"DECREE CONCERNING THE LIMITING OF THE BURDENS ON PUBLIC CHARITY....
[Sidenote: German verbal camouflage.]
"I. People able to work may be compelled to work even outside the
place where they live, in case they have to apply to the charity of
others for the support of themselves or their dependents on account of
gambling, drunkenness, loafing, unemployment, or idleness.
"II. Every inhabitant of the country is bound to render assistance in
case of accident or general danger, and also to give help in case of
public calamities as far as he can, even outside the place where he
lives; in case of refusal he may be compelled by force.
"III. Anyone called upon to work, under Articles I or II, who shall
refuse the work, or to continue at the work assigned him, will incur
the penalty of imprisonment up to three years and of a fine up to
10,000 marks, or one or other of these penalties, unless a severer
penalty is provided for by the laws in force.
"If the refusal to work has been made in concert or in agreement with
several persons, each accomplice will be sentenced, as if he were a
ringleader, to at least a week's imprisonment.
"IV. The German military authorities and Military Courts will enforce
the proper execution of this decree.
"The Quartermaster General, SAUBERZWEIG.
"GREAT HEADQUARTERS, _3d October, 1916_."
[Sidenote: Hindenburg's responsibility for deportations.]
The responsibility for this atrocious program rests upon the military
rulers of Germany, who had labored so zealously to infect the army and
the people with the principles of ruthlessness. It is significant that
the decree of October 3, 1916, followed hard upon the elevation of
Hindenburg to the supreme command with Ludendorf as his chief of staff.
In his long report of January 16, 1917, Minister Whitlock says: