At last, on the Tuesday night, there took place the unspeakable crime,
the shame of which can be understood only by those who followed and
watched the different phases of the German occupation of Louvain.
It is a significant fact that the German wounded and sick, including
their Red Cross nurses, were all removed from the hospitals. The
Germans meanwhile proceeded methodically to make a last and supreme
requisition, although they knew the town could not satisfy it.
Towards 6 o'clock the bugle sounded, and officers lodging in private
houses left at once with arms and luggage. At the same time thousands
of additional soldiers, with numerous field-pieces and cannon, marched
into the town to their allotted positions. The gas factory, which
had been idle, had been worked through the previous night and day by
Germans, so that during this premeditated outrage the people could not
take advantage of darkness to escape from the town. A further fact
that proves their premeditation is that the attack took place at 8
o'clock, the exact time at which the population entered their houses in
conformity with the German orders--consequently escape became well-nigh
impossible. At 8.20 a full fusillade with the roar of the cannons came
from all sides of the town at once.
The sky at the same time was lit up with the sinister light of fires
from all quarters. The cavalry charged through the streets, sabring
fugitives, while the infantry, posted on the footpaths, had their
fingers on the triggers of their guns waiting for the unfortunate
people to rush from the houses or appear at the windows, the soldiers
complimenting each other on their marksmanship as they fired at the
unhappy fugitives.
Those whose homes were not yet destroyed were ordered to quit and
follow the soldiers to the railway station. There the men were
separated from mothers, wives, and children, and thrown, some bound,
into trains leaving in the direction of Germany.
I cannot but feel that, following the system they have inaugurated
in this campaign, the Germans will use these non-combatant prisoners
as human shields when they are fighting the Allies. The cruelty of
these madmen surpasses all limits. They shot numbers of absolutely
inoffensive people, forcing those who survived to bury their dead in
the square, already encumbered with corpses whose positions suggested
that they had fallen with arms uplifted in token of surrender.
Others who have been allowed to live were driven past approving drunken
officers by the brutal use of rifle butts, and while they were being
maltreated they saw their carefully collected art and other treasures
being shared out by the soldiers, the officers looking on. Those
who attempted to appeal to their tormentors' better feelings were
immediately shot. A few were let loose, but most of them were sent to
Germany.
On Wednesday at daybreak the remaining women and children were driven
out of the town--a lamentable spectacle--with uplifted arms and under
the menace of bayonets and revolvers.
The day was practically calm. The destruction of the most beautiful
part of the town seemed to have momentarily soothed the barbarian rage
of the invaders.
On the Thursday the remnant of the Civil Guard was called up on
the pretext of extinguishing the conflagration; those who demurred
were chained and sent with some wounded Germans to the Fatherland.
The population had to quit at a moment's notice before the final
destruction.
Then, to complete their devastation, the German hordes fell back on the
surrounding villages to burn them. They tracked down the men--some were
shot, some made prisoners--and during many long hours they tortured the
helpless women and children. This country of Eastern Brabant, so rich,
so fertile, and so beautiful, is to-day a deserted charnel-house.
Why should these individual deeds have been visited on thousands of
innocent and inoffensive people? Why should those deeds have been
visited on monuments of brick and stone? Why should treasuries of
learning and shrines of religion be destroyed? Why should the six
centuries of European history be destroyed because of the acts of a few
patriots acting under the impulse of terror or indignation?
As I said, the whole truth cannot yet be revealed. It is difficult
to disentangle the facts even from ocular witnesses, from terrorized
victims who were present at the ghastly crime. I have cross-examined
some of those witnesses. I have read private letters from my cousin,
Professor Albert Nerincx, at present Acting-Burgomaster of Louvain, who
assumed office when the civic authorities had left, and whose heroic
conduct is one of the few bright spots in the tragedy. Comparing and
collating all the evidence at our disposal, we may take the following
version given by the Belgian Commission of Inquiry as substantially
correct:
"On Tuesday evening a German corps, after receiving a check, withdrew
in disorder into the town of Louvain. A German guard at the entrance of
the town mistook the nature of this incursion and fired on their routed
fellow-countrymen, mistaking them for Belgians.
"In spite of all denials from the authorities the Germans, in order
to cover their mistake, pretended that it was the inhabitants who had
fired on them, whereas the inhabitants, including the police, had been
disarmed more than a week ago.
"Without inquiry, and without listening to any protests, the German
Commander-in-Chief announced that the town would be immediately
destroyed. The inhabitants were ordered to leave their dwellings; a
party of men were made prisoners and the women and children put into
trains the destination of which is unknown. Soldiers furnished with
bombs set fire to all parts of the town."