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GERMAN BARBARISM
GERMAN BARBARISM
_A NEUTRAL’S INDICTMENT_
BY
LÉON MACCAS
DOCTOR OF LAW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS
WITH PREFACE BY
M. PAUL GIRARD
OF THE INSTITUT DE FRANCE
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
MCMXVI
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E.,
AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
PREFACE
This new volume on Germany’s conception and practice of war is the
work of a neutral, a fact which would alone suffice to secure it our
sympathies. Moreover, it is a book which is systematically arranged,
based on documentary evidence, serious and obviously sincere, qualities
too weighty not to compel the respect not only of the French public, but
of all those, to whatever nationality they may belong, who may care to
read it or merely to glance through it with an unprejudiced eye.
The author is a Greek, who loves France and who knows her. He knows her
because he has lived there; he is not blind to her weak points, but
having been early captured by her, he knows the profound mistake into
which a stranger falls who is content to judge her by appearances: he has
fathomed the depths of her character and discovered the inexhaustible
resources of will and energy concealed beneath an apparent, yet much
exaggerated, levity. It is for this reason that in the dread crisis
through which she is passing, and from which, as he well knows, she will
emerge victorious, he has been willing to fight on our side, at least
with the pen. Let us thank him, and may our gratitude extend beyond him
to his noble country, to that Greece whose feelings have long been known
to us, who has not changed them, notwithstanding the ebb and flow of
her domestic policy or of transitory influences, and who will not change
them, we are convinced: otherwise she would not be Greece.
So much for the author of these pages which we are about to read. When I
add that M. Léon Maccas belongs to the best society in Athens: that while
still very young he won the degree of doctor of law in his own country by
a remarkable thesis; that he came to us with the intention of pursuing
further, thanks to the assistance which we can give him, his studies in
international law and diplomatic history, I shall have concluded a very
inadequate introduction of author to reader.
As for the contents of this volume, what is the good of dwelling upon
them? It is an established fact, at the present moment, that the Germans
have introduced into war a new law, a new morality. This law and this
morality are obviously contrary to the ideas which humanity has hitherto
formed of these great subjects and to the impulses which urged and still
urge humanity to endeavour to mitigate the permissible sufferings and
horrors which war between civilised nations entails. The Germans have
taken quite a different line. They appear to have made it their business
to practise everywhere, in different forms, the abuse of force. It is
a method, and one, too, which has something spacious about it. But a
method is something which confesses or proclaims itself. We do not blush
for a method, we blush for an unpremeditated, precipitate act, not for
conduct coldly calculated with the purpose of attaining a supreme end,
the righteousness of which justifies everything in the thought of those
who aim at it. What is the meaning, then, of all these shufflings, these
denials, disputings or flimsy vindications of facts? Why these shameless
apologies among neutrals? Why these pamphlets, these articles scattered
broadcast over two hemispheres, these idyllic pictures of movements of
German troops to whom the peasants, peasants of France, express (in
a language which betrays clumsy falsehood) their good wishes for a
safe return to their native land. Why all this effort, if not from the
necessity to justify themselves, a necessity which in these souls who
profess to be emancipated from the vain prejudices of the world is even
stronger and more deeply rooted than the desire to compel everything
by force? Is not this necessity the clearest and most invaluable of
admissions?
But that is not the whole story. By a contradiction which would have
something grotesque about it if the tale of bloodshed and destruction
made such an expression permissible, those who every day shamelessly
violate the law of nations are the first to protest with impassioned
vehemence against what in their opponents they assert to be a violation
of the law of nations, as if the right to trample right under foot was
a privilege of Germany. I am well aware that on that point also we are
critical, but even though there were some motive for being critical, a
thing which is by no means proven, we must admit that a nation which
has signed certain declarations designed to mitigate as far as possible
the severities of war, and which, as soon as it becomes belligerent, no
longer holds itself bound by these same declarations, is not justified in
trying to pose as punctilious in the matter.
