[Sidenote: German sources.]
In this pamphlet throughout, as in the preceding pages, the evidence
is drawn mainly from German and American sources. The German sources
include official proclamations and other official utterances, letters
and diaries of German soldiers, and quotations from German newspapers.
The diaries which are so frequently quoted form a unique source. The
_Rules for Field Service_ of the German Army advises each soldier to
keep such a diary while on active service. Very many German soldiers
who have been taken prisoner had kept such diaries, and these have been
confiscated by the captors. Many have been published, frequently with
facsimile reproductions to guarantee their authenticity. The best known
collection was made by Bédier, whom Prof. Hollmann, of the University
of Berlin, properly described as "the distinguished Prof. Joseph Bédier
of the Collège de France." Of Bédier's publication Prof. Nyrop, of the
University of Copenhagen, says:
"He has translated the diaries and commented upon them just as one
does with all old historical documents, and, in order that everyone
may be in a position to check up his work, he has also accompanied
the account with facsimile copies of the documents he used. Here,
accordingly, at the outset every proof of the evidence which he has
employed is provided. No falsification is possible. The accounts
are those of eyewitnesses, and these eyewitnesses are Germans. They
tell what they themselves or their comrades have done, and Bédier
accompanies their remarks with running comments which show that not
only have common law and the Hague Conventions been violated, but sins
have also been committed against the most elementary laws of humanity.
Both the material and the presentation are unassailable. The details
which are provided by the German soldiers in regard to their own
violent acts are horror-striking."
Prof. Hollmann attempted to prove that Bédier had made mistakes in
translating and interpreting, but he did not deny the genuineness of
the diaries. "These notebooks," he says, "may well be authentic and I
accept this without further comment for all those which are provided
with the name of their authors and whose authenticity can in any case
be established after the war."
[Sidenote: American sources.]
The American evidence is drawn mainly from material in the archives
of the State Department. In addition, statements from our ambassadors
and ministers and other well-known officials and authors are given.
Messrs. Hoover, Kellogg, and Walcott have written statements especially
for this pamphlet. All of this material is essentially the testimony
of neutrals, for it is based wholly on observations made before the
United States entered the war. Occasionally official documents and well
authenticated facts from foreign sources are used.
[Sidenote: Frightfulness as a system.]
The purpose of this pamphlet is to show that the system of
frightfulness, which is itself the greatest atrocity, is the definite
policy of the German Government, against which more humane German
soldiers themselves revolted at times. For this reason it has not
seemed necessary to set forth the individual acts of cruelty; such
acts are cited only when necessary to illustrate the system. Anyone
who wishes to read chapters of horrors can find them in the _Report of
the Committee on Alleged German Outrages_, presided over by the former
British Ambassador to this country and therefore generally known as
"the Bryce report;" in the official reports by the Belgian _Commission
d'Enquête_; in the official French reports compiled under the auspices
of the French minister for foreign affairs; in many other publications,
and especially in the conclusive admissions of the official _German
White Book_ cited above. The last, published by the German Government,
is the most damning testimony concerning the system of frightfulness.