COLOGNE, _November 13th, 1914_.
Royal Government.
Present:
President GREEVEN, as Judge.
Referendary, Dr. WOLTER, as Secretary.
On citation there appears as witness the soldier Dadaczynski, 6th
Company, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 27, who states:
As to Person: My name is Stanislaus Anton Dadaczynski, aged 31;
Catholic; gardener in Stassfurt, near Magdeburg, at present in the
reserve battalion, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 27.
As to Case: When my battalion was in a village before Louvain, the name
of which I do not remember, I was taken by a non-commissioned officer
to Louvain on account of lung-trouble, together with two other soldiers
who were suffering with their feet.
On Tuesday, August 25th, 1914, about 9 p.m., we were lying in the
barracks in which I was placed, in our rooms, on the straw. Each one
had by his side his rifle, also loaded cartridges. Suddenly we heard
shots directed upon our barracks from the hospital opposite. Shots
also came from the houses near the hospital. I can say with certainty
that shots were also fired from the hospital. We could hear distinctly
that shots were being discharged not only from guns, but also from
machine-guns.
When we heard the shooting we took our rifles and ran from the second
or third storey, where we were stationed, downstairs. As the main
entrance of the barracks was covered by machine-gun fire, we could
not get out of the barracks. Some of us, who tried all the same, were
wounded; one fell dead. When the shots ceased for a moment we ran,
thirty to forty together, out of the barracks. We were shot at from all
surrounding houses, from cellars and windows.
We now stormed all the houses from which shots had fallen; I with
four others rushed into the first house to the left of the hospital.
We brought out five inhabitants; from the other houses, close by,
about twenty men were brought out. Those who were found with arms were
immediately shot or bayoneted. Some twenty men, who were unarmed, we
brought to the barracks. From all side-streets near the hospital came
shots. We had to rush house after house. Wherever an armed inhabitant
was discovered he was killed. The house in which he was found was set
on fire. I myself, together with a comrade, bayoneted one inhabitant
who went for me with a knife.
Shots were fired not only from the windows and cellar-openings, but
from the upper storeys of houses tin boxes filled with hot tar were
thrown on us. I saw myself how a box filled with tar was thrown upon
the helmet of one of my comrades, so that the tar ran down his neck and
shoulder. Another comrade had been hit by such a tar box on the arm,
so that the tar ran down his sleeve. Happily for them, the tar was no
longer so very hot as to cause worse burns.
During the storming of the houses we again made a number of prisoners,
among them women and children; these were taken for safety's sake. We
brought these prisoners also to the barracks, and had to guard them
there.
Shots were heard until 2 a.m., and between 6 and 7 a.m. the firing
commenced afresh.
At about 9 a.m. I saw a church burning near the town hall, also many
houses in the neighbourhood. The shooting continued intermittently
until Thursday, August 27th, when I received instructions to accompany
the convoy of captured francs-tireurs, to which were added about four
hundred English prisoners, from Louvain _via_ Aachen to Cologne, where
we were dismissed to the Ersatz Battalion, Reserve Infantry Regiment
No. 27.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: STANISLAUS DADACZYNSKI.
After the importance of the oath had been urged upon the witness, he
was duly sworn.
Proceedings closed.
Signed: GREEVEN. Signed: Dr. WOLTER.