The only result of all this is hatred, stubborn invincible hatred,
which neither peace nor victory will destroy. Some Germans, it is
said, are beginning to be anxious about it; others are getting used
to it, provided that with hate they reap the harvest of fear; but it
is a mistaken calculation, because love, or, if you like, a minimum of
sympathy, is necessary for the daily round of that common life which we
call international relations. Force, admitting that those who have it at
their disposal can always count upon it, is powerless to bind nations
together, and by force I understand not merely material force, but a
spiritual force, such as is, for example, science, of which Germany is so
justly proud. If hatred persists, fostered as a religious duty, kindled
in the sacred fire of memory, there is no security possible for him who
is the object of it: it is the flaw which silently threatens with sudden
destruction the steel upon which so much reliance is placed.
Woe to the nation which makes itself hated!
PAUL GIRARD.
INTRODUCTION
The reader will find in the pages which we herewith offer him a detailed
picture of the cruelties committed by Germany in the war which involves
half the nations of Europe.
In this war, which she let loose upon the world, Germany is not attacking
merely armies and fortresses. She takes her victims even from the civil
population, and systematically harries even the property of private
individuals. She revives under our eyes the times of Attila: to every
soldier whom she dispatches against her enemies she recalls the saying
of the Scourge of God that “wherever he rode there the grass must cease
to grow.” She devotes herself to pillage and destruction; aye, and to
pollution and desecration. From her captains, her leaders, her diplomats
down to her plain citizens and private soldiers she has disclosed her
barbarous spirit, her base instincts; under the blazing light of the
devouring flames which she has kindled she lays broad the infamous
groundwork and shameful foundations of what she dares to call her
civilisation, and which, on the plea of its superiority, she claims to
impose upon the whole universe.
Great towns have perished in the flames by her hands, with all the
treasures of science, art and industry which they contained; innumerable
districts, less populous but no less prosperous, have likewise been
plundered, looted and abandoned to the ravages of fire and sword; whole
regions have been laid waste without a shadow of military necessity;
thousands of peaceful residents, and harmless citizens of these areas,
priests and women, children and old folk, have been shot, killed,
executed, martyred; women and young girls have been violated and
subjected to the most frightful tortures; prisoners have been ill-treated
or even shot; the wounded have been dispatched on the field of battle;
young people below the military age have been carried off to Germany and
treated as prisoners at common law. In the field, the German armies have
been guilty of shameful acts of treachery: weapons forbidden because they
cause horrible wounds have been used without scruple and without shame.
Towns have had monstrous levies imposed upon them, which they had to pay
on penalty of seeing their inhabitants massacred. And these things were
repeated everywhere: in Belgium, in France, in Poland, in Galicia, in
Serbia. Fire, sword, bloodshed, dishonour, slaughter, murder, torture
have been flaunted before the eyes of astonished Europe.
That is the story we are going to tell. And with the evidence in the case
ready to hand, we shall draw a picture of German barbarism. We shall
appeal to the civilised world and ask it to reflect upon the monstrous
exhibition of the instincts, the character and the principles of the
German nation, which claimed to be gifted with fine feelings and to
be punctilious about morals. The facts which will be narrated to the
reader will pass judgment upon this claim. In face of the flattering or
mendacious pleas, circulated for the last fifty years by Germany herself
or by her dupes, this book, the author is fully persuaded, will but
anticipate the verdict of history.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I THE GERMAN THEORY OF WAR 1
II GERMAN ACTIONS CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED ON THE PLEA OF REPRISALS 7
III THE GERMAN TREATMENT OF OFFICIALS 17
IV OUTRAGES COMMITTED BY GERMAN AUTHORITIES AND PRIVATE PERSONS
AGAINST ENEMY SUBJECTS 30
V OUTRAGES ON NEUTRAL SUBJECTS 35
VI GERMAN USE OF PROHIBITED IMPLEMENTS OF WAR 42
VII GERMAN TREACHERY ON THE BATTLEFIELD 50
VIII BOMBARDMENT OF UNDEFENDED TOWNS. CRIMES COMMITTED DURING
BOMBARDMENT. DEFINITION OF BOMBARDMENT 55
IX KILLING OF THE WOUNDED BY GERMANS 83
X ILL-TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR 97
XI THE MURDER, TORTURE AND VIOLATION OF WOMEN IN INVADED
TERRITORY 104
XII OFFENCES AGAINST CHILDREN, OLD PEOPLE AND PRIESTS 117
XIII OUTRAGES ON CIVILIANS AND FRANCS-TIREURS 134
XIV SYSTEMATIC ARSON. DESECRATION OF CHURCHES 171
XV SYSTEMATIC PILLAGE AND THEFT. ROBBING THE WOUNDED AND
THE DEAD 185
XVI DEGREES OF RESPONSIBILITY. CONCLUSION 216
CHAPTER I
THE GERMAN THEORY OF WAR
THE CUSTOM OF WAR
Eternal peace is a chimera. Whatever pains we may take to avoid war,
there always comes a moment when tradition and interest, passion and
affection clash and bring to pass the shock which we desired to avoid, a
shock which, in the conditions within which civilisation evolves, appears
not merely inevitable, but salutary. So we see that philosophers and
historians have generally spoken of war as a necessary evil.
