Transcriber’s Notes:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE INVADED COUNTRY]
* * * * *
THE GERMAN TERROR IN BELGIUM
_An Historical Record_
BY
ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE
LATE FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE,
OXFORD
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
MCMXVII
* * * * *
COPYRIGHT, 1917,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PREFACE
The subject of this book is the treatment of the civil population in
the countries overrun by the German Armies during the first three
months of the European War. The form of it is a connected narrative,
based on the published documents[1] and reproducing them by direct
quotation or (for the sake of brevity) by reference.
With the documents now published on both sides it is at last
possible to present a clear narrative of what actually happened. The
co-ordination of this mass of evidence, which has gradually accumulated
since the first days of invasion, is the principal purpose for which
the book has been written. The evidence consists of first-hand
statements--some delivered on oath before a court, others taken down
from the witnesses without oath by competent legal examiners, others
written and published on the witnesses’ own initiative as books or
pamphlets. Most of them originally appeared in print in a controversial
setting, as proofs or disproofs of disputed fact, or as justifications
or condemnations of fact that was admitted. In the present work,
however, this argumentative aspect of them has been avoided as far
as possible. For it has either been treated exhaustively in official
publications--the case of Louvain, for instance, in the German White
Book and the Belgian Reply to it--or will not be capable of such
treatment till after the conclusion of the War. The ultimate inquiry
and verdict, if it is to have finality, must proceed either from a
mixed commission of representatives of all the States concerned,
or from a neutral commission like that appointed by the Carnegie
Foundation to inquire into the atrocities committed during the Balkan
War. But the German Government has repeatedly refused proposals,
made both unofficially and officially, that it should allow such
an investigation to be conducted in the territory at present under
German military occupation,[2] and the final critical assessment will
therefore necessarily be postponed till the German Armies have retired
again within their own frontiers.
Meanwhile, an ordered and documented narrative of the attested facts
seems the best preparation for that judicial appraisement for which
the time is not yet ripe. The facts have been drawn from statements
made by witnesses on opposite sides with different intentions and
beliefs, but as far as possible they have been disengaged from this
subjective setting and have been set out, without comment, to speak
for themselves. It has been impossible, however, to confine the
exposition to pure narration at every point, for in the original
evidence the facts observed and the inferred explanation of them
are seldom distinguished, and when the same observed fact is made a
ground for diametrically opposite inferences by different witnesses,
the difficulty becomes acute. A German soldier, say, in Louvain on
the night of August 25th, 1914, hears the sound of machine-gun firing
apparently coming from a certain spot in the town, and infers that at
this spot Belgian civilians are using a machine gun against German
troops; a Belgian inhabitant hears the same sound, and infers that
German troops are firing on civilians. In such cases the narrative
must be interpreted by a judgment as to which of the inferences is
the truth, and this judgment involves discussion. What is remarkable,
however, is the rarity of these contradictions. Usually the different
testimonies fit together into a presentation of fact which is not open
to argument.
The narrative has been arranged so as to follow separately the tracks
of the different German Armies or groups of Armies which traversed
different sectors of French and Belgian territory. Within each sector
the chronological order has been followed, which is generally identical
with the geographical order in which the places affected lie along the
route of march. The present volume describes the invasion of Belgium up
to the sack of Louvain.
ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE.
_March, 1917._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A schedule of the more important documents will be found in the
“List of Abbreviations” pp. xi-xiii.
[2] Belgian Reply pp. vii. and 97-8.
CONTENTS
FRONTISPIECE _The Invaded Country (Map)_
PAGE
PREFACE v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
LIST OF MAPS ix
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xi
CHAPTER I.: THE TRACK OF THE ARMIES 15