Having been apprised of the significance of the oath, and advised as
to the object of the examination, Major Fränzel made the following
statement:
As to Person: My name is Georg Friedrich Artur Fränzel. I am 45 years
old; Protestant; Major and Battalion Commander, Infantry Regiment No.
178.
As to Case: On August 23rd the 2nd Battalion, as 1st, received the
order to place itself in possession of Leffe. The whole of the
Regimental Staff rode with the leading company. At the beginning of
the valley, which stretches away to Leffe, there stood a factory; the
battalion was fired at from here and from the heights behind. The
factory was at once stormed; only a few civilians were found in it,
but no French or Belgian soldiers; any escape of the people who had
fired from the factory was impossible as we had surrounded the place.
The guilty civilians, provided they were men, were shot by order of
the Commander of the regiment, Colonel von Reyter, while some women
arrested in the factory were handed over later to the abbot of the
monastery.
On a further advance the battalion, in order to get into the gardens
on this side of the Meuse which were under the fire of the enemy's
infantry, was obliged to open forcibly several locked-up houses. The
inhabitants seemed to have only been waiting for this, as we were
now fired on from the houses all round, especially from the cellars,
apparently with revolvers and pistols, for we found these later in
clearing the houses, some still loaded. One of the first who was
wounded by a shot from a cellar was Captain Franz, who stood quite
close to me. In all, my battalion had at that time in the place
itself--not by the Meuse--six killed; the number of wounded I am not
able to state. The battalion was forced by the treacherous attack to
proceed against the population; all the houses, from which there had
been firing, were cleared by our troops. How many of the inhabitants
were shot on this day, I am unable to state definitely; at any rate,
all the women and children were led off to the monastery in Leffe and
given over to the abbot. I have further to remark that again late in
the afternoon, as our artillery was entering Leffe, the artillery-men
were fired on by inhabitants of the market-place, although several
francs-tireurs who had been shot were lying there. The battalion was
unable to finish the clearing of the place alone, and was obliged to
ask for support from the regiment, which was granted in the shape of
the 6th and 7th Companies. In searching the houses, not one enemy
soldier was found. Consequently, the shots could only have been
discharged at us by civilians.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: FRÄNZEL.
The witness was sworn.
Signed: STARKE, Magistrate.