H. M. the German Emperor, in ratifying the Hague Convention of 1907
agreed (Article 23) "that it is forbidden ... (c) to kill or wound
an enemy, who having laid down his arms and having no means of
self-defence, gives himself up as a prisoner; (d) to declare that no
quarter will be given".
Has the German Army respected these conventions? In the French and
Belgian reports, evidence is plentiful resembling the following which
comes from a Frenchman captain in the 288^{th} Infantry: "On the
evening of the 22^{nd} I learnt that in the wood a hundred and fifty
metres from the cross-roads formed by the intersection of the great
trench at Calonne and the road from Vaux-lès-Palameix to St Rémy there
were some dead bodies of French soldiers who had been shot by the
Germans.
I went there, and saw some thirty soldiers in a small space, for the
most part lying down, some however on their knees and all having _the
same kind of wound, a gun-shot in the ear_. Only one, very severely
wounded was able to speak. He told me the Germans had, before leaving,
ordered them to lie down, then had killed them by a shot through the
head; that he had been spared on telling them he was the father of
three small children. Their brainpans had been blown some distance
away, the guns broken at the stock were scattered here and there, and
the blood had so bespattered the bushes that as I came out of the
wood the front of my cape was all smeared with blood; it was a real
charnel-house."
I have quoted this man's testimony, not to rely on it as evidence but
merely to make clear the nature of my indictment; as for justifying
it I shall take care not to depart from the rule I have laid down to
resort to German sources of information only.
Here is an order of the day given on the 26^{th} August by General
Stenger commanding the 58^{th} German Brigade to his troops:
Von heute ab werden keine Gefangene mehr gemacht. Sämtliche
Gefangene werden niedergemacht. Verwundete ob mit Waffen oder
Wehrlos niedergemacht. Gefangene auch in grösseren 6 geschlossenen
Formationen werden niedergemacht. Es bleibe kein Feind lebend hinter
uns.
Oberleutnant und Kompagnie-Chef Stoy; Oberst und Regiments-Kommandeur
Neubauer; General-Major und Brigade-Kommandeur Stenger.
Translation. After to-day no more prisoners will be taken. All
prisoners are to be killed. Wounded, with or without arms, are to be
killed. Even prisoners already grouped in convoys are to be killed.
Let not a single living enemy remain behind us.
Some thirty soldiers of Stenger's Brigade (112 and 142^{nd} Reg^t of
the Baden Infantry), were examined in our prisoners camps. I have read
their evidence, which they gave upon oath and signed. All confirm the
statement that this order of the day was given them on the 26th August,
in one unit by Major Mosebach, in another by Lt Curtius, etc.; the
majority did not know whether the order was carried out; but three
of them say they saw it done in the forest of Thiaville, where ten
or twelve wounded French soldiers who had already been spared by a
battalion were despatched; two others saw the order carried out on the
Thiaville road, where some wounded found in a ditch by a company were
finished off.
No doubt, I cannot produce the autograph of General Stenger, and it
is not for me to communicate the names of the German prisoners who
gave this evidence. But I have no difficulty in producing here German
autographs in proof of crimes precisely similar.
For example (_Plate 13_), here is an extract from P^{te} Albert
Delfosse's diary (III Inf. Reserve, XIV Reserve Corps):
"In the forest of St Rémy, 4^{th} or 5^{th} September, saw a fine cow
and calf destroyed and once more corpses of Frenchmen, frightfully
mutilated."[27]
[Illustration: _Plate 13._]
Are we to understand from this that these dead bodies had been
mutilated in fair fight torn to pieces for example by shells? It
may be; but this would be a kindly interpretation which the documents
(_Plates 14 and 15_) disprove:
Here is a fac simile on a reduced scale from a newspaper picked up
in the German trenches, the _Jauersches Tageblatt_ of the 18^{th}
October 1914. Jauer is a town in Silesia, about 50 kilometres west of
Breslau; two battalions of the 154th regiment of the Saxon Infantry are
stationed there. One Sunday (_Sonntag, den 18 Oktober_) no doubt at
the hour when the inhabitants with their women and children were going
to church, this local newspaper was distributed in the peaceful little
town and in the hamlets and villages of the district, bearing these
headlines.