"All the inhabitants of the house, with the exception of children
under fourteen and their mothers, and also of old people, must prepare
themselves for transportation in an hour and a half's time.
[Sidenote: Inhabitants of Lille given 90 minutes to get ready to
depart.]
"An officer will decide definitely what persons will be taken to the
concentration camps. For this purpose all the inhabitants of the house
must assemble in front of it; in case of bad weather they may remain
in the passage. The door of the house must remain open. All protests
will be useless. No inmate of the house, even those who are not to be
transported, may leave the house before 8 a.m. (German time).
"Each person will be permitted to take 30 kilograms of baggage; if
anyone's baggage exceeds that weight, it will all be rejected without
further consideration. Packages must be separately made up for each
person and must bear an address legibly written and firmly affixed.
This address must contain the surname and the Christian name and the
number of the identity card.
[Sidenote: Must carry their own cooking utensils.]
"It is absolutely necessary that each person should, in his own
interest, provide himself with eating and drinking utensils, as well
as with a woolen blanket, good shoes, and body linen. Everyone must
carry his identity card on his person. Anyone attempting to evade
transportation will be punished without mercy.
"ETAPPEN-KOMMANDANTUR."
[LILLE, _April, 1916_.]
PROTEST OF BISHOP CHAROST, OF LILLE, ADDRESSED TO GENERAL VON
GRAEVENITZ.
"MONSIEUR LE GÉNÉRAL: It is my duty to bring to your notice the fact
that a very agitated state of mind exists among the population.
"Numerous removals of women and girls, certain transfers of men and
youth, and even of children, have been carried out in the districts of
Tourcoing and Roubaix without judicial procedure or trial.
[Sidenote: The Bishop protests against deportations.]
"The unfortunate people have been sent to unknown places. Measures
equally extreme and on a larger scale are contemplated at Lille. You
will not be surprised, Monsieur le Général, that I intercede with you
in the name of the religious mission confided to me. That mission
lays on me the burden of defending with respect but with courage, the
Law of Nations, which the law of war must never infringe, and that
eternal morality whose rules nothing can suspend. It makes it my duty
to protect the feeble and the unarmed, who are as my family to me and
whose burdens and sorrows are mine.
[Sidenote: Appeals to the humanity of the commander.]
"You are a father; you know that there is not in the order of humanity
a right more honorable or more holy than that of the family. For every
Christian the inviolability of God, who created the family, attaches
to it. The German officers who have been billeted for a long time in
our homes know how deep in our hearts we of the North hold family
affection and that it is the sweetest thing in life to us. Thus to
dismember the family by tearing youths and girls from their homes is
not war; it is for us tortures and the worst of tortures--unlimited
moral torture.
[Sidenote: The methods of deportation a danger to morals.]
[Sidenote: Hopes for restoration of the deported.]
"The violation of family rights is doubled by a violation of the
sacred demands of morality. Morality is exposed to perils, the mere
idea of which is revolting to every honest man, from the promiscuity
which inevitably accompanies removals _en masse_, involving mixture
of the sexes, or, at all events, of persons of very unequal moral
standing. Young girls of irreproachable life, who have never committed
any worse offense than that of trying to pick up some bread or a few
potatoes to feed a numerous family, and who have besides paid the
light penalty for such trespass, have been carried off. Their mothers,
who have watched so closely over them and had no other joy than that
of keeping their daughters beside them, in the absence of father and
sons fighting or killed at the front--these mothers are now alone.
They bring to me their despair and their anguish. I am speaking of
what I have seen and heard. I know that you have no part in these
harsh measures. You are by nature inclined toward justice; that is
why I venture to turn to you; I beg you to be good enough to forward
without delay to the German High Military Command this letter from a
Bishop, whose deep grief they will easily imagine. We have suffered
much for the last twenty months, but no stroke of fortune could be
comparable to this; it would be as undeserved as it is cruel and
would produce in all France an indelible impression. I cannot believe
that the blow will fall. I have faith in the human conscience and I
preserve the hope that the young men and girls of respectable families
will be restored to their homes in answer to the demand for their
return and that sentiments of justice and honor will prevail over all
lower considerations.
"ALEXIS ARMAND,
"_Bishop_."
ADDRESS OF PROMINENT CITIZENS OF ROUBAIX AND TOURCOING TO THE
PRESIDENT OF FRANCE.
"To Monsieur RAYMOND POINCARÉ,
"_President of the French Republic, Paris_.
"SIR: We have the honor to express again our most sincere gratitude to
you for your most kind reception, a few days ago, of the deputation
which went with feelings of legitimate emotion to inform you of the
deportation of lads and girls, which the German authorities have just
carried out in the invaded districts.
