Not having sufficient space for a complete catalogue, we shall here
simply mention the judicial murders of Miss Cavell, Eugene Jacquet,
Battisti, and others, in order to honour the memory of those noble
victims. For the same reason, as they are now well known to everyone, we
content ourselves with merely recalling the criminal torpedoing of the
_Lusitania,_[8] _Ancona, Portugal, Amiral-Ganteaume_.... all merchant
steamers, without any military character whatever, employed in carrying
passengers of every nationality, and the last-named crowded with
refugees.
We may pass over the crimes committed _from a distance_, so to speak, on
unfortified towns, with fieldpieces, long-range guns, aeroplanes, and
Zeppelins, merely noting that the Germans _were the first_ to fire
shells into the centre of towns indiscriminately. If they made an
exception, it was to aim at the cathedral square, when people were
leaving after Mass, as at Nancy, or into the market-place at the time
when women are busiest, as they did at Lunéville.
We only mention here such outrages as were committed at close quarters
with hand-weapons, bayonets or rifles. The list is a long one. Will the
exact number of victims ever be known? In Belgium alone it has been
proved that up to now more than 5,000 civilians have been assassinated:
grown men, old people, women and children. They slaughtered their
victims sometimes one by one, sometimes in groups, often in masses. They
were not content only with killing. At one place they organised round
the massacre such tragic scenes, and at another displayed such
refinements of cruelty, that reason falters in face of their acts, and
asks what terrible madness has brought this race to such low depths? Is
it possible? Yes, it is. Judge by the following examples:--
At Forêt, the village schoolmaster was shot for refusing to trample
under foot the national flag, torn down from the front of the school.[9]
At Schaffen, A. Willem was tied to a tree and burnt alive, and two other
unfortunate men were buried alive. Madame Luykx and her little girl, 12
years old, were shot together in a cellar. J. Reynders and his young
nephew, 10 years of age, were both shot in the street. At Sompuis, an
old man named Jacquemin, aged 70, was bound to his bed by an officer and
left there without food for three days, dying soon after his release.
A Westphalian prisoner states, "The commanding officer ordered us to
shoot two women, and we did so. One of them was holding a child by the
hand, and in falling she dragged the child over with her. The officer
gave orders to shoot the child, because it could not be left alone in
the world." At Rouves, a Government clerk refused to tell a Bavarian
officer the numbers of the French regiments in the neighbourhood. The
officer killed him with two shots from his revolver. At Crézancy,
another officer shot with his own hand young Lesaint, 18 years old, "to
prevent his being a soldier later on." At Emberménil, Madame Masson was
shot for having, in absolute good faith, given some wrong information.
As she was obviously in a state of pregnancy they made her sit down on a
bench to meet her fate. At Ethe, two priests were shot "for having
buried some weapons." At Marquéglise, a superior officer ordered the
arrest of four young fugitives. Learning that two of them came from
Belgium, he exclaimed, "The Belgians are filthy people," and without
more ado took his revolver and shot them one after the other. Three were
killed outright, the fourth expired the following day.
From the crowd of fugitives which left Louvain in flames, the priests
were singled out, and searched. On one of them, a Jesuit father, by name
Dupierreux, they found a note-book containing the following note in
French, "When I used to read about the Huns under Attila devastating
towns, I smiled. I smile no longer now that I have seen with my own eyes
the hordes of to-day setting fire to the churches and library of
Louvain." In front of the assembled troops the priests were placed in a
semi-circle round the Jesuit Father. The incriminating phrase was read
out, and then translated into German. The lieutenant said that it
constituted an incitement to murder, and that the Jesuit must be shot on
the spot. The sentence was carried out forthwith, and the other
priests, his companions, were made to bury him where he fell.
