MALINES, _November 19th, 1914_.
Court of the General Belgian Government.
Present:
President, STEMPEL.
Secretary, STEMPER.
There appears on citation as witness Non-commissioned Officer Joseph
Fenes, who is examined as follows:
As to Person: My name is Joseph Fenes, aged 44; non-commissioned
officer, 1st Company, 2nd Landsturm Battalion Neuss, at present in
Malines.
As to Case: I arrived at Louvain on the evening of August 24th with my
Landsturm Battalion. In the afternoon of the following day, at about
4 o'clock, I was ordered to saddle at once, ready for battle, the two
horses of our commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Schweder. The hotel, at
which my commander had put up, was situated at the right, looking from
the station square, at a corner of the square. When I arrived at the
hotel with the two saddled horses my commander had already left in
his automobile for the battlefield. I was instructed to wait with the
two horses outside the hotel. From this point in front of the hotel I
could well overlook the station square. I noticed that on the stroke
of 8 o'clock (German time) a rocket went up suddenly from the station
square, such as I have seen them at displays of fireworks. The rocket,
giving a bright light, went up from the square to the right of the
station from a bush near which there are to-day graves; I was about 50
metres away from it. I only saw one rocket go up. Before the rocket
went up I had already noticed that between 6 and 7 in the evening a
remarkable number of the civilians who passed me entered the hotel of
my commander and went up the stairs.
Hardly had the above-mentioned rocket gone up when shots were fired
from all the surrounding houses upon the German soldiers who were in
the station square. The shots were fired from the houses by civilians,
as I noticed distinctly--it was still fairly light. I also saw
civilians running about on the roofs of the surrounding houses and
firing down from the roofs. The first shot fell from a window of the
top storey of the hotel of my commander, outside which I was waiting,
and, as I distinctly noticed, was fired by a civilian. Immediately
afterwards many more shots were fired from the windows of this hotel
into the street. For safety's sake I at once mounted one of the horses.
But immediately after I had mounted, it was shot in the leg (hind leg)
from the window of my commander's hotel, so that it fell down with me.
Just afterwards the other horse also was struck by a bullet from the
hotel. It fell on me, so that I broke a rib and shoulder. As I was
lying between the two horses, I received suddenly from above, from a
window of the hotel, a shot on the crown of the head. (Witness shows
the wound; the injury is to-day still clearly visible, and is situated
on the upper part of the head, approximately in the centre, so that he
must have received the shot from above.) I was carried to the hotel by
a comrade and bandaged by a German military doctor who did not belong
to our battalion. Later on I was moved to another house, and then laid
down in a place amongst some bushes. From there I saw that brisk firing
was still taking place from the surrounding houses. The persons firing
the shots I could not recognise because of the darkness. I declare most
positively that the German soldiers only fired after the civilians had
already begun the firing from the houses, after the rocket had gone
up. After the rocket had ascended, wild and indiscriminate firing at
once began from all the surrounding houses. A mad confusion ensued.
Riderless horses and driverless baggage-carts tore past.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: JOSEPH FENES.
After the importance of the oath had been pointed out to the witness,
he was duly sworn.
Signed: STEMPEL. Signed: STEMPER.