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GERNAN  TERROR 
IN  BELGIUM 

An  Historical  Record  by 
ARNOLD  J.  TOYNBEE 


Class  J?  A  XC> 
Book      ,   ^   — ■ 


COEOtlGHT  DEPOSm 


THE  GERMAN  TERROR 
IN  BELGIUM 


THE    INVADED    COUNTRY 


S^€tnfordi  g*oy/f>ta^* 


Be Sanson 


.•SVnTZERLAND 


RLAND 


THE  GERMAN  TERROR 
IN  BELGIUM 

An  Historical  Record 


BY 

ARNOLD  J.  TOYNBEE 

LATE  FELLOW  OF  BALLIOL  COLLEGE, 
OXFORD 


NEW  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPAI^ 

MCMXVII 


.Q3T6 


COPYRIGHT,  1917, 
BY  GEORGE  H   DORAN  COMPANV 


MAY  24  1917 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


©CLA462650 


T 


PREFACE 

t  I  "IHE  subject  of  this  book  is  the  treatment  of  the 
civil  population  in  the  countries  overrun  by 
the  German  Armies  during  the  first  three 
months  of  the  European  War.  The  form  of  it  is  a 
connected  narrative,  based  on  the  published  documents* 
and  reproducing  them  by  direct  quotation  or  (for  the 
sake  of  brevity)  by  reference. 

With  the  documents  now  published  on  both  sides  it 
is  at  last  possible  to  present  a  clear  narrative  of  what 
actually  happened.  The  co-ordination  of  this  mass 
of  evidence,  which  has  gradually  accumulated  since 
the  first  days  of  invasion,  is  the  principal  purpose 
for  which  the  book  has  been  written.  The  evidence 
consists  of  first-hand  statements — some  delivered  on 
oath  before  a  court,  others  taken  down  from  the  wit- 
nesses without  oath  by  competent  legal  examiners, 
others  written  and  published  on  the  witnesses'  own  in- 
itiative as  books  or  pamphlets.  Most  of  them  origin- 
ally appeared  in  print  in  a  controversial  setting,  as 
proofs  or  disproofs  of  disputed  fact,  or  as  justifications 
or  condemnations  of  fact  that  was  admitted.  In  the 
present  work,  however,  this  argumentative  aspect  of 
them  has  been  avoided  as  far  as  possible.  For  it  has 
either  been  treated  exhaustively  in  official  publications 

*A  schedule  of  the  more  important  documents  will  be  found  in  the 
"List  of  Abbreviations"  pp.  xi-xiii. 


PREFACE 

— the  case  of  Louvain,  for  instance,  in  the  German 
White  Book  and  the  Belgian  Reply  to  it — or  will  not 
be  capable  of  such  treatment  till  after  the  conclusion 
of  the  War.  The  ultimate  inquiry  and  verdict,  if  it  is 
to  have  finality,  must  proceed  either  from  a  mixed 
commission  of  representatives  of  all  the  States  con- 
cerned, or  from  a  neutral  commission  like  that 
appointed  by  the  Carnegie  Foundation  to  inquire  into 
the  atrocities  committed  during  the  Balkan  War.  But 
the  German  Government  has  repeatedly  refused  pro- 
posals, made  both  unofficially  and  officially,  that  it 
should  allow  such  an  investigation  to  be  conducted  in 
the  territory  at  present  under  German  military  occu- 
pation,* and  the  final  critical  assessment  will  therefore 
necessarily  be  postponed  till  the  German  Armies  have 
retired  again  within  their  own  frontiers. 

Meanwhile,  an  ordered  and  documented  narrative 
of  the  attested  facts  seems  the  best  preparation  for 
that  judicial  appraisement  for  which  the  time  is  not 
yet  ripe.  The  facts  have  been  drawn  from  statements 
made  by  witnesses  on  opposite  sides  with  different 
intentions  and  beliefs,  but  as  far  as  possible  they  have 
been  disengaged  from  this  subjective  setting  and  have 
been  set  out,  without  comment,  to  speak  for  themselves. 
It  has  been  impossible,  however,  to  confine  the  exposi- 
tion to  pure  narration  at  every  point,  for  in  the  original 
evidence  the  facts  observed  and  the  inferred  explana- 
tion of  them  are  seldom  distinguished,  and  when  the 
same  observed  fact  is  made  a  ground  for  diametrically 
opposite  inferences  by  different  witnesses,  the  difficulty 
becomes  acute.    A  German  soldier,  say,  in  Louvain  on 

*  Belgian  Reply  pp.  vii.  and  97-8. 

vi 


PREFACE 

the  night  of  August  25th,  1914,  hears  the  sound  of 
machine-gun  firing  apparently  coming  from  a  certain 
spot  in  the  town,  and  infers  that  at  this  spot  Belgian 
civilians  are  using  a  machine  gun  against  German 
troops ;  a  Belgian  inhabitant  hears  the  same  sound,  and 
infers  that  German  troops  are  firing  on  civilians.  In 
such  cases  the  narrative  must  be  interpreted  by  a  judg- 
ment as  to  which  of  the  inferences  is  the  truth,  and 
this  judgment  involves  discussion.  What  is  remark- 
able, however,  is  the  rarity  of  these  contradictions. 
Usually  the  different  testimonies  fit  together  into  a 
presentation  of  fact  which  is  not  open  to  argument. 

The  narrative  has  been  arranged  so  as  to  follow 
separately  the  tracks  of  the  different  German  Armies 
or  groups  of  Armies  which  traversed  different  sectors 
of  French  and  Belgian  territory.  Within  each  sector 
the  chronological  order  has  been  followed,  which  is 
generally  identical  with  the  geographical  order  in 
which  the  places  affected  lie  along  the  route  of  march. 
The  present  volume  describes  the  invasion  of  Belgium 
up  to  the  sack  of  Louvain. 

Arnold  J.  Toynbee. 
March,   1917. 


vu 


CONTENTS 

FRONTISPIECE The  Invaded  Country  {Map) 

PAGE 

PREFACE    ....'.......  V 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS « 

LIST  OF  MAPS '^ 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS •  .     •  x 

LIST  OF  ABBREVIATIONS xi 

CHAPTER  I.:  THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES  ....  15 

CHAPTER  II.:  FROM  THE  FRONTIER  TO  LIEGE     .      .  23 

(i)  On  the  Vise  Road 23 

(ii)  On  the  Barchon  Road 27 

(iii)  On  the  Fleron  Road 31 

(iv)  On  the  Verviers  Road 37 

(v)  On  the  Malmedy  Road 38 

(vi)  Between  the  Vesdre  and  the  Ourthe     ....  42 

(vii)  Across  the  Meuse 44 

(viii)  The  City  of  Liege 46 

CHAPTER  III.:  FROM  LifiGE  TO  MALINES      ....  52 

(i)  Through  Limburg  to  Aerschot .  52 

(ii)  Aerschot 57 

(iii)  The  Aerschot  District 74 

(iv)  The  Retreat  from  Malines 77 

(v)  LouvAiN 89 

MAPS 

THE  INVADED  COUNTRY Frontispiece'^ 

THE   TRACK   OF   THE    ARMIES:    FROM   THE 

FRONTIER  TO  MALINES* End  of  Volume'^ 

LOUVAIN,  FROM  THE  GERMAN  WHITE  BOOK  End  of  Volume 
"^  This  map  shows  practically  all  the  roads  and  places  referred  to  in  the  text, 

ix 


^' 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGS 

1.  MoiTLANn To  face  page  16'' 

2.  Battice 17*^ 

3.  Li6ge  Forts:  A  Destroyed  Cupola 32"^ 

4.  Ans:  An  Interior 33*^ 

5.  Ans:  The  Church 48"^ 

6.  Li^ge:  a  Farm  House .49"^ 

7.  Liege  Under  German  Occupation 52*^ 

8.  LitcE  Under  the  Germans:  Ruins  and  Placards       .     .  53*^ 

9.  Liege  in  Ruins 6o»^ 

10.  "We  Live  Like  God  in  Belgium" 611^ 

11.  Haelen 641^ 

12.  Aerschot .  6$*^ 

13.  Brussels:  A  Booking-Office ,     .     .     .  80*^ 

14.  Malines  After  Bombardment Si*^ 

15.  Malines:  Ruins 84^ 

16.  Malines:  Ruins 85^ 

17.  Malines:  Cardinal  Mercier's  State-Room  as  a  Red 

Cross  Hospital 92-' 

18.  Malines:  The  Cardinal's  Throne-Room 93 v 

19.  Capelle-au-Bois 96 '^ 

20.  Capelle-au-Bois 97^ 

21.  Capelle-au-Bois:  The  Church 112^ 

22.  LouvAiN:  Near  the  Church  of  St.  Pierre 113^ 

23.  Louvain:  The  Church  of  St.  Pierre 116 -^ 

24.  Louvain:  The  Church  of  St.  Pierre  Across  the  Ruins  ii7v' 

25.  Louvain:  The  Church  of  St.  Pierre — Interior    .     .     .  124-^ 

26.  Louvain:  Station  Square 125/ 

X 


ABBREVIATIONS 


Alphabet,  Letters  of  the: — 

Capitals  .  .  Appendices  to  the  German  White  Book  en- 
titled: "The  Violation  of  International  Law  in 
the  Conduct  of  the  Belgian  People' s-War"  (dated 
Berlin,  loth  May,  19 15):  Arabic  numerals  after 
the  capital  letter  refer  to  the  depositions  con- 
tained in  each  Appendix. 

Lower  Case  .  Sections  of  the  "Appendix  to  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  on  Alleged  German  Outrages,  Appoint- 
ed by  His  Britannic  Majesty's  Government  and 
Presided  Over  by  the  Right  Hon.  Viscount  Bryce, 
O.M."  (Cd.  7895);  Arabic  numerals  after  the 
lower  case  letter  refer  to  the  depositions  con- 
tained in  each  Section. 


Ann  (ex) 


Annexes  (numbered  i  to  9)  to  the  Reports  of 
the  Belgian  Commission  {vide  infra). 


Belg. 


Reports  {numbered  i  to  xxii)  of  the  Official  Com- 
mission of  the  Belgian  Government  on  the  Viola- 
tion of  the  Rights  of  Nations  and  of  the  Laws  and 
Customs  of  War.  (English  translation,  pub- 
lished, on  behalf  of  the  Belgian  Legation,  by 
H.M.  Stationery  Office,  two  volumes.) 


Bland 


"Germany's  Violations  of  the  Laws  of  War, 
1914-5";  compiled  under  the  Auspices  of  the 
French  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  trans- 
lated into  English  with  an  Introduction  by 
J.  O.  P.  Bland.    (London:  Heinemann.     191 5.) 


Bryce 


Appendix  to  the  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Al- 
leged German  Outrages  appointed  by  His  Britannic 
Majesty's  Government. 


Chambry 


"  The  Truth  about  Louvain,"  by  R€n6  Chambry. 
(Hodder  and  Stoughton.     1915.) 


XI 


ABBREVIATIONS 


Davignon     .  . 

"Eye-Witness" 
"Germans" 

Grondijs 

Hocker  .     .  . 

"Horrors"  .  . 

Massart       .  . 

Mercier       .  . 

Morgan  .     .  . 


Numerals,  Roman 
lower  case    , 

R(eply)  .     .     .     , 


"Belgium  and  Germany,"  Texts  and  Docu- 
ments, preceded  by  a  Foreword  by  Henri 
Davignon.     (Thomas  Nelson  and  Sons.) 


"An  Eye-Witness  at  Louvain." 
and  Spottiswoode.     1914.) 


(London:  Eyre 


"The  Germans  at  Louvain,"  by  a  volunteer 
worker  in  the  Hopital  St. -Thomas.  (Hodder 
and  Stoughton.     19 16.) 

"  The  Germans  in  Belgium:  Experiences  of  a 
Neutral,"  by  L.  H.  Grondijs,  Ph.D.,  formerly 
Professor  of  Physics  at  the  Technical  Institute 
of  Dordrecht.    (London:  Heinemann.    1915.) 

"An  der  Spitze  Meiner  Kompagnie,  Three 
Months  of  Campaigning,"  by  Paul  Oskar 
Hocker.  (UUstein  and  Co.,  Berlin  and  Vi- 
enna.    1914.) 

"The  Horrors  of  Louvain,"  by  an  Eye-witness, 
with  an  Introduction  by  Lord  Halifax.  (Pub- 
lished by  the  London  Sujiday  Times.) 

"Belgians  under  the  German  Eagle,"  by  Jean 
Massart,  Vice-Director  of  the  Class  of  Sciences 
in  the  Royal  Academy  of  Belgium.  (English 
translation  by  Bernard  Miall.  London:  Fisher 
Unwin.     1916.) 

Pastoral  Letter,  dated  Xmas,  1914,  of  His  Emi- 
nence Cardinal  Mercier,  Archbishop  of  Malines. 

"German  Atrocities:  An  Official  Investigation," 
by  J.  H.  Morgan,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Constitu- 
tional Law  in  the  University  of  London.  (Lon- 
don: Fisher  Unwin.     1916.) 

Reports  {numbered  i  to  xxii)  of  the  Belgian  Com- 
mission {vide  supra). 

"Reply  to  the  German  White  Book  of  May  10, 
1915."  (Published,  for  the  Belgian  Ministry  of 
Justice  and  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  by 
Berger-Levrault,  Paris,  1916.) 

Arabic  numerals  after  the  R  refer  to  the  depo- 
sitions contained  in  the  particular  section  of  the 
Reply  that  is  being  cited  at  the  moment:  e.g., 
R15  denotes  the  fifteenth  deposition  in  the  sec- 

xii 


ABBREVIATIONS 


S(omville)    . 


Struyken 


tion  on  Louvain  in  the  Reply  when  cited  in  the 
section  on  Louvain  in  the  present  work;  but  it 
denotes  the  fifteenth  deposition  in  the  section 
on  Aerschot  when  cited  in  the  corresponding 
section  here. 

The  Reply  is  also  referred  to  by  pages,  and 
in  these  cases  the  Arabic  numeral  denotes  the 
page  and  is  preceded  by  "p." 

"The  Road  to  Liege,"  by  Gustave  Somville. 
(English  translation  by  Bernard  Miall.  Hodder 
and  Stoughton.     19 16.) 

"The  German  White  Book  on  the  War  in  Bel- 
gium: A  Commentary,"  by  Professor  A.  A.  H. 
Struyken.  (EngUsh  Translation  of  Articles  in 
the  Journal  Van  Onzen  Tijd,  of  Amsterdam, 
July  31st,  August  7th,  14th,  2ist,  1915.  Thomas 
Nelson  and  Sons.) 


N.B. — Statistics,  where  no  reference  is  given,  are  taken  from  the 
first  and  second  Annexes  to  the  Reports  of  the  Belgian  Commission. 
They  are  based  on  official  investigations. 


xm 


THE   GERMAN   TERROR 
IN   BELGIUM 

I.     THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES. 

WHEN  Germany  declared  war  upon  Russia, 
Belgium,  and  France  in  the  first  days  of 
August,  1914,  German  armies  immediately 
invaded  Russian,  Belgian,  and  French  territory,  and  as 
soon  as  the  frontiers  were  crossed,  these  armies  began 
to  wage  war,  not  merely  against  the  troops  and  fortifi- 
cations of  the  invaded  states,  but  against  the  lives  and 
property  of  the  civil  population. 

Outrages  of  this  kind  were  committed  during  the 
whole  advance  and  retreat  of  the  Germans  through 
Belgium  and  France,  and  only  abated  when  open 
manoeuvring  gave  place  to  trench  warfare  along  all  the 
line  from  Switzerland  to  the  sea.  Similar  outrages  ac- 
companied the  simultaneous  advance  into  the  western 
salient  of  Russian  Poland,  and  the  autumn  incursion 
of  the  Austro-Hungarians  into  Serbia,  which  was  turned 
back  at  Valievo.  There  was  a  remarkable  uniformity 
in  the  crimes  committed  in  these  widely  separated 
theatres  of  war,  and  an  equally  remarkable  limit  to 

15 


THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES 

the  dates  within  which  they  fell.  They  all  occurred 
during  the  first  three  months  of  the  war,  while,  since 
that  period,  though  outrages  have  continued,  they  have 
not  been  of  the  same  character  or  on  the  same  scale. 
This  has  not  been  due  to  the  immobility  of  the  fronts, 
for  although  it  is  certainly  true  that  the  Germans  have 
been  unable  to  overrun  fresh  territories  on  the  west, 
they  have  carried  out  greater  invasions  than  ever  in 
Russia  and  the  Balkans,  which  have  not  been  marked 
by  outrages  of  the  same  specific  kind.  This  seems  to 
show  that  the  systematic  warfare  against  the  civil  popu- 
lation in  the  campaigns  of  1914  was  the  result  of  pol- 
icy, deliberately  tried  and  afterwards  deliberately 
given  up.  The  hypothesis  would  account  for  the  pe- 
culiar features  in  the  German  Army's  conduct,  but  be- 
fore we  can  understand  these  features  we  must  survey 
the  sum  of  what  the  Germans  did.  The  catalogue  of 
crimes  against  civilians  extends  through  every  phase 
and  theatre  of  the  military  operations  in  the  first  three 
months  of  the  war,  and  an  outline  of  these  is  a  neces- 
sary introduction  to  it. 

In  August,  1914,  the  Central  Empires  threw  their 
main  strength  against  Belgium  and  France,  and  pene- 
trated far  further  on  this  front  than  on  the  east  and 
south-east.  The  line  on  which  they  advanced  extended 
from  the  northern  end  of  the  Vosges  to  the  Dutch 
frontier  on  the  Meuse,  and  here  again  their  strength 
was  unevenly  distributed.    The  chief  striking  force  was 

16 


THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES 

concentrated  in  the  extreme  north,  and  advanced  in  an 
immense  arc  across  the  Meuse,  the  Scheldt,  the  Somme, 
and  the  Oise  to  the  outskirts  of  Paris.  As  this  right 
wing,  pressed  forward,  one  anny  after  another  took  up 
the  movement  toward  the  left  or  south-eastern  flank, 
but  each  made  less  progress  than  its  right-hand  neigh- 
bour. While  the  first  three  annies  from  the  right  all 
crossed  the  Mame  before  they  were  compelled  to  re- 
treat, the  fourth  (the  Crown  Prince's)  never  reached 
it,  and  the  army  of  Lorraine  was  stopped  a  few  miles 
within  French  territory,  before  ever  it  crossed  the 
Meuse.  We  shall  set  down  very  briefly  the  broad 
movements  of  these  armies  and  the  dates  on  which 
they  took  place. 

Germany  sent  her  ultimatum  to  Belgium  on  the 
evening  of  Aug.  2nd.  It  announced  that  Germany 
would  violate  Belgian  neutrality  within  twelve  hours, 
unless  Belgium  betrayed  it  herself,  and  it  was  rejected 
by  Belgium  the  following  morning.  That  day  Ger- 
many declared  war  on  France,  and  the  next  day,  Aug. 
4th,  the  advance  guard  of  the  German  right  wing 
crossed  the  Belgian  frontier  and  attacked  the  forts  of 
Liege.  On  Aug.  7  th  the  town  of  Liege  was  entered, 
and  the  crossings  of  the  Meuse,  from  Liege  to  the  Dutch 
frontier,  were  in  German  hands. 

