THE PRESIDENT: General Rudenko? The American and British prosecutors?
[_Each indicated that he had no question._]
THE PRESIDENT: Do any of the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any
questions?
DR. EXNER: You have been speaking about the university library at
Louvain. I should like to ask something: Were you yourself in Louvain
when the two batteries were firing at the library, and at the library
only, in 1940?
VAN DER ESSEN: I was not in Louvain, but I should say this: Louvain was
in the K. O. line, that is in the very front line; and the population of
Louvain was obliged by the British military authorities to evacuate the
town on the 14th so that nearly all the inhabitants of Louvain had left
at the time when these events took place and only paralytics and sick
persons, who could not be transported and who had hidden in their
cellars, were left; but what I said concerning these batteries, I know
from the interrogation of the two witnesses who were on the spot just
outside Louvain. The library was not set on fire from within, but
shelled from without. And these witnesses of whom I speak lived in these
two villages outside the town where the batteries were located.
DR. EXNER: Were there any Belgian or British troops still left in the
town?
VAN DER ESSEN: The Belgian troops were no longer there. They had been
replaced by the British troops when the British had taken over the
sector and at the time when the library was seen to be on fire. The
first flames were seen in the night of the 16th to the 17th at 1:30 in
the morning. The British troops had left. There remained only a few
tanks which were operating a withdrawal movement. These fired an
occasional shot to give the impression that the sector was still
occupied by the British Army.
DR. EXNER: So there were still British troops in the town when the
bombardment started?
VAN DER ESSEN: There were no longer any British troops; there were
merely a few tanks on the hills outside Louvain in the direction of
Brussels, a few tanks which, as I said, were carrying out necessary
maneuvers for withdrawal.
I would have liked to add a few words and to say to the very honorable
Counsel for the Defense that, according to the testimony of persons who
were in the library—the ushers and the janitors—not a single British
soldier ever set foot in the library buildings.
DR. EXNER: That is not surprising. At the time the German batteries were
firing were there still British batteries or Belgian batteries firing?
VAN DER ESSEN: No.
DR. EXNER: So all was quiet in the town of Louvain; the troops had left;
the enemy was not there yet, and the batteries didn’t fire?
VAN DER ESSEN: That was the rather paradoxical situation in Louvain;
there was a moment when the British had left and the Germans had not yet
arrived; and there remained only the few ill persons, the few paralytics
who could not be moved and who were left behind in cellars. A few other
persons remained too: the Chief of the Fire Service and Monseigneur Van
Wayenberg, the Rector of the University, who had brought the dead and
the dying from Brussels to Louvain in the firemen’s car and made the
journey several times. There was also my colleague, Professor Kennog, a
member of the Faculty of Medicine who had taken over the direction of
the city.
DR. EXNER: Do you know where these German batteries were located?
VAN DER ESSEN: Yes, indeed. One was located at Corbek and the other at
Lovengule, one on the west side and one on the north side. The only
shell hits on the tower of the library were four hits from the east side
and seven from the north side. If there had still been British or
Belgian batteries, the shells would have come from the opposite side.
DR. EXNER: Can you tell me anything about the caliber of these
batteries?
VAN DER ESSEN: Yes, we saved the shells and at present they are in the
Library of Louvain, or rather in what serves as a library for the
university. There are four shells and two or three fragments of shells.
DR. EXNER: And do you know the name of the peasant who was supposed to
have been asked by a German officer whether that was really the
University of Louvain? Do you know the peasant personally?
VAN DER ESSEN: Yes, indeed, his name is M. Vigneron.
DR. EXNER: Do you know the peasant yourself? Do you know him?
VAN DER ESSEN: I do not know him personally. It was the librarian of the
university who had a conversation with him and who induced the War
Crimes Commission to interrogate this peasant.
DR. EXNER: You are a member of that commission yourself?
VAN DER ESSEN: Yes, I am ready to declare that I took no direct part in
the inquiry concerning the Library of Louvain, just as Monseigneur the
Rector and the librarian took no active part in the inquiry concerning
the Library of Louvain. It was made by an officer of the judicial
delegation who acted alone and quite independently upon the order of the
Prosecutor of Louvain, and we kept entirely out of the matter.
DR. EXNER: Have you seen the official files of this commission?
VAN DER ESSEN: Yes, certainly.
DR. EXNER: I am surprised they weren’t brought here. Tell me, why did
the director of the library or the person who was directly concerned not
go, after the occupation of the town, to the mayor or to the commander
of the town?
VAN DER ESSEN: I don’t think I understand the question very well.
