Present:
President of the Court, SCHWEINITZ.
Secretary, LIPS.
NEUFCHÂTEL, _February 16th, 1915_.
In the matter for investigation with reference to the events in
Dinant, Acting-Sergeant-Major Bartusch appeared as witness. After he
had been made acquainted with the object of the investigation, and
the importance of the oath to be taken had been pointed out, he was
examined as follows:
As to Person: My name is Georg Wilhelm Bartusch. I am 33 years of age;
Protestant; Acting-Sergeant-Major, Battalion Drummer, 1st Battalion,
(Guards) Grenadier Regiment No. 100.
As to Case: On August 23rd I served on the staff of the 1st Battalion
in Dinant. We slid down the steep slopes into Dinant rather than ran.
An inhabitant, the Luxemburger mentioned below, told me they did not
believe we should get down; on the contrary, they reckoned that we
would be shot on the way. From the very beginning we were assailed
by fire from the houses, small shot was also used; the firing came
from all the openings in the houses, from the windows and doors,
and also from holes cut out between the roof and wall. Below in the
town we sought a temporary shelter in a warehouse nearly opposite
the gaol. From here an attempt was made to clear the neighbourhood
of sharpshooters. All those of the inhabitants who were found in the
houses were taken to the prison. The persons who had been caught with
weapons in their hands were separated and placed against the garden
wall near the open place. They were there shot by a detachment of
Grenadiers by order of Lieutenant-Colonel Count Kielmannsegg. How many
there were, I cannot exactly say; there may have been 50 or 100. They
stood in three or four rows, and were to my knowledge only men. That
women and children were shot with them, I did not see. One man tried
to keep a child on his arm, but this was prevented by a woman who took
the child from him. One must try to imagine the confusion prevailing,
and that all this was taking place while we were still being fired on.
I think it is possible that some of the women and children, whom we had
forced away from the men, had fled behind the wall of the garden, and
that there they perished either by our bullets which pierced the wall
or by the bullets of the enemy on the other bank of the Meuse. Everyone
who stayed out of doors did so at the continual risk of his life. At
the very commencement, when we reached Dinant, a girl of about thirteen
years of age received a shot in the stomach from the other bank of the
Meuse. She was bandaged by two German stretcher-bearers.
One man was caught in the street by two Grenadiers, who declared he
had wounded Captain Legler. We tied his hands with a cord and took him
with us. He was, however, rescued by civilians in the street-fighting.
I recognised him again among the men lined up for execution by the
marks left by the cord on his hands. In a house which had already been
searched, and which I and a Grenadier were again searching through, I
found behind a secret door two men of about twenty years of age; each
had a revolver in his hand from which shots had already been discharged.
Among the persons who had been taken to the prison was a well-dressed
man of about seventy years of age. A bulging of his waistcoat attracted
my attention; when I went to touch it he said, "Purse." I tore his
waistcoat open and produced from it a small revolver from which a shot
had already been discharged. As far as I know, this old man was not
among those who were shot. To judge by the continuous firing, all the
inhabitants of Dinant must have taken part in the shooting. When we
were attending to the thirteen-year-old girl who had been shot, her
father, a Luxemburger living in Dinant, who spoke broken German, said
that in Dinant parents had given revolvers to their children of ten to
twelve years so that they might shoot at the "Allemands."
In the prison we found about eight pistols and the same number of
swords, as well as a cigar-box full of cardboard packets which were
filled with small shot.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: BARTUSCH.
Witness was hereupon sworn.
Signed: SCHWEINITZ. Signed: LIPS.