In the Department of the Marne, as everywhere else, the German troops
gave themselves up to general pillage, which was carried out always
under similar conditions and with the complicity of their leaders. The
Communes of Heiltz-le-Maurupt; Suippes, Marfaux, Fromentières, and
Esternay suffered especially in this way. Everything which the invader
could carry off from the houses was placed on motor lorries and
vehicles. At Suippes, in particular, they carried off in this way a
quantity of different objects, among these sewing machines and toys.
A great many villages, as well as important country towns, were burned
without any reason whatever. Without doubt these crimes were committed
by order, as German detachments arrived in the neighborhood with their
torches, their grenades, and their usual outfit for arson.
At Lépine, a laborer named Caqué, in whose house two German cyclists
were billeted, asked the latter if the grenades which he saw in their
possession were destined for his house. They answered: "No, Lépine is
finished with." At that moment nine houses in the village were burned
out.
At Marfaux nineteen private houses were burned.
At le Gault-la-Forêt seven or eight houses were burned. Of the Commune
of Glannes practically nothing remains. At Somme-Tourbe the entire
village has been destroyed, with the exception of the Mairie, the
church, and two private buildings.
At Auve nearly the whole town has been destroyed. At Etrepy
sixty-three families out of seventy are homeless. At Huiron all the
houses, with the exception of five, have been burned. At
Sermaize-les-Bains only about forty houses out of 900 remain. At
Bignicourt-sur-Saultz thirty houses out of thirty-three are in ruins.
At Suippes, the big market town which has been practically burned out,
German soldiers carrying straw and cans of petrol have been seen in
the streets. While the Mayor's house was burning, six sentinels with
fixed bayonets were under orders to forbid any one to approach and to
prevent any help being given.
All this destruction by arson, which only represents a small
proportion of the acts of the same kind in the Department of
Seine-et-Marne, was accomplished without the least tendency to
rebellion or the smallest act of resistance being recorded against the
inhabitants of the localities which are today more or less completely
destroyed. In some villages the Germans, before setting fire to them,
made one of their soldiers fire a shot from his rifle so as to be able
to pretend afterward that the civilian population had attacked them,
an allegation which is all the more absurd since at the time when the
enemy arrived the only inhabitants left were old men, sick persons, or
people absolutely without any means of aggression.
Numerous crimes against the person have also been committed. In the
majority of the communes hostages have been taken away; many of them
have not returned. At Sermaize-les-Bains, the Germans carried off
about 150 people, some of whom were decked out with helmets and coats
and compelled, thus equipped, to mount guard over the bridges.
At Bignicourt-sur-Saulx thirty men and forty-five women and children
were obliged to leave with a detachment. One of the men--a certain
Emile Pierre--has not returned nor sent any news of himself. At
Corfélix, M. Jacquet, who was carried off on the 7th of September with
eleven of his fellow-citizens, was found five hundred meters from the
village with a bullet in his head.
At Champuis the curé, his maid-servant, and four other inhabitants,
who were taken away the same day as the hostages of Corfélix, had not
returned at the time of our visit to the place.
At the same place an old man of 70, named Jacquemin, was tied down in
his bed by an officer and left in this state without food for three
days. He died a little time after.
At Vert-la-Gravelle a farm-hand was killed. He was struck on the head
with a bottle and his chest was run through with a lance.
The garde champêtre Brulefer of le Gault-la-Forêt was murdered at
Maclaunay, where he had been taken by the Germans. His body was found
with his head shattered and a wound on his chest.
At Champguyon, a commune which has been fired, a certain Verdier was
killed in his father-in-law's house. The latter was not present at the
execution, but he heard a shot and next day an officer said to him,
"Son shot. He is under the ruins." In spite of the search made the
body has not been found among them. It must have been consumed in the
fire.
At Sermaize, the roadmaker Brocard was placed among a number of
hostages. Just at the moment when he was being arrested with his son,
his wife and his daughter-in-law in a state of panic rushed to throw
themselves into the Saulx. The old man was able to free himself for a
moment and ran in all haste after them and made several attempts to
save them, but the Germans dragged him away pitilessly, leaving the
two wretched women struggling in the river. When Brocard and his son
were restored to liberty, four days afterward, and found the bodies,
they discovered that their wives had both received bullet wounds in
the head.
At Montmirail a scene of real savagery was enacted. On the 5th of
September a non-commissioned officer flung himself almost naked on the
widow Naudé, on whom he was billeted, and carried her into his room.
This woman's father, François Fontaine, rushed up on hearing his
daughter's cry. At once fifteen or twenty Germans broke through the
door of the house, pushed the old man into the street, and shot him
without mercy. Little Juliette Naudé opened the window at this moment
and was struck in the stomach by a bullet, which went through her
body. The poor child died after twenty-four hours of most dreadful
suffering.