At Pin, some Uhlans found two young boys on the road. They tied them by
the arms to their horses and galloped off. The bodies of the poor lads
were found a few miles away--their knees were "literally crushed"; one
had his throat cut and both had several bullets in their heads. At
Sermaize, a labourer, named Brocard, and his son, were arrested. His
wife and daughter-in-law, mad with terror, threw themselves into a
neighbouring stream. The old man broke away, and ran to try and save
them. The Germans dragged him away.... Four days later Brocard and the
son, on being liberated, returned home, and after a search, found the
bodies. The two women, while still in the water, had been shot several
times through the head. A parish priest named Dergent was taken to
Aerschot, stripped, and tied to a cross in front of the church; his
fingers and toes were crushed and broken with the butt-end of a rifle.
The inhabitants were made to pass in front of him and were each
compelled to urinate on him in turn; then he was shot and his body
thrown into the canal.[10]
At Hériménil, during the pillage, the inhabitants were shut up in a
church, and kept there for four days without food. When Madame Winger,
23 years of age, and her three young servants, one girl and two boys,
were too slow in leaving her farm to go to the church, the captain
ordered his men to fire on them. Four more dead bodies!
The Germans arrived at Monchy-Humières. A group of inhabitants watched
them marching past. No provocation whatever was offered, but an officer
thought that he heard someone utter the word "Prussians." He at once
called out three dragoons, and ordered them to fire upon the group--one
killed and two wounded--one of the latter being a little girl of four.
At Sommeilles, when the fire--which destroyed the whole place--broke
out, Madame X. took refuge in a cellar belonging to M. and Madame Adnot,
who were there, with their four children, the eldest a girl of 11 years.
A few days after, on returning to the village, our soldiers found the
seven bodies in the cellar lying in a pool of blood, several of them
being horribly mutilated. Madame X. had her right arm severed from her
body; the little girl's foot had been cut off, and the little boy of
five had his throat cut.
At Louveigné a certain number of men were shut up in a blacksmith's
shop; in the afternoon the murderers opened the door as if it were a
pigeon-shooting competition, drove the prisoners out, and shot them
down--a ghastly group of 17 corpses.
At Senlis the heroic Mayor, M. Odent, and six members of his staff were
shot.
At Gerbéviller they forced their way into the house of M. and Madame
Lingenheld; seized the son, aged 36, exempt from service, and wearing
the badge of the Red Cross, tied his hands, dragged him into the street
and shot him. They then returned to look for the father, an old man of
70. Meanwhile the mother, mad with terror, made her escape. On coming
out she saw her son lying on the ground. As he still showed signs of
life, they threw paraffin over him and roasted him. The father was shot
later on with fourteen other old men. More than 150 victims were
identified in this parish.
At Nomeny, M. Vassé provided shelter for a number of neighbours in his
cellar. Fifty soldiers got in and set fire to the house. To escape the
flames the refugees rushed out and were shot one by one as they emerged.
Mentré was killed first; his son Léon, with his little eight-year-old
sister in his arms, fell next: as he was not quite dead they put the
barrel of a rifle to his ear and blew his brains out. Then came the turn
of a family named Kieffer. The mother was wounded; the father, his boy
and girl, aged respectively 10 and 3, were shot down. They fell on them
with fury. Striffler, Guillaume, and Vassé were afterwards massacred.
Young Mlle. Simonin, 17 years old, and her small sister, afraid to leave
their refuge in the cellar, were eventually driven out by the flames,
and immediately shot at. The younger child had an elbow almost blown off
by a bullet; as the elder girl lay wounded on the ground, she was
deliberately kicked by a soldier. At Nomeny 40 victims were identified.
And now we come to some of the _wholesale slaughters._ At Louvain, more
than 100 victims; at Aerschot, over 150; at Soumagne, 165; at Ethe, 197;
at Andenne, over 300; at Tamines, 400; at Dinant, upwards of 600, of
whom 71 were women, 34 old men of over seventy, 6 children from five to
nine years old, and 11 under five. At Aerschot, a first batch of 78 men
were taken out of the town, and ordered to advance in groups of three,
holding each other by the hand, when they were made to pass in front of
some German Military Police, who shot them all at short range with
revolvers. Others had their hands bound so tightly that many screamed
with pain: they spent the night lying on the ground, and were shot the
next day. Many, before execution, were compelled to dig their own
graves. At Dinant, the victims were placed in two rows, the first
kneeling, the second standing. Then came the order--"Fire!" At Tamines,
several hundred men were massed in the Place Saint-Martin, on the bank
of the Sambre. The assassins stood ten yards away and fired a volley.