Beyond  Liege  the  invading  forces  spread  out  like  a 
fan.  On  the  extreme  right  a  force  advanced  north- 
west to  outflank  the  Belgian  anny  covering  Brussels 

17 


THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES 

and  to  mask  the  fortress  of  Antwerp,  and  this  right 
wing,  again,  was  the  first  to  move.  Its  van  was  de- 
feated by  the  Belgians  at  Haelen  on  Aug.  I2th,  but 
the  main  column  entered  Hasselt  on  the  same  day,  and 
took  Aerschot  and  Louvain  on  Aug.  19th.  During  the 
next  few  days  it  pushed  on  to  M alines,  was  driven  out 
again  by  a  Belgian  sortie  from  Antwerp  on  Aug.  25th, 
but  retook  Malines  before  the  end  of  the  month,  and 
contained  the  Antwerp  garrison  along  the  line  of  the 
Dyle  and  the  Demer. 

This  was  all  that  the  German  right  flank  column 
was  intended  to  do,  for  it  was  only  a  subsidiary  part 
of  the  two  armies  concentrated  at  Liege,  As  soon  as 
Antwerp  was  covered,  the  mass  of  these  armies  was 
launched  westward  from  Liege  into  the  gap  between 
the  fortresses  of  Antwerp  and  Namur — von  Kluck's 
army  on  the  right  and  von  Biilow's  on  the  left.  By 
Aug.  21st  von  Billow  was  west  of  Namur,  and  attack- 
ing the  French  on  the  Sambre.  On  Aug.  20th  an 
army  corps  of  von  Kluck's  had  paraded  through  Brus- 
sels, and  on  the  23rd  his  main  body,  wheeling  south- 
west, attacked  the  British  at  Mons.  On  the  24th  von 
Kluck's  extreme  right  reached  the  Scheldt  at  Tournai 
and,  under  this  threat  to  their  left  flank,  the  British  and 
French  abandoned  their  positions  on  the  Mons-Char- 
leroi  line  and  retreated  to  the  south.  Von  Kluck  and 
von  Billow  hastened  in  pursuit.  They  passed  Cam- 
brat  on  Aug.  26th  and  St.  Ouentln  on  the  29th;  on  the 

18 


THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES 

31st  von  Kluck  was  crossing  the  Oise  at  Comptegne, 
and  on  the  6th  Sept.  he  reached  his  furthest  point  at 
Courchamp^  south-east  of  Paris  and  nearly  thirty  miles 
beyond  the  Marne.  His  repulse,  like  his  advance,  was 
brought  about  by  an  outflanking  manoeuvre,  only  this 
time  the  Anglo-French  had  the  initiative,  and  it  was 
von  Kluck  who  was  outflanked.  His  retirement  com- 
pelled von  Billow  to  fall  back  on  his  left,  after  a  bloody 
defeat  in  the  marshes  of  S>t.  Gond,  and  the  retreat  was 
taken  up,  successively,  by  the  other  armies  which  had 
come  into  line  on  the  left  of  von  Biilow. 

These  armies  had  all  crossed  the  Meuse  south  of  the 
fortress  of  Namur,  and,  to  retain  connexion  with  them, 
von  Biilow  had  had  to  detach  a  force  on  his  left  to 
seize  the  line  of  the  Meuse  from  Liege  to  Namur  and 
to  capture  Namur  itself.  The  best  German  heavy  ar- 
tillery was  assigned  to  this  force  for  the  purpose,  and 
Namur  fell,  after  an  unexpectedly  short  bombardment, 
on  Aug.  23rd,  while  Von  Billow's  main  army  at  Char- 
leroi  was  still  engaged  in  its  struggle  with  the  French. 

The  fall  of  Namur  opened  the  way  for  German 
armies  to  cross  the  Meuse  along  the  whole  line  from 
Namur  to  Verdun.  The  first  crossing  was  made  at 
Dinant  on  Aug.  23rd,  the  very  day  on  which  Namur 
fell,  by  a  Saxon  army,  which  marched  thither  by  cross 
routes  through  Luxembourg;  the  second  by  the  Duke 
of  Wiirtemberg's  army  between  Mezieres  and  Sedan; 
and  the  third  by  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia's  army 

19 


THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES 

immediately  north  of  Verdun.  West  of  the  Metise  the 
Saxons  and  Wiirtembergers  amalgamated,  and  got  into 
touch  with  von  Biilow  on  their  right.  Advancing  par- 
allel with  him,  they  reached  Charleville  on  Aug.  25th, 
crossed  the  Aisne  at  Rethel  on  the  30th  and  the  Mame 
at  Chalons  on  the  4th,  and  were  stopped  on  the  7th  at 
Vitry  en  Ferthois.  The  Crown  Prince,  on  their  left, 
did  not  penetrate  so  far.  Instead  of  the  plains  of 
Champagne  he  had  to  traverse  the  hill  country  of  the 
Argonne.  He  turned  back  at  Serjnaize,  which  he  had 
reached  on  Sept.  6th,  and  never  saw  the  Mame. 

On  the  left  of  the  Crown  Prince  a  Bavarian  army 
crossed  the  frontier  between  Metz  and  the  Vosges.  Its 
task  was  to  join  hands  with  the  Crown  Prince  round 
the  southern  flank  of  Verdun,  as  the  Duke  of  Wiirtem- 
berg  had  joined  hands  with  von  Biilow  round  the  flank 
of  Namur.  But  Verdun  never  fell,  and  the  Bavarian 
advance  was  the  weakest  of  any.  Luneville  fell  on 
Aug.  22nd,  and  Baccarat  was  entered  on  the  24th;  but 
Nancy  was  never  reached,  and  on  Sept.  I2th  the  gen- 
eral German  retreat  extended  to  this  south-easternmost 
sector,  and  the  Bavarians  fell  back. 

Thus  the  German  invading  armies  were  everywhere 
checked  and  driven  back  between  the  6th  and  the  12th 
September,  1914.  The  operations  which  came  to  this 
issue  bear  the  general  name  of  the  Battle  of  the  Mame. 
The  Mame  was  followed  immediately  by  the  Aisne, 
and  the  issue  of  the  Aisne  was  a  change  from  open  to 

20 


THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES 

trench  warfare  along  a  line  extending  from  the  Vosges 
to  the  Oise.  This  change  was  complete  before  Septem- 
ber closed,  and  the  line  formed  then  has  remained  prac- 
tically unaltered  to  the  present  time.  But  there  was 
another  month  of  open  fighting  between  the  Oise  and 
the  sea. 

When  the  Germans'  strategy  was  defeated  at  the 
Marne,  they  transferred  their  efforts  to  the  north-west, 
and  took  the  initiative  there.  On  Sept.  9th  the  Belgian 
Army  had  made  a  second  sortie  from  Antwerp,  to  coin- 
cide with  the  counter-offensive  of  Joffre,  and  this  time 
they  had  even  reoccupied  Aerschot.  The  Germans  re- 
taliated by  taking  the  offensive  on  the  Scheldt.  The 
retaining  army  before  Antwerp  was  strongly  reinforced. 
Its  left  flank  was  secured,  in  the  latter  half  of  Septem- 
ber, by  the  occupation  of  Termo?ide  and  Alost.  The 
attack  on  Antwerp  itself  began  on  Sept.  27th.  On  the 
2nd  the  outer  ring  of  forts  was  forced,  and  on  the  9th 
the  Germans  entered  the  city.  The  towns  of  Flanders 
fell  in  rapid  succession — Ghent  on  the  12th,  Bruges  on 
the  14th,  Ostend  on  the  15th — and  the  Germans  hoped 
to  break  through  to  the  Channel  ports  on  the  front  be- 
tween Ostend  and  the  Oise.  Meanwhile,  each  side  had 
been  feverishly  extending  its  lines  from  the  Oise  to- 
wards the  north  and  pushing  forward  cavalry  to  turn 
the  exposed  flank  of  the  opponent.  These  two  simul- 
taneous movements — the  extension  of  the  trench  lines 
from  the  Oise  to  the  sea,  and  the  German  thrust  across 

21 


THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES 

Flanders  to  the  Channel — intersected  one  another  at 
YpreSi  and  the  Battle  of  Ypres  and  the  Yser,  in  the 
latter  part  of  October,  was  the  crisis  of  this  north- 
western struggle.  On  Oct.  31st  the  German  effort  to 
break  through  reached,  and  passed,  its  climax,  and 
trench  warfare  established  itself  as  decisively  from  the 
Oise  to  the  sea  as  it  had  done  a  month  earlier  between 
the  Vosges  and  the  Oise. 

Thus,  three  months  after  the  German  armies  crossed 
the  frontier,  the  German  invasion  of  Belgium  and 
France  gave  place  to  a  permanent  German  occupation 
of  French  and  Belgian  territories  behind  a  practically 
stationary  front,  and  with  this  change  of  character  in 
the  fighting  a  change  came  over  the  outrages  upon  the 
civil  population  which  remained  in  Germany's  power. 
The  crimes  of  the  invasion  and  the  crimes  of  the  occu- 
pation are  of  a  different  order  from  one  another,  and 
must  be  dealt  with  apart. 


22 


11.     FROM  THE  FRONTIER  TO  LIEGE. 

(i)    On  the  Vise  Road. 

The  Germans  invaded  Belgium  on  Aug.  4th,  1914. 
Their  immediate  objective  was  the  fortress  of  Liege 
and  the  passage  of  the  Meuse,  but  first  they  had  to  cross 
a  zone  of  Belgian  territory  from  twenty  to  twenty-five 
miles  wide.  They  came  over  the  frontier  along  four 
principal  roads,  which  led  through  this  territory  to  the 
fortress  and  the  river,  and  this  is  what  they  did  in  the 
towns  and  villages  they  passed. 

The  first  road  led  from  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in  Germany, 
to  the  bridge  over  the  Meuse  at  Vise,  skirting  the  Dutch 
frontier,  and  Warsage^  was  the  first  Belgian  village  on 
this  road  to  which  the  Germans  came.  Their  advance- 
guards  distributed  a  proclamation  by  General  von 
Emmich:  "/  give  formal  pledges  to  the  Belgian  popu- 
lation that  they  will  not  have  to  suffer  from  the  hor- 
rors of  war.  ,  .  .  If  you  wish  to  avoid  the  horrors  of 
war^  you  must  act  wisely  and  with  a  true  appre-ciation 
of  your  duty  to  your  country P  This  was  on  the  morn- 
ing of  Aug.  4th,  and  the  Mayor  of  Warsage,  M. 
Flechet,  had  already  posted  a  notice  on  the  town-hall 

*  Belgian  Report  xvl  (statements  by  the  Mayor  and  another  inhab- 
itant) ;  Somville  pp.  134-143. 

23 


ON  THE  VISE  ROAD 

warning  the  inhabitants  to  keep  calm.  All  that  day 
and  the  next  the  Germans  passed  through ;  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  6th  the  village  was  clear  of  them,  when 
suddenly  they  swarmed  back,  shooting  in  at  the  win- 
dows and  setting  houses  on  fire.  Several  people  were 
killed;  one  old  man  was  burnt  alive.  Then  the  Mayor 
was  ordered  to  assemble  the  population  in  the  square. 
A  German  officer  had  been  shot  on  the  road.  No  in- 
quiry was  held;  no  post-mortem  examination  made  (the 
German  soldiers  were  nervous  and  marched  with  iinger 
on  trigger) ;  the  village  was  condemned.  The  houses 
were  systematically  plundered,  and  then  systematically 
burnt.  A  dozen  inhabitants,  including  the  Burgomas- 
ter, were  carried  off  as  hostages  to  the  German  camp 
at  Mouland.  Three  were  shot  at  once;  the  rest  were 
kept  all  night  in  the  open;  one  of  them  was  tied  to  a 
cart-wheel  and  beaten  with  rifle-butts ;  in  thie  morning 
six:  were  hanged,  the  rest  set  free.  Eighteen  people 
in  all  were  killed  at  Warsage  and  25  houses  de- 
stroyed. 

At  Fouron-St.  Martin^  five  people  were  killed  and 
20  houses  burnt.  Nineteen  houses  were  burnt  at 
Fouron-le-Compte.^  At  Berneau,'^  a  few  miles  further 
down  the  road,  67  houses  (out  of  116)  were  burnt  on 
Aug.  5th,  and  7  people  killed.  "The  people  of  Ber- 
neau,"  writes  a  German  in  his  diary  on  Aug.  5th,  "have 

*  Belg.  xvii. 

t  Soraville  pp.  143-6. 

24 


BERNE  AU,  MOV  LAND,  VISE 

fired  on  those  who  went  to  get  water.  The  village  has 
been  partly  destroyed."  On  the  day  of  this  entry  the 
Germans  had  commandeered  wine  at  Berneau,  and  were 
drunk  when  they  took  reprisals  for  shots  their  victims 
were  never  proved  to  have  iired.  Among  these  victims 
was  the  Burgomaster,  M.  Bruyere,  a  man  of  83.  He 
was  taken,  like  the  Burgomaster  of  Warsage,  to  the 
camp  at  Mouland,  and  was  never  seen  again  after  the 
night  of  the  6th.  At  Mouland  *  itself  4  people  were 
killed  and  73  houses  destroyed  (out  of  132). 

The  road  from  Aix-la-Chapelle  reaches  the  Meuse 
at  Vise.'\  It  was  a  town  of  900  houses  and  4,000  souls, 
and,  as  a  German  describes  it,  "It  vanished  from  the 
map."  X  The  inhabitants  were  killed,  scattered  or  de- 
ported, the  houses  levelled  to  the  ground,  and  this  was 
done  systematically,  stage  by  stage. 

The  Germans  who  marched  through  Warsage 
reached  Vise  on  the  afternoon  of  Aug.  4th.  The  Bel- 
gians had  blown  up  the  bridges  at  Vise  and  Argenteau, 
and  were  waiting  for  the  Germans  on  the  opposite  bank. 
As  they  entered  Vise,  the  Germans  came  for  the  first 
time  under  fire,  and  they  wreaked  their  vengeance  on 
the  town.  "The  first  house  they  came  to  as  they  entered 
Vise  they  burned"  (a  16),  and  they  began  to  fire  at 
random  in  the  streets.     At  least  eight  civilians  were 

*  Somville  pp.  146-7. 

tBelg.  xvii;  Somville  pp.  177-184;  Bland  pp.  164-5;  a  16. 

^  Hocker  p.  46. 

2^ 


ON  THE  VISE  ROAD 

shot  in  this  way  before  night,  and  when  night  fell  the 
population  was  driven  out  of  the  houses  and  compelled 
to  bivouac  in  the  square.  More  houses  were  burnt  on 
the  6th;  on  the  loth  they  burned  the  church;  on  the 
1  ith  they  seized  the  Dean,  the  Burgomaster,  and  the 
Mother  Superior  of  the  Convent  as  hostages;  on  the 
15th  a  regiment  of  East  Prussians  arrived  and  was 
billeted  in  the  town,  and  that  night  Vise  was  destroyed. 
"I  saw  commissioned  officers  directing  and  supervising 
the  burning,"  says  an  inhabitant  (a  16).  "It  was  done 
systematically  with  the  use  of  benzine,  spread  on  the 
floors  and  then  lighted.  In  my  own  and  another  house 
I  saw  officers  come  in  before  the  burning  with  revolvers 
in  their  hands,  and  have  china,  valuable  antique  furni- 
ture, and  other  such  things  removed.  This  being  done, 
the  houses  were,  by  their  orders,  set  on  fire.  .  .  ." 

The  East  Prussians  were  drunk,  there  was  firing  in 
the  streets,  and,  once  more,  people  were  killed.  Next 
morning  the  population  was  rounded  up  in  the  station 
square  and  sorted  out — men  this  side,  women  that.  The 
women  might  go  to  Holland,  the  men,  in  two  gangs 
of  about  300  each,  were  deported  to  Germany  as  f  ranc- 
tireurs.  "During  the  night  of  Aug.  15-16,"  as  another 
German  diarist*  describes  the  scene,  "Pioneer  Grim- 
bow  gave  the  alarm  in  the  town  of  Vise.  Everyone 
was  shot  or  taken  prisoner,  and  the  houses  were  burnt. 
The  prisoners  were  made  to  march  and  keep  up  with 

*  Bland  p.  165. 

26 


ST.  ANDRE,  JULEMONT,  BLEGNY 

the  troops."  About  30  people  in  all  were  killed  at 
Vise,  and  575  out  of  876  houses  destroyed.  On  the 
final  day  of  destruction  the  Germans  had  been  in  peace- 
able occupation  of  the  place  for  ten  days,  and  the  Bel- 
gian troops  had  retired  about  forty  miles  out  of  range. 
That  is  what  the  Germans  did  on  the  road  from 
Aix-la-Chapelle;  but,  before  reaching  Warsage,  the 
road  sends  out  a  branch  through  Aubel  to  the  left, 
which  passes  under  the  guns  of  Fori  Barchon  and  leads 
straight  to  Liege.  The  Germans  took  this  road  also, 
and  Barchon  was  the  first  of  the  Liege  forts  to  fall. 
The  civil  population  was  not  spared. 

(ii)   On  the  Barchon  Road. 

At  St.  Andre, ^  4  civilians  were  killed  and  14  houses 
burnt.  Julemont,^  the  next  village,  was  completely 
plundered  and  burnt.  Only  2  houses  remained  stand- 
ing, and  12  people  were  killed.  Advancing  along  this 
road,  the  Germans  arrived  at  BlegnyX  on  Aug.  5th. 
Several  inhabitants  of  Blegny  were  murdered  that  af- 
ternoon, among  them  M.  Smets,  a  professor  of  gun- 
smithry  (the  villagers  worked  for  the  small-arms 
manufacturers  of  Liege).  M.  Smets  was  killed  in  his 
house,  where  his  wife  was  in  child-bed.  The  corpse 
was  thrown  into  the  street,  the  mother  and  new-born 


*  Somville  p.  148. 

t  Somville  pp.  147-8. 

$  Somville  pp.  157-168;  a  7,  20. 

27 


ON  THE  BARCHON  ROAD 

baby  were  dragged  out  after  it.  That  night  the  popu- 
lation of  Blegny  was  herded  together  in  the  village  in- 
stitute ;  their  houses  were  set  on  fire.  Next  morning — 
the  6th — the  wornen  were  released  and  the  men  driven 
forward  by  the  German  infantry  towards  Barchon  fort. 
The  Cure  of  Blegny,  the  Abbe  Labeye,  was  among  the 
number,  and  there  were  296  of  them  in  all.  In  front 
of  Barchon  they  were  placed  in  rows  of  four,  but  the 
fort  would  not  fire  upon  this  living  screen,  and  they 
were  marched  away  across  country  towards  Battice, 
where  five  were  shot  before  the  eyes  of  the  rest,  and 
the  cure  kicked,  spat  upon,  and  pricked  with  bayonets. 
They  were  again  driven  forward  as  a  screen  against  a 
Belgian  patrol,  and  were  kept  in  the  open  all  night. 
Next  morning  4  more  were  shot — two  who  had  been 
wounded  by  the  Belgian  fire,  and  one  who  had  heart 
disease  and  was  too  feeble  to  go  on.  The  fourth  was 
an  old  man  of  78.  The  Germans  tortured  these  vic- 
tims by  placing  lighted  cigarettes  in  their  nostrils  and 
ears.  After  this  second  execution  on  the  7th,  the  re- 
mainder were  set  free.  .  .  . 