On the 6th of September at Champguyon, Mme. Louvet was present at the
martyrdom of her husband. She saw him in the hands of ten or fifteen
soldiers, who were beating him to death before his own house, and ran
up and kissed him through the bars of the gate. She was brutally
pushed back and fell, while the murderers dragged along the unhappy
man covered with blood, begging them to spare his life and protesting
that he had done nothing to be treated thus. He was finished off at
the end of the village. When his wife found his body it was horribly
disfigured. His head was beaten in, one of his eyes hung from the
socket, and one of his wrists was broken.
At Esternay, on the 6th of September, toward 3 in the afternoon,
thirty-five or forty Germans were leading away M. Lauranceau, when he
made a sharp movement as if to free himself. He was immediately shot
down.
In the same town the following facts have been laid before us:
During the night, between Sunday, the 6th of September, and Monday,
the 7th, the soldiers who were scattered among the houses pillaging,
discovered the widow Bouché, her two daughters, and Mmes. Lhomme and
Macé, who had taken refuge under the cellar staircase. They ordered
the two young girls to undress, then, as their mother tried to
intervene, one of the soldiers, bringing his rifle to his shoulder,
fired in the direction of the group of women. The bullet, after having
struck Mme. Lhomme near the left elbow, broke the right arm of Mlle.
Marcelle Bouché at the armpit. During the following day the young girl
died as a result of her wound. According to the declarations made by
witnesses, the wound was horrible to behold.
Further, our inquiry in the Department of the Marne established other
crimes of which women were the victims.
On the 3rd of September, at Suippes, Mme. X., 72 years of age, was
seized by a German soldier, who pushed the barrel of his revolver
under her chin and brutally flung her on her bed. Her son-in-law
rushed up at the noise, fortunately for her, at the moment when the
rape was about to be consummated.
At the same place and time little ----, 11 years old, was for three
hours the prey of a licentious soldier, who, having found her with her
sick grandmother, dragged her to a deserted house and stopped her
mouth with a handkerchief to prevent her crying out.
On the 7th of September, at Vitry-en-Perthois, Mme. X., aged 45, and
Mme. Z., aged 89, were both raped; the latter died a fortnight later.
At Jussecourt-Minecourt, on the 8th of September, toward 9 in the
evening, Mlle. X. was violated by four soldiers, who broke in the door
of her room with the help of a billhook. All four flung themselves on
this young girl, who was 21 years old, and ravished her in succession.
As the bombardment of open towns constitutes without doubt a violation
of international law, we thought it necessary to go to Rheims, which
was for eighty days bombarded by the Germans. We received a sworn
statement from the Mayor, from which we learned that about 300 of the
civilian population had already been killed; we saw that in different
parts of the town numerous buildings had been destroyed, and we took
note of the enormous and irreparable damage which had been inflicted
on the cathedral. The bombardment has continued since the 7th of
October, the day of our visit; the number of the victims, therefore,
must now be very considerable. Every one knows how the unhappy town
has suffered, and that the attitude of the municipality has been above
all praise.
While we were working at the Hôtel de Ville, six shells were fired in
the direction of this building. The fifth fell only a short distance
from the principal front, and the sixth burst fifteen or twenty meters
from the bureau.
Next day we went to the Château of Baye and witnessed the traces of
the sack which this building has suffered. On the first floor a door
which leads into a room next to a gallery, where the owner had
collected valuable works of art, has been broken in; four glass
cabinets have been broken and another has been opened. According to
the declarations of the caretaker who, in the absence of her masters,
was unable to acquaint us of the full extent of the damage, the
principal objects stolen were jewels of Russian origin and gold
medals. We noticed that the mounts covered with black velvet, which
must have been taken out of the cases, were stripped of a part of the
jewels which had previously been affixed to them.
Baron de Baye's room was in the greatest disorder. Numerous objects
were strewn on the floor from the drawers which remained open. A
writing table had been broken open. A Louis XVI. commode and a bureau
à cylindre of the same period had been ransacked.
This room must have been occupied by a person of very high rank, for
on the door there still remains a chalk inscription, "J.K. Hoheit." No
one could give us exact information as to the identity of this
"Highness"; however, a General who lodged in the house of M. Houllier,
Town Councilor, told his host that the Duke of Brunswick and the staff
of the Tenth Corps had occupied the château.
The same day we visited the Château of Beaumont, which is near
Montmirail, and belongs to the Comte de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville.
The wife of the caretaker declared that this house had been sacked by
the Germans in the absence of its owners during an occupation which
lasted from the 4th to the 6th of September. The invaders left it in
an indescribable state of disorder and filth. The writing tables,
bureaus, and safes had been broken open. The jewel boxes had been
taken from the drawers and emptied.
On the doors of the rooms we could read inscriptions in chalk, among
which we took note of the following: "Excellenz," "Major von Ledebur,"
"Graf Waldersee."