A BELGIAN BOY’S STORY OF THE RUIN OF AERSCHOT
PITIABLE PLIGHT OF BOY OF SIXTEEN STRANDED IN ANTWERP -- HIS ARREST --
A TOWN IN RUINS -- BURYING THE DEAD -- THE LEVELED GUNS -- MARCHING
AMONG GERMAN CAMPS -- NO MONEY AND NO WORK.
To the thousands of unhappy Belgian refugees driven from their homes by
the advancing Germans and transported to England the pity of the whole
world has gone out; yet even more deplorable than the condition of these
was the fate of those who were left behind to suffer at the hands of a
relentless enemy. The story of a delicate boy of sixteen, as told in the
following letter which he himself wrote from Antwerp to his former
employer, an American living at the time in England, is typical.
When this boy, fleeing from Aerschot, arrived in Antwerp, without
friends, money or papers, there was no agency to help him. If he had
been a smaller child somebody doubtless would have taken pity on him and
carried him with them as they fled; if he had been able to preserve his
legitimatization papers the Belgian authorities would have given him
some support; and, of course, if he had been older, he would have been
immediately enlisted in the service of his country. As it was he could
only drift before the foe, and suffer.
“ANTWERP, Sept. 23, 1914.
“DEAR SIR: As you correctly said in my testimonial when you were closing
the office, the war has isolated Belgium. Really I can well say that I
have been painfully struck by this scourge, and I permit myself, dear
sir, to give you a little description of my Calvary.
“Your offices were closed in the beginning of August. As I did not know
what to do and as the fatherland had not enough men to defend its
territory I tried to get myself accepted as a volunteer.
“On Aug. 10 I went to Aerschot, my native town, to get my certificate of
good conduct. Then I went to Louvain to have same signed by the
commander of the place. This gentleman sent me to St. Nicholas and
thence to Hemixem, where I was rejected as too young. I then decided to
return to Brussels, passing through Aerschot. Here my aunt asked me to
stay with her, saying that she was afraid of the Germans.
“I remained at Aerschot. This was Aug. 15. Suddenly, on the 19th, at
nine o’clock in the morning, after a terrible bombardment, the Germans
made their entry into Aerschot. In the first street which they passed
through they broke into the houses. They brought out six men whom I knew
very well and immediately shot them. Learning of this, I fled to
Louvain, where I arrived on Aug. 19 at one o’clock.
HIS ARREST
“At 1.30 P. M. the Germans entered Louvain. They did not do anything to
the people in the beginning. On the following Saturday, Aug. 22, I
started to return to Aerschot, as I had no money. (All my money was
still in Brussels.) The whole distance from Louvain to Aerschot I saw
nothing but German armies, always Germans. They did not say a word to me
until I suddenly found myself alone with three of the “Todeshusaren”
(Death’s-head Hussars), the vanguard of their regiment. They arrested me
at the point of the revolver, demanded where I was going and why I had
run away from Aerschot. They said that the whole of Aerschot was now on
fire, because the son of the burgomaster had killed a general. Finally
they searched me from head to foot, and I heard them discuss the
question of my fate.
“Finally the non-commissioned officer told me that I could continue on
my way; that they would certainly take care of me in Aerschot, as I had
been firing at Germans, and they would shoot me when I arrived. I would
have liked better to return to Louvain, but with an imperious gesture he
pointed out my road to Aerschot, and I continued. On arriving within a
few hundred meters of the town I was arrested once more.
“I forgot to tell you that of all the houses which I passed between
Louvain and Aerschot, there were only a few left intact. Upon these the
Germans had written in chalk in the German language: ‘Please spare. Good
people. Do not burn.’ Lying along the road I saw many dead horses
putrefying. There were also to be seen pigs, goats, and cows which had
nothing to eat, and which were howling like wild beasts. Not a soul was
to be seen in the houses or in the streets. Everything was empty.
[Illustration: IN BELGIUM.
_Jean_--“Do you think St. Nicholas will find us, now that we haven’t a
chimney?”]
