On Aug. 25, after having fired two shots into the Worms Tannery to
create the belief that they were being attacked from there, the
Germans entered a workshop in this factory, in which the workman,
Goeury, was working, in company with M. Balastre, father and son.
Goeury was dragged into the street, robbed there and brutally
ill-treated, while his two companions, who were found trying to hide
themselves in a lavatory, were killed by rifle shots.
On the same day soldiers came to summon M. Steiner, who had hidden in
his cellar. His wife, fearing some misfortune, tried to keep him back.
As she held him in her arms she received a bullet in the neck. A few
moments after, Steiner, having obeyed the order which had been given
to him, fell mortally wounded in his garden. M. Kahn was also murdered
in his garden. His mother, aged 98, whose body was burned in the fire,
had first been killed in her bed by a bayonet thrust, according to the
account of an individual who acted as interpreter to the enemy. M.
Binder, who was coming out to escape the flames, was also struck down.
The German by whom he was killed realized that he had shot him without
any motive, at the moment when the unfortunate man was standing
quietly before a door. M. Vernier suffered the same fate as Binder.
Toward 3 o'clock the Germans broke into a house in which were Mme.
Dujon, her daughter aged 3, her two sons, and M. Gaumier, by breaking
the windows and firing shots. The little girl was nearly killed; her
face was burned by a shot. At this moment, Mme. Dujon, seeing her
youngest son, Lucien, 14 years old, stretched on the ground, asked him
to get up and escape with her. She then saw that his intestines were
protruding from a wound, and that he was holding them in. The house
was on fire; the poor boy was burned, as well as M. Gaumier, who had
not been able to escape.
M. Wingerstmann and his grandson, aged 12, who had gone to pull
potatoes a little way from Lunéville, at the place called Les Mossus,
in the District of Chanteheux, were unfortunate enough to meet
Germans. The latter placed them both against a wall and shot them.
Finally, toward 5 o'clock in the evening, soldiers entered the house
of the woman Sibille, in the same place, and without any reason took
possession of her son, led him 200 meters from the house and murdered
him there, together with M. Vallon, to whose body they had fastened
him. A witness, who had seen the murderers at the moment when they
were dragging their victim along, saw them return without him and
noticed that their saw bayonets were covered with blood and bits of
flesh.
On the same day a hospital attendant named Monteils, who was looking
after a wounded enemy officer at the hospital of Lunéville, was struck
down by a bullet in the forehead while he was looking through a window
at a German soldier who was firing.
The next day, the 26th, M. Hamman and his son, aged 21, were arrested
in their own house and dragged out by a band of soldiers who had
entered by breaking down the door. The father was beaten unmercifully;
as for the young man, as he tried to struggle, a non-commissioned
officer blew out his brains with a revolver shot.
At 1 o'clock in the afternoon M. Riklin, a chemist, having been
informed that a man had fallen about thirty meters from his shop, went
to the spot indicated and recognized in the victim his brother-in-law,
M. Colin, aged 68, who had been struck in the stomach by a bullet. The
Germans alleged that this old man fired upon them. M. Riklin denied
this statement. Colin, we are told, was a harmless person, absolutely
incapable of an aggressive act, and completely ignorant of the means
of using a firearm.
It appeared to us desirable to deal also at Lunéville with acts which
are less grave, but which throw a peculiar light on the habits of
thought of the invader. On Aug. 25 M. Lenoir, 67 years of age,
together with his wife, were led into the fields with their hands tied
behind their backs. After both had been cruelly ill-treated, a
non-commissioned officer took possession of 1,800 francs in gold which
M. Lenoir carried on him. As we have already stated, the most impudent
theft seems to have formed part of the customs of the German Army, who
practiced it publicly. The following is an interesting example:
During the burning of a house belonging to Mme. Leclerc, the safes of
two inhabitants resisted the flames. One, belonging to M. George,
Sub-Inspector of Waters and Forests, had fallen into the ruins; the
other safe, belonging to M. Goudchau, general dealer, remained fixed
to a wall at the height of the second story. The non-commissioned
officer, Weiss, who was well acquainted with the town, where he had
often been welcomed when he used to come before the war to carry on
his business of hop merchant, went with the soldiers to the place and
ordered that the piece of wall which remained standing should be blown
up with dynamite, and saw that the two safes were taken to the
station, where they were placed on a truck destined for Germany. This
Weiss was particularly trusted and esteemed by the persons in command.
It was he who, installed at Headquarters, was given the duty of
administering the commune in some sense, and was in charge of the
requisitioning.
After having committed numerous acts of pillage at Lunéville, after
having burned about seventy houses with torches, petrol, and various
incendiary machines, and after having massacred peaceful inhabitants,
the German military authorities thought it well to put up the
following proclamation, in which they formulated ridiculous
accusations to justify the extortion of enormous contributions in the
form of an indemnity: