The full extent of this can never be known. More than one hundred
thousand people are simply reported as "missing," other multitudes
were burned or thrown into pits. Only in towns from which the German
armies hurriedly retreated were inquests possible, and in those towns
affidavits were prepared and photographs of the mutilated bodies taken.
The fact that these atrocities all along the battle line began on
practically the same day in August and ended on about the same day in
September does not prove, but does suggest plan and prearrangement.
After the German troops had passed through, it became possible for
the village school-teacher, priest or banker, the aged women and the
children who had escaped to creep out of pits, the caves in the fields,
or the edge of the woods, where they had been hiding, and return to
survey the scene of desolation behind them. In those towns where the
soldiers encountered no opposition by the inhabitants, for the reason
that there were no men left in the village, the Germans speedily
wrought their devastation and departed. Then the French authorities
hurried forward their authorized representatives, inquests were held,
photographs taken of the mutilated bodies, and testimony taken and sent
to the Department of Justice. What took place in those Belgian towns
and cities that are still in German hands will never be known until the
German officers and soldiers stand before the Great Judgment Throne and
give their account unto God.