in producing the work.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+This is a book of horrors, but a book of plain truths! Where have we
+discovered our facts? They are taken from three sources: _First_, Four
+reports issued by the French Commission of Enquiry[1]; and "Germany's
+Violation of the Laws of Warfare," published by the French Ministry of
+Foreign Affairs; _Second_, Two volumes containing twenty-two reports of
+the Belgian Commission[2], and the Reply to the German White Book of the
+15th May, 1915; _Third_, Notebooks found upon a large number of German
+soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and officers, who have been wounded
+or taken prisoners, and translated under the direction of the French
+Government. These valuable records, in which the bandits and their
+leaders have imprudently given themselves away, are real "_pieces a
+conviction_."
+
+These reports in their entirety form an overwhelming indictment. We
+wish that everyone could study them in full. But the books are large,
+running to thousands of pages, and will not find their way to the
+general public.
+
+Yet everyone ought to know how the Germans carry on war. We have
+therefore made selections from these documents in order to compile this
+small pamphlet. A dismal task, this wading through mud and blood! And a
+hard task, to run through all these reports, pencil in hand, with the
+idea of underlining _the essential facts_! You find yourself noting down
+each page, marking each paragraph; and, lo and behold, at the end of the
+book, you have selected _everything_--- that is to say, nothing. One
+might as well start to gather the hundred finest among the leaves of a
+forest, or to pick up the hundred most glittering grains among the sand
+on a beach. All we can do is to take the first examples which come to
+hand. This, then, is not a collection of the most stirring and striking
+German crimes, but simply a book of samples. Until complete statistics
+are forthcoming, two classes of outrage stand out, and must remain ever
+present to the mind: murdered civilians can be counted in thousands;
+houses wilfully burned, in tens of thousands.
+
+For want of time and space we have concerned ourselves here only with
+crimes committed in Belgium and France, and we have had no thought of
+separating the two neighbouring sister nations.
+
+Our part in this work is a modest one. Taking at random a certain number
+of _facts_, we have grouped them under different headings to make
+perusal easier for the reader. To indicate the references would have
+been impossible. Each line would have required a foot-note; the notes
+would have been as long as the text, and both the length of, and the
+cost of producing this pamphlet would have been doubled.
+
+It is enough to state that there is not a single fact published here
+that cannot be verified by our readers in one or other of the documents
+already referred to. Nothing but facts are set down, absolute bare
+facts, and it is for the reader to form his own conclusions. When he has
+studied these "samples," and begins by means of them to learn the truth,
+then, and only then, will he have the right to choose, according to his
+conscience, between remembrance and oblivion, between pardon and
+punishment.
+
+L. MIRMAN, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
+
+G. SIMON, Mayor of Nancy.
+
+G. KELLER, Mayor of Luneville.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The members of this Commission were MM. G. Payelle (Premier
+President de la Cour des Comptes), A. Mollard (Ministre
+Plenipotentiaire), G. Maringer (Conseiller d'Etat), E. Paillot
+(Conseiller a la Cour de Cassation)--Rapports et Proces-verbaux, vols
+i., ii., iii., iv., Imprimerie Nationale.
+
+[2] The Commission, consisting of men of the highest position in
+Belgium, is presided over by M. Van Iseghem (President de la Cour de
+Cassation). Its reports and the "Reply to the German White Book" have
+been published by Berger-Levrault, from which firm we have also "Carnets
+de Route" (J. de Dampierre) and "Paroles Allemandes." "Crimes allemands
+d'apres des te-moi gnages allemands," by J. Bedier, is published by
+Colin.
+
+
+
+
+ROBBERY
+
+
+We shall not waste time over the looting of cellars, of larders, of
+poultry yards, of linen-chests, or of whatever can be consumed promptly,
+or immediately made use of by the troops--all these are the merest
+trifles. Let us also dismiss pillage, organised on a large scale by the
+authorities, of all sorts of raw material and industrial machinery: the
+bill on this score will come to several thousand million francs. Let us
+likewise put aside official robberies, committed by governors of towns,
+or provinces, from municipal treasuries (even the treasury of the Red
+Cross at Brussels was robbed), usually under the form of fines, or of
+taxes imposed under transparent pretences. There again there will be
+millions to recover.
+
+We shall deal here with _personal robberies_ only, as distinct from the
+pilfering carried on by hungry soldiers, distinct too from the regular
+contributions levied on a conquered country by an unscrupulous
+administration. These robberies are innumerable, committed sometimes by
+private soldiers, but often by officers, doctors, and high officials.
+Here are some examples.
+
+(1) _Soldier thieves_: They are rougher in their dealings, and kill
+those who offer resistance. It is a case of "Your money or your life."
+Madame Maupoix, aged 75, living at Triaucourt, was kicked to death while
+soldiers ransacked her cupboards. Monsieur Dalissier, aged 73,
+belonging to Congis, was summoned to give up his purse: he declared
+that he had no money; they tied him up with a rope and fired fifteen
+shots into his body. Let us pass quickly over the "soldier
+thief"--merely small fry!
+
+(2) _Officer thieves_: At Baron, an officer compelled the notary to open
+his safe, and stole money and jewellery from it. Another, after going
+through several houses, was seen wearing on his wrists and fingers six
+bracelets and nine rings belonging to women. Soldiers who brought their
+officer a stolen jewel received a reward of four shillings. The
+robberies at Baccarat and Creil were "directed" by officers. At Creil, a
+captain tried to induce Guillot and Demonts to point out the houses of
+the richest inhabitants, and their refusal cost them harsh treatment. At
+Fosse, a French military doctor in charge of an ambulance, conveying two
+hundred patients, and himself wounded, was arrested and taken before a
+captain. The captain told the doctor that he would have him shot, and
+meanwhile opened the doctor's tunic with his own hand, took out his
+pocket-book and appropriated the 400 francs he found in it.
+
+Officers and privates sometimes share the stolen money. From a diary
+belonging to a titled Lieutenant of the Guards, let us quote this
+note:--
+
+    "Fosse. Village entirely burnt. The 7th Company made
+    2000 francs in booty."
+
+From another officer's note-book:--
+
+    "More than 3000 francs booty for the battalion."
+
+Another diary, after the sacking of a place, gives a detailed account
+of the distribution thus:--
+
+    "460 francs for the first lieutenant, 390 francs for the
+    second lieutenant, etc...."
+
+(3) _Doctor thieves:_ At Choisy-au-Bac, two army doctors, wearing their
+brassards, personally sacked the house of a family named Binder. At
+Chateau-Thierry some doctors were made prisoners: their mess-tins were
+opened and found to be full of stolen articles. After Morhange, a French
+doctor of the 20th Corps remained in the German lines to be near his
+wounded. He was accosted by one of his German 'confreres.'[3] who with
+his own hands stole his watch and pocket-book.
+
+At Raon-sur-Plaine, after the retreat of our troops, Dr. Schneider
+remained behind with thirty wounded. Next day up came a German ambulance
+with Professor Vulpius, a well-known German scientist of Heidelberg
+University, who must have presided over many international medical
+congresses. As soon as he was installed, "Herr Professor" intimated to
+his French fellow-doctors that he was "going to begin with a small
+customary formality." The formality was a simple one: his colleagues
+were to hand over to him "all the money they had on them." "I strongly
+protested" (declared the French doctor, on oath), "but we were compelled
+to hand over our purses and all their contents. Having relieved us in
+this way, he turned to our poor wounded, who were all searched and
+stripped of their money. There was nothing to be done: we were in the
+hands, not of a doctor, but of a regular brute...."
+
+(4) _Royal thieves_: After living about a week in a chateau near Liege,
+H.R.H. Prince Eitel Fritz, the Duke of Brunswick, and another nobleman
+of less importance, had all the dresses that could be found in the
+wardrobes belonging to the lady of the house and her daughters packed up
+before their own eyes, and sent to Germany.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These thieves are often _facetious_: they give as compensation a
+so-called receipt or bond (in German, of course), which in French means,
+"Good for a hundred lashes," or "Good for two rabbits," or "To be shot,"
+or "Payable in Paris".... They are also _disgusting_. In houses robbed
+by them they leave, by way of visiting cards, excrement in beds, on
+tables, and in cupboards. They are sometimes _unnaturally vicious_. In a
+village of Limbourg they burnt in a stable a stallion valued at 50,000
+francs, and "forced the farmer, his wife and children to witness the
+crime on their knees with their arms raised." Amongst the crowd of
+unfortunate people brought from Louvain to Brussels were thirteen
+priests. The soldiers at a German guard-house stopped the column, and
+ordered the priests to come out. To shoot them? No. They forced them
+into a pigsty, from which they had driven out the only pig. Forthwith
+they compelled most of them to strip off all their clothes, and robbed
+them of everything of value they possessed.