On  the  10th  Aug.  the  cure  writes  in  his  diary: 

"There  are  now  38  houses  burnt,  and  23  damaged. 

"Thursday  the  13th:  a  few  houses  pillaged,  two 
young  men  taken  away. 

"Friday,  the  14th:  a  few  houses  pillaged. 

"Friday  night:  the  village  of  Barchon  is  burnt 

and  the  cure  taken  prisoner " 

28 


BLEGNY,  BARCHON,  CHEFNEUX 

The  cure's  last  notes  for  a  sermon  have  survived: 
"My  brothers,  perhaps  we  shall  again  see  happy  days 
.  .  ."  But  on  the  i6th,  before  the  sermon  was  deliv- 
ered, the  cure  was  shot.  He  was  shot  against  the 
church  wall,  with  M.  Ruwet,  the  Burgomaster,  and 
two  brothers,  one  of  them  a  revolver  manufacturer 
who  had  handed  over  his  stock  to  the  German  authori- 
ties (from  whom  he  received  two  passes)  and  had  been 
working  for  the  Red  Cross.  After  the  execution  the 
church  was  burnt  down.  The  nuns  of  Blegny  were 
shot  at  by  Germans  in  a  motor-car  when  they  came  out 
that  day  to  bury  the  bodies.  From  the  5th  to  the  16th 
Aug.,  about  30  people  were  killed  in  the  commune  of 
Blegny-Trembleur,  and  45  houses  burnt  in  all. 

The  village  of  Barchon,'^  as  the  cure  of  Blegny  re- 
cords, was  destroyed  on  the  14th — in  cold  blood,  five 
days  after  the  surrender  of  the  fort.  There  was  a  battue 
by  two  German  regiments  through  the  village.  The 
houses  were  plundered  and  burnt  (110  burnt  in  all  out 
of  146) ;  the  inhabitants  were  rounded  up.  Twenty- 
two  were  shot  in  one  batch,  including  two  little  girls 
of  two  and  an  old  woman  of  ninety- four.  Thirty-two 
perished  altogether,  and  a  dozen  hostages  were  carried 
off,  some  of  whom  were  tied  to  field  guns  and  com- 
pelled to  keep  up  with  the  horses.  On  the  16th  the 
Germans  evicted  the  inhabitants  of  Chefneux,'\  and 

*  Somville  pp.  152-7;  xvii. 
tSomville  p.  156. 

29 


ON  THE  BARCHON  ROAD 

shot  4  men.  On  the  17th  they  burned  all  the  22  houses 
in  the  hamlet.  At  Saives^  they  burned  12  houses,  and 
shot  a  man  and  a  girl. 

We  have  the  diary  of  a  German  soldier  who  marched 
down  this  branch  road  from  Aubel  when  all  the  vil- 
lages had  been  destroyed  except  Wandre,'^  which  stood 
where  the  road  debouched  upon  the  Meuse. 

"15th  Aug. — 11 :5o  a.m.  Crossed  the  Belgian  fron- 
tier and  kept  steadily  along  the  high  road  until  we  got 
into  Belgium.  We  were  hardly  into  it  before  we  met 
a  horrible  sight.  Houses  were  burnt  down,  the  in- 
habitants driven  out  and  some  of  them  shot.  Of  the 
hundreds  of  houses  not  a  single  one  had  been  spared — 
every  one  was  plundered  and  burnt  down.  Hardly 
were  we  through  this  big  village  when  the  next  was 
already  set  on  fire,  and  so  it  went  on.  .  .  . 

"16th  Aug.  The  big  village  of  Barchon  set  on  fire. 
The  same  day,  about  1 1 .50  a.m.,  we  came  to  the  town 
of  Wandre.  Here  the  houses  were  spared  but  all 
searched.  At  last  we  had  got  out  of  the  town  when 
once  more  everything  was  sent  to  ruins.  In  one  house 
a  whole  arsenal  had  been  discovered.  The  inhabitants 
were  one  and  all  dragged  out  and  shot,  but  this  shoot- 
ing was  absolutely  heart-rending,  for  they  all  knelt 
and  prayed.    But  this  got  them  no  mercy.    A  few  shots 

*  S.  p.  148 ;  xvii. 

tBryce  pp.  161-2;  S.  pp.  168-177. 

30 


WANDRE,  FORT  FLERON,  BATTICE 

rang  out,  and  they  fell  backwards  into  the  green  grass 
and  went  to  their  eternal  sleep. 

"And  still  the  brigands  would  not  leave  off  shooting 
us  from  behind — that,  and  never  from  in  front — ^but 
now  we  could  stand  it  no  longer,  and  raging  and  roar- 
ing we  went  on  and  on,  and  everything  that  got  in 
our  way  was  smashed  or  burnt  or  shot.  At  last  we  had 
to  go  into  bivouac.  Half  tired  out  and  done  up  we 
laid  ourselves  down,  and  we  didn't  wait  long  before 
quenching  some  of  our  thirst.  But  we  only  drank 
wine;  the  water  has  been  half  poisoned  and  half  left 
alone  by  the  beasts.  Well,  we  have  much  too  much 
here  to  eat  and  drink.  When  a  pig  shows  itself  any- 
where or  a  hen  or  a  duck  or  pigeons,  they  are  all  shot 
down  and  slaughtered,  so  that  at  any  rate  we  have 
something  to  eat.    It  is  a  real  adventure.  .  .  ." 

This  was  the  temper  of  the  Germans  who  destroyed 
Wandre.  They  burned  33  houses  altogether  and  shot 
32  people — 16  of  them  in  one  batch. 

(iii)   On  the  Fleron  Road. 

There  is  another  road  from  Aix-la-Chapelle  to  Liege, 
which  passes  through  Battice  and  is  commanded  by 
Fort  Fleron  (Fort  Fleron  offered  the  most  determined 
resistance  of  all  the  forts  of  Liege,  and  cost  the  Ger- 
mans the  greatest  loss).  The  Germans  marched 
through  Battice  on  August  4th,  and  came  under  fire  of 
the  fort  that  afternoon.    In  the  evening  they  arrested 

31 


ON  THE  FLERON  ROAD 

three  men  in  the  streets  of  Battice,  and  shot  them  with- 
out charge  or  investigation. 

The  check  to  their  arms  was  avenged  on  the  civil 
population.  "On  the  arrival  of  the  German  troops  in 
the  village  of  Mzcheroux,"  states  a  Belgian  witness 
(a  12),  "during  the  time  when  Fort  Fleron  was  holding 
out,  they  came  to  a  block  of  four  cottages,  and  having 
turned  out  the  inhabitants,  set  the  cottages  on  fire  and 
burned  them.  From  one  of  the  cottages  a  woman 
(mentioned  by  name)  came  out  with  a  baby  in  her 
arms,  and  a  German  soldier  snatched  it  from  her  and 
dashed  it  to  the  ground,  killing  it  then  and  there."* 

"The  position  was  dangerous,"  writes  a  German  in 
his  diaryf  on  August  5th,  from  a  picket  in  front  of 
Fort  Fleron.  "As  suspicious  civilians  were  hovering 
round,  houses  1,  2,  3,  4,  5  were  cleared,  the  owners 
arrested  (and  shot  the  next  day).  ...  I  shoot  a  civil- 
ian with  my  rifle,  at  400  metres,  slap  through  the 
head.  ..." 

That  day  the  cure  of  Batticei  (who  had  been  kept 
under  arrest  in  the  open  since  the  evening  of  the  4th) 
was  driven,  with  the  Mayor  and  one  of  the  communal 
councillors,  under  the  Belgian  fire.  On  the  6th  the  Ger- 
man troops  again  retired  on  Battice  in  confusion,  and 
the  village  was  destroyed  that  afternoon.     Shots  were 

*  Same  incident  recorded  in  xvii,  p.  50. 
fBryce  pp.  168-9. 

tS.  pp.  46-55;  xvii;  Reply  pp.  110-116  (Report  of  L'AbW  Voisin, 
Cure  of  Battice,  to  the  Belgian  Government). 

32 


3.    Liege  Forts:  A  Destroyed  Cupola 


4.    Ans:  An  Interior 


BATTICE,  HERVE 

iired  indiscriminately  and  the  houses  set  on  fire.  The 
first  victim  was  a  young  man  sitting  in  a  cafe  with  his 
fiancee — ^he  fell  dead  by  her  side.  Three  people  were 
taken  to  the  field  to  which  the  men  of  Blegny  had  been 
brought,  and  were  shot  with  the  five  victims  there. 
On  the  yth  they  shot  a  workman  who  had  been  given 
a  safe-conduct  by  a  GeiTnan  officer  to  buy  bread  in  a 
neighbouring  village,  and  was  on  his  way  home  with 
his  wife.  On  the  8th  they  set  the  fire  going  again,  to 
burn  what  still  remained.  They  burned  146  houses  and 
killed  36  people  in  Battice  from  first  to  last. 

The  town  of  Herve^  lies  a  mile  or  so  beyond  Bat- 
tice on  the  Fleron  road,  and  was  also  traversed  by  the 
Germans  on  August  4th.  The  first  to  pass  were  officers 
in  a  motor  car,  and  as  they  crossed  the  bridge  they 
shot  down  two  young  men  standing  by  the  roadside — 
one  was  badly  wounded,  the  other  killed  outright.  In 
the  evening  they  sent  for  the  Mayor,  accused  the  in- 
habitants of  having  fired  on  German  troops,  and 
threatened  to  shoot  the  inhabitants  and  burn  the  town 
to  the  ground.  The  Mayor  and  the  cure  spent  the 
night  going  from  house  to  house  and  warning  the  peo- 
ple to  avoid  all  grounds  of  offence — ^before  they  had 
finished  there  were  more  shots  fired  indiscriminately 
(by  the  Germans),  and  more  (civilian)  wounded  and 
dead.  The  Mayor  and  cure  were  then  retained  as  host- 
ages for  the  civilians'  good  behaviour.     On  the  6th 

*S.  pp.  55-72;  xvii;  Reply  pp.  123-7;  ^  *• 

33 


ON  THE  FLERON  ROAD 

the  first  house  was  burnt;  on  the  7th  five  men  were 
shot  in  cold  blood ;  on  the  8th  a  fresh  column  of  troops 
arrived  from  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  these  were  the  de- 
stroyers of  Herve.  "They  fired  indiscriminately  in  all 
quarters  of  the  town,"  says  an  eye-witness  (a  2),  "and 
in  the  Rue  de  la  Station  they  shot  Madame  Hendrickx, 
hitting  her  at  close  range,  although  she  had  a  crucifix 
in  her  hand — ^begging  for  mercy."  All  through  the 
8th  the  shooting  and  burning  went  on,  and  on  the  9th 
the  fires  were  kindled  again.  "The  Germans  gave 
themselves  up  to  pillage  and  loaded  motor  cars  with 
everything  of  value  they  could  find."  They  burned 
and  pillaged  consecutively  for  ten  days,  and  on  the 
19th  and  20th  fresh  regiments  arrived  and  carried  on 
the  work.  Two  hundred  and  seventy -nine  houses  were 
destroyed  at  Herve  altogether,  and  44  people  killed. 
"On  the  road  to  Herve  everything  is  burnt,"  writes  a 
German  soldier  (Reply  p.  127)  who  passed  when  all 
was  over.  "At  Herve,  the  same.  Everything  is  burnt 
except  a  convent — everywhere  corpses  carbonised  into 
an  indistinguishable  mass.  (There  are  about  a  hun- 
dred, all  civilians,  and  children  among  the  number.) 
I  only  saw  three  people  alive  in  the  village — an  old 
man,  a  sister  of  charity,  and  a  girl."  The  Belgian  wit- 
ness quoted  above  (a  2)  records  that  "the  German  staff 
officers  staying  in  his  hotel  told  his  wife  that  the  rea- 
son why  they  had  so  treated  Herve  was  becau^sc  the 

34 


HERVE,  LA  BOUXHE-MELEN,  SOUMAGNE 

inhabitants  of  the  town  would  not  petition  for  a  pas- 
sage for  the  Germans  at  Fleron." 

In  the  villages  between  Herve  and  Fort  Fleron  the 
slaughter  and  devastation  were,  if  possible,  more  com- 
plete. At  la  Bouxhe-Melen"^  there  were  two  massacres 
— one  on  Aug.  5th  and  another  on  the  8th.  In  the  sec- 
ond the  people  were  shot  down  in  a  field  en  masse, 
and  129  were  murdered  altogether,  as  well  as  about  40 
people  herded  in  from  the  farms  and  hamlets  of  the 
neighbourhood.  Sixty  houses  in  la  Bouxhe-Melen 
were  destroyed.  In  the  commune  of  ^oumagne,\  on  a 
branch  road  to  the  south,  the  Germans  killed  165 
civilians  and  burned  104  houses  down.  When  they 
entered  Soumagne  on  Aug.  5th,  they  killed  indiscrim- 
inately in  the  streets.  'They  broke  the  windows  and 
broke  the  door,"  writes  a  witness  (a  5)  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  a  cellar.  "My  mother  went  out  of  the  cellar 
door.  .  .  .  Then  I  heard  a  shot  and  my  mother  fell 
back  into  the  cellar.  She  was  killed."  This  indis- 
criminate killing  was  followed  up  the  same  afternoon 
by  the  massacre  of  69  civilians  in  a  field  called  the 
Fonds  Leroy.  "The  soldiers  fired  a  volley  and  killed 
many,  and  then  fired  twice  more.  Then  they  went 
through  the  ranks  and  bayonetted  everyone  still  liv- 
ing. I  saw  many  bayonetted  in  this  way"  (a  4).  One 
boy  was  shot  and  bayonetted  in  four  places,  and  lay 

*  S.  pp.  73-9 ;  xvii. 

tS.  pp.  n 3-126;  xvii;  a  4,  5,  9. 

35 


ON  THE  FLERON  ROAD 

several  days  among  the  dead,  keeping  himself  alive  on 
weeds  and  grass.  This  boy  survived.  In  another  field 
18  vt^ere  massacred  in  one  batch,  in  another  19.  "I 
saw  about  20  dead  bodies  lying  here  and  there  along 
the  road,"  writes  one  of  the  witnesses  (a  4).  "One  of 
them  was  that  of  a  little  girl  aged  13.  The  rest  were 
men,  and  most  of  them  had  had  their  heads  bashed  in." 
— "I  saw  56  corpses  of  civilians  in  a  meadow,"  deposes 
another.  "Some  had  been  killed  by  bayonet  thrusts 
and  others  by  rifle  shots.  In  the  heaps  of  corpses  above 
mentioned  was  that  of  the  son  of  the  Burgomaster.  His 
throat  had  been  cut  from  ear  to  ear  and  his  tongue 
had  been  pulled  out  and  cut  off." 

In  the  hamlet  of  Fecher  the  whole  population — 
about  1,000  women,  children  and  men — was  penned 
into  the  church  on  Aug.  5th,  and  next  morning  the 
men  (412  of  them)  were  herded  off  as  a  living  screen 
for  the  German  troops  advancing  between  the  forts 
(the  first  man  to  come  out  of  the  church  being  wantonly 
shot  down  as  an  example  to  the  rest).  The  411  were 
driven  by  bye-roads  to  the  Chartreuse  Monastery,  above 
the  Meuse,  overlooking  the  bridge  into  the  city  of 
Liege,  and  on  the  7th  they  were  planted  as  hostages  on 
the  bridge  while  the  Germans  marched  across.  They 
were  held  there  without  food  or  shelter  or  relief  for  a 
hundred  hours.  At  Micheroux^  9  people  were  killed 
and  17  houses  destroyed.    These  villages  were  all  out- 

*  S.  pp.  1 10-2;  xvii;  a  12. 

36 


FLERON,  RETINNES,  QUEUE  DU  BOIS 

side  the  eastern  line  of  forts,  but  the  places  inside  the 
line,  between  the  forts  and  Liege,  were  devastated  to 
an  equal  degree.  At  Fleron"^-  15  civilians  were  killed 
and  152  houses  destroyed.^  At  Retinnes%  41  civilians 
were  killed  and  118  houses  destroyed.f  At  Queue  du 
Bois^  1 1  civilians  were  killed  and  35  houses  destroyed. 
At  Evegnee  2  civilians  were  killed  and  5  houses  de- 
stroyed. At  Cerexhe\  4  women  and  children  were 
burnt  alive  in  a  house,  and  2  houses  destroyed.  At 
Bellaire^  4  people  were  killed  and  15  houses  destroyed. 
At  Jupille^^  8  people  were  killed  and  1  house  de- 
stroyed. These  villages  were  saved  none  of  the  hor- 
rors of  war  by  the  surrender  of  the  forts. 

(iv)  On  the  Vervzers  Road. 

The  Germans  converged  on  the  forts  by  more  south- 
erly roads  as  well.  At  Dolhain,\\  on  the  road  from 
Eupen  to  Verviers,  28  houses  were  burnt  on  Aug.  8th 
and  several  civilians  killed.  At  Metten,X%  near  Verviers, 
a  German  soldier  confesses  that  he  and  his  comrades 
"were  ordered  to  search  a  house  from  which  shots  had 


*  S.  pp.  126-130. 

t  Partly  by  bombardment  during  the  attack  on  the  fort. 

%%.  pp.  105-no;  Reply  pp.  133-4- 

§S.  pp.  151-2. 

II  S.  p.  148. 

IS.  p.  153. 

**  S.  p.  149. 

tfxvli.  p.  57. 

:{::):  Bland  pp.  105-9. 

37 


ON  THE  MALMEDY  ROAD 

been  fired,  but  found  nothing  in  the  house  but  two 
women  and  a  child.  ...  I  did  not  see  the  women  fire. 
The  women  were  told  that  nothing  would  be  done  to 
them,  because  they  were  crying  so  bitterly.  We 
brought  the  women  out  and  took  them  to  the  major, 
and  then  we  were  ordered  to  shoot  the  women.  .  .  . 
When  the  mother  was  dead,  the  major  gave  the  order 
to  shoot  the  child,  so  that  the  child  should  not  be  left 
alone  in  the  world.  The  child's  eyes  were  bandaged.  I 
took  part  in  this  because  we  were  ordered  to  do  it  by 
Major  Kastendick  and  Captain  Dultingen.  .  .  ." 

But  Verviers  and  the  Verviers  road  remained  com- 
paratively unscathed.  Far  worse  was  done  by  the  Ger- 
mans who  descended  on  the  Vesdre  from  Malmedy, 
south-eastward,  over  the  hills. 

(v)  On  the  Malmedy  Road. 

¥  rancor  champs  ^  the  first  Belgian  village  on  the 
Malmedy  road,  was  sacked  on  Aug.  8th,  four  days 
after  the  first  German  troops  had  passed  through  it 
unopposed,  and  again  on  Aug.  14th  by  later  detach- 
ments. At  Hockay^^  near  Francorchamps,  the  cure  was 
shot.  In  Hockay  and  Francorchamps  13  people  were 
killed  altogether,  and  25  houses  burnt.  "M.  Darcham- 
beau,  who  was  wounded  (in  the  cellar  of  a  burning 
house),  asked  a  young  officer  for  mercy.    This  young 

*  S.  pp.  16-18;  xrii.  p.  56. 
t  S.  p.  18;  Mercier. 

38 


PEPINSTER,  CORNESSE,  SOIRON,  OLNES 

officer  of  barely  22,  in  front  of  the  women  and  children, 
aimed  his  revolver  at  M.  Darchambeau's  head  and 
killed  him." 