But just because of the services which war is called upon to render
at certain times, it is important not to keep it apart from all the
wholesome, righteous and moral ideas disseminated by civilisation, some
of which are an age-long gain to society. The evils which war brings
with it must be reduced as much as possible. A state of war, disastrous
in itself, must be made subject to laws, approved by righteousness and
morality, laws which experience has shown to be practicable and salutary.
These laws are in effect the international conscience of civilised
nations. They are the laws of humanity. In every case where military
necessity is not absolutely involved, the nations demand that these laws
should be set in motion. To reduce the enemy to impotence; to make it
impossible for him to resist, is the aim of belligerents: but to attain
that end there is no need to disown humanity. A war humanely conducted
may be speedily brought to an end. Often, even, it attains its end
more quickly by declining to exasperate the enemy and by conciliating
opinion. On the other hand, by resorting to terrorism and attacking the
enemy’s dearest, most cherished and most sacred possessions—the lives of
non-combatants, private property, works of science and art, the good name
of families, religion—you renew his power of resistance, increase his
moral strength, and infuse into him the spirit of hatred and vengeance.
GERMAN MILITARY WRITERS’ THEORY OF WAR
German military writers have paid no attention to that. In the picture
which they have drawn of force, they have left no room for justice
and moderation, which alone make it worthy of respect and bring about
lasting results. The triumph, such as it is, of violence, bounds their
whole horizon. Clausewitz, an author who has the ear of Germany, writes,
“War knows only one means: force. There is no other: it is destruction,
wounds, death, and this resort to brutal force is absolutely imperative.
As for that right of nations, about which its advocates talk so much,
it imposes on the purpose and right of war merely insignificant and, so
to speak, negligible, restrictions. In war every idea of humanity is a
blunder, a dangerous absurdity. The violence and brutality of combat
admit no kind of limitation.”
“Let France reflect upon the words of one who has been called ‘an
immortal teacher,’” says a celebrated commentator of the same
Clausewitz, Baron Bronsard de Schellendorf, a former Prussian Minister
of War, in another work (_France under Arms_). And this author adds,
“If civilised nations do not scalp the vanquished, do not cut their
prisoners’ throats, do not destroy towns and villages, do not set fire
to farms, do not lay waste everything in their path, it is not from
motives of humanity. No, it is because it is better policy to ransom the
vanquished and to make use of productive territories.”
The author does not ask himself if, always from this point of view, no
other limitations to the brutalities of war are imposed upon thoughtful
people, limitations which are in conformity with well-understood
interest, and which at the same time would win the approbation of
righteousness and humanity. Wholly obsessed by the coarse intoxication of
his principle of absolute violence, he adds—
“The style of old Clausewitz is a feeble affair. He was a poet who put
rosewater into his inkpot. But it is only with blood that you can write
about the things of war. _Besides, the next war will be a terrible
business._ Between Germany and France it can only be a question of a duel
to the death. _To be or not to be_: that is the question, and one, too,
which will only be solved by the destruction of one of the combatants.”