All fell, but some were not wounded. The officer in command ordered them
to "stand up." A second volley was fired. As soon as the firing
finished, there was a frightful scene which lasted until the
evening--the killing of the wounded. Many soldiers, some wearing the
badge of the Red Cross, approached their victims by the light of small
lanterns, and passed through their ranks, clubbing them with the butt
end of their rifles, and stabbing with bayonets. A perfect shambles!
In these horrors we do not discern the musical note, or the
acknowledgment of the "Old German God." Yet, here is a specimen:--
At Andenne, Colonel Schumann, in command of the Potsdam Rifles,
organised a grand concert in the evening at the Place des Tilleuls. The
entertainment ended with a prayer!
It now remains for us to publish a few extracts from note-books found
upon officers and privates. Some are short items like the
following:--"Pepinster, 12th August. Burgomaster, Priest and
Schoolmaster shot, and houses burnt to the ground. We resume our march."
Another, "Villers-en-Fagne, village in flames. The population had
notified the French of the approach of the grenadiers; thereupon the
hussars set fire to the village, the Parish Priest and others being
shot."
Others enter into details of the executions. "_Leffe._ We shoot everyone
who fires on our men. We put three, one behind the other, and a Marburg
rifleman kills them outright with a single shot. It is war to the
knife."
Another expresses something other than enthusiasm for such work.
"Considering that the King (of the Belgians) has given orders to defend
the country by all possible means, we have been ordered to shoot every
male inhabitant. At Dinant more than 100 were collected in a crowd and
shot. A dreadful Sunday." Another, an aesthete, writes as follows:
"During the night many more civilians were shot, so many that we were
able to count over 200. Women and children, with lamps in their hands,
were compelled to witness the horrible sight. We afterwards ate our
rice among the dead bodies. Sadly beautiful." He adds (in shorthand)
"Captain Hermann was drunk."
Again another: "_Dinant._ We have been firing on everyone who showed
himself, or on those thrown out of the houses, men or women. The bodies
lie in the streets, in heaps a yard deep."
A Saxon officer writes: "My company is at Bouvignes. Our men behave like
vandals: everything is upset; the sight of the slaughtered inhabitants
defies all description; not a house is left standing. We have dragged
out of every corner all survivors, one after another, men, women, and
children, found in a burning cloister, and have shot them 'en masse.'"
The following depositions on the massacres at Nomeny are made by
prisoners, one a Bavarian officer in the Reserve, the other a private in
the same regiment. The lieutenant says: "I gathered the impression that
it was impossible for the officers at Nomeny to prevent such acts. As
far as I can judge, the crimes committed there, which horrified all the
soldiers who were at Nomeny later on, must be put down to the acts of
unnatural brutes." The soldier says, "At five o'clock regimental orders
were received to kill every male inhabitant of Nomeny, and to raze
everything to the ground; we forced our way into the houses." Here is a
more detailed account of a massacre near Blamont. "All the villagers
fled: it was terrible; their beards thick with blood, and what faces!
They were dreadful to look at. The dead were all buried, numbering
sixty. Among them were many old men and women, and one unfortunate woman
half confined--the whole being frightful to look at. Three children
were clasped in each other's arms, and had died thus. The Altar and the
vaulting of the church were destroyed because there was a telephone[11]
communicating with the enemy. This morning, 2nd September, all the
survivors were expelled. I saw four small boys carrying away on two
sticks a cradle containing a baby of five or six months. All this is
dreadful to see. Blow for blow: thunder against thunder! Every thing is
given up to pillage. I also saw a mother with her two children; one had
a big wound on the head, and one eye knocked out."