The  fate  of  Pepznstef^  is  recorded  in  a  German 
diary:  "Aug.  12th,  Pepinster,  Burgomaster,  priest,  and 
schoolmaster  shot;  houses  reduced  to  ashes.  March 
on."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  three  hostages  were  not 
shot,  but  reprieved.  The  Burgomaster  of  Corne5se-\ 
was  shot  in  their  stead  (a  33,  34) — "an  old  man  and 
quite  deaf.  (He  was  only  hit  in  the  leg,  and  a  Ger- 
man officer  came  up  and  shot  him  through  the  heart 
with  his  revolver.)"  Five  houses  in  Comesse  were 
burnt.  At  Soiron.t  on  Aug.  4th,  the  Germans  bivou- 
acking there  fired  on  one  another,  and  eight  German 
soldiers  were  wounded  or  killed.  "But  the  officers," 
deposes  a  German  private§  who  was  present  at  the 
scene,  "in  their  anxiety  to  prevent  the  fact  of  this 
blunder  from  being  reported,  hastened  to  pretend  that 
it  was  really  the  civilians  who  had  fired,  and  gave 
orders  for  a  general  massacre.  This  order  was  car- 
ried out,  and  there  was  terrible  butchery.  I  must  men- 
tion that  we  only  killed  the  males,  but  we  burned  all 
the  houses."     At  Olnes\\  the  cure  and  the  communal 


*  Bland  p.  185. 

txvii;  a  33,  34. 

:j:xvii;  Reply  p.  126. 

§  Reply  p.  126. 

U  xvii ;  Mercier ;  S.  pp.  79-82. 

39 


ON  THE  MALMEDY  ROAD 

secretary  were  shot  on  Aug.  5th,  and  the  schoolmaster 
the  same  evening,  in  front  of  his  burning  house,  with 
his  daughter  and  his  two  sons.  Only  two  members 
of  the  schoolmaster's  family  were  spared.  In  the  ham- 
let of  SL  Hadelin,^  which  came  within  the  radius  of 
Fort  Fleron's  guns,  there  was  a  wholesale  massacre  on 
the  same  date.  Early  in  the  day  the  Germans  "re- 
quisitioned" 300  bottles  of  wine;  later  they  drove  a 
crowd  of  people  from  St.  Hadelin,  Riessonsart,  and 
Ayeneux,  to  a  place  called  the  Faveu,  and  shot  down 
33.  The  remainder  were  forced  to  haul  German  ar- 
tillery towards  the  forts,  but  these  were  partly  released 
next  day,  and  partly  massacred  at  the  Heids  d'Olne. 
Twenty  inhabitants  of  Ayeneux  were  massacred  in  a 
batch  elsewhere.  Sixty-two  civilians  were  murdered 
altogether  in  the  commune  of  Olne,  and  78  houses  de- 
stroyed— ^40  in  St.  Hadelin  and  38  in  Olne  itself. 

At  Foref\  the  Germans  burned  a  farm  and  killed 
two  of  the  farmer's  sons  on  Aug.  5th  as  they  entered 
the  place.  They  drove  the  farmer  and  his  two  surviv- 
ing sons  in  front  of  them  as  a  screen.  The  school- 
master and  two  others  were  shot  outside  the  village. 
"At  Foret,"  states  the  German  soldier  quoted  above,J 
"we  found  prisoners — a  priest  and  five  civilians,  includ- 
ing a  boy  of  17.  Pillage  began  .  .  .  but  we  were 
shelled  .  .  .  and  moved  off  to  the  next  village.     The 

*  S.  pp.  82-92. 
txvii;  S.  pp.  93-4, 
%  Reply  p.  136. 

40 


FORET,  MAGNEE,  ROMSEE 

house  doors  were  at  once  broken  in  with  the  butt-ends 
of  muskets.  We  pillaged  everything.  We  made  piles 
of  the  curtains  and  everything  inflammable,  and  set 
them  alight.  All  the  houses  were  burnt.  It  was  in 
the  middle  of  this  that  the  civilian  prisoners  of  whom 
I  have  spoken  were  shot,  with  the  exception  of  the 
cure."  (The  cure,  too,  was  shot  that  night.)*  "A 
little  further  on,  under  the  pretext  that  civilians  had 
fired  from  a  house  (though  for  my  own  part  I  cannot 
say  whether  they  were  soldiers  or  civilians  who  fired), 
orders  were  given  to  bum  the  house.  A  woman  asleep 
there  was  dragged  from  her  bed,  thrown  into  the  flames, 
and  burnt  alive.  .  .  ." 

Thirteen  people  in  all  were  killed  at  Foret,  and  6 
houses  destroyed.  At  Magnee-f  18  houses  were  de- 
stroyed and  21  people  killed.  The  German  troops  in 
Magnee  were  caught  by  the  fire  from  the  Fleron  and 
Chaudfontaine  forts,  and  they  revenged  themselves,  as 
elsewhere,  on  the  civilians,  shooting  people  in  batches 
and  burning  houses  and  farms.  This  was  on  Aug.  6th, 
and  at  Ro?nsee,'^  on  the  same  day,  34  houses  were  burnt 
and  31  civilians  murdered — some  of  them  being  driven 
as  a  screen  in  front  of  the  German  troops  under  the 
fire  of  Fort  Chaudfontaine. 

*  Mercier. 
fS.  pp.  94-100. 
:}:  S.  pp.  jqQ-5. 


4J 


BETWEEN  THE  VESDRE  AND  THE  OURTHE 

(vi)  Between  the  Vesdre  and  the  Ourthe. 

The  same  outrages  were  committed  between  the 
Vesdre  and  the  Ourthe.  At  Louveigne^^  on  Aug.  7th, 
the  Germans,  retreating  from  their  attack  on  the 
southern  forts,  looted  the  drink-shops,  fired  in  the 
streets,  and  accused  the  civilians  of  having  shot.  A 
dozen  men  (two  of  them  over  70  years  old)  were 
imprisoned  as  hostages  in  a  forge,  and  were  shot  down, 
when  released,  like  game  in  the  open.  That  evening 
Louveigne  was  systematically  set  on  fire  with  the 
same  incendiary  apparatus  that  was  used  at  Vise,  and 
the  cure  was  dragged  round  on  the  foot-board  of  a 
military  motor-car  to  watch  the  work.  There  were 
more  murders  next  day.  The  total  number  of  civilians 
murdered  at  Louveigne  was  29,  and  there  were  77 
houses  burnt.  The  devastation  impressed  the  German 
soldiers  who  passed  through  Louveigne  on  the  follow- 
ing days.  "Louveigne  has  been  completely  burnt  out. 
All  the  inhabitants  are  dead,"  writes  a  German  diarist 
on  Aug.  9th.  "March  to  Louveigne,"  another  records 
on  Aug.  16th.  "Several  citizens  and  the  cur€  shot 
according  to  martial  law,  some  not  yet  buried — still 
lying  where  they  were  executed,  for  everyone  to  see. 
Stench  of  corpses  everj^where.  Cure  said  to  have  in- 
cited the  inhabitants  to  ambush  and  kill  the  Germans." 
— "Bivouac!     Rain  I     Burnt  villages  I     Louveigne!" 

*  S.  pp.  40-5:  Belg.  Ann.  5,  pp.  167-8;  Morgan  p,  100;  Bryce  p.  172. 

42 


LOUVEIGNE,  LINCE,  POULSEUR 

another  exclaims  on  Aug.  17th.  "We  marched  and 
bivouacked  in  the  rain,  in  an  orchard  with  a  high  hedge 
round  it,  full  of  fruit-trees.  There  was  an  abandoned 
house  in  front  of  it.  The  door,  which  was  locked,  was 
broken  in  with  an  axe.  The  traces  of  war — burnt 
houses,  weeping  women  and  children,  executions  of 
franc-tireurs — showed  us  the  ruthlessness  of  the  times. 
We  could  not  have  done  otherwise.  .  .  .  But  how 
many  have  to  suffer  with  others,  how  many  innocent 
people  are  shot  by  martial  law,  because  there  is  no 
detailed  enquiry  first.    ..." 

At  Lince^^  in  the  commune  of  Sprimont,  a  German 
ofBcer  was  wounded  when  the  troops  returned  in  con- 
fusion from  before  the  southern  forts  of  Liege.  The 
Germans  forbade  an  autopsy  to  discover  by  what  bul- 
let the  wound  had  been  caused,  and  condemned  two 
civilians  with  a  proven  alibi  to  be  shot.  All  the  next 
morning  the  destruction  went  on.  Houses  were  burnt, 
the  cure  was  mishandled,  a  farmer  and  his  son  were 
shot  down  at  their  farm  gate,  a  girl  of  twelve  received 
four  bullets  in  her  body.  The  execution  of  the  hos- 
tages took  place  in  the  afternoon.  Sixteen  men  were 
shot,  of  whom  7  were  more  than  60  years  old.  At 
Chanxke,-\  on  Aug.  6th,  hostages  from  Poulseur  were 
bound  in  ranks  to  the  parapet  of  the  bridge  over  the 
Ourthe,  and  kept  there  several  days  while  the  Germans 

»S.  pp.  30-8. 
t  S.  pp.  20-30. 

43 


ACROSS  THE  MEUSE 

filed  across.  "We  were  tortured  by  hunger  and  thirst," 
writes  one  of  them.  "We  shivered  at  night.  And 
then,  of  necessity,  there  was  the  filth.  .  .  .  At  the 
end  of  the  bridge  the  women  were  pleading  with  the 
Germans  in  vain,  and  the  children  were  crying."  On 
the  5th  two  civilian  captives  were  shot  on  the  bridge, 
and  their  bodies  thrown  into  the  river,  and  two  more 
(one  aged  70)  were  shot  on  the  7th.  In  the  commune 
of  Poulseur,  from  which  these  hostages  came,  7  civilians 
were  killed  and  25  houses  destroyed.  In  the  commune 
of  Sprimont  67  houses  were  destroyed  and  48  civilians 
killed.  At  Esneux  26  houses  were  destroyed  and  7 
civilians  killed. 

(vii)  Across  the  Meuse. 

Meanwhile,  the  Germans  had  crossed  the  Meuse  at 
Vise,  and  were  descending  on  Liege  from  the  north. 
At  Hallembaye,  in  the  commune  of  Haccourt,'^  18 
people  were  killed.  There  were  women,  children  and 
old  men  among  them,  and  also  the  cure,f  who  was 
bayonetted  on  his  church  threshold  as  he  was  removing 
the  sacrament.  In  the  commune  of  Haccourt  80  houses 
were  destroyed,  and  112  hostages  were  carried  away 
into  Germany.  Hermalle-sous-Argenteau%  was  plun- 
dered on  Aug.  15th,  and  9  houses  destroyed.     There 

*  S.  pp.  191-3  ;  xvii. 

t  Mercier, 

%  S.  pp.  ^190-1,  a  15. 

44 


VIVEGNIS,  HEURE-LE-ROMAIN,  HERMEE 

was  a  mock  execution  of  hostages  in  the  presence  of 
women  and  children,  and  368  men  of  the  place  were 
imprisoned  in  the  church  for  17  days.  At  Vivegnis^ 
6  civilians  were  shot  on  Aug.  13th,  and  45  houses 
destroyed  the  day  after.  The  Germans  fired  on  the 
inhabitants  through  the  windows  and  doors,  and  two 
men  were  thus  killed  in  a  single  household.  At  Heure- 
le-Romain'\  the  population  was  confined  in  the  church 
on  Aug.  16th  (it  was  Sunday)  and  compelled  to  stand 
there,  hands  raised,  under  the  muzzle  of  a  machine- 
gun.  Seven  civilians  were  shot  at  Heure-le-Romain 
that  day,  including  the  Burgomaster's  brother  and  the 
cure,  J  who  were  roped  together  and  shot  against  the 
church  wall.  All  through  the  16th  and  17th  the  sack 
continued;  on  the  18th  fresh  troops  arrived  and  com- 
pleted the  work  by  systematic  arson  and  the  slaughter 
of  19  people  more.  Twenty-seven  civilians  were 
killed  at  Heure-le-Romain  altogether  and  84  houses 
destroyed.  At  Hermee,^  on  Aug.  6th,  the  Germans, 
caught  by  the  fire  of  Fori  Pontisse^  revenged  them- 
selves by  shooting  11  civilians,  including  old  men  of 
76  and  82  years.  On  the  14th,  the  day  after  the  sur- 
render of  the  fort,  the  inhabitants  of  Hermee  were 
driven  from  their  homes  and  the  village  systematically 
burnt,  146  houses  out  of  308  being  destroyed.    In  the 

*S.  pp.  187-8. 

t  S.  pp.  200-5;  xvii;  a  17. 

%  Mercier. 

§S.  pp.  194-200;  xvii;  a  35. 

45 


THE  CITY  OF  LIEGE 

village  itself,  as  apart  from  the  outlying  hamlets  of 
the  commune,  only  two  or  three  houses  were  left  stand- 
ing. At  Fexhe-Slms,  near  Hermee,  3  people  were 
killed.  Twenty- three  were  killed,  and  13  houses  de- 
stroyed, in  the  hamlet  of  RhSes  in  the  commune  of 
Herstal.^ 

Thus  the  Germans  plundered  private  property, 
burned  down  houses,  and  shot  civilians  of  both  sexes 
and  all  ages,  on  every  road  by  which  they  marched 
upon  Liege — from  the  north-east,  the  south-east,  and 
the  north.  One  thousand  and  thirty-two  civiliansf 
were  shot  by  the  Germans  in  the  whole  Province  of 
Liege^  and  3,173  houses  were  destroyed  in  two  arron- 
dissements  (those  of  Liege  and  Verviers)  alone  out  of 
the  four  of  which  the  Province  is  made  up. 

(viii)   The  City  of  Liege. 

Twenty-nine  of  these  civilians  were  killed  and  ^^X 
of  the  houses  destroyed  in  the  city  of  Liege  itself — on 
August  20th,  a  fortnight  after  it  had  fallen  into  the 
German  Army's  possession.  The  Germans  entered 
Liege  on  August  7th.  Their  entry  was  not  opposed  by 
Belgian  troops,  and  arms  in  private  hands  had  already 
been  called  in  by  the  Belgian  police. §     The  Germans 

*  S.  pp.  185-7;   ^  6,  10,  II,  13. 
t  Known  by  name.     See  Reply,   p.   142. 

:|:  There  were  also  thirty-seven  houses  destroyed  in  the  suburb  of 
Grivegnee. 
§a  24. 

46 


THE  GERMAN  OUTBREAK 

found  themselves  in  peaceful  occupation  of  a  great 
industrial  city,  caught  in  the  full  tide  of  its  nornial 
life.  There  was  nothing  to  suggest  outrage,  still  less 
to  excuse  it,  in  their  surroundings  there;  their  conduct 
on  August  2oth  was  deliberate  and  cold-blooded.  The 
Higher  Command  was  faced  with  the  problem  of 
holding  a  conquered  country,  and  wanted  an  example. 
The  troops  in  garrison  were  demoralised  by  the  sudden 
change  to  idleness  from  fatigue  and  danger,  and  were 
ready  for  excitement  and  pillage. 

"Aug.  i6th,  Liege,"  writes  a  German  soldier  in  his 
diary.*  "The  villages  we  passed  through  had  been 
destroyed. 

"Aug.  19th.  Quartered  in  University.  Gone  on 
the  loose  and  boozed  through  the  streets  of  Liege.  Lie 
on  straw;  enough  booze;  too  little  to  eat,  or  we  must 
steal. 

"Aug.  20th.  In  the  night  the  inhabitants  of  Liege 
became  mutinous.  Forty  persons  were  shot  and  15 
houses  demolished.  Ten  soldiers  were  shot.  The 
sights  here  make  you  cry." 

There  are  proofs  of  German  premeditation — warn- 
ings from  German  soldiers  to  civilians  on  whom  they 
were  billeted,f  and  an  ammunition  waggon  which 
drew  up  at  8.0  a.m.  in  the  Rue  des  Pitteurs,  and  twelve 


*  Bryce  pp.  172-3. 
ta  a8. 


47 


THE  CITY  OF  LIEGE 

hours  later  disgorged  the  benzine  with  which  the  houses 
in  that  street  were  drenched  before  being  burnt. ^' 

"The  city  was  perfectly  quiet,"  declares  a  Belgian 
witnesSjf  "until  about  8.0  p.m.  At  about  9.15  p.m. 
I  was  in  bed  reading  when  I  heard  the  sound  of  rifle- 
fire.  .  .  .  The  noise  of  the  firing  came  nearer  and 
nearer."  The  first  shot  was  fired  from  a  window  of 
"Emulation  Building,"  looking  out  on  the  Place  de 
rUniversite,  in  the  heart  of  the  town. J  The  Place 
was  immediately  crowded  with  armed  German  soldiers, 
firing  in  the  air,  breaking  into  houses,  and  dragging  out 
any  civilians  they  could  find.  First  nine  men  (5  of 
them  Spanish  subjects)  were  shot  in  a  batch,  then  7 
more.§  "About  io.o  p.m.  they  were  shooting  every- 
where. About  10.30  p.m.  several  machine  guns  were 
firing  and  artillery  as  well."  (The  artillery  was 
firing  on  private  houses  from  the  opposite  side  of  the 
Meuse.|| )  "About  1 1.0  p.m.  I  saw  between  45  and  50 
houses  burning.  There  were  two  seats  of  the  fire — 
the  first  at  the  Place  de  I'Universite  (8  houses — I  was 
close  by  at  the  time),  the  second  across  the  Meuse  on 
the  Quai  des  Pecheurs,  where  there  were  about  35 
houses  burning.  I  heard  a  whole  series  of  orders  given 
in  German,  and  also  bugle  calls,  followed  by  the  cries 

*  a  24. 

fa  28. 

rjrS.  p.  209. 

§  Names  given  by  S.  pp.  21 1-2;  cp.  a  27. 

II  S.  p.  212. 

48 


THE  BURNING  AND  KILLING 

of  the  victims,  and  I  saw  women  with  children  running 
about  in  the  street,  pursued  by  soldiers.   .   .   ."  (a  28). 

The  arson  was  elaborate.  In  the  Rue  des  Pitteurs 
the  waggon  loaded  with  benzine  moved  from  door  to 
door.*  "About  20  men  were  going  up  to  each  of  the 
houses.  One  of  them  had  a  sort  of  syringe,  with  which 
he  squirted  into  the  house,  and  another  would  throw  a 
bucket  of  water  in.  A  handful  of  stuff  was  first  put 
into  the  bucket,  and  when  this  was  thrown  into  the 
house  there  was  an  immediate  explosion"  (a  31).  At 
the  Place  de  I'Universite,  when  the  Belgian  fire-brigade 
arrived,  they  were  forbidden  to  extinguish  the  fire,  and 
made  to  stand,  hands  up,  against  a  wall  (a  28,  29). 
Later  they  were  assigned  another  task.  "About  mid- 
night," states  a  witness  (a  30),  "a  whole  heap  of 
civilian  corpses  were  brought  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville  on 
a  fire-brigade  cart.  There  were  17  of  them.  Bits  were 
blown  out  of  their  heads.  .  .  ." 

As  the  houses  caught  fire  the  inmates  tried  to  escape. 
The  few  who  reached  the  street  were  shot  down  (a  24, 
26).  Most  were  driven  back  into  the  flames.  "At 
about  30  of  the  houses,"  a  witness  states  (a  31),  "I 
actually  saw  faces  at  the  windows  before  the  Germans 
entered,  and  then  saw  the  same  faces  at  the  cellar  win- 
dows after  the  Germans  had  driven  the  people  into  the 
cellars."     In  this  way  a  number  of  men  and  women 

*a  24,  27,  31. 

49 


THE  CITY  OF  LIEGE 

were  burnt  alive.*  In  some  cases  the  Germans  would 
not  wait  for  the  fire  to  do  their  work  for  them,  but 
bayonetted  the  people  themselves.  In  one  house,  near 
the  Episcopal  Palace,'j*  two  boys  were  bayonetted 
before  their  mother's  eyes,  and  then  the  man — their 
father  and  her  husband.  Another  man  in  the  house 
was  wounded  almost  to  death,  and  the  Germans  were 
with  difficulty  prevented  from  "finishing  him  off," 
next  morning,  on  the  way  to  the  hospital.  An  orphan 
girl,  who  lodged  in  the  same  house,  was  violated. 

Next  morning,  August  2 1st,  the  district  round  the 
University  Buildings  on  either  side  of  the  Meuse  was 
cleared  of  its  inhabitants — such  inhabitants  as  sur- 
vived and  such  streets  as  still  stood.  The  people  were 
evicted  at  a  few  hours'  notice,  and  not  allowed  to 
return  for  a  month.J  The  same  day  a  proclamation 
was  posted  by  the  German  authorities:  "Civilians 
have  fired  on  the  German  soldiers.  Repression  is  the 
result."  §  The  indictment  was  not  convincing,  for 
"Emulation  Building,"  from  which  the  first  shot  was 
fired  on  the  night  of  the  20th,  had  been  cleared  of  its 
Belgian  occupants  some  days  before  and  filled  entirely 
with  German  soldiers.  Later  the  German  Governor 
of  Liege  shifted  his  ground,  and  laid  the  blame  on 
Russian  students   "who  had  been   a  burden  on  the 

*  a  31 ;  S.  p.  213. 
t  S.  pp.  219-224. 
:{:  S.  pp.  217-8,  325. 
§  S.  p.  2i8. 

50 


THE  MOTIVE  UNMASKED 

population  of  the  city."*  A  clearer  light  is  thrown 
on  the  outbreak  of  August  2oth  by  what  occurred  on 
the  night  of  August  2ist-22nd.  "Aug.  22nd,  3  a.m., 
Liege,"  writes  a  German  in  his  diary.  "Two  infantry 
regiments  shot  at  each  other.  Nine  dead  and  50 
wounded — fault  not  yet  ascertained."  But  in  the 
other  diary,  quoted  before,  the  incident  is  thus  recorded 
under  the  same  date:  "August  21st.  In  the  night  the 
soldiers  were  again  fired  on.  We  then  destroyed  sev- 
eral houses  more."  The  soldiers  fire,  the  civilians  suffer 
reprisals,  but  the  Germans'  object  is  gained.  The  con- 
quered population  is  terrorised,  the  invaders  feel  secure. 
"On  August  23rd  everything  quiet,"  the  latter  diarist 
continues.     "The  inhabitants  have  so  far  given  in. 

"August  24th.  Our  occupation  is  bathing,  and  eat- 
ing and  drinking  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  We  live  like 
God  in  Belgium." 

*S.  p.  334;  a  24. 


51 


III.     FROM  LIEGE  TO  MALINES. 

(i)   Through  Limburg  to  Aerschot. 

The  first  German  force  to  push  forward  from  Liege 
was  the  column  commissioned  to  mask  the  Belgian 
fortress  of  Antwerp  on  the  extreme  right  flank  of  the 
German  advance.  From  the  bridges  of  the  Meuse  this 
column  marched  north-west  across  the  Province  of 
Limburg.  Belgian  patrols  met  the  advance-guard 
already  at  Lanaeken  on  August  6th,  driving  civilians 
in  front  of  it  as  a  screen.*  The  invaders  were  obsessed 
with  the  terror  of  franc-tireurs.  At  Hasselt^^  on 
August  17th,  they  made  the  Burgomaster  post  a  proc- 
lamation advising  his  fellew-citizens  "to  abstain  from 
any  kind  of  provocative  demonstration  and  from  all 
acts  of  hostility,  which  might  bring  terrible  reprisals 
upon  our  town. 

"Above  all  you  must  abstain  from  acts  of  violence 
against  the  German  troops,  and  especially  from  firing 
on  them. 

"In  case  the  inhabitants  fire  upon  the  soldiers  of  the 
German  Army,  a  third  of  the  male  population  will  be 
shot." 

*xv  p.  20. 
tBryce  pp.  185-4- 

52 


o 


TONGRES 

At  Tongres,^  on  August  i8th,  the  Germans  carried 
threats  into  action.  The  population  was  driven  out 
bodily  from  the  town,  and  the  town  systematically 
plundered.  At  least  17  civilians  were  killed  (includ- 
ing a  boy  of  12),  and  a  number  of  houses  were  burnt. 
"On  August  18th,"  writes  a  German  in  his  diary,  "we 
reach  Tongres.  Here,  too,  it  is  a  complete  picture  of 
destruction — something  unique  of  its  kind  for  our  pro- 
fession."f — "Tongres,"  writes  another  on  the  19th. 
"A  quantity  of  houses  plundered  by  our  cavalry."  A 
captured  letter  from  the  hand  of  a  German  army- 
doctor  reveals  the  pretext  on  which  this  was  done. 
"The  Belgians  have  only  themselves  to  thank  that  their 
country  has  been  devastated  in  this  way.  I  have  seen 
all  the  great  towns  attacked  and  the  villages  besieged 
and  set  on  fire.  At  Tongres  we  were  attacked  by  the 
population  in  the  evening  when  it  was  dark.  An  im- 
mense number  of  shots  were  exchanged,  for  we  were 
exposed  to, fire  on  four  sides.  Happily  we  had  only 
one  man  hit — he  died  the  following  day.  We  killed 
two  women,  and  the  men  were  shot  the  day  after." 
There  is  no  disproof  here  of  the  Belgian  affirmation 
that  the  shots  were  fired  by  the  Germans  themselves. 

This  outbreak  at  Tongres  on  August  18th  was  not 
an  isolated  occurrence.    On  the  same  day  the  Germans 

*xvii  p.  66;  xxi  p.  129;  Morgan  p.  loi ;  Bland  p.  131;  Davignon 
p.  107. 
fXhe  man  was  a  glass-maker. 

53 


THROUGH  LIMBURG  TO  AERSCHOT 

shot  down  the  Burgomaster's  wife  and  a  lawyer  at 
Cannes,^  and  two  men  and  a  boy  at  Lixht,'^  a  few 
miles  north-west  of  the  Vise  bridge.  But  Limburg 
suffered  little  compared  to  Brabant,  into  which  the 
Germans  next  advanced. 

Haelen,  where  their  advance-guard  was  severely 
handled  by  the  Belgian  Anny  on  August  l2th,  lies 
close  to  the  boundary  between  the  two  provinces,  and 
they  took  vengeance  on  the  civil  population  of  Brabant 
for  this  military  reverse. 

"The  Germans  came  to  Schaffen^"%  the  cure  reports, 
"at  9.0  o'clock  on  August  18th.  They  set  fire  to  170 
houses.  A  thousand  inhabitants  are  homeless.  The 
communal  building  and  my  own  residence  ure  among 
the  houses  burnt.  Twenty-two  people  at  least  were 
killed  without  motive.  Two  men  (mentioned  by 
name)  were  buried  alive  head  downwards,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  their  wives.  The  Germans  seized  me  in  my 
garden,  and  mishandled  me  in  every  kind  of  way.  .  .  . 
The  blacksmith,  who  was  a  prisoner  with  me,  had  his 
arm  broken  and  was  then  killed.  ...  It  went  on  all 
day  long.  Towards  evening  they  made  me  look  at  the 
church,  saying  it  was  the  last  time  I  should  see  it. 
About  6.45  they  let  me  go.    I  was  bleeding  and  uncon- 

*xvii  p.  66. 
txvii  p.  63. 
:|:  Reply  pp.  140-1 ;  k4;  Bedier  pp.  lo-i;  i  pp.  3-4. 

54 


SCHAFFEN,  MOLENSTEDE,  ST.  TROND 

scious.  An  officer  made  me  get  up  and  bade  me  be  off. 
At  several  metres  distance  they  fired  on  me.  I  fell 
down  and  was  left  for  dead.    It  was  my  salvation.  .  ., . 

"All  the  houses  were  drenched,  before  burning,  with 
naphtha  and  petrol,  which  the  Germans  carry  with 
them.    ..." 

On  the  German  side,  there  is  the  ordinary  excuse. 
"Fifty  civilians,"  writes  a  diarist,  "had  hidden  in  the 
church  tower  and  had  fired  on  our  men  with  a  machine- 
gun.=^    All  the  civilians  were  shot." 

The  cure  mentions  that  the  Germans  found  the 
church  door  locked,  broke  it  in,  and  then  found  no  one 
there. 

At  Molenstede,  another  village  in  the  Canton  of 
Diest^  32  houses  were  burnt  and  11  civilians  killed. 
In  the  whole  Canton  226  houses  were  burnt,  and  47 
people  killed  in  all. 

The  Germans  were  also  advancing  by  a  more  south- 
erly road  from  Tongres  through  St.  Trond.  At  St. 
Trond,-^  the  first  Uhlans  killed  2  civilians  in  the  street 
and  wounded  others.  At  Budirgen  they  killed  2 
civilians  and  burned  58  houses,  at  Neerlinter  one  and 
73.  In  the  Canton  of  Lean  they  killed  19  civilians 
altogether,  and  174  houses  were  destroyed. 


♦There    had   been   Belgian    soldiers   with    a   machine-gun    in   the 
village. 
tki8. 

55 


THROUGH  LIMBURG  TO  AERSCHOT 

At  Haekendover,  in  the  Canton  of  Tirlemont,  they 
killed  one  civilian,  burned  32  houses  and  pillaged  150 
(out  of  220  in  all).  At  Tirlemont  itself,  they  killed 
three  civilians  and  burned  60  houses.  At  Hougaerde^"^ 
when  they  entered  the  village,  they  drove  the  cure  of 
Autgaerde  before  them  as  a  screen,  and  he  was  killed 
by  the  first  bullet  from  the  Belgian  troops,  who  were 
defending  the  road  from  behind  a  barricade.  Four 
civilians  were  killed  at  Hougaerde,  100  houses  pil- 
laged, and  50  destroyed.  In  the  whole  Canton  of 
Tirlemont  the  Germans  killed  18  civilians,  and  burned 
212  houses  down. 

At  Bunsbeek  they  killed  4  people  and  burned  20 
houses,  at  Roosbeek  3  and  42.  "After  Roosbeek,"  a 
German  diarist  notes,f  "we  began  to  have  an  idea  of 
the  war;  houses  burnt,  walls  pierced  by  bullets,  the 
face  of  the  tower  carried  away  by  shells,  and  so  on.  A 
few  isolated  crosses  marked  the  graves  of  the  victims." 
At  KieseghemX  the  Germans  used  civilians  as  a  screen 
again,  and  killed  two  more  when  they  entered  the  vil- 
lage. At  Attenrode  they  killed  6  civilians  and  burned 
17  houses,  at  Lubbeck  15  and  46.  In  the  CMnton  of 
Glabbeek  35  civilians  were  killed  from  first  to  last, 
and  140  houses  destroyed. 

*  Reply  p.  128. 
t  Davignon  p.  97. 
:j:xv  p.  20. 

56 


THE  GERMAN  ENTRY 

(ii)  AerschoL 

The  Germans  marched  into  Aerschot^  on  the  morn- 
ing of  Aug.  19th,  driving  before  them  two  girls  and 
four  women  with  babies  in  their  arms  as  a  screen.f 
One  of  the  women  was  wounded  by  the  fire  of  the 
Belgian  troops,  who  had  posted  machine  guns  to  dis- 
pute the  Germans'  entry,  but  now  withheld  their  fire 
and  retired  from  the  town.  The  Germans  encountered 
no  further  resistance,  but  they  began  to  kill  civilians 
and  break  into  houses  immediately  they  came  in.  They 
bayonetted  two  women  on  their  doorstep  (c  27). 
They  shot  a  deaf  boy  (c  1)  who  did  not  understand 
the  order  to  raise  his  hands.  They  shot  5  men  they 
had  requisitioned  as  guides  (R.  No.  3).  They  fired 
at  the  church  (c  18).  They  fired  at  people  looking 
out  of  the  windows  of  their  houses  (R.  No.  5).  The 
Burgomaster's  son,  a  boy  of  fifteen,  was  standing  at  a 
window  with  his  mother  and  was  wounded  by  a  bullet 
in  the  leg  (R.  No.  11).  They  killed  people  in  their 
houses.  Six  men,  for  instance,  were  bayonetted  in  one 
house  (R.  No.  15).  They  dragged  a  railway  employe 
from  his  home  and  shot  him  in  a  field  (R.  No.  2). 
"I  went  back  home,"  states  a  woman  who  had  been 
seized  by  the  Germans  and  had  escaped  (c  18),  "and 
found  my  husband  lying  dead  outside  it.    He  had  been 

*ci-38;  Belg.  xxi  pp.  111-4;  Anns,  i,  7;  Reply  pp.  147-178;  Ger- 
man  White  Book,  A;  Struycken;  Davignon  p.  97. 
t  Reply  No,  i ;  ga. 

57 


AERSCHOT 

shot  through  the  head  from  behind.    His  pockets  had 
been  rifled." 

Other  civilians  (the  civil  population  was  already 
accused  of  having  fired)  were  collected  as  hostages,* 
and  driven,  with  their  hands  raised  above  their  heads, 
to  an  open  space  on  the  banks  of  the  River  Demer. 
"There  were  about  200  prisoners,  some  of  them  in- 
valids taken  from  their  beds"  (c  1).  There  was  a 
professor  from  the  College  among  them  (R.  No.  9), 
and  an  old  man  of  75  (c  15).  After  these  hostages 
had  been  searched,  and  had  been  kept  standing  by  the 
river,  with  their  arms  up,  for  two  hours,  the  Burgo- 
master was  brought  to  them  under  guard,f  and  com- 
pelled to  read  out  a  proclamation,  ordering  all  arms 
to  be  given  up,  and  warning  that  if  a  shot  were 
fired  by  a  civilian,  the  man  who  fired  it,  and  four 
others  with  him,  would  be  put  to  death.  It  was  a 
gratuitous  proceeding,  for,  several  days  before  the 
Germans  arrived,  the  Burgomaster  (like  most  of  his 
colleagues  throughout  Belgium)  had  sent  the  town 
crier  round,  calling  on  the  population  to  deposit  all 
arms  at  the  H6tel-de-Ville,  and  he  had  posted  placards 
on  the  walls  to  the  same  effect  (c  4,  7).  A  priest  drew 
a  German  officer's  attention  to  these  placards  (c  20), 
and  the  Burgomaster  himself  had  already  given  a  trans- 
lation of  their  contents  to  the  German  commandant 

*ci,  6,  9,  is;  R.  No.  9. 
tci,  15;  R.  Nos.  4,  9,  II. 

58 


THE  GERMAN  ENTRY 

(R.  No.  li).  That  officer*  disingenuously  represents 
this  act  of  good  faith  as  a  suspicious  circumstance. 
"To  my  special  surprise,"  he  states,  "thirty-six  more 
rifles,  professedly  intended  for  public  processions  and 
for  the  Garde  Civique,  were  produced"  (from  the 
H6tel-de-Ville).  "The  constituents  of  ammunition 
for  these  rifles  were  also  found  packed  in  a  case."  But 
the  only  weapon  still  found  in  private  hands  on  the 
morning  of  Aug.  19th  was  a  shot  gun  used  for  pigeon 
shooting  (c  1),  and  when  the  owner  had  fetched  it 
from  his  home  the  hostages  were  released.  Yet  at  this 
point  4  more  civilians  were  shot  down,  two  of  them 
father  and  son — the  son  feeble-minded  (c  15). 

The  Germans  quartered  in  Aerschot  were  already 
getting  out  of  hand.  "I  saw  the  dead  body  of  another 
man  in  the  street,"  continues  the  witness  (c  15)  quoted 
above.  "When  I  got  to  my  house,  I  found  that  all  the 
furniture  had  been  broken,  and  that  the  place  had  been 
thoroughly  ransacked,  and  everything  of  value  stolen. 
When  I  came  out  into  the  street  again  I  saw  the  dead 
body  of  a  man  at  the  door  of  the  next  house  to  mine. 
He  was  my  neighbour,  and  wore  a  Red  Cross  brassard 
on  his  arm.    .    .    ." 

The  Germans  gave  themselves  up  to  drink  and 
plunder.  "They  set  about  breaking  in  the  cellar  doors, 
and  soon  most  of  them  were  drunk"  (R.  No.  15). — 
"An  officer  came  to  me,"  states  another  witness  (c  7), 

*  German  White  Book,  A  3. 

59 


AERSCHOT 

"and  demanded  a  packet  of  coffee.  He  did  not  pay 
for  it.  He  gave  no  receipt." — "They  broke  my  shop 
window,"  deposes  another.  "The  shop  front  was  pil- 
laged in  a  moment.  Then  they  gutted  the  shop  itself. 
They  fought  each  other  for  the  bottles  of  cognac  and 
rum.  In  the  middle  of  this  an  officer  entered.  He  did 
not  seem  at  all  surprised,  and  demanded  three  bottles 
of  cognac  and  three  of  wine  for  himself.  The  soldiers, 
N.C.O.'s  and  officers,  went  down  to  the  cellar  and 
emptied  it.  .  .  ."  Not  even  the  Red  Cross  was 
spared.  The  monastery  of  St.  Damien,  which  had 
been  turned  into  an  ambulance,  was  broken  into  by 
German  soldiers,  who  accused  the  monks  of  firing  and 
tore  the  bandages  off  the  wounded  Belgian  soldiers  to 
make  sure  that  the  wounds  were  real  (R.  No.  l6). 
"Whenever  we  referred  to  our  membership  of  the  Red 
Cross,"  declares  one  of  the  monks,  "our  words  were 
received  with  scornful  smiles  and  comments,  indicating 
clearly  that  they  made  no  account  of  that." 

About  5.0  p.m.  Colonel  Stenger,  the  commander  of 
the  8th  German  Infantry  Brigade,  arrived  in  Aerschot 
with  his  staff.  They  were  quartered  in  the  Burgo- 
master's house,  in  rooms  overlooking  the  square.  Cap- 
tain Karge,  the  commander  of  the  divisional  military 
police,  was  billeted  on  the  Burgomaster's  brother,  also 
in  the  square  but  on  the  opposite  side.  About  8.0  p.m. 
(German  time)  Colonel  Stenger  was  standing  on  the 
Burgomaster's  balcony;  the  Burgomaster,  who  had  just 

60 


lo.    "We  Live  Like  God  in  Belgium" 


THE  FIRST  SHOT 

been  allowed  to  return  home,  was  at  his  front  door, 
offering  the  German  sentries  cigars,  and  his  wife  was 
close  by  him;  the  square  was  full  of  troops,  and  a 
supply  column  was  just  filing  through,  when  suddenly 
a  single  loud  shot  was  fired,  followed  immediately  by 
a  heavy  fusillade.  "I  very  distinctly  saw  two  columns 
of  smoke,"  writes  the  Burgomaster's  wife  (R.  No.  ii), 
"followed  by  a  multitude  of  discharges." — "I  could 
perceive  a  light  cloud  of  smoke  and  dust,"  states  Cap- 
tain Karge,*  who  was  at  his  window  across  the  square, 
''coming  from  the  eaves  of  a  red  comer  house."  In  a 
moment  the  soldiers  massed  in  the  square  were  in  an 
uproar.  "My  yard,"  continues  the  Burgomaster's  wife, 
"was  immediately  invaded  by  horses  and  by  soldiers 
firing  in  the  air  like  madmen." — "The  drivers  and 
transport  men,"  observes  Captain  Karge,  "had  left 
their  horses  and  waggons  and  taken  cover  from  the 
shots  in  the  entrances  of  the  houses.  Some  of  the 
waggons  had  interlocked,  because  the  horses,  becoming 
restless,  had  taken  their  own  course  without  the  drivers 
to  guide  them."  Another  German  officer  f  thought  the 
firing  came  from  the  north-west  outskirts  of  the  town, 
and  was  told  by  fugitive  German  soldiers  that  there 
were  Belgian  troops  advancing  to  the  attack.  A 
machine-gun  company  went  out  to  meet  them,  and 
marched  three  kilometres  before  it  discovered  that  there 


*  White  Book  A  3,  Appendix, 
t  White  Book  A  5. 


61 


AERSCHOT 

was  no  enemy,  and  turned  back.  "About  350  yards 
from  the  square,"  states  the  commander  of  this  unit,* 
"I  met  cavalry  dashing  backwards  and  transport 
waggons  trying  to  turn  round.  ...  I  saw  shots 
coming  from  the  houses,  whereupon  I  ordered  the 
machine  guns  to  be  unlimbered  and  the  house  fronts 
on  the  left  to  be  fired  upon." 

Who  fired  the  first  shot*?  Who  fired  the  answering 
volley?  There  is  abundant  evidence,  both  Belgian  and 
German,  of  German  soldiers  firing  in  the  square  and 
the  neighbouring  streets;  no  single  instance  is  proved, 
or  even  alleged,  in  the  German  White  Book,  of  a 
Belgian  caught  in  the  act  of  firing.  "The  situation 
developed,"  deposes  Captain  Folz,f  "into  our  men 
pressing  their  backs  against  the  houses,  and  firing  on 
any  marksman  in  the  opposite  house,  as  soon  as  he 
showed  himself."  But  were  they  Belgians  at  the  win- 
dows, or  Germans  taking  cover  from  the  undoubted 
fire  of  their  comrades,  and  replying  from  these  vantage 
points  upon  an  imaginary  foe?  "Near  the  H6tel-de- 
Ville,"  continues  Captain  Folz,  "there  stood  an  officer 
who  had  the  signal  'Cease  Fire'  blown  continuously. J 
Clearly  this  officer  desired  in  the  first  place  to  stop  the 
shooting  of  our  men,  in  order  to  set  a  systematic  action 
on  foot." 

*A  4. 

t  White  Book  A  5. 

:j:cp.  A  3,  Appendix. 

62 


THE  PANIC  FIRING 

The  German  soldiers'  minds  had  been  filled  with 
lying  rumours.  "I  heard,"  declares  Captain  Karge, 
"that  the  King  of  the  Belgians  had  decreed  that  every 
male  Belgian  was  under  obligation  to  do  the  German 
Army  as  much  harm  as  possible,    .    .    . 

"An  officer  told  me  he  had  read  on  a  church  door 
that  the  Belgians  were  forbidden  to  hold  captured  Ger- 
man officers  on  parole,  but  had  to  shoot  them.     .     .     . 

"A  seminary  teacher  assured  me"  (it  was  under  the 
threat  of  death)  "definitely,  as  I  now  think  that  I  can 
distinctly  remember,  that  the  Garde  Civique  had  been 
ordered  to  injure  the  German  Army  in  every  possible 
way.     .     .     ." 

Thus,  when  he  heard  the  shots,  Captain  Karge  leapt 
to  his  conclusions,  "The  regularity  of  the  volleys  gave 
me  the  impression  that  the  affair  was  well  organised 
and  possibly  under  military  command."  It  never  oc- 
curred to  him  that  they  might  be  German  volleys  com- 
manded by  German  officers  as  apprehensive  as  himself. 
"Everywhere,  apparently,"  he  proceeds,  "the  firing 
came,  nol  from  the  windows^  but  from  roof-openings 
or  prepared  loopholes  in  the  attics  of  the  houses."  But 
if  not  from  the  windows,  why  not  from  the  square, 
which  was  crowded  with  German  soldiers,  when  a 
moment  afterwards  (admittedly)  these  very  soldiers 
were  firing  furiously?  "This"  (assumed  direction 
from  which  the  firing  came)  "is  the  explanation  of  the 
smallness  of  the  damage  done  by  the  shots  to  men  and 

63 


AERSCHOT 

animals,"  and,  in  fact,  the  only  victim  the  Germans 
claim  is  Colonel  Stenger,  the  Brigadier.  After  the 
worst  firing  was  over  and  the  troops  were  getting  under 
control,  Colonel  Stenger  was  found  by  his  aide-de- 
camp (A  2),  who  had  come  up  to  his  room  to  make  a 
report,  lying  wounded  on  the  floor  and  on  the  point 
of  death.  Captain  Folz  (A  5)  records  that  "the  Regi- 
mental Surgeon  of  the  Infantry  Regiment  No.  140, 
who  made  a  post-mortem  examination  of  the  body  in 
his  presence  on  the  following  day,  found  in  the  aperture 
of  the  breast  wound  a  deformed  leaden  bullet,  which 
had  been  shattered  by  contact  with  a  hard  object."  It 
remains  to  prove  that  the  bullet  was  not  German.  The 
German  White  Book  does  not  include  any  report  from 
the  examining  surgeon  himself. 

Meanwhile,  the  town  and  people  of  Aerschot  were 
given  over  to  destruction.  "I  now  took  some  soldiers," 
proceeds  Captain  Karge,  "and  went  with  them  towards 
the  house  from  which  the  shooting" — in  Captain 
Karge's  belief — "had  first  come.  ...  I  ordered  the 
doors  and  windows  of  the  ground  floor,  which  were 
securely  locked,  to  be  broken  in.  Thereupon  I  pushed 
into  the  house  with  the  others,  and  using  a  fairly  large 
quantity  of  turpentine,  which  was  found  in  a  can  of 
about  20  litres  capacity,  and  which  I  had  poured  out 
partly  on  the  first  storey  and  then  down  the  stairs  and 
on  the  ground  floor,  succeeded  in  setting  the  house  on 
fire  in  a  very  short  time.    Further,  I  had  ordered  the 

64 


a 


INCENDIARISM  AND  MASSACRE 

men  not  taking  part  in  this  to  guard  the  entrances  of 
the  house  and  arrest  all  male  persons  escaping  from  it. 
When  I  left  the  burning  house  several  civilians,  in- 
cluding a  young  priest,  had  been  arrested  from  the 
adjoining  houses.  I  had  these  brought  to  the  square, 
where  in  the  meantime  my  company  of  military  police 
had  collected. 

"I  then  .  .  .  took  command  of  all  prisoners, 
among  whom  I  set  free  the  women,  boys  and  girls.  I 
was  ordered  by  a  stafF  officer  to  shoot  the  prisjners. 
Then  I  ordered  my  police  ...  to  escort  the  prison- 
ers and  take  them  out  of  the  town.  Here,  at  the  exit,  a 
house  was  burning,  and  by  the  light  of  it  I  had  the 
culprits — 88  in  number,  after  I  had  separated  out  three 
cripples — shot.     .     .     ." 

These  88  victims  were  only  a  preliminary  batch. 
The  whole  population  of  Aerschot  was  being  hunted 
out  of  the  houses  by  the  German  troops  and  driven 
together  into  the  square.  They  were  driven  along  with 
brutal  violence.  "One  of  the  Germans  thrust  at  me 
with  his  bayonet,"  states  one  woman  (c  9),  "which 
passed  through  my  skirt  and  behind  my  knees.  I  was 
too  frightened  to  notice  much." — "When  v/e  got  into 
the  street,"  states  another  (c  10),  "other  German 
soldiers  fired  at  us.  I  was  carrying  a  child  in  my  arms, 
and  a  bullet  passed  through  my  left  hand  and  my 
child's  left  arm.  The  child  was  also  hit  on  the  funda- 
ment.   ,   .    .    In  the  hospital,  on  Aug.  22nd,  I  saw 

6i 


AERSCHOT 

three  women  die  of  wounds." — "In  the  ambulance  at 
the  Institut  Damien,"  reports  the  monk  quoted  above, 
"we  nursed  four  women,  several  civilians  and  some 
children.  A  one-year-old  child  had  received  a  bayonet 
wound  in  its  thigh  while  its  mother  was  carrying  it  in 
her  arms.  Several  civilians  had  burns  on  their  bodies 
and  bullet  wounds  as  well.  They  told  us  how  the 
soldiers  set  fire  to  the  houses  and  fired  on  the  suffocat- 
ing inhabitants  when  they  tried  to  escape." 

At'  elsewhere,  the  incendiarism  was  systematic. 
"They  used  a  special  apparatus,  something  like  a  big 
rifle,  for  throwing  naphtha  or  some  similar  inflammable 
substance"  (c  19). — "I  was  taken  to  the  officer  in  com- 
mand," states  a  professor  (c  14).  "I  found  him  per- 
sonally assisting  in  setting  fire  to  a  house.  He  and 
his  men  were  lighting  matches  and  setting  them  to  the 
curtains." — "We  saw  a  whole  street  burning,  in  which 
I  possessed  two  houses,"  deposes  a  native  of  Aerschot, 
who  was  being  driven  towards  the  square.  "We  heard 
children  and  beasts  crying  in  the  flames"  (c  2).  A 
civilian  went  out  into  the  street  to  see  if  his  mother 
was  in  a  burning  house.  He  was  shot  down  by  Ger- 
mans at  a  distance  of  18  yards  (c  5).  Another  house- 
holder (R.  No.  5)  threw  his  child  out  of  the  first-floor 
window  of  his  burning  house,  jumped  out  himself,  and 
broke  both  his  legs.  His  wife  was  burnt  alive.  "The 
Gemians  with  their  rifles  prevented  anyone  going  to 
help  this  man,  and  he  had  to  drag  himself  along  with 

66 


INCENDIARISM  AND  MASSACRE 

his  legs  broken  as  best  he  could"  (c  19). — "The  whole 
upper  part  of  my  house  caught  fire,"  declares  another 
(R.  No.  13),  "when  there  were  a  dozen  people  in  it. 
The  Germans  had  blocked  the  street  door  to  prevent 
them  coming  out.  They  tried  in  vain  to  reach  the 
neighbouring  roofs.  .  .  .  The  Germans  were  firing 
on  everyone  in  the  streets.    .    .    ." 

By  this  time  the  Germans  were  mostly  drunk  (cq) 
and  lost  to  all  reason  or  shame.  Two  men  and  a  boy 
stepped  out  of  the  door  of  a  public-house  in  which  they 
had  taken  refuge  with  others.  "As  soon  as  we  got  out- 
side we  saw  the  flash  of  rifles  and  heard  the  report. 
.  .  .  We  came  in  as  quickly  as  we  could  and  shut 
the  door.  The  German  soldiers  entered.  The  first  man 
who  entered  said,  'You  have  been  shooting,'  and  the 
others  kept  repeating  the  same  words.  They  pointed 
their  revolvers  at  us,  and  threatened  to  shoot  us  if  we 
moved"  (c  4). 

In  another  building  about  22  captured  Belgian 
soldiers  (some  of  them  wounded)  and  six  civilian 
hostages  were  under  guard.  They  were  dragged  out 
to  the  banks  of  the  Demer  and  shot  down  by  two  com- 
panies of  German  troops.  "I  was  hit,"  explains  one 
of  the  two  survivors  (a  soldier  already  wounded  before 
being  taken  prisoner),  "but  an  officer  saw  that  I  was 
still  breathing,  and  when  a  soldier  wanted  to  shoot  me 
again,  he  ordered  him  to  throw  me  into  the  Demer. 
I  clung  to  a  branch  and  set  my  feet  against  the  stones 

67 


AERSCHOT, 

on  the  river-bottom.  I  stayed  there  till  the  following 
morning,  with  only  my  head  above  water.  .  .  ." 
(R.  No.  8). 

The  Burgomaster's  house  was  the  first  to  be  cleared. 
Colonel  Stenger's  aide-de-camp  dragged  the  Burgo- 
master out  of  the  cellar  where  he  and  his  family  had 
taken  refuge,  and  carried  him  off  under  guard.  Half- 
an-hour  later  the  aide-de-camp  returned  for  the  Burgo- 
master's wife  and  his  fifteen-year-old  son.  "My  poor 
child,"  writes  the  Burgomaster's  wife,  "could  scarcely 
walk  because  of  his  wound.  The  aide-de-camp  kicked 
him  along.  I  shut  my  eyes  to  see  no  more.  .  .  ." 
(R.  No.  11). 

"When  we  reached  the  square,"  the  same  witness 
continues,  "we  found  there  all  our  neighbours.  A  girl 
near  me  was  fainting  with  grief.  Her  father  and  two 
brothers  had  been  shot,  and  they  had  torn  her  from 
her  dying  mother's  bedside.  (They  found  her,  nine 
hours  later,  dead).  All  the  houses  on  the  right  side  of 
the  square  were  ablaze.  One  could  detect  the  perfect 
order  and  method  with  which  they  were  proceeding. 
There  was  none  of  the  feverishness  of  men  left  to  pil- 
lage by  themselves.  I  am  positive  they  were  acting 
with  orderliness  and  under  orders.  .  .  .  From  time 
to  time,  soldiers  emerged  from  our  house,  with  their 
arms  full  of  bottles  of  wine.  They  were  opening  our 
windows,  and  all  the  interiors  were  stripped  bare. 
.    .    ." — "The  square  was  one  blaze  of  fire,"  states  a 

68 


THE  ARREST  OF  THE  BURGOMASTER 

blacksmith  (c  i),  "and  the  civilians  were  obliged  to 
stand  there  close  to  the  flames  from  the  burning 
houses." — "They  put  the  women  and  children  on  one 
side,"  adds  a  woman  (c  7).  "I  was  among  them,  and 
my  5  children — one  boy  of  fifteen  and  4  girls.  I  saw 
that  many  of  the  men  had  their  hands  tied.  They 
took  the  men  away  along  the  road  to  Louvain.  .  .  ." 
The  men  were  being  led  out  of  the  town,  as  Captain 
Karge's  prisoners  had  been  led  out  a  few  hours  before, 
to  be  shot.  The  Burgomaster,  his  brother,  and  his  son 
were  in  this  second  convoy.  "Under  the  glare  of  the 
conflagration,"  writes  the  Burgomaster's  wife,  "my 
eyes  fell  upon  my  husband,  my  son  and  my  brother- 
in-law,  who  were  being  led,  with  other  men,  to  execu- 
tion. For  fear  of  breaking  down  his  courage,  I  could 
not  even  cry  out  to  my  husband :  T  am  here.'  "  There 
were  50  or  60  prisoners  altogether,  and  another  batch 
of  30  followed  behind.*  "They  made  us  walk  in  the 
same  position,  hands  up,  for  20  minutes,"  one  survivor 
states  (c  4).  "When  we  got  tired  we  put  our  hands 
on  our  heads/' — "One  of  the  prisoners,"  states  a  sec- 
ond member  of  the  convoy  (c  8),  "was  struck  on  the 
back  with  a  rifle-butt  by  a  German  soldier.  The  young 
man  said:  'O  my  father.'  His  father  said:  'Keep 
quiet,  my  boy.'  Another  soldier  thrust  his  bayonet 
into  the  thigh  of  another  prisoner,  and  afterwards  com- 
pelled him  to  walk  on  with  the  rest." — "Our  hands," 

♦C4,  8. 

69 


A^RSCHOT 

states  a  third  (R.  No.  7),  "were  bound  behind  our 
backs  with  copper  wire — so  tightly  that  our  wrists  were 
cut  and  bled.  We  were  compelled  to  lie  down,  still 
bound,  on  our  backs,  with  our  heads  touching  the 
ground.  About  six  in  the  morning,  they  decided  to 
begin  the  executions." 

An  officer  read  out  a  document  to  the  prisoners. — 
One  out  of  three  was  to  be  shot.  "It  was  read  out  like 
an  article  of  the  law.  He  read  in  German,  but  we 
understood  it.  .  .  .  They  took  all  the  young 
men.     .     .     ."  (c  4). 

The  Burgomaster's  chief  political  opponent  was 
among  the  prisoners.  He  offered  his  life  for  the  Burgo- 
master's— "The  Burgomaster's  life  was  essential  to  the 
welfare  of  the  town."  The  Burgomaster  pleaded  for 
his  fellow  citizens,  and  then  for  his  son.  The  officer 
answered  that  he  must  have  them  all — the  Burgo- 
master, his  son  and  his  brother.  "The  boy  got  up  and 
stood  betAveen  his  father  and  uncle.  .  .  .  The  shots 
rang  out,  and  the  three  bodies  fell  heavily  one  upon 
another    .    .    ."  (R.  No.  7). 

"The  rest  were  drawn  up  in  ranks  of  three.  They 
numbered  them — one,  two,  three.  Each  number  three 
had  to  step  out  of  his  rank  and  fall  in  behind  the 
corpses ;  they  were  going  to  be  shot,  the  Germans  said. 
My  brother  and  I  were  next  to  each  other — I  number 
two,  he  three.  I  asked  the  officer  if  I  might  take  my 
brother's  place :    'My  mother  is  a  widow.    My  brother 

70 


THE  SECOND  MASSACRE 

has  finished  his  education,  and  is  more  useful  than  I !' 
The  officer  was  again  implacable.  'Step  out,  number 
three.'  We  embraced,  and  my  brother  joined  the  rest. 
There  were  about  30  of  them  lined  up.  Then  the 
German  soldiers  moved  slowly  along  the  line,  killing 
three  at  every  discharge — each  time  at  the  officer's 
word  of  command"  (R.  No.  7). 

The  last  man  in  the  line  was  spared  as  a  medical 
student  and  member  of  the  Red  Cross  (R.  No.  5). 
The  survivors  were  set  free.  On  their  way  back  they 
passed  another  batch  going  to  their  death  (R.  No.  7). 
They  passed  the  corpse  of  a  woman  on  the  road,  and 
another  in  the  cattle-market  (c  17).  Other  inhabi- 
tants of  Aerschot  were  forced  to  bury  all  the  corpses 
on  the  Louvain  road  in  the  course  of  the  same  day. 
They  brought  back  to  the  women  of  Aerschot  the  sure 
knowledge  that  their  husbands,  sons  and  brothers  were 
dead.* 

The  rest  of  what  happened  at  Aerschot  is  quickly 
told.  When  the  Germans  had  marched  the  second 
convoy  of  men  out  of  the  town  and  dismissed  the 
women  from  the  square,  they  evacuated  the  town  them- 
selvesf  and  bombarded  it  from  outside  with  artillery  ;X 
but  in  the  daylight  of  Aug.  2oth  they  came  back  again, 
and  burned  and  pillaged  continuously  for  three  days 

*  R.  No.  3 ;  c  12. 

t White  Book  A  2  and  3    (Appendix). 