DR. EXNER: When the German Army came, a town commander was appointed.
Why didn’t the mayor of the town, or the Director of the University
Library go to the town commander and tell him about these things?
VAN DER ESSEN: Why didn’t he tell him about these things—for the very
simple reason that at that time everything was in complete disorder and
there was hardly anybody left in the town, and on the other hand as soon
as the German Army arrived, it systematically closed the entrance gate
of the library so that the Belgians could not make any inquiry. Then two
German inquiry commissions came upon the scene. The first worked on 26
May 1940 with an expert, Professor Kellermann of the School of
Technology in Aachen, accompanied by a Party man in a brown shirt. They
examined what was left and they summoned before them as witnesses the
Rector of the University and the Librarian. From the very beginning of
the inquiry they wished to force the rector and the librarian to declare
and admit that it was the British who had set fire to the library. And
as a proof, this expert showed shell cases saying, “Here, sniff this, it
smells of gasoline and shows that chemicals were used to set fire to the
library.” Whereupon the Rector and the Librarian of the University said
to him, “Where did you find this shell case, Mr. Expert?” “In such and
such a place.” “When we went by that place,” said the rector, “it wasn’t
there.” It had been placed there by the German expert. And I will add,
if you will permit me, because this is of considerable importance, that
a second inquiry commission came in August 1940, presided over by a very
distinguished man, District Court of Appeal Judge Von Neuss. He was
accompanied this time by the expert who had directed the inquiry into
the firing of the Reichstag. This commission again examined everything,
and before the rector and another witness, Krebs, from the Benedictine
Abbey of Mont-César, they simply laughed at the conclusions of the first
commission, and said they were ridiculous.
DR. EXNER: You have said that the library building had towers. Do you
know whether there were artillery observers in these towers?
VAN DER ESSEN: You ask whether there were artillery observers? All I can
say is that the rector had always opposed this from the beginning, and
he certainly would have opposed any attempt of this kind, knowing that
the presence of artillery observers in the tower would obviously provide
the enemy with a reason to fire on the library. The rector knew this and
he always said to me, “We must be extremely careful to see that British
soldiers or others who might take the sector do not go up in the tower.”
I know from the statements of the janitor that no Englishman, no British
soldier, went into the tower. That is absolutely certain. As for
Belgians, I must confess that I cannot answer your question, as I don’t
know.
DR. EXNER: It would not be so very amazing, would it, if the university
library had been hit by German artillery. After all, it has happened
that the libraries of the Universities of Berlin, Leipzig, Munich,
Breslau, Cologne, _et cetera_, have been hit. The only question is
whether this was done deliberately, and here it occurs to me that the
peasant . . .
VAN DER ESSEN: The peasant . . .
DR. EXNER: I would like to ask you: Was there any mention in these
inquiries as to the motive which might have induced the German Army to
make this an objective?
VAN DER ESSEN: All the evidence seems to indicate, and this was the
conclusion arrived at by the commission, that the motive—I will not say
the main motive, because there is no certainty in this sort of
thing—that the motive which is very probable, almost certain, for the
destruction of the library was the German Army’s desire to do away with
a monument which commemorates the Treaty of Versailles. On the library
building there was a virgin wearing a helmet crushing under her foot a
dragon which symbolized the enemy. Certain conversations of German
officers gave the very clear impression that the reason why they wished
to set fire systematically to this building was their desire to get rid
of a testimony of the defeat in the other war, and above all, a reminder
of the Treaty of Versailles. I may add that this is not the first time
that the Germans have destroyed the University of Louvain.
DR. EXNER: You believe that the commander of that battery knew that?
VAN DER ESSEN: There is very interesting testimony which I should like
to submit to the honorable Counsel for the Defense. On the day when the
batteries were installed, the two batteries which I mentioned, I spoke
to a tax collector, a civil servant, who lived in a villa on the road to
Roosweek, a few kilometers from Louvain. That afternoon some German
high-ranking officers came to his house to ask for hospitality. These
officers had with them a truck with all the necessary radio apparatus
for sending wireless orders to the German artillery to fire. These
officers installed themselves in his house, and dinner was naturally
served to them, and they invited him to sit with them. After hesitating
a moment, he accepted, and during the meal there was a violent
discussion. The officers said, “These Belgian swine”—excuse my using
this expression, but they used it—“at any rate they did put that
inscription on the library.” They were referring to the famous
inscription “_Furore Teutonica_” which in fact was never on the library;
but all the German officers were absolutely convinced that this
inscription “_Furore teutonica diruta, dono americano restituta_”
(destroyed by German fury, restored by American generosity) was on the
building, whereas, in fact, it never has been there. However, I am quite
willing to admit that in Germany they might have believed that it was
there; and the very fact that there should have been a discussion among
the officers in command of these two batteries, seems to prove that if
they directed the fire onto the library, it was in order to destroy this
monument. It was probable that they wanted to get rid of a monument
which, according to their idea, bore an inscription which was insulting
to the German Army and the German people. That is the testimony which I
can give to the honorable Counsel for the Defense. I give it as it is.