+
+These thieves are _practical_ too. At Dinant, safes were opened with
+oxy-hydrogen blow-pipes, brought expressly for that purpose. They have a
+partiality for safes, and in this connection the story of Luneville
+deserves recording. A house near the station, belonging to M. Leclerc,
+was set on fire; the walls alone remained standing, and in one of them
+(on the second floor) a safe was left intact. A non-commissioned
+officer, named Weill, with a party blew up the wall with dynamite, and
+the safe was extricated from the rubbish, carried to the station, put on
+a truck, and sent to Boche-land. This man Weill, before the war, often
+came to Luneville on business with hops, was always well received there,
+made himself agreeable and knew everybody. When the Germans settled in
+the unfortunate town he played a very important part, in spite of his
+low rank, in acting as agent, confidential clerk and guide to the
+Commanding Officer.
+
+The robbers are also business-like in their transport arrangements as to
+carriages, military waggons, lorries, and motor cars. At Compiegne,
+where the home of the Orsetti family was sacked, silver plate, jewellery
+and articles of value were collected in the courtyard of the chateau,
+then classified, registered, packed and "put into two carts, upon which
+they took care to place the Red Cross flag." We read in the note-book of
+a wounded German soldier, under medical treatment at Brussels, "A car
+has arrived at the hospital, bringing war booty, a piano, two sewing
+machines and all sorts of other things."
+
+In 1870, our clocks were in most demand; now, pianos form the
+attraction, and an immense number have been sent to Germany. They are
+the article particularly favoured by the Boche ladies. In a chateau
+retaken by our troops, an officer left behind a letter from his wife, in
+which is written, "A thousand thanks for the beautiful things you sent
+me. The furs are magnificent, the rosewood furniture is exquisite; but
+don't forget that Elsa is always waiting for her piano."
+
+These women, however, are not all as patient in waiting as Elsa. They
+frequently come and choose for themselves, and preside over the packing.
+They have been seen arriving in motor cars from Strasbourg or Metz, at
+many towns in Lorraine, at Luneville, Baccarat, and elsewhere.
+
+All note-books, more or less, contain such items as these: "Wholesale
+pillage and abundant loot," "Everything destroyed or sacked," "Looting
+going strong," "Played the piano; looting going strong." This very
+German formula frequently occurs, "_Methodically_ plundered." And again,
+"We have been allowed to plunder; we didn't require to be told twice:
+whole bales of loot."
+
+"_Rethel._ The Vandals could not have done better." (The officer who
+makes this indiscreet admission and seems to protest against the thefts
+committed, writes on the following page: "I have found a silk rainproof
+coat and a camera for Felix.")
+
+"_Courcy._ The village, and the workmen's cottages looted and sacked.
+Atrocious. There is something, after all, in what they say of German
+barbarians."
+
+"_Ottignies._ The village was pillaged. The blond beast has made plain
+what he is. The Huns and the free-lances of the Middle Ages could not
+have done better."
+
+"_Cirey._ During the night incredible things were done: shops sacked,
+money stolen, rapes: enough to make one's hair stand on end."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] We have not found this fact recorded in the Commission's Reports. It
+was told to us, on his return from captivity, by Dr. Marlier, of the
+20th Corps, taken prisoner at Morhange, and Dr. Marlier is the soul of
+honour.
+
+
+
+
+INCENDIARISM
+
+
+In order to punish imaginary crimes, attributed to individuals or
+townships, or without even taking the trouble to discover any kind of
+pretext, the Germans often, especially after looting, set everything on
+fire _so as to make all traces disappear_. Sometimes, as at Courtacon,
+they compelled the inhabitants to provide the material for burning their
+own houses; or, as at Recquignies, forced prisoners "to set the houses
+of the doctor and mayor on fire with lighted straw." But generally they
+do the work themselves. They have a _special service_ for this, and all
+the requisite incendiary material is carefully prepared; torches,
+grenades, fuses, oil pumps, firebrands, satchels of pastilles containing
+very inflammable compressed powder, etc. German science has applied
+itself to the perfecting of the technique of incendiarism. The village
+is set alight by a _drilled_ method. Those concerned act quite coolly,
+as a matter of duty, as though in accordance with a drill scheme laid
+down and perfected beforehand.
+
+Of course, fire once let loose, these people have to see that it does
+its work completely: accordingly, at Louvain, they destroyed the
+fire-engines and fire-escapes; at Namur, they stopped the firemen at the
+very moment they were preparing to do their duty.
+
+In this way they sometimes wilfully burned down whole blocks of
+dwellings (Luneville): sometimes an entire district (105 houses at
+Senlis, 112 at Baccarat): sometimes almost a whole town itself (more
+than 300 houses at Gerbeviller, 800 at Sermaize, 1,200 at Dinant, 1,800
+at Louvain[4]). On other occasions they did not leave a house standing
+(Nomeny, Clermont-en-Argonne, Sommeilles).
+
+The complete list of buildings, cottages, farms, villas, factories, or
+chateaux, burned wilfully in this way by hand, will be a formidable one,
+amounting to tens of thousands.[5]
+
+Refinement of cruelty frequently occurs. At Aerschot "women had to
+witness the sight of the conflagration holding their hands up. Their
+torture lasted six hours." At Crevic, the Germans began their sinister
+work by burning a chateau which they knew belonged to General Lyautey.
+The troops, commanded by an officer, shouted out for Madame and
+Mademoiselle Lyautey "that they might cut their heads off."
+
+The houses destroyed by fire were not always uninhabited. At Maixe, M.
+Demange, wounded in both knees, dragged himself along and fell prostrate
+in his kitchen; his house was set on fire and Madame Demange was
+forcibly prevented from going to the rescue of her husband, who perished
+in the flames. At Nomeny, Madame Cousin, after being shot, was thrown
+into the burning building and roasted. At the same place, M. Adam was
+thrown alive into the flames. Let us note in connection with him, to
+their credit, an act of comparative humanity. Finding that the unhappy
+man was not being burnt fast enough, they ended his misery in the flames
+by shooting him. At Monceau-sur-Sambre, where they set fire to 300
+houses, they confined the two brothers S. in a shed, and the unfortunate
+men were burnt alive.[6]
+
+The soldiers' diaries are filled with descriptions of incendiarism, some
+of which we now quote. "Returned by Mazerulles, which was burnt as we
+passed through, because the engineers found a telephone there connected
+up with the French."[7] "The whole village was in ablaze. Everything
+destroyed in the street, except one small house; in front of the door
+was a poor woman with her six children, her arms raised and begging for
+mercy. And every day it is the same thing."
+
+_Parnx_. "The first village burnt (in Lorraine, on the 10th August);
+after that the fun began. Villages in flames, one after the other."
+Another note-book simply states, "Sommepy--horrible carnage. The village
+entirely burnt; the French thrown into the burning houses; civilians
+with the rest." Another recalls theatrical memories. "The village is
+ablaze; it reminds one of the conflagration of Walhalla in the 'Twilight
+of the Gods.'"
+
+Here is a poet speaking: "The soldiers set up the red cock (_i.e._,
+fire) upon the houses, just as they like." This poet is moved, and
+speaks of "pure vandalism" on the part of his companions in arms. And
+again, a musician writes, "Throwing of incendiary grenades into the
+houses; a military concert in the evening--'Nun danket alle Gott'! (Now
+thank we all our God)." Finally, a Bavarian: "The village
+(Saint-Maurice, Meurthe-et-Moselle) was surrounded, and the soldiers
+posted one yard apart so that no one could escape. Then the Uhlans set
+fire to the place, one house after the other. No man, woman, or child
+could possibly escape. Only the cattle were removed in safety, because
+cattle have some value. Anyone trying to escape was shot. Everything in
+the village was destroyed." We shall see presently that they even went
+so far as to burn ambulances.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] They destroyed by fire the Library at Louvain, with its 200,000
+volumes and its incomparable treasures. By means of shells and fire they
+have injured in one place, totally destroyed in another, wonders of art
+that were an integral part of our human heritage; our Cathedrals at
+Rheims, Arras, Ypres, &c.
+
+[5] Belgium alone accounts for about 20,000.
+
+[6] This fact is quoted in the admirable book by Captain A. de Gerlache,
+entitled "Belgium and the Belgians during the War," published by the
+firm of Berger-Levrault.
+
+[7] See note at foot of page 31. (this is foot-note 11)
+
+
+
+
+MURDER
+
+
+Not having sufficient space for a complete catalogue, we shall here
+simply mention the judicial murders of Miss Cavell, Eugene Jacquet,
+Battisti, and others, in order to honour the memory of those noble
+victims. For the same reason, as they are now well known to everyone, we
+content ourselves with merely recalling the criminal torpedoing of the
+_Lusitania,_[8] _Ancona, Portugal, Amiral-Ganteaume_.... all merchant
+steamers, without any military character whatever, employed in carrying
+passengers of every nationality, and the last-named crowded with
+refugees.
+
+We may pass over the crimes committed _from a distance_, so to speak, on
+unfortified towns, with fieldpieces, long-range guns, aeroplanes, and
+Zeppelins, merely noting that the Germans _were the first_ to fire
+shells into the centre of towns indiscriminately. If they made an
+exception, it was to aim at the cathedral square, when people were
+leaving after Mass, as at Nancy, or into the market-place at the time
+when women are busiest, as they did at Luneville.
