We might write a long and heartbreaking chapter on this pitiful subject,
but let the following suffice. The Report of the French Commission of
Enquiry concludes with these words, "Outrages upon women and young girls
have been common _to an unheard-of extent_." No doubt the bulk of these
crimes will never come to light, for it needs a concatenation of special
circumstances for such acts to be committed in public. Unfortunately and
only too often these circumstances have existed, _e.g._, at
Beton-Bazoches and Sancy-les-Provins, a young girl, and at St.
Denis-les-Rebaix, a mother-in-law and a little boy of eight years old,
and at Coulommiers a husband and two children, were witnesses to
outrages committed on the mother of the family. Sometimes the attacks
were individual and sometimes committed by bodies of men, _e.g._, at
Melen-Labouxhe, Margaret W. was violated by twenty German soldiers, and
then shot by the side of her father and mother. They did not even
respect nuns.[12]
They did not even spare grandmothers (Louppy-le-Château,
Vitry-en-Perthois ...).
Nor did they respect children.... At Cirey, a witness (a University
professor), whose statements one of us took down a few days after the
tragedy, cried to a Bavarian officer, "Have you no children in Germany?"
All the officer said in reply was, "My mother never bore swine like
you."
Now and then they let themselves loose on a whole family; at Louppy, the
mother and her two young girls aged thirteen and eight, respectively,
were simultaneous victims of their savagery.
The outrages sometimes lasted till death. At Nimy, the martyrdom of
little Irma G. lasted six hours till death delivered her from her
sufferings. When her father tried to rescue her he was shot, and her
mother was seriously wounded. Indeed, it was certain destruction to any
frenzied parent who tried to defend his child. A clergyman of Dixmude
says, "The burgomaster of Handzaeme was shot for trying to protect his
daughter." And how many other cases have occurred! We have not the heart
to continue the list.