DR. EXNER: You mean that the captain who commanded this battery knew
about that inscription! I don’t believe it.
VAN DER ESSEN: Certainly.
DR. EXNER: Thank you.
DR. STAHMER: Witness, you have said that 43 airplanes flew over the
library and dropped bombs on it. As you told us yourself, in reply to
Professor Exner’s question, you were not in the town at the time; where
did you get that information?
VAN DER ESSEN: As I have already said, it is not my testimony which I am
giving here, because for my part I have none; but it is the testimony of
the lawyer, Davids, who had a country house at Kesseloo.
This lawyer went out in the morning to look at the sky. He had a
considerable number of refugees in his home, among them women and
children, and as airplanes were continually overhead he had gone out in
the morning to see what was going on. He saw this squadron of airplanes
which he counted—remember he was an old soldier himself—and there were
43 which were flying in the direction of the library; and when they
arrived over the library, exactly over the gable at the farthest point
from the house of the witness, they dropped a bomb, and he saw smoke
immediately arise from the roof of the library. That is the testimony on
which I base the statement I just made.
DR. STAHMER: So it was just one bomb that hit the library?
VAN DER ESSEN: We must distinguish here, sir, between artillery fire and
bombs which are dropped by planes. From a technical point of view, it
seems absolutely certain that a bomb from a plane hit the library,
because the roof has metal covering and this metal roofing is quite
level, except in one part where it caves in. We consulted technicians,
who told us that a metallic surface would never have sunk in to such an
extent if it had been hit by artillery fire and could only have been
caused by a bomb from a plane.
DR. STAHMER: How many bombs in all were dropped by airplanes?
VAN DER ESSEN: As the witness was at a height dominating the Louvain
area from where he could see the library on the plain, it was impossible
for him to count exactly the bombs which these planes dropped. He only
saw the bombs fall. Then he saw the smoke which arose from the roof of
the library. That’s all I have to say concerning this point.
DR. STAHMER: How many bomb hits were counted in the city?
VAN DER ESSEN: On this point I can give you no information, but I know
that some airplanes passed over the library quarters in a straight line
going north to south. These bombs, at that time, in May 1940, damaged,
but not very seriously, the Higher Institute of Philosophy, the
Institute of Pharmacy, and a few other university buildings; also a
certain number of private houses.
DR. STAHMER: When were the bombs dropped, before the artillery fire or
afterwards?
VAN DER ESSEN: The bombs were dropped before and afterwards. There were
some air raids. I myself was present during a terrible air-raid on the
afternoon of 10 May 1940 by a squadron of seven planes. I am not a
military technician, but I saw with my own eyes the planes which
dive-bombed the Tirlemont Bridge. The result of this bombing was that a
considerable number of houses were destroyed and 208 persons killed on
the spot, on the afternoon of 10 May 1940.
[_A recess was taken._]
THE PRESIDENT: Do any of the other Defense Counsel wish to
cross-examine?
HERR BABEL: Witness, when did you last see the university building; that
is, before the attack?
VAN DER ESSEN: Before the fire? I saw it on 11 May 1940.
HERR BABEL: That is to say, before the attack?
VAN DER ESSEN: Before the attack.
HERR BABEL: Was it damaged at that time, and to what extent?
VAN DER ESSEN: On 11 May absolutely nothing had happened to the library.
It was intact. Until the night of the 16th to 17th of May, when I left,
there was absolutely no damage.
HERR BABEL: Apart from the hits on the tower, did you notice any other
traces of artillery fire on the building?
VAN DER ESSEN: On the building I don’t think so. There were only traces
of artillery fire . . .
HERR BABEL: From the fact that only the tower had been hit, couldn’t it
be thought that the tower and not the building was the target?