+
+We only mention here such outrages as were committed at close quarters
+with hand-weapons, bayonets or rifles. The list is a long one. Will the
+exact number of victims ever be known? In Belgium alone it has been
+proved that up to now more than 5,000 civilians have been assassinated:
+grown men, old people, women and children. They slaughtered their
+victims sometimes one by one, sometimes in groups, often in masses. They
+were not content only with killing. At one place they organised round
+the massacre such tragic scenes, and at another displayed such
+refinements of cruelty, that reason falters in face of their acts, and
+asks what terrible madness has brought this race to such low depths? Is
+it possible? Yes, it is. Judge by the following examples:--
+
+At Foret, the village schoolmaster was shot for refusing to trample
+under foot the national flag, torn down from the front of the school.[9]
+At Schaffen, A. Willem was tied to a tree and burnt alive, and two other
+unfortunate men were buried alive. Madame Luykx and her little girl, 12
+years old, were shot together in a cellar. J. Reynders and his young
+nephew, 10 years of age, were both shot in the street. At Sompuis, an
+old man named Jacquemin, aged 70, was bound to his bed by an officer and
+left there without food for three days, dying soon after his release.
+
+A Westphalian prisoner states, "The commanding officer ordered us to
+shoot two women, and we did so. One of them was holding a child by the
+hand, and in falling she dragged the child over with her. The officer
+gave orders to shoot the child, because it could not be left alone in
+the world." At Rouves, a Government clerk refused to tell a Bavarian
+officer the numbers of the French regiments in the neighbourhood. The
+officer killed him with two shots from his revolver. At Crezancy,
+another officer shot with his own hand young Lesaint, 18 years old, "to
+prevent his being a soldier later on." At Embermenil, Madame Masson was
+shot for having, in absolute good faith, given some wrong information.
+As she was obviously in a state of pregnancy they made her sit down on a
+bench to meet her fate. At Ethe, two priests were shot "for having
+buried some weapons." At Marqueglise, a superior officer ordered the
+arrest of four young fugitives. Learning that two of them came from
+Belgium, he exclaimed, "The Belgians are filthy people," and without
+more ado took his revolver and shot them one after the other. Three were
+killed outright, the fourth expired the following day.
+
+From the crowd of fugitives which left Louvain in flames, the priests
+were singled out, and searched. On one of them, a Jesuit father, by name
+Dupierreux, they found a note-book containing the following note in
+French, "When I used to read about the Huns under Attila devastating
+towns, I smiled. I smile no longer now that I have seen with my own eyes
+the hordes of to-day setting fire to the churches and library of
+Louvain." In front of the assembled troops the priests were placed in a
+semi-circle round the Jesuit Father. The incriminating phrase was read
+out, and then translated into German. The lieutenant said that it
+constituted an incitement to murder, and that the Jesuit must be shot on
+the spot. The sentence was carried out forthwith, and the other
+priests, his companions, were made to bury him where he fell.
+
+At Pin, some Uhlans found two young boys on the road. They tied them by
+the arms to their horses and galloped off. The bodies of the poor lads
+were found a few miles away--their knees were "literally crushed"; one
+had his throat cut and both had several bullets in their heads. At
+Sermaize, a labourer, named Brocard, and his son, were arrested. His
+wife and daughter-in-law, mad with terror, threw themselves into a
+neighbouring stream. The old man broke away, and ran to try and save
+them. The Germans dragged him away.... Four days later Brocard and the
+son, on being liberated, returned home, and after a search, found the
+bodies. The two women, while still in the water, had been shot several
+times through the head. A parish priest named Dergent was taken to
+Aerschot, stripped, and tied to a cross in front of the church; his
+fingers and toes were crushed and broken with the butt-end of a rifle.
+The inhabitants were made to pass in front of him and were each
+compelled to urinate on him in turn; then he was shot and his body
+thrown into the canal.[10]
+
+At Herimenil, during the pillage, the inhabitants were shut up in a
+church, and kept there for four days without food. When Madame Winger,
+23 years of age, and her three young servants, one girl and two boys,
+were too slow in leaving her farm to go to the church, the captain
+ordered his men to fire on them. Four more dead bodies!
+
+The Germans arrived at Monchy-Humieres. A group of inhabitants watched
+them marching past. No provocation whatever was offered, but an officer
+thought that he heard someone utter the word "Prussians." He at once
+called out three dragoons, and ordered them to fire upon the group--one
+killed and two wounded--one of the latter being a little girl of four.
+
+At Sommeilles, when the fire--which destroyed the whole place--broke
+out, Madame X. took refuge in a cellar belonging to M. and Madame Adnot,
+who were there, with their four children, the eldest a girl of 11 years.
+A few days after, on returning to the village, our soldiers found the
+seven bodies in the cellar lying in a pool of blood, several of them
+being horribly mutilated. Madame X. had her right arm severed from her
+body; the little girl's foot had been cut off, and the little boy of
+five had his throat cut.
+
+At Louveigne a certain number of men were shut up in a blacksmith's
+shop; in the afternoon the murderers opened the door as if it were a
+pigeon-shooting competition, drove the prisoners out, and shot them
+down--a ghastly group of 17 corpses.
+
+At Senlis the heroic Mayor, M. Odent, and six members of his staff were
+shot.
+
+At Gerbeviller they forced their way into the house of M. and Madame
+Lingenheld; seized the son, aged 36, exempt from service, and wearing
+the badge of the Red Cross, tied his hands, dragged him into the street
+and shot him. They then returned to look for the father, an old man of
+70. Meanwhile the mother, mad with terror, made her escape. On coming
+out she saw her son lying on the ground. As he still showed signs of
+life, they threw paraffin over him and roasted him. The father was shot
+later on with fourteen other old men. More than 150 victims were
+identified in this parish.
+
+At Nomeny, M. Vasse provided shelter for a number of neighbours in his
+cellar. Fifty soldiers got in and set fire to the house. To escape the
+flames the refugees rushed out and were shot one by one as they emerged.
+Mentre was killed first; his son Leon, with his little eight-year-old
+sister in his arms, fell next: as he was not quite dead they put the
+barrel of a rifle to his ear and blew his brains out. Then came the turn
+of a family named Kieffer. The mother was wounded; the father, his boy
+and girl, aged respectively 10 and 3, were shot down. They fell on them
+with fury. Striffler, Guillaume, and Vasse were afterwards massacred.
+Young Mlle. Simonin, 17 years old, and her small sister, afraid to leave
+their refuge in the cellar, were eventually driven out by the flames,
+and immediately shot at. The younger child had an elbow almost blown off
+by a bullet; as the elder girl lay wounded on the ground, she was
+deliberately kicked by a soldier. At Nomeny 40 victims were identified.
+
+And now we come to some of the _wholesale slaughters._ At Louvain, more
+than 100 victims; at Aerschot, over 150; at Soumagne, 165; at Ethe, 197;
+at Andenne, over 300; at Tamines, 400; at Dinant, upwards of 600, of
+whom 71 were women, 34 old men of over seventy, 6 children from five to
+nine years old, and 11 under five. At Aerschot, a first batch of 78 men
+were taken out of the town, and ordered to advance in groups of three,
+holding each other by the hand, when they were made to pass in front of
+some German Military Police, who shot them all at short range with
+revolvers. Others had their hands bound so tightly that many screamed
+with pain: they spent the night lying on the ground, and were shot the
+next day. Many, before execution, were compelled to dig their own
+graves. At Dinant, the victims were placed in two rows, the first
+kneeling, the second standing. Then came the order--"Fire!" At Tamines,
+several hundred men were massed in the Place Saint-Martin, on the bank
+of the Sambre. The assassins stood ten yards away and fired a volley.
+All fell, but some were not wounded. The officer in command ordered them
+to "stand up." A second volley was fired. As soon as the firing
+finished, there was a frightful scene which lasted until the
+evening--the killing of the wounded. Many soldiers, some wearing the
+badge of the Red Cross, approached their victims by the light of small
+lanterns, and passed through their ranks, clubbing them with the butt
+end of their rifles, and stabbing with bayonets. A perfect shambles!
+
+In these horrors we do not discern the musical note, or the
+acknowledgment of the "Old German God." Yet, here is a specimen:--
+
+At Andenne, Colonel Schumann, in command of the Potsdam Rifles,
+organised a grand concert in the evening at the Place des Tilleuls. The
+entertainment ended with a prayer!
+
+It now remains for us to publish a few extracts from note-books found
+upon officers and privates. Some are short items like the
+following:--"Pepinster, 12th August. Burgomaster, Priest and
+Schoolmaster shot, and houses burnt to the ground. We resume our march."
+Another, "Villers-en-Fagne, village in flames. The population had
+notified the French of the approach of the grenadiers; thereupon the
+hussars set fire to the village, the Parish Priest and others being
+shot."
+
+Others enter into details of the executions. "_Leffe._ We shoot everyone
+who fires on our men. We put three, one behind the other, and a Marburg
+rifleman kills them outright with a single shot. It is war to the
+knife."
+
+Another expresses something other than enthusiasm for such work.
+"Considering that the King (of the Belgians) has given orders to defend
+the country by all possible means, we have been ordered to shoot every
+male inhabitant. At Dinant more than 100 were collected in a crowd and
+shot. A dreadful Sunday." Another, an aesthete, writes as follows:
+"During the night many more civilians were shot, so many that we were
+able to count over 200. Women and children, with lamps in their hands,
+were compelled to witness the horrible sight. We afterwards ate our
+rice among the dead bodies. Sadly beautiful." He adds (in shorthand)
+"Captain Hermann was drunk."
