QUARTERS AT THIESCOURT, _November 29th, 1914_.
Present:
Leader of the proceedings, Lieutenant STEGMUELLER.
Secretary, SCHMIDT.
There appeared as witness Captain Josephson, who, after the importance
of the oath had been pointed out, declared:
As to Person: My name is Walter Josephson, aged 46; Protestant; Leader
of 2nd Battalion, Landwehr Infantry Regiment No. 53.
As to Case: On August 27th, 1914, the 3rd Battalion, Landwehr Infantry
Regiment No. 53, marching from Rotzelaer to Louvain, had to conduct
a transport of about 1000 civilian prisoners. At first, the 9th
Company, under my leadership, and the 12th Company, Landwehr Infantry
Regiment No. 53, under the leadership of Captain Ernst, carried out
the supervision. When subsequently further transports of prisoners
were added, the 1st Battalion of the Landwehr Infantry Regiment No.
53 assisted in the supervision. Amongst the prisoners were a number
of Belgian clergymen, one of whom particularly attracted my attention
because at every halt he went from one prisoner to the other and spoke
to them excitedly, so that I had to put him under special supervision.
At Louvain we delivered the prisoners at the station; another section
of the troops, whom I cannot now name, undertook the watch over them.
On the following morning I was told by various people, amongst whom
was also Captain Ernst, that the clergyman above mentioned had fired
upon a guard, but had not hit him, and that he had therefore been
shot on the square outside the station, probably by the order of the
local commandant. Captain Ernst saw his body still lying there on the
following day.
With regard to the conditions then prevailing at Louvain I am able
further to state the following:
The 3rd Battalion, Landwehr Infantry Regiment No. 53, entered Louvain
on August 25th, that is, on the day of the sudden attack, and remained
at Louvain from August 27th to September 1st. My company was quartered
on the Belgian rector of an intermediate school, a very quiet,
sober-minded man, with whom I fully discussed the attack. He related
to me that he had gone for a walk in the neighbourhood of Louvain on
the day of the attack, and had visited an inn. The host told him that
on that day a troop of about 100 young men, who conversed in different
languages, had passed his house on the way to Louvain. They asked for
drinks and lodgings for the night, but the whole thing appeared to him
so suspicious that he removed the sign outside his inn, so as to have
nothing to do with these people. He said to the rector literally, "If
these people get to Louvain, there will be bad smells there to-morrow,"
by which he meant to say that then blood would flow. The rector also
stated to me that in almost every house at Louvain a room for students
is to be let. These rooms were tenantless at the time in question
on account of the university holidays; friends and acquaintances of
the students, or persons who posed as such, could quite easily get
admission to these rooms; he assumed that these rooms had been occupied
by the above-mentioned persons. It was, at any rate, a striking fact
that when I rode at the head of my battalion, together with Captain
Ernst and the adjutant, Lieutenant Stegmueller, in order to quarter
myself at Louvain in the Rue des Joyeuses Entrées, there was a young
man in almost every house, whereas the younger Belgian male population
had been called up for war service; that, furthermore, the inhabitants
absolutely urged us to quarter only officers in their houses, and that,
finally, in all officers' quarters there was--so we were told--only in
the outhouses room for the officers' servants, and never in the houses
in which officers were quartered.
I had to supply the guard at the railway station from my company;
opposite the station building lies a block of houses, and in front
of it a street fenced off by boards from the station. From this
plank-fence the watch was fired on daily in the dark. I had then all
the houses cleared and the block of houses surrounded by guards. On
the evening of this day I saw myself how, at dark, a troop of 50 to 60
civilians emerged from the wood which was about 600 to 800 metres away,
but withdrew when the guard was noticed. From this date the firing upon
the guard ceased.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: JOSEPHSON, Captain and Battalion Leader.
The witness was sworn in accordance with regulations.
Signed: STEGMUELLER. Signed: SCHMIDT.