Such is the tone of German military authors. Their responsibility is of
the highest importance in the story we have to tell. It is they, it is
their principles disseminated through Germany, which have set up like
a dogma in that country the cult of force in and for itself, divorced
from all the moral elements with which the thought of civilised people
surrounds it. And, having been taught by such masters, the German nation
can in matters of war only thirst for murder and violence.
THE GERMAN STATE OF MIND ON THE EVE OF WAR
These principles had their full effect as soon as the Germans thought
that war was inevitable.
Do not let us here discuss the excitement which people naturally feel
under such circumstances, nor the emotions of wild enthusiasm and
patriotic hatred into which the rush of events leads them. If these
emotions lead to excesses, we can neither wonder nor complain at it.
Excess is in the nature of things and is part and parcel of a system
in which material forces work for a just end—namely, the safety of the
country. The general upheaval which accompanied a declaration of war
cannot fail to rouse the masses and to lead to extravagant and blustering
demonstrations. Nevertheless, even in that respect, there are limits
which a nation will never exceed, unless it is being exploited in the
interests of the gospel of frightfulness, unless the love of destruction
for its own sake is the aim of its leaders and its preceptors, and is the
basis of the nation’s conception of war.
That is the case with the Germans. The instincts of blind violence which
men carry naturally within them and which education alone restrains, had
been so carefully fostered by the Clausewitz and Schellendorf schools in
the mind of the German people that, once the restraint of peace has been
removed, we could postulate in them the symptoms of the most dangerous
impulses: symptoms which, in the eyes of every impartial judge, appeared
like the dismal omens of an appalling thirst for blood.
The correspondent of the _Hovedstaden_ (_La Capitale_), a Danish journal,
tells that he heard some women at Berlin uttering impassioned speeches,
shouting that an attempt was being made to annihilate Germany, and urging
the men to the task of destruction by fire and sword in the foreign
countries to which they were going. This same correspondent records
the fact that “men and women speakers followed one another in the Café
Piccadilly belching out curses against Great Britain and her allies.”
Such were the feelings of the public in Germany, different, one might
say, from what one would naturally expect to find in such a case, for,
is it human for a woman to urge on her husband, her father or her son to
a work of cruel destruction? How effective must have been the doctrines
disseminated by German authors like those we have quoted, if they have
been able, as they have been, to destroy absolutely the finer feelings
even of women, and if the thirst for violence has led women to make
public attempts to incite their men-folk?
THE STATE OF MIND OF GERMAN INTELLECTUALS
But let us leave the military writers, and speak of men whose peaceful
profession ought to have the effect of inspiring in them feelings of
moderation. The classes whom we call the intellectuals have been the most
savage of all.
“We are barbarians!” wrote the famous German journalist, Maximilian
Harden, in his paper _Die Zukunft_, at the beginning of the war. “England
is in alliance with yellow apes and rejoices to hear it said that Germans
have been murdered by drunken Cossacks. The English, the Belgians, the
French, the northern and southern Sklavs and the Japanese cannot praise
one another enough, declaring that they are the guardians and purveyors
of the most refined civilisation, and calling us barbarians.
“We should be quite wrong to contradict them. For ancient Rome when it
was sick unto death, the Germans who dug its grave were barbarians. Your
civilisation, friends, wafts to you no fine perfumes! Accustom yourselves
to the idea that on German soil live barbarians and warriors who for the
moment have no time to talk soft nothings. They shall defeat your armies,
overpower your general staffs, and cut your tentacles in the oceans. When
Tangiers and Toulon, Antwerp and Calais are subject to barbaric power,
then sometime we shall have a kindly chat with you.”
It is in this state of mind, the mark of unbridled violence, that
the German people embarked on the war of 1914. A monstrous outburst
followed, the desire and the firm expectation of victory, of which German
patriotism had perhaps the right to be glad. But at the same time the
most brutal and savage instincts of mankind were let loose.
The will to ravage, destroy, pollute everything belonging to the enemy
filled the German armies, and the results of teachings printed in books
could be seen written in letters of blood and fire on the page of
history. The theory of blind violence openly professed in Germany for
half a century, a theory which has been drilled into the very soul of the
nation, and has become a principle of conduct for the individual, has
borne its fruit. We shall tell the story of them.