+
+Again another: "_Dinant._ We have been firing on everyone who showed
+himself, or on those thrown out of the houses, men or women. The bodies
+lie in the streets, in heaps a yard deep."
+
+A Saxon officer writes: "My company is at Bouvignes. Our men behave like
+vandals: everything is upset; the sight of the slaughtered inhabitants
+defies all description; not a house is left standing. We have dragged
+out of every corner all survivors, one after another, men, women, and
+children, found in a burning cloister, and have shot them 'en masse.'"
+
+The following depositions on the massacres at Nomeny are made by
+prisoners, one a Bavarian officer in the Reserve, the other a private in
+the same regiment. The lieutenant says: "I gathered the impression that
+it was impossible for the officers at Nomeny to prevent such acts. As
+far as I can judge, the crimes committed there, which horrified all the
+soldiers who were at Nomeny later on, must be put down to the acts of
+unnatural brutes." The soldier says, "At five o'clock regimental orders
+were received to kill every male inhabitant of Nomeny, and to raze
+everything to the ground; we forced our way into the houses." Here is a
+more detailed account of a massacre near Blamont. "All the villagers
+fled: it was terrible; their beards thick with blood, and what faces!
+They were dreadful to look at. The dead were all buried, numbering
+sixty. Among them were many old men and women, and one unfortunate woman
+half confined--the whole being frightful to look at. Three children
+were clasped in each other's arms, and had died thus. The Altar and the
+vaulting of the church were destroyed because there was a telephone[11]
+communicating with the enemy. This morning, 2nd September, all the
+survivors were expelled. I saw four small boys carrying away on two
+sticks a cradle containing a baby of five or six months. All this is
+dreadful to see. Blow for blow: thunder against thunder! Every thing is
+given up to pillage. I also saw a mother with her two children; one had
+a big wound on the head, and one eye knocked out."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] They have decorated the pirates who sank the _Lusitania_. They glory
+in the crime, and have even struck a commemorative medal in its honour.
+
+[9] In this case, and many of the following ones, the reader is
+requested to note, and remember, the _motive_ for the murders.
+
+[10] This cruel treatment of the Abbe Dergent, priest of Gelrode, near
+Louvain, is reported by a neutral witness, Father G., a student at
+Louvain. The German soldiers accused the Belgian priests of every
+conceivable crime; the Assistant-Priest of Sainte-Gertrude (Louvain),
+who was remonstrating with a soldier, received this reply: "We are
+Catholics too, but you are pigs and black devils." In Belgium about one
+hundred of the clergy were massacred. Note further that in this
+unfortunate country _doctors_ were particularly ill-treated;
+thirty-seven being shot in the small parishes, while more than one
+hundred and fifty disappeared altogether from large towns.
+
+[11] To whom did it belong, and where was it? Telephones exist in every
+district of Meurthe-et-Moselle. Besides, our army installed field
+telephones which were not all destroyed at the time of their retreat. It
+is a most foolish pretext, yet where can one find a more stupid one than
+this? A German official communique, in order to prove that the general
+rising of the people had been organized for a long time, declares, "that
+depots of arms were installed, where each rifle bore the name of the man
+for whom it was intended." It is absolutely clear that this applies to
+arms taken from civilians by order of the local authorities in Belgium
+and France, and deposited at the Town Hall, every weapon bearing the
+name of its owner. Would they have taken that for an arsenal? No, stupid
+as they may be, they are not so foolish as that. They feign stupidity
+simply because they know very well that the conscience of the civilized
+world is beginning to be moved.
+
+
+
+
+OUTRAGES ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN
+
+
+We might write a long and heartbreaking chapter on this pitiful subject,
+but let the following suffice. The Report of the French Commission of
+Enquiry concludes with these words, "Outrages upon women and young girls
+have been common _to an unheard-of extent_." No doubt the bulk of these
+crimes will never come to light, for it needs a concatenation of special
+circumstances for such acts to be committed in public. Unfortunately and
+only too often these circumstances have existed, _e.g._, at
+Beton-Bazoches and Sancy-les-Provins, a young girl, and at St.
+Denis-les-Rebaix, a mother-in-law and a little boy of eight years old,
+and at Coulommiers a husband and two children, were witnesses to
+outrages committed on the mother of the family. Sometimes the attacks
+were individual and sometimes committed by bodies of men, _e.g._, at
+Melen-Labouxhe, Margaret W. was violated by twenty German soldiers, and
+then shot by the side of her father and mother. They did not even
+respect nuns.[12]
+
+They did not even spare grandmothers (Louppy-le-Chateau,
+Vitry-en-Perthois ...).
+
+Nor did they respect children.... At Cirey, a witness (a University
+professor), whose statements one of us took down a few days after the
+tragedy, cried to a Bavarian officer, "Have you no children in Germany?"
+All the officer said in reply was, "My mother never bore swine like
+you."
+
+Now and then they let themselves loose on a whole family; at Louppy, the
+mother and her two young girls aged thirteen and eight, respectively,
+were simultaneous victims of their savagery.
+
+The outrages sometimes lasted till death. At Nimy, the martyrdom of
+little Irma G. lasted six hours till death delivered her from her
+sufferings. When her father tried to rescue her he was shot, and her
+mother was seriously wounded. Indeed, it was certain destruction to any
+frenzied parent who tried to defend his child. A clergyman of Dixmude
+says, "The burgomaster of Handzaeme was shot for trying to protect his
+daughter." And how many other cases have occurred! We have not the heart
+to continue the list.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] See the report of the French Commission (vol. i., page 35). See
+also, in the "Reply to the White Book," p. 500, the moving letter of
+Cardinal Mercier to von Bissing: "My conscience forbids my divulging to
+any tribunal the information, alas, only too well substantiated, which I
+possess. Outrages on nuns have been committed ..."
+
+
+
+
+KILLING THE WOUNDED
+
+
+There are _great numbers_ of wounded who, on their solemn oath, have
+related how, when lying on the field of battle, they saw their wounded
+comrades "finished off" by rifle or revolver shots, or by blows from
+butt-ends, or by bayonet stabs, or kicked to death by German soldiers,
+non-commissioned officers, and even by officers.[13]
+
+We cannot pause to analyse these innumerable depositions. There is other
+evidence. How often, when a counter-attack has put us in possession of
+ground lost the day before, have we found poor fellows "finished
+off"--with their throats cuts, as in the case of the two sergeants of
+the 31st Chasseurs at the Pass of Sainte-Marie, or "with their own
+bayonets driven into their mouths," like the poor little fellow of the
+17th. The enemy often runs amok like this:--"On August 23rd, the Cure of
+Remereville tended Lieutenant Toussaint (who passed out first at the
+Forestry School in July). When he fell in battle, this young officer was
+bayoneted by all the Germans who passed near him, and his body was a
+mass of wounds from head to feet." At Oudrigny "a German officer met a
+French vehicle showing the Red Cross flag, and loaded with ten wounded.
+He deployed his company, and fired two volleys at it." At Bonviller, an
+officer murdered nine French wounded, stretched helpless in a barn, by
+shooting them through the ear. On 23rd August at Montigny-le-Tilleul, M.
+Vital was caught in the act of tending a French soldier, L. Sohier by
+name, wounded in the head and side. Such a crime deserved punishment,
+and the wretches first shot the orderly and then the patient.
+
+At Ethe they set a shed on fire and roasted more than twenty wounded who
+were lying there.
+
+We all know the celebrated order of General Stenger in the region of
+Thiaville (Meurthe-et-Moselle):--"No prisoners are to be taken. All
+prisoners, whether wounded or not, must be slaughtered."
+
+It was not only in Lorraine that such orders were given. Listen to the
+depositions of a German soldier: "The same day we saw eighteen other
+Frenchmen. Lieutenant N. told us to shoot them as he did not know what
+else to do with them."
+
+Read this letter found at L'Ecouvillon in a German trench which we
+recaptured: "Every day we take many prisoners, but they are shot at once
+as we no longer know where to put them."
+
+Think of the diary in which a German soldier near Peronne recorded his
+impressions of the day: "They lay in heaps of ten or twelve, some dead
+and some still living. Those who could still walk were marched off.
+Those who were wounded in the head or lungs, and could not lift
+themselves up, were finished off with a bullet. That is the order which
+we got."
+
+A German soldier, while being nursed in a hospital at Nancy, confided to
+Dr. Roemer that the wound in his stomach "had been inflicted on him by a
+German N.C.O. because he refused to finish off a wounded Frenchman."
