As to Person: My name is Carl Schwarz. I am 34 years of age, of the
Protestant faith.
As to Case: On the 19th of August I was sent in advance of Colonel
Stenger, who later was shot, and was commanding the 8th Infantry
Brigade, to Aerschot, to find quarters for the staff. The Mayor
of Aerschot suggested to me that his own house, situated in the
market-place, would provide the best accommodation. I entered this
house, and was received in the most friendly manner by the Mayor's
wife. Between four and five in the afternoon, Colonel Stenger and the
Orderly Officer, Lieutenant of Reserve Beyersdorff, arrived.
Shortly before eight in the evening, soon after I had had a short
interview with the Colonel in his room, there suddenly arose a brisk
rifle-fire in the town; it was directed on the troops, who were partly
passing through and partly halting in the market-place. The first
shots, which, according to the sound, seemed to come from a northerly
direction, I thought came from the enemy's fire, who had been reported
as advancing from the north. But I was soon convinced by the shots
directed on our house that they were intended for us. The shots did not
emanate from our troops. After a short pause, the firing was renewed
with equal violence. In the meantime, the Mayor was brought to me by
the men of the 140th Infantry Regiment. I had to protect him from the
fury of the men. I now went through the streets with the Mayor, and
through him tried to bring the citizens to reason. After the firing had
died down, I handed the Mayor over to the commandant of the town, Major
Jenrich.
As I now returned to the Mayor's house to receive orders from Colonel
Stenger, I found him lying seriously wounded on the floor of his room.
Owing to the many shots fired at our adjoining rooms, and to the fact
that the townsfolk obviously knew that the commander was billeted in
the Mayor's house (indicated on the door), and further, that Colonel
Stenger could be seen through the wide-open doors of the balcony, I was
under the impression that the fire was specially directed against the
Colonel.
After Colonel Jenrich had given the command that the troops should
leave Aerschot, I personally, accompanied by a few men of the 140th
Infantry Regiment, made a thorough search of the Mayor's house, from
which shots were supposed to have been fired. On this occasion, by my
orders, the locked cellar doors, of which the keys were alleged to
have been lost, were broken in with axes. In the cellar, in front of
the window which opened on to the street, I found a conspicuous stand
from which shots must have been fired. The window-panes were completely
shattered. Whilst we were searching the living-rooms, the Mayor's son
came towards us from a darkened room. I, personally, handed him over to
the sentry in the market-place. Those calumnies about our doings in the
Mayor's house, published in a foreign newspaper, are untrue.
The negotiations concerning the housing and catering were conducted on
both sides in a friendly fashion, mostly with the Mayor's wife, as the
Mayor was occupied at the town hall. It was natural that, after the
shooting of Colonel Stenger, the friendly tone which had reigned should
have been changed to a strictly official one, and I did not omit to
show my horror at the sad event.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: SCHWARZ.
Hereupon the witness took the oath.