Present:
Military Magistrate, NAUMANN.
Secretary of the Military Court, SCHWARZBACH.
LA MALMAISON, _December 5th, 1914_.
In the inquiry concerning the violations of International Law committed
against German troops, there appeared as witness Transport Soldier of
Reserve Müller, 2nd Field Pioneer Company, Pioneer Battalion No. 12,
who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, made
the following statement:
My name is Emil Erwin Müller, 26 years old; Protestant; fruit grower.
On the afternoon of August 25th, 1914, in company with Non-commissioned
Officer Fehrmann, I saw a number of bodies of civilians and that of
a woman lying in front of a house in a cross-street in Dinant. We
entered the house. In the room on the right there lay an officer--a
lieutenant of Infantry Regiment No. 182--a sofa-cushion under his head;
his head and a part of his chest were covered with a white cloth. All
three civilians wore the uniform of Infantry Regiment No. 182. In the
adjoining room there lay stretched out dead a non-commissioned officer
and five privates of the same regiment.
I lifted up the cloth covering the lieutenant and saw that he had
received a shot in the head. I did not see any further injuries to the
officer.
One of the privates who lay beside the lieutenant had his trousers
unbuttoned in front so that one could see his body. This soldier had
a shot in the lower part of the body. Extending from the larynx to at
least 10 cm. to the left was a cut which was bloody and the edges were
probably 1 cm. apart. The blood had flowed down towards the side. I am
convinced that it could only have been a wound from a cut.
In the other room the trousers of one of the soldiers were unbuttoned
so that one could see the body. This man had a cut or stab wound in the
lower body about 3 cm. wide. The clothing of the remaining soldiers
showed no disarrangement, they all bore shot-wounds.
The scene conveyed the impression that the officer, the
non-commissioned officer and the men had been attacked in their sleep
by the inhabitants in that quarter. I infer this from the fact that the
officer had a sofa-cushion and the others either a cloth or a knapsack
under their heads. The rifles stood in a corner.
In the house with Fehrmann and myself was also Pioneer of Reserve
Kretzschmann.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: EMIL ERWIN MÜLLER.
The witness was thereupon sworn.
Signed: NAUMANN. Signed: SCHWARZBACH.