+
+Wounded were not only massacred on the field of battle, but field
+hospitals were also the scene of atrocities. At Gomery, in a casualty
+clearing station, under Dr. Sedillot, there were numerous wounded
+remaining in the German lines. A German officer with twenty-five men
+visited the place and inspected it and retired, saying that all was in
+order. But a N.C.O. and a party of soldiers remained in the street
+outside. They were excited and kept shouting, "It is war to the death,"
+and making signs of cutting throats. They rushed in and with their
+revolvers shot down Dr. Sedillot (who happily survived, with others, to
+give evidence), and set fire to the place. Maddened by the flames, the
+wounded (many of whom had had amputations performed on them that very
+morning) leapt from the windows on the first floor and fell into the
+garden, where the executioners picked them up, gathering them in a
+bunch, and shot them. In this way Lieutenant Jeannin and Dr. Charette
+were murdered, and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty officers
+and soldiers--whose wounds should have made them sacred--perished from
+shot or fire after terrible sufferings.
+
+When all is said, however, it is better to kill wounded soldiers by fire
+or sword than by starvation, as the following incident shows: One
+hundred wounded Frenchmen, together with Dr. Bender, were brought to the
+Stenay barracks, and one hundred and eighty more came in shortly
+afterwards; the latter, having been left out unattended on the
+battle-field for five days, were in a terrible condition. Dr. Bender in
+vain begged the Germans for help in getting the wounded men out of the
+ambulances into the hospital. The Boches refused, and simply went on
+sucking their pipes. Though wounded himself, the doctor, with the aid of
+two male nurses (Frenchmen both), had to do the whole thing himself.
+For several days the Boches gave them no food at all. "Our poor fellows
+screamed with hunger,"[14] says the doctor, on oath, and adds, "I had
+sixty badly wounded with me, and begged the German army doctor to
+operate, but he said he had no time. I then asked his leave to operate
+myself, but his reply was, "You are in the German lines, and must
+conform to our rules." The doctor ends his pathetic evidence with the
+words, "Nearly all these unhappy men died of neglect."
+
+We have seen doctors, like Professor Vulpius, actually steal money; but
+of all the types of Boche doctors, the most hideous is the hero of the
+following tale, taken from the deposition of Dr. Bender. "A French
+soldier, at Stenay, was under my treatment. He had a wound in his
+foot--not very severe, which did not need an operation at all. What was
+my astonishment to find that a German army surgeon had amputated his
+thigh? I could not help expressing my indignation, and the surgeon's
+only reply was, "He will be a man the less against us in the next
+war."[15] They will deny these crimes to-morrow, but in 1914 they
+gloried in them.
+
+On the 18th of October a Silesian newspaper published an article sent
+from the front by a N.C.O., in which he says, "Men who are particularly
+tender-hearted give the French wounded the 'coup de grace' with a
+bullet, but the others cut and thrust as much as possible. Our enemies
+fought bravely ... whether they are slightly or badly wounded our brave
+Fusiliers spare the Fatherland as far as possible the expensive trouble
+of looking after numerous enemies. In the evening, with prayers of
+thanksgiving on our lips, we go to sleep." Are these mere boastings of
+crimes? No. The article was submitted to the Captain of the Company who
+certified it as correct and counter-signed it. The N.C.O., the Captain,
+the Silesian public, the whole German nation were delighted to see this
+abominable story of murder and shame appear in the paper under the
+heading, "A Day of Honour for our Regiment."[16]
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] Report of the French Commission, vol. iii.
+
+[14] He adds that certain orderlies--Lorrainers, belonging to the German
+Army--supplied them with food on the sly.
+
+[15] French chivalry could hardly believe that a doctor would amputate a
+wounded enemy's limb without absolute necessity and in mere revenge, but
+such cases are, alas, not rare. See the awful tales of torture in the
+"Journal d'un Grand Blesse en Allemagne," by Charles Hennebois (pp. 137,
+146), and the statement of a German doctor (p. 87), "Your doctors in
+France perform amputations as they please on our wounded. The order has
+therefore been given to amputate without hesitation, as reprisals, every
+damaged limb."
+
+[16] Let us quote, to show the mental "make-up" of certain Germans, the
+conditions in which Captain Coustre of the 108th and Captain Lesourd of
+the 50th met their deaths. They were wandering over the battle-field
+where the enemy had been repulsed. They heard a cry for help. There was
+a soldier in one place and an officer in another who asked for a drink.
+They stopped and leant over them to give them a drink from their flasks
+when the wounded men blew their brains out.
+
+
+
+
+SHELTERING BEHIND WOMEN
+
+
+Let us call to mind the innumerable instances when the Boches put up
+their hands, or waved a white flag, and cried, "Kamerad," pretending to
+surrender: thus drawing our unsuspecting men towards them and then
+suddenly moving aside, to leave the field open to a party of riflemen or
+a machine-gun hidden away behind them. These are the tricks of cowards,
+which were constantly employed at the beginning of the war, and our men
+(at the cost of many victims) learned at last to guard against them. But
+they have done even more cowardly things than this. There was the German
+officer who, to protect himself from danger while taking observations,
+put three children round him. At Nery, twenty-five persons, women and
+children, were compelled to walk at the side of a Boche column to
+protect it from being enfiladed. Near Malines, six German soldiers who
+were taking with them five young girls, on meeting a Belgian patrol,
+placed the girls all round them to prevent the enemy from firing. At
+Jodoigne they put a Cure in front of them and made him walk with his
+arms folded, and they did the same at Hougaerde to another Cure who was
+killed. A similar fate befell several civilians at Mons. At Senlis, our
+men were firing to cover our retreat, and the Germans took some
+inhabitants out of the houses and made them walk in the middle of the
+streets while they themselves kept along by the walls. Many of these
+unfortunate people were killed. "In numerous places," says the Belgian
+Commission of Enquiry, "the Germans made civilians--men and women--walk
+in front of them." In this way a German column passed through
+Marchienne, pushing ahead of them a body of several hundred civilians.
+They took the road for Montigny-le-Tilleul, where the first important
+battle with the French forces took place. At Sempst, during the fighting
+on the 25th August, men and women were placed in the front rank of the
+firing line. At Erpe, on the 12th September, a German column, attacked
+by a Belgian motor-machine-gun, took out of the houses twenty to
+twenty-five men and young people (including a child of thirteen), and
+made them walk in front in the middle of the road. The machine-gunners,
+seeing civilians in front of them, ceased firing. At Alost, a German
+company attacked the bridge. In front marched some thirty civilians with
+a machine-gun hidden behind them. At Nimy, with the butt-ends of their
+rifles, they drove in front of them 500 men, women and children towards
+the English, who in consequence dared not fire; and in this way the 84th
+and 85th Schleswig Regiments were able to continue their heroic march as
+far as Maubeuge.
+
+When their adversary cannot actually see the human shield that they are
+using, they send a warning. On the 7th September, 1914, the Death's Head
+Hussars shut up all the inhabitants of the village with them in the
+Chateau of Saint Ouen-sur-Morin, and then, to avoid being shelled,
+informed the English of their "dispositions." They fired on anyone who
+tried to escape. At Mouzon, we saw a number of civilians being pushed in
+front of the enemy with the butt-ends of rifles, and we stopped firing.
+The wretched people moved suddenly to one side of the road, uncovering
+the Germans, and then we fired. The Boches, furious, fired their first
+volley not at us, but point blank at these non-combatants, who were
+decimated.
+
+The cowards chiefly used civilians as shields, but sometimes they also
+made use of prisoners. At Keyem, they pushed one hundred Belgian
+soldiers in front of them, some with their hands tied, and others with
+their arms in the air. At Dixmude, they advanced under the shelter of
+forty disarmed marines who had been taken prisoners. When they got in
+front of our lines our marines shouted, "For God's sake fire, these are
+Germans," and these heroes fell gloriously under the French bullets.
+Such deeds are countless.
+
+The Boches will deny them later on, but in 1914 they did not deny them,
+but rather gloried in them as a "good idea." We can see this from the
+letter of the Bavarian Lieutenant Eberlein, published on the 7th
+October, 1914, by a leading Munich paper, "We had arrested three other
+civilians when a 'good idea' struck me. We made them sit on chairs in
+the middle of the street;--supplications from them, and blows with
+butt-ends of rifles from us. At last they were seated outside in the
+street with their hands convulsively clasped together. I felt sorry for
+them, but the plan worked at once. As I learnt later, the regiment which
+entered Saint-Die, further to the north of us, had precisely similar
+experiences to our own. The civilians, whom they had put in the same
+way in the middle of the street, were killed by French bullets. I saw
+their dead bodies."[17]
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[17] We have not, so far, come across any attempted justification, by
+German authors, of these cowardly acts; but such we shall have without
+fail. It is probable that the 93 "intellectuals" whose manifesto we
+recall to memory a few pages further on are preparing a fresh "appeal to
+the civilized world" with a view to explaining that the German
+troops--the representatives and trustees of _Kultur_--are authorised by
+God Himself to use _every means_ for the protection of their precious
+lives.
+
+
+
+
+MARTYRDON OF CIVILIAN PRISONERS
+
+
+After having burnt our villages,[18] and shot the inhabitants by dozens
+in some places, and by hundreds in others, they frequently deported all
+or a part of the survivors to Germany. It is impossible at this moment
+to establish the number of those deported, but they were sent off by
+tens of thousands. These unfortunate people, men, women and children,
+who had witnessed and survived fires and massacres, who had seen their
+houses blazing and so many of those dear to them fall under the bullets
+of the assassin, and who were forced in some places to dig graves for
+their victims, and in others to hold a light for the executioners while
+they were finishing off the wounded,--these poor wretches are despatched
+to Germany.[19] What a journey, and what a place of residence!