:j:c  I,  4,  5;  R.  No.  11. 

71 


AERSCHOT 

— taking  not  only  food  and  clothing  but  valuables  of 
every  kind,  and  loading  them  methodically  on  waggons 
and  motor  cars.*  On  the  evening  of  the  2oth,  the 
Institut  Damien,  hospital  though  it  was,  was  com- 
pelled to  provide  quarters  for  1,100  men.  "We  spent 
all  night  giving  food  and  drink  to  this  mob,  of  whom 
many  were  drunk.  We  collected  800  empty  bottles 
next  morning." f 

On  Aug.  26th  and  27th  the  remnant  of  the  popula- 
tion— about  600  men,  women,  and  children,  who  had 
not  perished  or  fled — were  herded  into  the  church.t 
They  were  given  little  food,  and  no  means  of  sanita- 
tion. On  the  evening  of  the  27th  a  squad  of  German 
soldiers  amused  themselves  by  firing  through  the 
church  door  over  the  heads  of  the  hostages,  against 
the  opposite  wall.  On  the  28th  the  monks  of  St. 
Damien  were  brought  there  also.  (Their  hospital  was 
closed,  and  the  patients  turned  out  of  their  beds.) 
The  rest  of  the  hostages  were  marched  that  day  to 
Louvain.  There  were  little  children  among  them,  and 
women  with  child,  and  men  too  old  to  walk.  At  Lou- 
vain, in  the  Place  de  la  Station,  they  were  fired  upon, 
and  a  number  were  wounded  and  killed.  The  sur- 
vivors were  released  on  the  29th,  but  when  they  re- 
turned to  Aerschot  they  were  arrested  and  imprisoned 

*R.  Nos.  9,  10,  15. 

tR.  No.  16. 

:j:c  7,  13,  zo,  33-5;  R.  Nos.  12,  13,  15,  16. 

72 


BOMBARDMENT  AND  PILLAGE 

again— the  men  in  the  church,  the  women  in  a  chateau. 
The  women  and  children  were  released  the  day  follow- 
ing (that  day  the  active  troops  at  Aerschot  were  re- 
placed by  a  landsturm  garrison,  who  began  to  pillage 
the  town  once  more).*  The  men  were  kept  prisoners 
till  Sept.  6th,  when  those  not  of  military  age  were 
released  and  the  remainder  (about  70)  deported  by 
train  to  Germany.  All  the  monks  were  deported,  what- 
ever their  age.f 

"On  Aug.  31st,"  writes  a  German  landsturmer  in 
his  diary,|  "we  entered  Aerschot  to  guard  the  station. 
On  Sept.  2nd  I  had  a  little  time  off  duty,  which  I  spent 
in  visiting  the  town.  No  one,  without  seeing  it,  could 
form  any  idea  of  the  condition  it  is  in.  .  .  .  In  all 
my  life  I  shall  never  drink  more  wine  than  I  drank 
here." 

Three  hundred  and  eighty-six  houses  were  burnt  at 
Aerschot,  1,000  plundered,  150  inhabitants  killed,  and 
after  this  destruction  the  Germans  admitted  the  inno- 
cence of  their  victims.  "It  was  a  beastly  mess,"  a 
German  non-commissioned  officer  confessed  to  one  of 
the  monks  in  the  church  of  Aerschot  on  Aug.  29th. § 
"It  was  our  soldiers  who  fired,  but  they  have  been 
punished." 

*  R.  No.  9. 

fcp.  the  treatment  of  the  monks  at  Louvain,  p.  137  below. 

^Davignon,  p.  97. 

§R.  p.  171- 

73 


THE  AERSCHOT  DISTRICT 

(iii)  The  Aerschot  District. 

The  smaller  places  round  Aerschot  suffered  in  their 
degree.  At  Nieuw-Rhode  2oo  houses  (out  of  321) 
were  plundered,  one  civilian  killed,  and  27  deported 
to  Germany.  At  Gelrode,^  on  August  19th,  the  Ger- 
mans seized  21  civilians  as  hostages,  imprisoned  them 
in  the  church,  and  then  shot  one  in  every  three  against 
a  wall — the  rest  were  marched  to  Louvain  and  im- 
prisoned in  the  church  there.  None  of  them  were  dis- 
covered with  arms,  for  the  Burgomaster  of  Gelrode  had 
collected  all  arms  in  private  hands  before  the  Germans 
arrived.  The  priest  of  Gelrodef  was  dragged  away  to 
Aerschot  on  August  27th  by  German  soldiers.  "When 
they  got  to  the  churchyard  the  priest  was  struck  sev- 
eral times  by  each  soldier  on  the  head.  Then  they 
pushed  him  against  the  wall  of  the  church"  (C24). — 
"His  hands  were  raised  above  his  head.  Five  or  six 
soldiers  stood  immediately  in  front  of  him.  .  .  . 
When  he  let  his  hands  drop  a  little,  soldiers  brought 
down  their  rifle  butts  on  his  feet"  (c25).  Finally 
they  led  him  away  to  be  shot,  and  his  corpse  was 
thrown  into  the  Demer. 

Eighteen  civilians  altogether  were  shot  in  the  com- 
mune of  Gelrode,  and  99  deported  to  Germany. 
Twenty-three  houses  were  burnt,  and  131  plundered, 
out  of  201  in  the  village. 

*  C39-45. 

tc3,  23-5,  40;  R.  No.  to  (Aerschot). 

74 


TREMELOO,  ROTSELAER,  WESPELAER 

At  Tremeloo^  214  houses  were  burnt  and  3  civilians 
killed  (one  of  them  an  old  man  of  72).  A  number  of 
women  were  raped  at  Tremeloo. 

At  Rotselaer^  67  houses  were  burnt,  38  civilians 
killed,  and  120  deported  to  Germany.  A  girl  who 
was  raped  by  five  Germans  went  out  of  her  mind 
(C52).  The  priest  of  Rotselaer  was  deported  with  his 
parishioners.  The  men  of  the  village  had  been  con- 
fined in  the  church  on  the  night  of  August  22nd,  again 
on  the  night  of  the  23rd,  and  then  consecutively  till  the 
morning  of  the  27th.  The  priest  of  Herent  (who  was 
more  than  70  years  old)t  and  other  men  from  Herent, 
Wackerzeel,  and  Thildonck,  were  imprisoned  with 
them,  till  there  were  a  thousand  people  in  the  church 
altogether.  The  women  brought  them  ^what  food 
could  be  found,  but  for  five  days  they  could  neither 
wash  nor  sleep.  On  the  27th  they  were  marched  to 
Louvain  with  a  batch  of  prisoners  taken  from  Lou- 
vain  itself,  and  were  sent  on  the  terrible  journey  in 
cattle-trucks  to  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

At  Wespelaer^  the  destruction  was  complete.  Out 
of  297  houses  47  were  burnt  and  250  gutted.  Twenty- 
one  inhabitants  were  killed.  "The  Germans  shot  the 
owner  of  the  first  house  burnt  on  his  doorstep,  and  his 
twenty-years-old  daughter  inside.  ...  I  only  saw  one 

*  C54-6. 

tc48-9,  52;  R.  pp.  351-3. 

X  For  his  death  see  footnote  on  p.  151  below. 

§  C60-63.  .. 

75 


THE  AERSCHOT  DISTRICT 

man  shot  with  my  own  eyes — a  man  who  had  an  old 
carbine  in  his  house.  It  had  not  been  used;  he  was 
not  carrying  it.  .  .  .  In  another  house  a  married 
couple,  80  years  old,  were  burnt  alive"  (c6o). 

At  Campenhout^  the  Germans  burned  85  houses 
and  killed  14  civilians.  In  a  rich  man's  house,  where 
officers  were  quartered,  they  rifled  the  wine  cellar  and 
shot  the  mistress  of  the  house  in  cold  blood  as  she 
entered  the  room  where  they  were  drinking.  "The 
other  officers  continued  to  drink  and  sing,  and  did  not 
pay  great  attention  to  the  killing  of  my  mistress," 
states  a  servant  who  was  present.  As  they  continued 
their  advance,  the  Germans  collected  about  400  men, 
women  and  children  (some  of  the  women  with  babies 
in  their  arms)  from  Campenhout,  Elewyt  and  Malines, 
and  drove  them  forward  as  a  screen,  with  the  priest  of 
Campenhout  at  their  head,  against  the  Belgian  forces 
holding  the  outer  ring  of  the  Antwerp  lines.f 

The  devastation  of  this  district  is  described  by  a 
witness  who  walked  through  it,  from  Brussels  to 
Aerschot,  after  the  Germans  had  passed  (c  25).  "We 
traversed  the  village  of  Werchter,  where  there  had 
been  no  battle,  but  it  had  been  in  the  occupation  of 
the  Germans,  and  on  all  sides  of  this  village  we  saw 
burnt-down  houses  and  traces  of  plunder  and  havoc. 
In  Wespelaer  and  Rotselaer  and  Wesemael  we  saw 

*c  46-47. 
tg  16-18. 

76 


CAMPENHOUT,  MALINES 

the  same.  We  did  not  pass  through  the  village  of 
Gelrode,  but  close  to  it,  and  we  saw  that  houses  had 
been  burnt  down  there.  In  Aerschot  the  Malines 
Street,  Hamer  Street,  Theophile  Becker  Street  and 
other  streets  were  completely  burnt.  Half  the  Grand 
Place  had  been  burnt  down.     .     .     ." 

(iv)   The  Retreat  from  Malines. 

Yet  the  devastation  done  by  the  Germans  in  their 
advance  was  light  compared  with  the  outrages  they 
committed  when  the  Belgian  sortie  of  August  25th 
drove  them  back  from  Malines  towards  the  Aerschot- 
Louvain  line. 

In  Malines  itself*  they  destroyed  1,500  houses  from 
first  to  last,  and  revenged  themselves  atrociously  on 
the  civil  population.  A  Belgian  soldier  saw  them 
bayonet  an  old  woman  in  the  back,  and  cut  off  a  young 
woman's  breasts  (d  1).  Another  saw  them  bayonet 
a  woman  and  her  son  (d  2).  They  shot  a  police  in- 
spector in  the  stomach  as  he  came  out  of  his  door,  and 
blew  off  the  head  of  an  old  woman  at  a  window  (d  3). 
A  child  of  two  came  out  into  the  street  as  eight  drunken 
soldiers  were  marching  by.  "A  man  in  the  second  file 
stepped  aside  and  drove  his  bayonet  with  both  hands 
into  the  child's  stomach.  He  lifted  the  child  into  the 
air  on  his  bayonet  and  carried  it  away,  he  and  his  com- 
rades still  singing.  The  child  screamed  when  the 
*d  1-9. 

77 


THE  RETREAT  FROM  M ALINES 

soldier  struck  it  with  his  bayonet,  but  not  afterwards. 
This  incident  is  reported  by  two  witnesses  (d  4-5). 
Another  woman  was  found  dead  with  twelve  bayonet 
wounds  between  her  shoulders  and  her  waist  (d  7). 
Another — ^between  16  and  20  3^ears  old — who  had 
been  killed  by  a  bayonet,  "was  kneeling,  and  her  hands 
were  clasped,  and  the  bayonet  had  pierced  both  hands. 
I  also  saw  a  boy  of  about  16,"  continues  the  witness, 
"who  had  been  killed  by  a  bayonet  thrust  through  his 
mouth."  In  the  same  house  there  was  an  old  woman 
lying  dead  (dp). 

The  next  place  from  which  the  Germans  were  driven 
was  Hofstade,^  and  here,  too,  they  revenged  them- 
selves before  they  went.  They  left  the  corpses  of 
women  lying  in  the  streets.  There  was  an  old  woman 
mutilated  with  the  bayonet.f  There  was  a  young 
pregnant  woman  who  had  been  ripped  open.  J  In  the 
lodge  of  a  chateau  the  porter's  body  was  found  lying 
on  a  heap  of  straw.  §  He  had  been  bayonetted  in  the 
stomach — evidently  while  in  bed,  for  the  empty  bed 
was  soaked  with  blood.  The  blacksmith  of  Hofstade 
— also  bayonetted  in  the  stomach — was  lying  on  his 
doorstep. II  Adjoining  the  blacksmith's  house  there 
was  a  cafe,  and  here  a  middle-aged  woman  lay  dead, 

*  d  10-65  j  vii  p.  54. 

td  18,  20,  21,  34,  52,  62. 

Jd  II,  18,  20,  21,  37,  39,  41,  44. 

§d  36,  38,  40. 

II  d  32-4»  38-9. 

78 


MALINES,  HOFSTADE 

and  a  boy  of  about  16.  The  boy  was  found  kneeling 
in  an  attitude  of  supplication.  Both  his  hands  had 
been  cut  off.  "One  was  on  the  ground,  the  other  hang- 
ing by  a  bit  of  skin"  (d  25).  His  face  was  smeared 
with  blood.  He  was  seen  in  this  condition  by  twenty- 
five  separate  witnesses,  whose  testimony  is  recorded  in 
the  Bryce  Report.'''  Several  saw  him  before  he  was 
quite  dead. 

In  one  house  at  Hofstadef  the  Belgian  troops  found 
the  dead  bodies  of  two  women  and  a  man.  One  of 
the  women,  who  was  middle-aged,  had  been  bay- 
onetted  in  the  stomach;  the  other,  who  was  about  20 
years  old,  had  been  bayonetted  in  the  head,  and  her 
legs  had  been  almost  severed  from  her  body.  The  man 
had  been  bayonetted  through  the  head.  In  another 
room  the  body  of  a  ten-year-old  boy  was  suspended 
from  a  hanging  lamp.  He  had  been  killed  first  by  a 
bayonet  wound  in  the  stomach. 

"I  went  with  an  artilleryman,"  states  another  Bel- 
gian soldier,^  "to  find  his  parents  who  lived  in  Hof- 
stade.  All  the  houses  were  burning  except  the  one 
where  this  man's  parents  lived.  On  forcing  the  door, 
we  saw  lying  on  the  floor  of  the  room  on  which  it 
opened  the  dead  bodies  of  a  man,  a  woman,  a  girl,  and 
a  boy,  who,  the  artilleryman  told  us,  were  his  father 

*d  12,  13,  16,  17,  20,  21,  25,  27,  29-31,  33,  35,  38,  43,  46,  52,  54-7. 
62-5. 

td  10,  13,  IS,  26,  47. 
td  36,  cp.  37. 

79 


THE  RETREAT  FROM  MALINES 

and  mother  and  brother  and  sister.  Each  of  them  had 
both  feet  cut  off  just  above  the  ankle,  and  both  hands 
just  above  the  wrist.  The  poor  boy  rushed  straight  off, 
took  one  of  the  horses  from  his  gun,  and  rode  in  the 
direction  of  the  German  lines.  We  never  saw  him 
again.     .     .     ." 

Retreating  from  Hofstade,  the  Germans  drove  about 
200  of  the  inhabitants  with  them  as  a  screen,  to  cover 
their  flank  against  the  Belgian  attack.*  At  Muysen 
they  killed  6  civilians  and  burned  450  houses.  "There 
were  broken  wine  bottles  lying  about  everywhere" 
(d  88). 

At  Sentpst^"^  as  they  evacuated  the  village,  they 
dragged  the  inhabitants  out  of  their  houses.  One  old 
man  who  expostulated  was  shot  by  an  officer  with  a 
revolver,:j:  and  his  son  was  shot  when  he  attempted  to 
escape.  They  fired  down  into  the  cellars  and  up 
through  the  ceilings  to  drive  the  people  out  (d  68). 
The  hostages  were  taken  to  the  bridge.  "One  young 
man  was  carrying  in  his  arms  his  little  brother,  10  or 
11  years  old,  who  had  been  run  over  before  the  war 
and  could  not  walk.  The  soldiers  told  the  man  to  hold 
up  his  arms.  He  said  he  could  not,  as  he  must  hold 
his  brother,  who  could  not  walk.     Then  a  German 


*vii  p.  54. 

t  d  66-83. 

td  67-9,  73,  75. 


Wi^  "■  ■■■■  ■' 


MsOK^'--* 


'^.  .••'!?:»-■;  4f - 


13.    Brussels:  A  Booking-Office 


MUYSEN,  SEMPST,  WEERDE 

soldier  hit  him  on  the  head  with  a  revolver,  and  he  let 
the  child  fall.     ..." 

In  one  house  they  bound  a  bed-ridden  man  to  his 
bed,  and  shot  another  man  in  the  presence  of  13  chil- 
dren who  were  in  the  house  (d  29).  In  another  house 
they  burned  a  woman  and  two  children  (d  71) ;  they 
burned  the  owner  of  a  bicycle  shop  in  his  shop  ;*  these 
four  bodies  were  found,  carbonised,  by  the  Belgian 
troops.  The  Belgians  also  found  a  woman  dead  in 
the  street,  with  four  bayonet  wounds  in  her  body 
(d  36),  and  saw  an  Uhlan  overtake  a  woman  driving 
in  a  cart,  thrust  his  lance  through  her  body,  and  then 
shoot  her  in  the  chest  with  his  carbine  (d  80).  In  a 
farmhouse  the  farmer  was  found  with  his  head  cut  off. 
His  two  sons,  killed  by  bullet  wounds,  were  lying  be- 
side him.  His  wife,  whose  left  breast  had  been  cut 
off,  was  still  alive,  and  told  how,  when  her  eight-year- 
old  son  had  gone  up  a  ladder  into  the  loft,  the  Ger- 
mans had  pulled  away  the  ladder  and  set  the  building 
on  fire.f  Twenty-seven  houses  were  burnt  at  Sempst, 
200  sacked,  18  inhabitants  killed,  and  34  deported  to 
Germany. 

At  Weerde  34  houses  were  burnt.  As  the  Germans 
retreated  they  bayonetted  two  little  girls  standing  in 
the  road  and  tossed  them  into  the  flames  of  a  burning 
house — their  mother  was  standing  by   (d  85).     At 

*d  66,  69-72,  77-9. 
t  d  74,  cp.  81. 

81 


THE  RETREAT  FROM  M ALINES 

Eppeghem*  176  houses  were  burnt,  8  civilians  killed, 
and  125  deported.  The  killing  was  done  with  the 
bayonet.  A  woman  with  child,  whose  stomach  had 
been  slashed  open,  died  in  the  hospital  at  Malines. 
When  the  Germans  returned  to  Eppeghem  again,  they 
used  the  remaining  civilians  as  a  screen.  On  August 
28th  they  did  the  same  at  Elewyt,^  not  even  exempt- 
ing old  men  or  women  with  child.  We  have  the  testi- 
mony of  a  Belgian  priest  who  was  driven  in  the  screen, 
and  of  a  Belgian  soldier  in  the  trenches  against  which 
the  screen  was  driven.  A  hundred  and  thirty-three 
houses  Were  burnt  at  Elewyt,  and  10  civilians  killed. 
The  Belgian  troops  found  the  body  of  a  man  tied 
naked  to  a  ring  in  a  wall.  His  head  was  riddled  with 
bullets,  there  was  a  bayonet  wound  in  his  chest,  and 
he  had  been  mutilated  obscenely.  A  woman,  also 
mutilated  obscenely  after  violation,  was  lying  dead  on 
the  ground.  In  another  house  a  man  and  a  woman 
were  found,  with  bayonet  wounds  all  over  their  bodies, 
on  the  floor.  At  Perck  180  houses  (out  of  243)  were 
sacked  and  5  civilians  killed.  At  Bueken  50  houses 
were  burnt,  30  sacked  (out  of  84),  and  8  civilians 
killed.  The  victims  were  killed  in  a  meadow  in  the 
sight  of  the  women  and  children.!    Among  them  was 

*d  87-9;  g  20. 

txv  p.  22;  g  18;  d  90-1,  26. 

