An Oxford student who visited the scene of the disaster with Mr. Henry
Fürst, of Exeter College, Oxford, on August 29, gives the following
description of the awful picture:
"Burning houses were every moment falling into the roads; shooting
was still going on. The dead and dying, burnt and burning, lay on all
sides. Over some the Germans had placed sacks. I saw about half a dozen
women and children. In one street I saw two little children walking
hand in hand over the bodies of dead men. I have no words to describe
these things. I hope people will not make too much of the saving of the
Hôtel de Ville.
"The Hôtel de Ville was standing on Friday morning last, and, as we
plainly saw, every effort was being made to save it from the flames. We
were told by German officers that it was not to be destroyed. I have
personally no doubt that it is still standing. The German officers
dashing about the streets in fine motor-cars made a wonderful sight.
They were well-dressed, shaven, and contented-looking; they might have
been assisting at a fashionable race-meeting. The soldiers were looting
everywhere; champagne, wines, boots, cigars--everything was being
carried off."
But let it not be thought that Louvain was destroyed in vain. To the
Belgian people it has meant more than a glorious victory. To the
Germans it has been more disastrous than the most ignominious defeat.
Until Louvain neutral peoples might still hesitate in their sympathies.
Pacifists might still waver as to the justice of the cause. After
Louvain any hesitation or doubt became impossible. The destruction of
Louvain was needed to drive home the meaning of German culture. The
crime of Louvain branded the German rulers and the commanders of the
German armies as the enemies of the human race.
* * * * *
The atrocities committed by the German armies have roused the
indignation of both hemispheres. They have placed Germany outside the
pale of civilization. They have covered the German armies with eternal
infamy. In the full light of the twentieth century the German terror
has outdone the deeds and wiped out the memory of the Spanish terror.
We make ample allowances for wild rumors bred of panic, although
in the present instance the panic caused by the mere approach of
the German soldiery is in itself a most significant symptom. If the
German armies had observed the laws of civilized warfare which protect
the defenceless inhabitants, there would have been no need for the
population to fly for their lives, and there would not be at present a
million homeless exiles wandering over the high roads of Holland.
* * * * *
(Dr. Sarolea describes the vicissitudes of Belgian triumphants
alternating with Belgian reverses, the pathetic story of brave endeavor
and of suffering nobly endured in the noblest of causes. The Defense of
Liège, the fall of Namur, the capture of Brussels and the beleaguering
of Antwerp: the destruction of Dinant and Termonde, the bursting of the
dykes of the Scheldt, the German Terror and the wholesale exodus of the
stricken nation which through all time will be the favorite theme of
historians and poets.)