+
+Let us quote one story among a thousand. "Our escort was commanded by
+two German officers. They were unapproachable. Anyone who tried to speak
+to them was threatened with a revolver. In order that we might get a
+drink, we were made to collect empty meat tins which served as our
+drinking cups until we reached Cassel. We were abused and threatened
+wherever we went. Sometimes they made signs to us that they were going
+to shoot us, or hang us, or cut our heads off. They threw filth at our
+heads and spat in our faces. We were not going to stoop before them; the
+disgrace was not ours. It is they, not we, who are degraded. An officer
+who was present when our march-past took place aimed blows with a
+riding-whip at everyone within his reach. Until we arrived at the
+railway, it was the same at every place where we met soldiers. We
+reached Marche after a nine hours' journey. We were conducted to a room
+marked as having accommodation for 100 soldiers, but they put 400 of us
+in there. The people of the place sent us slices of bread and butter,
+but it was the Germans who ate them. The latter gave us crusts of bread
+to eat. We were abominably cramped; a few managed to stretch themselves
+out, but the air was so poisonous that they could not remain in that
+position. At Melreux station we changed guards. They drove us with the
+butt-ends of their rifles to a spot where a train of cattle trucks was
+standing in the yard, and we had to get in. The previous occupants had
+been cattle, and the trucks had been cleaned in a very perfunctory
+fashion. There was neither straw nor seats. Off we went. Every time we
+stopped at a station the soldiers on guard there insulted us. It was
+even worse when once we arrived in Germany. They opened the doors on the
+platform side, and if we were on a line between two platforms, they
+opened the doors on both sides so as to rejoice German hearts by the
+sight of us. They treated us like wild beasts in a menagerie, and the
+officers and soldiers set the example while the women and children were
+not behindhand with abuse, and made threatening gestures. Our guards
+were applauded as if they were doing something heroic. At one station we
+saw a woman looking out of her window and shouting 'Hurrah!' The journey
+took 35 hours, and during the whole of that time we were only given food
+and drink once, and that thanks only to the Red Cross.[20] We arrived at
+Wilhelmshoehe (Cassel) at 3 a.m. on the 28th August, and were made to
+walk quickly through the streets. Our arrival had been notified, and in
+spite of the early hour, a hostile crowd, abusive and threatening, lined
+the route. The old and the lame could not keep up the pace at which we
+marched. Their companions helped and dragged them along, constantly
+beaten with butt-ends. At length, we arrived at the gaol, where they
+shut us in the cells in lots of three or four at a time. M. Brichet
+(Inspector of Forests) wanted to take his son (aged 14) with him, but
+the gaoler said, 'Not the father and son together.' The prison
+authorities showed their surprise at the sort of criminals who had been
+entrusted to them, as the bulk of them were shopkeepers and artisans.
+
+"Included in the number were the burgomaster of Dinant, a sheriff,
+professors, barristers, and judges. An imbecile, a dozen children of
+about 13, and some old men (one of whom was 81) made up the party. At
+the end of a week, we were assembled in a yard and told that we were not
+under sentence, but were detained in the interests of public safety."
+
+In that prison the poor wretches were treated with much greater severity
+than ordinary prisoners, for they were shut up in cells and had no air.
+"By climbing on a chest one might open the window and see a little bit
+of the landscape. The ordinary prisoners were allowed to do this but we
+were forbidden." There was not a single chair. There was the skeleton of
+an iron bed which was quite useless as there was no mattress. There were
+four blankets, and two bundles of straw which very soon crumbled into
+dust. "One day a week we had an hour in the courtyard, and there we
+walked round and round in single file, being forbidden to walk two by
+two. There was a guard with fixed bayonets always with us. The food was
+absolutely inadequate[21] and we suffered continually from hunger. There
+was a certain Croibien who had been slightly wounded at Dinant by a
+bullet in his arm. His wound, neglected during the journey, had become
+septic and in spite of all his sufferings, nothing was done for him. It
+was not until after several days that it was decided to take him to the
+infirmary where his arm was amputated; he died the next day. Although
+his father and brothers were interned with him, they were not allowed to
+see him again, alive or dead."
+
+M. Tschoffen, public prosecutor at Dinant, the high official who writes
+these lines, finishes his deposition with these words: "They had no
+reason whatever for our arrest, and I do not see any reason that they
+could have for setting us at liberty. One fine day they told us that we
+were going to leave."
+
+Here is another illustration: Before the 28th February, 1915, more than
+10,000 persons, old men, women, and children, who had been deported from
+France to Germany, had been repatriated by way of Switzerland. All those
+who received them on their return were "alarmed at their ragged
+condition and weakness," which was so great that the French Commission
+of Enquiry received special instructions to question these victims. They
+took the evidence of over 300 witnesses in 28 different localities. To
+do justice to their case one ought to quote the whole report--children
+brutally torn away from their mothers, poor wretches crowded for days
+together in carriages so tightly packed that they had to stand up, cases
+of madness occurring among these half-stifled crowds, howling with
+hunger. But we must confine our quotations to a few items of "Kultur."
+"While the men of Combres set out for Germany, the women and children
+were shut up in the village church. They were kept there for a month,
+and passed their nights seated in the pews. Dysentery and croup raged
+among them. The women were allowed to carry excrement only just outside
+the church into the churchyard."--"At least four of the prisoners were
+massacred because they could not keep up with, the column, being
+completely exhausted."--"Fortin, aged 65, and infirm, could not go any
+further. They tied a rope to him, and two horsemen held the ends so that
+he had to keep the pace of the horses. As he kept falling down at every
+moment, they made him get up by poking him with their lances. The poor
+wretch, covered with blood, prayed them to kill him."
+
+"189 inhabitants of Sinceny, who were sent to Erfurt, arrived there
+after a journey of 84 hours, during which each of them got nothing but a
+single morsel of bread weighing less than four ounces. Another convoy
+spent four days on the railway journey and were only fed once, and were
+beaten with sticks and fists and with knife handles." The same
+brutalities were experienced in the German cities through which they
+passed, and very few of the civilian prisoners escaped being buffeted by
+the infuriated crowds or being spat upon.
+
+So much for the journey. Now for what happened to them after their
+arrival! "The declarations made to us show clearly that the bulk of the
+prisoners almost collapsed from hunger. After food had been distributed,
+when anything was left, you saw some of them rush to the neighbourhood
+of the kitchens; hustled and beaten by the sentries, these unfortunates
+risked blows and abuse to try and pick up some additional morsels of
+the sickening food. You saw men, dying of hunger, picking up herring
+heads, and the grounds of the morning's decoction."
+
+At Parchim, where 2,000 French civilians from 12 to 77 years of age were
+interned, two starving prisoners who asked for the scraps left over were
+beaten with the butt-ends of rifles to such an extent that they died of
+their wounds. The young son of one of them who tried to protect his
+father was tied to a stake for a week on end.
+
+On oath, Dr. Page deposes: "Those who had no money almost died of
+hunger. When a little soup was left, a crowd of unfortunates rushed to
+get it, and the non-commissioned officers got rid of them at last by
+letting the dogs loose on them." But what is the need of all these
+details and of all this evidence? Look at the 10,000 who came back after
+being repatriated and see what the bandits have done to them. Reader,
+summon up your courage and peruse to the bitter end the conclusions of
+the Official Commission of Enquiry. "It is impossible to conceal the
+melancholy and indignation we felt on seeing the state of the
+'hostages'[22] whom the Germans had returned to us after they had
+kidnapped them in defiance of the rights of nations. During our enquiry
+we never ceased hearing the perpetual coughs that rent them. We saw
+numbers of young people whose cheerfulness had disappeared apparently
+for ever, and whose pale and emaciated faces betrayed physical damage
+probably beyond repair. In spite of ourselves we could not help thinking
+that scientific Germany had applied her methodical ways to try and
+spread tuberculosis in our country. Nor were we less profoundly moved to
+thought by the sight of women mourning their desolated hearths and
+missing or captive children, or by the moral impression left on the
+faces and bearing of many prisoners by the hateful regime which was
+intended to destroy, in those who were subjected to it, the feeling of
+human dignity and self-respect."[23]
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[18] _Prisoners_, as well as wounded, have very often been massacred on
+the field of battle. As to the treatment that prisoners--French,
+Belgian, Russian and English--have undergone in German camps, it is a
+pitiful tale that we do not intend to begin here. Some day it must be
+written. With the actual evidence before us, the lot of the German
+prisoners in England, Russia and France must be compared with that of
+ours in Germany. The most indifferent reader will feel his heart stirred
+within him, and will hesitate to say whether we were "generous," or
+whether we were "fools."
+
+[19] We speak of those who have left--but what of those who have
+remained in Belgium and France, under the German heel? The time has not
+yet come for writing this piece of history, but we cannot refrain from
+referring to the sufferings of these children of the North, boys and
+girls, torn from their families, carried off like bands of slaves to
+other invaded regions to be employed on forced labour. France has
+apprised the neutral countries of these facts: Will they remain silent?