VAN DER ESSEN: When I said that the tower was struck, I meant only the
traces that could be seen on the walls, on the balcony of the first
story, and on the dial of the clock. Apart from that, nothing could be
seen on the building for the simple reason that the building had been
completely burned out inside and nothing could be seen on the charred
walls. But it is absolutely certain that either a bomb from a plane or
an artillery shell—I personally think it was the latter—hit the
building on the north side, after the fire. The trace of shell fire can
be seen very visibly. It is just here that the fire began. Witnesses who
saw the fire of the Abbey of Mont César. . . .
HERR BABEL: After the fire, when did you see the building for the first
time?
VAN DER ESSEN: After the fire, in July 1940.
HERR BABEL: That is, much later?
VAN DER ESSEN: Yes, but still in the same condition. Nothing had been
done to it. It was still as it was originally.
HERR BABEL: Do you know whether, while the building was burning, an
attempt was made to stop the fire and save the building?
VAN DER ESSEN: It is absolutely certain that attempts were made to stop
the fire. The Rector of the University, Monseigneur Van Wayenberg, told
me himself and has stated that he sent for the firemen, but the firemen
had gone. Only the chief and two members of the fire brigade were left,
and all the water mains at that time were broken as a result of the
bombardment. There was no water supply for several days.
HERR BABEL: Did German troops take part in these attempts to save the
building?
VAN DER ESSEN: No, they were not there yet.
HERR BABEL: How do you know that? You weren’t there.
VAN DER ESSEN: But the Rector of the University did not leave the town
of Louvain. The rector was there and so was the librarian.
HERR BABEL: Did you speak to the rector on this question, as to whether
German troops took part in the attempt to save the building?
VAN DER ESSEN: I spoke to the rector and to the librarian. In my
capacity as General Secretary of the University I discussed with the
rector all general questions concerning the university. We discussed
this point especially, and he told me categorically that no soldier of
the German Army tried to fight the fire.
HERR BABEL: You also have spoken about the resistance movement. Do you
know whether the civilian population was called upon to resist the
German troops?
VAN DER ESSEN: Where? In the Ardennes?
HERR BABEL: In Belgium?
VAN DER ESSEN: In Belgium the resistance was mainly composed of the
secret army, which was a military organization with responsible and
recognized commanders, and wore a distinctive badge so that they could
not be confused with simple _francs-tireurs_.
HERR BABEL: Do you know how many German soldiers fell victims to the
resistance movement?
VAN DER ESSEN: How German soldiers fell victims to this resistance? I
know very well because everywhere in the Ardennes the resistance went
into action, and legally, with chiefs at their head, carrying arms
openly, and with distinctive badges. They openly attacked the German
troops from the front.
HERR BABEL: That was not my question. I asked you if you knew roughly
how many German soldiers became victims of that resistance movement?
VAN DER ESSEN: I don’t understand what is implied by the question of the
honorable Counsel for the Defense.
HERR BABEL: That is not for you to judge, it is for the Tribunal.
VAN DER ESSEN: Does the honorable Counsel for the Defense mean the
events of the Ardennes which I alluded to a while ago, or does he speak
in a quite general sense?
HERR BABEL: The witness in his statements had himself brought up the
question of the resistance movement, and that is why I asked whether the
witness knows . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Babel, the witness has already answered the question
by saying that he cannot say how many Germans were killed by the
resistance movement.
HERR BABEL: But he can say whether a certain number of Germans did fall
victims to the resistance.
VAN DER ESSEN: There were real battles.
HERR BABEL: The witness will also be able to confirm that the members of
the resistance are today considered heroes in Belgium. From what we have
read in the papers and from what has been brought up here, these people
who were active in the resistance movement are now considered heroes. At
least I could draw that conclusion.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you please continue your examination.
HERR BABEL: Witness, you have said, if I understood you correctly, that
you lost 15 kilograms weight.
VAN DER ESSEN: Yes, indeed.
HERR BABEL: What conclusion did you draw from that fact? I could not
quite understand what you said.
VAN DER ESSEN: I simply meant to say that I lost these 15 kilos as a
result of the mental suffering which we underwent during the occupation,
and it was an answer to a question of M. Faure on whether I considered
this occupation compatible with the dignity of a free man. I wanted to
answer “no,” giving the proof that as a result of this occupation we
suffered much anguish, and I think the loss of weight is sufficient
proof of this.
HERR BABEL: During the war, I also, without having been ill, lost 35
kilos. What conclusion could be drawn from that, in your opinion?
[_Laughter._]
THE PRESIDENT: Go on, Dr. Babel, we are not interested in your
experiences.
HERR BABEL: Thank you, Sir. That was my last question.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other Counsel wish to ask any questions? [_There
was no response._] M. Faure?