“I was then arrested when a short distance from Aerschot. There were
with me two or three families from Sichem, a village between Diest and
Aerschot. We remained in the fields alongside the road, while the
Prussian regiments with their artillery continued to pass by. When the
artillery had passed we were marched at the point of the bayonet to the
church in Aerschot. On arrival at the church the families of Sichem
(there were at least twenty small children) were permitted to continue
on their way, and the non-commissioned officer, delighted that I could
speak German, permitted me to go to my aunt’s house.
A TOWN IN RUINS
“The aspect of the town was terrible. Not more than half the houses were
standing. In the first three streets which the Germans traversed there
was not a single house left. There was not a house in the town but had
been pillaged. All doors had been burst open. There was nothing,
nothing left. The stench in the streets was insupportable.
“I then went home, or, rather, I should say, I went to the house where
my father had always been boarding. You know, perhaps, that my mother
died twelve years ago. I did not find my father, but according to what
the people told me he had been arrested, and, with five other Aerschot
men, taken to Germany--I do not know for what purpose.
“I got into this house without any difficulty, because the door was
smashed in. I stayed there from Saturday, Aug. 22, up to Wednesday, the
26th, a little more comfortable. There was nothing to eat left in the
house. I lived on what a few women who remained in Aerschot could give
me. I was forced to go with the soldiers into the cellars of M. X.,
director of a large factory, to hunt for wine. As recompense I got a
loaf. It was not much, but at this moment it meant very much for me.
BURYING THE DEAD
“On Wednesday, Aug. 26, we were all once more locked up in the church.
It was then half-past four in the afternoon. We could not get out, even
for our necessities. On Thursday, about nine o’clock, each of us was
given a piece of bread and a glass of water. This was to last the whole
day. At ten o’clock a lieutenant came in, accompanied by fifteen
soldiers. He placed all the men who were left in a square, selected
seventy of us and ordered us out to bury the corpses of Germans and
Belgians around the town, which had been lying there since the battle of
the 19th. That was a week that these bodies had remained there, and it
is no use to ask if there was a stench. Afterward we had to clean the
streets, and then it was evening.
THE LEVELED GUNS
“They just got ready to shoot us. There were then ten of us. The guns
had already been leveled at us, when suddenly a German soldier ran out
shouting that we had not fired on them. A few minutes before we had
heard rifle-firing and the Germans said it was the Aerschot people who
were shooting, though all these had been locked up in the church and we
were the only inhabitants then in the streets, cleaning them, under
surveillance of Germans. It was this German who saved our lives.
“Picture to yourself what we have suffered! It is impossible to
describe. On Aug. 28 we were brought to Louvain, always guarded by
German soldiers. There were with us about twenty old men, over eighty
years of age. These were placed in two carts, tied to one another in
pairs. I and about twenty of my unfortunate compatriots had then to pull
the carts all the way to Louvain. It was hard, but that could be
supported all the same.
“On arriving at Louvain I saw with my own eyes a German who shot at us.
The Germans who were at the station shouted ‘The civilians have been
shooting,’ and commenced a fusillade against us. Many of us fell dead,
others wounded, but I had the chance to run away.
MARCHING AMONG GERMAN CAMPS
“I now took the road to Tirlemont, marching all the time among German
camps. Once I was arrested. Again they wanted to shoot me, insisting
that I was a student of the University of Louvain. The Germans pretend
it was the students who caused the population in Louvain to shoot at
them. However, my youth saved me, and I was set at liberty.
NO MONEY AND NO WORK
“All my money, the twenty francs which you presented me and my salary
for five weeks, as well as my little savings, are lying in Brussels, and
I cannot get at them. . . I cannot work, because there is no work to be
got. I cannot cross over to England, as, to do this, it is necessary
that there should be a whole family. In these horrible circumstances, I
respectfully take the liberty of addressing you, and I hope you will aid
me as best you can. I swear to you that I shall pay you back all that
you give me. I have here in Antwerp no place, no family. The town will
not give me any aid, because I have no papers to prove my identity. I
threw all my papers away for fear of the Germans. I count then on you
with a firm hope to pay you back later.
“Please accept, dear sir, my respectful greetings.”
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