+
+[20] Further on it will be seen that much worse happened on numerous
+other journeys.
+
+[21] "We got one pound of black sour bread per diem. In the morning we
+had a tepid decoction intended for coffee; at mid-day a pint and a half
+of thick soup, and at night rather less than a pint of thin soup. On
+three occasions only did we get potatoes, but never once meat. Cabbage
+soup was the usual thing and after a certain time it turned our
+stomachs. Certain prisoners were employed in chopping up the cabbages to
+make sauerkraut, and they had to keep the broken leaves, as these were
+used up for our soup."
+
+[22] Through an old habit, the Commission makes use of this word; they
+are not "hostages," of course.
+
+[23] It must also be noted that when the Commissioners making the
+enquiry saw the repatriated people, they had had some time in which to
+recover, first in Switzerland, and then in France. The arrival of these
+pitiable drafts gave rise (even among those of the Swiss people who were
+in principle the least hostile to Germany) to such a feeling of horror
+for their executioners that the Kaiser took warning and thought it wiser
+to suspend the repatriations for several months. For the welcome and the
+kind care which our poor martyrs received at the hands of the Swiss, our
+grateful thanks and salutations are due!
+
+
+
+
+GERMAN EXCUSES: LIES AND CALUMNY
+
+
+The Boches have taken up three positions in succession. In the first
+place, in their speeches, in their writings and by commemorative
+pictures and medals, _they have gloried in their misdeeds_, thus
+declaring that Kultur is above morality (as stated by their writer,
+Thomas Mann), and that the right of German might is above everything.
+Then, in the second place, when they discovered that in the world
+outside them there was something known as a "moral conscience," not
+understood by them, but still to be reckoned with, _they cynically
+denied the charges_. Finally, when they were driven from this second
+trench, when simple negation became impossible, _they had perforce to
+explain their crimes_.
+
+Their commonest explanation is this, "Civilians fired on us."[24] The
+French Commission of Enquiry came to the following conclusion on this
+point: "This allegation is false, and those who put it forward have been
+powerless to give it the appearance of truth, even though it has been
+their custom to fire shots in the neighbourhood of dwellings, in order
+to be able to affirm that they have been attacked by innocent
+inhabitants, on whose ruin or massacre they had resolved."
+
+Enquiries conducted by high magistrates have established the fact that
+German officials are very frequently guilty of premeditated lies. It is
+probable, all the same, that many German soldiers, on entering Belgium
+or France, were obsessed by the idea of civilians firing on them. The
+cry of a soldier trembling with fear, drunk, or thirsting for
+pillage--"Man hat geschossen (they have fired)"--is enough for a
+locality to be delivered up at once to the wildest fury. "When an
+inhabitant has fired on a regiment," said a soldier at Louvain, "the
+place belongs to the regiment." What a temptation for a Boche soldier to
+fire a shot that will at once unloose pillage and massacre!
+
+Some mistakes have _possibly_ been made which could have been avoided by
+the least enquiry. Read this admission recorded in his diary by a Saxon
+officer: "The lovely village of Gue-d'Hossus has been given over to the
+flames, though innocent in my opinion. I hear that a cyclist fell off
+his machine and that his fall caused his rifle to go off of itself. As a
+consequence there was firing in his direction. Then, the male
+inhabitants were simply hurled straight away into the flames. Such
+horrors will not be repeated, we must hope ... There ought to be some
+compulsion to verify suspicions of guilt in order to put a check on this
+indiscriminate shooting of people."
+
+The only shots fired at them inside, or in the neighbourhood of,
+villages have been those of French or Belgian soldiers covering their
+retreat. Sometimes this has been discovered, but too late, and they have
+continued their crimes--in order to justify them.
+
+Here is the statement of a neutral: "In one village they found corpses
+of German soldiers with the fingers cut off, and instantly the officer
+in command had the houses set on fire and the inhabitants shot.... In
+the same district a German officer was billeted with a famous Flemish
+poet; the officer behaved courteously, was treated with consideration,
+and allowed himself to talk freely: his complaint was the misdeeds of
+his soldiers. Near Haelen, he told his host, he had to have a soldier
+shot on finding in his knapsack some fingers covered with rings: the
+man, on being questioned, admitted that he had cut them off the bodies
+of the German dead."[25]
+
+In exceptional cases an enquiry is held; and in every such instance the
+truth is discovered and massacre prevented.
+
+At the end of August, Liebknecht,[26] a member of the Reichstag, set out
+in his car for Louvain. He came to a village where there was
+considerable excitement going on. The Germans had just found three of
+their men lying dead on the road, and accused the peasants of being
+responsible for the deed. Liebknecht examined them, and was not long in
+obtaining proof that the Germans had been killed by Belgian riflemen. At
+Huy there were shots in the night; two soldiers wounded; the populace
+accused; the mayor arrested and condemned to death; but he knew that
+there were no Allied troops in the neighbourhood, and also that his own
+people had not fired a shot. "Shoot me, if you like," he said calmly,
+"but not before extracting the bullets from the wounded." The officer,
+less of a brute than some, gave his consent to this. The bullets in the
+wounds were German bullets. But the Germans do not even require a
+pretext to take action. Their first crime, to our knowledge, was on
+August 4th. Some officers dashed up to Herve in a car, challenged two
+civilians while crossing the bridge and, without giving them time to
+answer, shot them down with revolvers.
+
+In their private diaries they accuse one another, each throwing on his
+neighbour the responsibility for crimes committed. A cavalryman writes:
+"It is unfortunately true that the worst elements of our Army feel
+themselves authorised to commit any sort of infamy. This charge applies
+particularly to the A.S.C." A bombing officer: "_Rethel_, September 2nd.
+Discipline becoming lax. Brandy. Looting. The blame lies with the
+_infantry_." An infantry officer: "Discipline in our company
+excellent--a contrast with the rest. The _Pioneers_ are not worth much.
+As for the _Artillery_, they are a band of brigands." A final extract
+seems to be the only one that gives the truth: "Brin ... _troops of all
+arms_ are engaged in looting."
+
+It has been possible sometimes to prove premeditation. On the 17th
+August, a German officer was billeted with a Belgian magistrate. Their
+talk turned on Dinant. "Dinant," said the officer, "is a condemned
+town!" M. X ..., of Dinant, happening to be in another town, made the
+acquaintance of a German officer, who said to him on August 20th, "You
+come from Dinant? Don't go back. It's a bad place, and will be
+destroyed." Troops on their march towards Andenne announced in villages
+through which they passed that they were going to burn the town and
+massacre the inhabitants. At Louvain, a German officer, treated
+generously by a middle-class family, and appreciating their courtesy,
+rushed to their house on the 25th at 11 o'clock in the morning,[27] and
+earnestly pressed his hosts to leave without delay, refusing to give
+them any explanation. The family, puzzled and perturbed by his appeal,
+went off and so escaped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the eyes of the moralist the worst of all their crimes will perhaps
+be this, that the wretches tried to dishonour Belgium, after first
+assassinating her. They have dared to say, write, and proclaim publicly,
+and affirm to Neutrals, that Belgian women and girls had mutilated
+German wounded soldiers, blinding them with scissors or with boiling
+water. The reports of the Belgian Commission of Enquiry have been
+replied to in a counter report[28] published as a German White Book.
+This enquiry and these documents will live in history. In centuries to
+come they will hang as a heavy weight on the Kaiser's memory and the
+conscience of Germany. Listen to the pathetic conclusion of the Belgian
+reply: "Before God and before man, the Belgian Government has no
+hesitation in giving this as its opinion of the conduct of the German
+Government towards the Belgian nation: 'He is twice guilty who violates
+the rights of others and then attempts, with singular audacity, to
+justify himself by imputing to his victim faults that were never
+committed.'"[29]
+
+It still remains to be explained how, by what means, by what deadly
+influences, this German nation, consisting of men who, as individuals,
+are not all brigands, has reached and been led to this state of
+savagery? In the preparations for this _collective madness_ of a
+people, what part has been played by its leaders of thought and its
+politicians, by race and by education? This is a disturbing phenomenon
+which students of mental disease[30] will study later, but on the
+examination of which we cannot here embark. It is not for us to seek the
+pathological cause for this moral decay--this decadence. We have only to
+note its _effects_.
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[24] Need it be noted here that even if in any locality an imprudent
+civilian had fired a shot, it would still remain--in accordance with the
+Hague Convention, International Law, and plain morality--a veritable
+crime to massacre in a heap, haphazard, and without enquiry, so many
+innocent souls?
+
+[25] L.H. Grondijs, "Les Allemands en Belgique," p. cxix. (Paris,
+Berger-Levrault, Publishers).
+
+[26] Liebknecht was too honest and embarrassing a witness for Germany.
+He has been thrown into prison. We salute him.
+
+[27] The martyrdom of Dinant began on August 24th; that of Louvain on
+the 25th August, at 5 p.m.
+
+[28] It may be recalled that commissions of enquiry, at which _both_
+sides should be represented, were offered by Belgian Socialists to
+German Socialists, by Belgian Freemasons to German Freemasons, by
+Belgian Bishops to German Bishops. Three proposals. Three refusals!
