The unsigned notebook of a soldier of the Thirty-second Reserve Infantry
(Fourth Reserve Corps) has this entry:
Creil, Sept. 3.--The iron bridge was blown up. For this we set
the streets on fire, and shot the civilians.
Yet it must be obvious that only the regular troops of the French
Engineer Corps could have blown up the iron bridge at Creil; the
civilians had no hand in it. As an excuse for these massacres, when any
excuse is offered, the notebooks usually note that "civilians" or
"francs-tireurs" had fired on the troops. But the "scrap of paper" which
Germany subscribed--the Convention of 1907--provides in its first
article "the laws, the rights, and the duties are not applicable solely
to the army, but also to militia and bodies of volunteers" under certain
conditions, of which the main one is that they shall "openly bear arms;"
while Article 2 stipulates that "the population of an unoccupied
territory, which on the approach of the enemy spontaneously takes up
arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to organize
as provided in Article I, shall be considered as a belligerent, if they
bear arms openly and observe the laws and customs of war."
[Illustration: Figure 3.]
In the light of this text, the bearing of the barbarous recitals which
follow may be properly estimated:
(a) Notebook of Private Hassemer, (Eighth Corps, Sept. 3,
1914, at Sommepy, Marne.)--Dreadful butchery. Village burned
to the ground; the French thrown into the burning houses,
civilians and all burned together.
(b) Notebook of Lieut. Kietzmann, (Second Company, First
Battalion, Forty-ninth Infantry,) under date of Aug. 18, 1914,
(Fig. 3.)--A short distance above Diest is the village of
Schaffen. About fifty civilians were concealed in the church
tower, and from there fired on our troops with a
_mitrailleuse_. All the civilians were shot.
[It may here be noted, for the sake of precision, that the
First Report of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry, Antwerp,
Aug. 28, Page 3, identifies some of the "civilians" killed at
Schaffen on the 18th of August; among them, "the wife of
François Luyckz, 45 years of age, with her daughter _aged 12,
who were discovered in a sewer and shot_"; and "the daughter
of Jean Ooyen, 9 years of age, who was shot"; and "André
Willem, sacristain, who was bound to a tree and _burned
alive_."]
(c) Notebook of a Saxon officer, unnamed, (178th Regiment,
Twelfth Army Corps, First Saxon Corps,) Aug. 26.--The
exquisite village of Gué-d'Hossus (Ardennes) was given to the
flames, although to my mind it was guiltless. I am told that a
cyclist fell from his machine, and in his fall his gun was
discharged; at once the firing was begun in his direction, and
thereupon all the male inhabitants were simply thrown into the
flames. It is to be hoped that like atrocities will not be
repeated.
This Saxon officer had, nevertheless, already witnessed like
"atrocities." The preceding day, Aug. 25, at Villers-en-Fagne, (Belgian
Ardennes,) "where we found grenadiers of the guard, killed and wounded,"
he had seen "the curé and other inhabitants shot"; and three days
previous, Aug. 23, at the village of Bouvignes, north of Dinant, he had
witnessed what he thus describes:
Through a breach made in the rear we get access into the
residence of a well-to-do inhabitant and occupy the house.
Passing through a number of apartments, we reach a door where
we find the corpse of the owner. Further on in the interior
our men have wrecked everything like vandals. Everything has
been searched. Outside, throughout the country, the spectacle
of the inhabitants who have been shot defies any description.
They have been shot at such short range that they are almost
decapitated. Every house has been ransacked to the furthest
corners, and the inhabitants dragged from their hiding places.
The men shot; the women and children locked into a convent,
from which shots were fired. And, for this reason, the convent
is about to be set fire to; it may, however be ransomed if it
surrenders the guilty ones and pays a ransom of 15,000 francs.
We shall see as we proceed how these notebooks complement one another.
(d) Notebook of the Private Philipp, (from Kamenz, Saxony,
First Company, First Battalion, 178th Regiment.) On the day
indicated above--Aug. 23--a private of the same regiment was
the witness of a scene similar to that just described;
perhaps, the same scene, but the point of view is
different.--At 10 o'clock in the evening the First Battalion
of the 178th came down into the burning village to the north
of Dinant--a saddening spectacle--to make one shiver. At the
entrance to the village lay the bodies of some fifty citizens,
shot for having fired upon our troops from ambush. In the
course of the night many others were shot down in like manner,
so that we counted more than two hundred. Women and children,
holding their lamps, were compelled to assist at this horrible
spectacle. We then sat down midst the corpses to eat our rice,
as we had eaten nothing since morning. (Fig. 4.)
[Illustration: Figure 4.]
Here is a military picture fully outlined, and worthy to compete in the
Academy of Fine Arts of Dresden. But one passage of the text is somewhat
obscure and might embarrass the artist--"Women and children, holding
their lamps, were compelled to assist at this horrible spectacle." What
spectacle?--the shooting, or the counting of the corpses? To get some
certainty on this historic point, the artist should question that noble
soldier--the Colonel of the 178th.
His work of that night, however, was in accord with the spirit of his
companions in arms, and of his chiefs. We may assure ourselves of this
by consulting the Sixth Report of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry
upon, the violation of the rules of the law of nations (Havre, Nov. 10,
1914) and the ignoble proclamations placarded by the Germans throughout
Belgium. I will content myself with three short extracts.
Extract from a proclamation of General von Bülow, placarded at Liège,
Aug. 22, 1914:
The inhabitants of the city of Andenne, after having protested
their peaceful intentions, were guilty of a treacherous
surprise upon our troops. It was with my consent that the
General in Chief set fire to the whole locality, and that
about one hundred persons were shot.
(The Belgian report controverts the accusation against the inhabitants
of Andenne of having taken hostile measures against the German troops,
and adds: "As a matter of fact, more than two hundred persons were
shot"--almost everything was ravaged. For a distance of at least three
leagues the houses were destroyed by fire.)
Extract from a proclamation of Major Dieckmann, placarded at Grivegnée,
Sept. 8, 1914:
Any one not responding instantly to the command "raise your
arms" is subject to the penalty of death.
Extract from proclamation of Marshal Baron von der Goltz, placarded at
Brussels, Oct. 5, 1914:
Hereafter the localities nearest the place where similar acts
(destruction of railways or telegraphic lines) were
done--whether or not they were _accomplices in the act_--will
be punished without mercy. To this end hostages have been
taken from all the localities adjacent to railways menaced by
similar attacks, and upon the first attempt to destroy the
railways, telegraphic or telephone lines, they will at once be
shot.