"We have collected some details on the subject from the lips of an
honorable and trustworthy person, who succeeded in leaving Tourcoing
about ten days ago; we think it our duty to bring these details to
your notice by reproducing textually the declarations which have been
made to us:
"'These deportations began towards Easter. The Germans announced that
the inhabitants of Roubaix, Tourcoing, Lille, etc., were going to be
transported into French districts where their provisioning would be
easier.
[Sidenote: The procedure of the deportations.]
"'At night, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, a whole district of
the town was invested by the troops of occupation. To each house
was distributed a printed notice, of which we give below an exact
reproduction, preserving the style and spelling. [See second document,
above.]
"'The inhabitants so warned were to hold themselves ready to depart an
hour and a half after the distribution of the proclamation.
"'Each family, drawn up outside the house, was examined by an officer,
who pointed out haphazard the persons who were to go. No words can
express the barbarity of this proceeding nor describe the heartrending
scenes which occurred; young men and girls took a hasty farewell of
their parents--a farewell hurried by the German soldiers who were
executing the infamous task--rejoined the group of those who were
going, and found themselves in the middle of the street, surrounded by
other soldiers with fixed bayonets.
[Sidenote: Sometimes a kind-hearted officer could not carry out the
brutal orders.]
"'Tears of despair on the part of parents and children so ruthlessly
separated did not soften the hearts of the brutal Germans. Sometimes,
however, a more kind-hearted officer yielded to too great a despair,
and did not choose all the persons whom he should--by the terms of his
instructions--have separated.
"'These girls and lads were taken in street cars to factories, where
they were numbered and labelled like cattle and grouped to form
convoys. In these factories they remained twelve, twenty-four, or
thirty-six hours until a train was ready to remove them.
"'The deportation began with the villages of Roncq, Halluin, etc.,
then Tourcoing and Roubaix. In towns the Germans proceeded by
districts.
[Sidenote: Numbers deported.]
"'In all about 30,000 persons are said to have been carried off up
to the present. This monstrous operation has taken eight to ten days
to accomplish. It is feared, unfortunately, that it may begin again
soon. The departures took place in freight cars to the sound of the
"Marseillaise."
"'The reason given by the German authorities is a humanitarian (?)
one. They have put forward the following pretexts: provisioning is
going to break down in the large towns in the north and their suburbs,
whereas in the Ardennes the feeding is easy and cheap.
[Sidenote: Young men and girls lodged in "disgraceful promiscuity."]
"'It is known from the young men and girls, since sent back to
their families for reasons of health, that in the Department of the
Ardennes the victims are lodged in a terrible manner, in disgraceful
promiscuity; they are compelled to work in the fields. It is
unnecessary to say that the inhabitants of our towns are not trained
to such work. The Germans pay them 1.50 m. But there are complaints of
insufficient food.
"'They were very badly received in the Ardennes. The Germans had told
the Ardennais that these were "volunteers" who were coming to work,
and the Ardennais proceeded to receive them with many insults, which
only ceased when the forcible deportation, of which they were the
victims, became known.
"'Feeling ran especially high in our towns. Never has so iniquitous a
measure been carried out. The Germans have shown all the barbarity of
slave drivers.
"'The families so scattered are in despair and the morale of the
whole population is gravely affected. Boys of 14, schoolboys in
knickerbockers, young girls of 15 to 16 have been carried off, and the
despairing protests of their parents failed to touch the hearts of the
German officers or rather executioners.
"'One last detail: The persons so deported are allowed to write home
once a month; that is to say, even less often than military prisoners.'
"Such are the declarations which we have collected and which, without
commentary, confirm in an even more striking way the facts which we
took the liberty of laying before you.
"We do not wish here to enter into the question of provisioning in the
invaded districts; others, better qualified than ourselves, give you,
as we know, frequent information. It is enough for us to describe in a
few words the situation from this aspect:
"The provisioning is very difficult; food, apart from that supplied by
the Spanish-American Committee, is very scarce and terribly dear. * *
* People are hungry and the provisioning is inadequate by at least a
half; our population is suffering constant privations and is growing
noticeably weaker. The death rate, too, has increased considerably.
[Sidenote: People rely on the neutral powers.]
"Sometimes inhabitants of the invaded territories speak with a note
of discouragement, crying apparently: 'We are forsaken by everyone.'
We, on the other hand, are hopeful, Monsieur le Président, that the
energetic intervention on the part of Neutrals, which the French
Government is sure to evoke, will soon bring to an end these measures
which rouse the wrath of all to whom humanity is not an empty word. *
* *
"With all confidence in the sympathy of the Government we venture
to address a new and pressing appeal to your generous kindness and
far-reaching influence in the name of those who are suffering on
behalf of the whole country."
(Signed on behalf of various specified organizations by Toulemonde,
Charles Droulers, Léon Hatine-Dazin, and Louis Lorthiois.)
"PARIS, _15th June, 1916, 3, rue Taitbout_."