+
+[29] France has suffered from similar calumny. We alluded above (note,
+p. 37) to the declaration of a German army doctor that orders were given
+to amputate, as a reprisal, "all wounded limbs." So _we_ are said to have
+done that? A monstrous lie, which will be spurned indignantly by all who
+know the honourable traditions of our ambulances and of our French
+doctors. The _method of systematic lying_ has been shown to the life in
+connection with the use of asphyxiating gas. The Boches made immense
+preparations for the use of this gas. When their organization was
+complete, they took care, before acting, to publish each day for a week
+in their communiques, little notes announcing that the enemy were
+"making wide use of this new method of warfare,"--a statement contrary
+to fact, and known by them to be so, but one that was calculated to
+mislead public opinion. When they considered that public opinion was
+sufficiently "prepared," they launched their deadly gases and their
+flaming liquids; and we needed a long time, needed also to overcome our
+moral hesitation, to make sure of our defence and our reply. _Cynical
+lying_ with the Germans is not only admitted, but _gloried in_. When it
+was completely proved that, in order to start the war of 1870, Bismarck
+had committed _forgery_. Professor Hans Delbrueck exclaimed, "Blessed is
+the hand that forged the Ems despatch."
+
+[30] Who, except the specialist in mental diseases, can deal with this
+proclamation of the Kaiser to his Army of the East?: "Remember that you
+are the chosen people! The Spirit of the Lord has descended upon me as
+Emperor of the Germans! I am the instrument of the Most High. I am His
+sword. Woe and death unto those who resist my will! Woe and death unto
+those who believe not in my mission!"
+
+
+
+
+THE GERMAN APPEAL
+
+
+APPEAL TO THE CIVILISED WORLD
+
+Now that we have reached the close of this book of horrors, let us
+impanel the 93 Germans of light and learning, and confront them with the
+words of their own manifesto:
+
+"As representatives of German Science and Art, we the undersigned,
+declare that:--
+
+"It is not true that Germany provoked this War....
+
+"It is not true that we have criminally violated the neutrality of
+Belgium....
+
+"It is not true that our soldiers have made any attack on the life or
+property of a single Belgian citizen without being forced to it by sheer
+necessity....
+
+"It is not true that our troops brutally destroyed Louvain....
+
+"It is not true that we have conducted warfare in defiance of
+International Law. Our soldiers commit neither undisciplined acts nor
+cruelties....
+
+" ... In this struggle we shall continue to the end to act as a
+civilised nation, to whom the heritage of a Goethe, a Beethoven or a
+Kant is as sacred as our own hearth and home. We answer for that in our
+own name and on our honour."[31]
+
+And since irony is more powerful than abuse, let us set down here,
+without a word of comment, a few German utterances:--
+
+The Kaiser: "We are the salt of the earth. God created us to civilise
+the world."
+
+The Cardinal-Archbishop of Cologne: "It is with God that our soldiers
+set out for this war that has been inflicted upon us, and in which we
+are fighting for the sacred treasures of Christianity, and for its own
+particular gift, Kultur."
+
+Dryander, a Protestant Minister, and preacher to the Royal Court at
+Berlin: "On our side we are fighting with a self-control, a conscience,
+and a gentleness unexampled perhaps in the history of the world."
+
+Professor Lasson: "Our characteristics are humanity, gentleness,
+conscience--the Christian virtues. In a world of evil, we stand for
+love, and God is with us."
+
+And, finally, this older and memorable saying of their great philosopher
+Hegel: "The destiny of the German race is to supply the sustaining
+pillars of Christian teaching."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[31] Speaking of honour, it is as well to recall here the reply made by
+a German officer to the schoolmaster at Chanteheux. The schoolmaster
+quite simply pledged his word of honour that no inhabitant had fired:
+"You French pig," the brute shouted, "don't talk of honour--you have
+none."
+
+
+
+
+APPEAL BY BELGIAN WORKMEN
+
+
+800,000 copies of this pamphlet had already been sent out when the world
+rang with the tragic appeal of the Belgian workmen to their brother
+workers in other lands. This appeal ought to be fixed on the door of
+every factory and workshop. Every worker, every citizen, should study
+it. We regret that we cannot reprint it here in full, but the following
+extracts will at least give an idea of this new crime committed by
+Germany:--
+
+    "Workers,--In the name of the international bonds that
+    unite all workmen, the working classes of
+    Belgium--threatened, without exception, with slavery,
+    deportation, and forced labour for the enemy's
+    gain--send to the working classes in other lands a
+    supreme appeal.
+
+    "Germany, as you know, attacked and terrorised Belgium
+    in 1914 for having defended her right to neutrality and
+    her faith and honour.
+
+    "Germany has been martyrizing Belgium. She has from that
+    moment onwards turned the land into a prison: the
+    frontiers are armed against Belgians like a battle
+    front.. All our constitutional liberties have been
+    abolished. There is no longer safety anywhere; the
+    life of our citizens is at the mercy of the
+    policeman,--arbitrary, limitless, pitiless ... Belgian
+    industrial idleness has been the creation of the
+    Germans, maintained by them for their own profit.[32]
+    To these 500,000 unemployed they have for the last month
+    been saying: 'Either you will sign a contract to work
+    for Germany, or you will be reduced to slavery.' In
+    either case, it means exile, deportation, forced labour
+    in the interests of the enemy, and against the interests
+    of our country: formidable punishments, the cruellest
+    ever invented by tyranny for the punishment of
+    crimes--and what _are_ the crimes alleged?... On the
+    western front, Belgian workmen--your brothers and
+    ours--are being forced to dig trenches, to build
+    aviation camps, to fortify the German lines, and when
+    the victims, in spite of everything, are firm in their
+    refusal to take part in work forbidden by International
+    Law, they are starved and beaten into illness, wounded,
+    and sometimes even _killed_.
+
+    "In Germany, they are turned on to work in mines, and at
+    lime-kilns, quite regardless of their age, profession,
+    or trade. Youths of seventeen, old men of seventy, are
+    deported in haphazard masses. _Is not this a revival of
+    ancient Slavery with all its horrors_?... Do you know,
+    brothers, what the Germans throw to their victims by way
+    of pay? 30 pfennigs (3d.) a day!
+
+    "Workers: _Never forget that the soldiers-who are_
+    _acting as the torturers or our Belgian workmen are
+    themselves German workers!_
+
+    "In the depths of our distress, we count on you. It is
+    for you to act! For ourselves, even if brute force
+    succeeds for the moment in reducing our bodies to
+    servitude, we shall never give our consent.
+
+    "A final word: Whatever tortures we may undergo, we do
+    not wish for Peace except with the independence of our
+    country and the triumph of justice.
+
+    "THE WORKMEN OF BELGIUM."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[32] By levying on Belgium a war contribution which already exceeds
+L40,000,000--by transporting to Germany food, merchandise and various
+products to the value of more than L200,000,000--by seizing and
+despatching to their own country the greater portion of our raw
+material, machines and accessories--by issuing threatening edicts to
+prevent localities from using the unemployed on their own important
+works of public utility.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+What is our object?
+
+Is it to incite our soldiers to commit, if chance arises, atrocities
+like theirs? We repudiate with horror a thought such as that.
+_Defensive_ reprisals (asphyxiating gas, liquid fire, etc.) are
+sometimes indispensable. Reprisals for _revenge_ would be unworthy of
+us. But--without speaking of personal punishments, demanded by outraged
+conscience, and essential in order that the two indivisible principles
+of right and of responsibility may still exist in the world--we must
+make it absolutely impossible for the Wild Beast to break out again. And
+how, when the settling time draws near, and, in spite of weariness, a
+new effort is needed to realise conditions of peace with guarantees for
+the future--how could the Allied Nations accept the sacrifices still
+demanded of them, if they remained in ignorance?
+
+It is not enough for these crimes to be known by Governments and by a
+few hundred people with leisure and inclination to read collections of
+great volumes. They must be known by everybody, by the entire people, by
+the People, who--in our proud and free countries--control, support,
+direct their Governments and are the sole masters of their own destiny.
+
+Our peoples ought to know the crimes committed in the name of "Kultur,"
+in order, at all costs, to take the precautions necessary to prevent for
+ever their return. That is our first object. The second is this: to all
+our martyrs we have a sacred duty--that of remembrance. There, where
+they fell, we shall doubtless carve their names in stone or bronze. But
+what of a time further away? When, after the long sufferings of this
+war, freed humanity takes up again its works of peace, we shall see the
+Germans reappear in every land, at every cross-road--men of commerce,
+industry, finance, science, men of the people and of society--in every
+place where those of all countries, all races and all colours meet and
+rub elbows. And what is our attitude to be? Our answer is this: So long
+as the nation in whose name and by whose hands these atrocities have
+been committed has not herself solemnly cast from her the scoundrels who
+dragged her into such decadence, we shall consider that it would betray
+our martyrs for us even to rub shoulders with their executioners, and
+that until the day arrives--if it ever does arrive--of a striking moral
+repentance, to _forget_ would be to _condone_.
+
+L. MIRMAN, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
+
+G. SIMON, G. KELLER, Mayor of Nancy. Mayor of Luneville.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Crimes, by Various
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