+  x  pp.  78-9. 

82 


CANTON  OF  VILVORDE 

the  parish  priest.*  "He  was  a  man  75  or  80  years 
old.  He  could  not  walk  fast  enough.  He  was  driven 
along  with  blows  from  rifle-butts  and  knocked  down. 
He  cried  out:  'I  can  go  no  further,'  and  a  soldier 
thrust  a  bayonet  into  his  neck  at  the  back — the  blood 
flowed  out  in  quantities.  The  old  man  begged  to  be 
shot,  but  the  officer  said :  'That  is  too  good  for  you.' 
He  was  taken  off  behind  a  house  and  we  heard  shots. 
He  did  not  return.  .  .  ."  (d  97,  cp.  98).  At  Vel- 
vordef  33  houses  were  burnt  and  6  civilians  killed.  In 
the  whole  Canton  of  Vilvorde,  in  which  all  these  places, 
except  Malines,  lay,  611  houses  were  burnt,  1,665 
plundered,  90  civilians  killed,  and  177  deported  to 
Germany. 

The  devastation  spread  through  the  whole  zone  of 
the  German  retreat.  At  Capelle-au-BoisX  the  Belgian 
troops  found  two  girls  hanging  naked  from  a  tree  with 
their  breasts  cut  off,  and  two  women  bayonetted  in  a 
house,  caught  as  they  were  making  preparations  to  flee. 
A  woman  told  them  how  German  soldiers  had  held  her 
down  by  force,  while  other  soldiers  had  violated  her 
daughter  successively  in  an  adjoining  room.  Four 
civilians  were  killed  at  Capelle-au-Bois  and  235  houses 
burnt.  At  Londerzeel^  18  houses  were  burnt  and  one 
civilian  killed.     He  was  a  man  who  had  tried  to  pre- 

*  Mercier. 

td  92-3. 

:|:d  112-4;  cp-  Massart,  pp.  33S-9. 

§  S  22. 

83 


THE  RETREAT  FROM  M ALINES 

vent  the  Germans  from  violating  his  two  daughters. 
When  the  Germans  re-entered  Londerzeel  they  used 
the  civilian  population  as  a  screen.  At  Ramsdonck, 
near  Londerzeel,  a  woman  and  two  children  were  shot 
by  the  Germans  as  they  were  flying  for  protection 
towards  the  Belgian  lines.*  At  Wolverthem  lo  houses 
were  burnt  and  5  people  killed.  At  Meysse  3  houses 
were  burnt  and  350  sacked,  2  civilians  killed  and  29 
deported.  At  Beyghem  32  houses  were  burnt.  At 
Pont-Brule^'\  on  Aug.  25th,  the  priest  was  imprisoned 
with  28  other  civilian  hostages  in  a  room.  The  Ger- 
man soldiers  compelled  him  to  hold  up  his  hands  for 
hours,  and  struck  him  when  he  lowered  them  from 
fatigue.  They  compelled  his  fellow-prisoners  to  spit 
on  him.  They  tore  up  his  breviary  and  threw  the 
fragments  in  his  face.  When  he  fainted  they  threw 
pails  of  water  on  him  to  revive  him.  As  he  was  re- 
viving he  was  shot.  Fifty-eight  houses  were  burnt  in 
the  commune  of  Pont-Brule-Grimbergen,  5  civilians 
shot,  and  65  deported.  These  places  lay  in  the  Canton 
of  Wolverthem,  west  of  the  river  Senne,  between  Ter- 
monde,  Malines,  and  Brussels.  In  the  whole  canton 
426  houses  were  burnt,  1,292  plundered,  29  civilians 
killed,  and  182  deported  to  Germany. 

In  the  district  between  Malines  and  Aerschot  it  was 
the  same,  and  places  which  had  suffered  already  on 

*k  21, 

t  Reply  p.  431;  Mercier. 

84 


HEVER,  HAECHT,  THILDONCK 

Aug.  19th  were  devastated  again  on  Aug.  25th  and  the 
following  days.  At  Hever^  in  the  Canton  of  Haecht, 
a  baby  was  found  hanged  by  the  neck  to  the  handle  of 
a  door.  Thirty-five  houses  were  burnt.  At  Boortmeer- 
beek'\  103  houses  were  burnt  and  300  sacked  (out  of 
437)  >  5  civilians  were  killed— one  of  them  a  little  girl 
who  was  bayonetted  in  the  road.  At  Haecht^  5  men 
were  seized  as  hostages  and  then  shot  in  cold  blood. 
One  of  them  survived,  though  K  -  was  bayonetted  twice 
after  the  shooting  to  "finish  him  off."  Seven  others 
were  stripped  naked  and  threatened  with  bayonets, 
but  instead  of  being  killed  they  were  used  as  a  screen. 
The  Belgian  troops  found  the  body  of  a  woman  on  the 
road,  stripped  to  the  waist  and  with  the  breasts  cut  off. 
There  was  another  woman  with  her  head  cut  off  and 
her  body  mutilated.  There  was  a  child  with  its  stom- 
ach slashed  open  with  a  bayonet,  and  another — two  or 
three  years  old — ^nailed  to  a  door  by  its  hands  and  feet. 
At  Haecht  40  houses  were  burnt. 

At  Thildonck  31  houses  were  burnt  and  10  civilians 
killed.  Seven  of  those  killed  in  the  commune  of  Thil- 
donck belonged  to  the  family  of  the  two  Valckenaers 
brothers,  whose  farms  (situated  close  to  one  another) 
were  occupied  by  the  Belgian  troops  early  on  the  morn- 

*d  125. 

1 94- 
%A.  100-8. 


THE  RETREAT  FROM  M ALINES 

ing  of  August  26th.  As  the  Germans  counter-attacked, 
the  Belgian  soldiers  opened  fire  on  them  from  the  farm 
buildings  and  then  retired.  A  platoon  of  Germans, 
with  an  oflBcer  at  their  head,  entered  Isodore  Valcke- 
naers'  farm  (where  the  whole  family  was  gathered) 
about  8.0  a.m.  Isodore  and  two  of  his  nephews — 
barely  more  than  boys — were  shot  at  once.  His 
daughter,  who  clung  to  him  and  begged  for  his  life, 
was  torn  away.  The  cwo  young  men  were  killed  in- 
stantaneously. The  elder,  though  horribly  wounded 
by  the  bullet,  survived,  and  was  rescued  next  day. 
The  rest  of  the  family — a  group  of  eleven  women  and 
children,  for  Frangois-Edouard  Valckenaers,  the  other 
brother,  was  away — were  shot  down  half-an-hour  later. 
They  were  herded  together  in  the  garden  and  fired  on 
from  all  sides.  Madame  Isodore  Valckenaers  was  hold- 
ing her  youngest  baby  in  her  arms.  The  bullet  broke 
the  child's  arm  and  mangled  its  face,  and  then  tore  the 
mother's  lip  and  destroyed  one  of  her  eyes.  (The 
baby  died,  but  the  mother  survived.)  Madame  F.-E. 
Valckenaers  also  survived — her  dress  was  spattered 
with  the  brains  of  her  fourteen-year-old  son,  whom  she 
was  holding  by  the  hand.  Five  died  altogether  out  of 
this  group  of  eleven — some  instantaneously,  some  after 
hours  of  agony.  The  eldest  of  them  was  only  eighteen, 
the  youngest  was  two-and-a-half.  Thus  seven  of  the 
Valckenaers'  family  were  killed  in  all  out  of  the  four- 

86 


CANTON  OF  HAECHT 

teen  present,  and  three  were  severely  wounded.  Only 
four  were  left  unscathed.* 

At  Werckterf  267  houses  were  burnt  and  162 
sacked  (out  of  496),  15  civilians  were  killed,  and  32 
deported.  The  priests  of  Wygmael  and  Wesemael 
were  dragged  away  as  hostages,  and  driven,  with  a 
crowd  of  civilians  from  Herent,  as  a  screen  in  front  of 
the  German  troops  on  Aug.  29th.  At  Wesemael  46 
houses  were  burnt,  13  civilians  killed  and  324  de- 
ported. At  Hohbeek  one  civilian  was  killed  and  35" 
houses  burnt.  In  the  whole  Canton  of  Haecht  899 
houses  were  burnt,  1,772  plundered,  116  civilians 
killed,  and  647  deported. 

As  the  Germans  fell  back  south-eastward,  the  devas- 
tation spread  into  the  Canton  of  Louvain.  "When 
the  Germans  first  arrived  at  Herent^^X  states  a  wit- 
ness (d  97),  "they  did  nothing,  but  when  they  were 
repulsed  from  Malines  they  began  to  ill-treat  the 
civilians."  They  shot  a  man  at  his  door,  and  threw 
another  man's  body  into  a  burning  house.  At  Aan- 
boscli^  a  hamlet  of  Herent,  they  dragged  4  men  and  9 
women  out  of  their  houses  and  bayonetted  them.  In 
the  commune  of  Herent  they  killed  22  civilians  (the 
priest  was  among  the  later  victims)  §  and  deported  104 
altogether,  burned  312  houses  and  sacked  200.     At 

*R.  pp.  378-380. 
td  iio-i. 
%A  95-9. 
§  Mercier, 

§7 


WHERETREAT:tROM  MALINES 

V  el  them  they  killed  14  civilians  and  burned  44  houses. 
At  Winxele  they  burned  57  houses  and  killed  5 
civilians — the  soldier  who  had  shot  and  bayonetted 
one  of  them  thrust  his  bayonet  into  the  faces  of  the 
hostages :  "Smell,  smell !  It  is  the  blood  of  a  Belgian 
pig"  (d  97-8).  At  Corbeek-Loo  20  civilians  were 
killed,  62  deported,  and  129  houses  burnt.  At  Wilsele 
36  houses  were  burnt  and  7  people  killed.  One  of 
them  was  an  epileptic  who  had  a  seizure  while  he  was 
being  carried  away  as  a  hostage.  Since  he  could  go 
no  further,  he  was  shot  through  the  head  (d  129).  At 
Kessel-Loo  59  people  were  killed  and  461  houses  burnt; 
at  Linden  6  and  103;  at  Heverle  6  and  95.  In  the 
whole  Canton  of  Louvain  2,441  houses  were  burnt, 
2,722  plundered,  251  civilians  killed,  and  831  de- 
ported. About  40  per  cent,  of  this  destruction  was 
done  in  the  City  of  Louvain  itself,  on  the  night  of 
August  25th  and  on  the  following  nights  and  days. 
The  destruction  of  Louvain  was  the  greatest  organ- 
ised outrage  which  the  Germans  committed  in  the 
course  of  their  invasion  of  Belgium  and  France,  and 
as  such  it  stands  by  itself.  But  it  was  also  the  inevita- 
ble climax  of  the  outrages  to  which  they  had  aban- 
doned themselves  in  their  retreat  upon  Louvain  from 
Malines.  The  Germans  burned  and  massacred  invari- 
bly,  wherever  they  passed,  but  there  was  a  blood- 
thirstiness  and  obscenity  in  their  conduct  on  this  re- 
treat which  is  hardly  paralleled  in  their  other  exploits, 

88 


CANTON  OF.  LOUVAim 

and  which  put  them  in  the  temper  for  the  supreme 
crime  which  followed. 

(v)  Louvam. 

The  Germans  entered  Louvam  on  August  19th.  The 
Belgian  troops  did  not  attempt  to  hold  the  town,  and 
the  civil  authorities  had  prepared  for  the  Germans'  ar- 
rival. They  had  called  in  all  arms  in  private  posses- 
sion and  deposited  them  in  the  H6tel-de-Ville.  This 
had  been  done  a  fortnight  before  the  German  occupa- 
tion,* and  was  repeated,  for  security,  on  the  morning 
of  the  19th  itself. f  The  municipal  commissary  of 
police  remarked  the  exaggerated  conscientiousness  with 
which  the  order  was  obeyed.  "Antiquarian  pieces, 
flint-locks  and  even  razors  were  handed  in."J  The 
people  of  Louvain  were  indeed  terrified.  They  had 
heard  what  had  happened  in  the  villages  round  Liege, 
at  Tongres  and  at  St.  Trond,  and  on  the  evening 
(August  18th)  before  the  Germans  arrived  the  refugees 
from  Tirlemont  had  come  pouring  through  the  town.§ 
The  Burgomaster,  like  his  colleagues  in  other  Belgian 
towns,  had  posted  placards  on  August  18th,  enjoining 
confidence  and  calm. 

The  German  entry  on  the  19th  took  place  without 
disturbance.    Large  requisitions  were  at  once  made  on 

*  "Germans,"  p.  26. 

teas. 

tR29;  cp.  "Germans,"  p.  9;  Chambry,  p.  14;  es;  R34. 

§  "Germans,"  p.  15;  R24. 

89 


LOUVAIN 

the  town  by  the  German  Command.  The  troops  were 
billeted  on  the  inhabitants.  In  one  house  an  officer  de- 
manded quarters  for  50  men.  "Revolver  in  hand,  he 
inspected  every  bedroom  minutely.  'If  anything  goes 
wrong,  you  are  all  kaput'  That  was  how  he  finished 
the  business.'"^  It  was  vacation  time,  and  the  lodg- 
ings of  the  University  students  were  empty.  Many 
houses  were  shut  up  altogether,  and  these  were  broken 
into  and  pillaged  by  the  German  soldiers. f  They  pil- 
laged enormous  quantities  of  wine,  without  interfer- 
ence on  the  part  of  their  officers.  "The  soldiers  did  not 
scruple  to  drain  in  the  street  the  contents  of  stolen 
bottles,  and  drunken  soldiers  were  common  objects."^ 
There  was  also  a  great  deal  of  wanton  destruction — 
"furniture  destroyed,  mirrors  and  picture-frames 
smashed,  carpets  spoilt  and  so  on."§  The  house  of 
Professor  van  Gehuchten,  a  scientist  of  international 
eminence,  was  treated  with  especial  malice.  This  is 
testified  by  a  number  of  people,  including  the  Profes- 
sor's son.  "They  destroyed,  tore  up  and  threw  into 
the  street  my  father's  manuscripts  and  books  (which 
were  very  numerous),  and  completely  wrecked  his  li- 
brary and  its  contents.  They  also  destroyed  the  manu- 
script of  an  important  work  of  my  late  father's  which 

*  Chambry,  p.  1 6. 
tea;  Ry,  lo. 
%^z\\  Chambry,  p.  17. 
§"HoMors,"  p.  31. 


THE  FIRST  SIX  DAYS 

was  in  the  hands  of  the  printer."* — "This  misdemean- 
our made  a  scandal,"  states  another  witness.  "It  was 
brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  German  general,  who 
seemed  much  put  out,  but  took  no  measures  of  pro- 
tection."t  The  pillage  was  even  systematic.  A  serv- 
ant, left  by  an  absent  professor  in  charge  of  his  house, 
found  on  August  20th  that  the  Germans  "had  five 
motor-vans  outside  the  premises.  I  saw  them  remov- 
ing from  my  master's  house  wine,  blankets,  books,  etc., 
and  placing  them  in  the  vans.  They  stripped  the  whok 
place  of  everything  of  value,  including  the  furniture. 
...  I  saw  them  smashing  glass  and  crockery  and  the 
windows."!  On  August  20th  there  were  already  acts 
of  violence  in  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  At  Corbeek- 
Loo  a  girl  of  sixteen  was  violated  by  six  soldiers  and 
bayonetted  in  five  places  for  offering  resistance.  Her 
parents  were  kept  off  with  rifles. §  By  noon  on  August 
20th  the  town  itself  "was  like  a  stable.  Streets,  pave- 
ments, public  squares  and  trampled  flower  beds  had 
disappeared  under  a  layer  of  manure."  || 

On  August  2oth  the  German  military  authorities 
covered  the  walls  with  proclamations:  "Atrocities 
have  been  committed  by  (Belgian)  franc-tireurs."l[ — 

*  625. 

tR24;  cp.  Rii;  ez;  "Germans,"  p.  25. 

tezi. 

§62;  R18. 

II  "Germans,"  p.  25. 

H  "Germans,"  p.  26;  R24. 

91 


LOUVAIN 

"If  anything  happens  to  the  German  troops,  le  total 
sera  res  pons  able'"'^  (an  attempt  to  render  in  French 
the  Prussian  doctrine  of  collective  responsibility). 
Doors  must  be  left  open  at  night.  Windows  fronting 
the  street  must  be  lighted  up.  Inhabitants  must  be 
within  doors  between  8.0  p.m.  and  7.0  a.m.  Most  of 
these  placards  were  ready-made  in  German,  French 
and  Russian.  There  were  no  placards  in  Flemish  till 
after  the  events  of  August  25th.  Yet  Flemish  was  the 
only  language  spoken  and  understood  by  at  least  half 
the  population  of  Louvain. 

Hostages  were  also  taken  by  the  German  authori- 
ties.f  The  Burgomaster,  a  City  Councillor  and  a  Sena- 
tor were  confined  under  guard  in  the  H6tel-de-Ville  on 
the  first  day  of  occupation.  From  August  2 1  st  onwards 
they  were  replaced  successively  by  other  notables,  in- 
cluding the  Rector  and  Vice-Rector  of  the  University. 
On  August  21st  there  was  another  German  proclama- 
tion, in  which  the  inhabitants  were  called  upon  (for 
the  third  time)  to  deliver  up  their  arms.:]:  Requisi- 
tions and  acts  of  pillage  by  individual  officers  and 
soldiers  continued,  and  on  the  evening  of  August  24th 
the  Burgomaster  was  dragged  to  the  Railway  Station 
and  threatened  with  a  revolver  by  a  German  officer, 
who  had  arrived  with  250  men  by  train  and  demanded 

*  "Horrors,"  p.  31. 

tR7.  24. 
ijiRio. 

92 


—      i,..-..v.. 


"AUGUST  ^BTH—BEFORE  8.0  P.  M. 

a  hot  meal  and  mattresses  for  them  at  once.  Major 
von  Manteuffel,  the  Etappen-Kommandant  in  the  city, 
was  called  in  and  the  Burgomaster  was  released,  but 
without  reparation.*  On  that  day,  too,  the  German 
wounded  were  removed  from  Louvainf — an  ominous 
precaution — and  in  the  course  of  the  following  day 
there  were  spoken  warnings.^  On  the  morning  of  this 
day,  Tuesday,  August  25th,  Madame  Roomans,  a 
notary's  wife,  is  said  to  have  been  warned  by  the  Ger- 
man officers  billeted  on  her  to  leave  the  town.  In  the 
afternoon,  about  5.0  o'clock,  another  lady  reported  how 
an  officer,  billeted  on  her  and  taking  his  leave,  had 
added:  "I  hope  you  will  be  spared,  for  now  it  is  going 
to  begin."  At  supper  time,  when  the  first  shots  were 
fired  and  the  alarm  was  sounded,  officers  billeted  on 
various  households  are  said  to  have  exclaimed  "Poor 
people!"— or  to  have  wept. 

On  the  morning  of  August  25th  there  were  few 
German  troops  in  Louvain.  The  greater  part  of  those 
that  had  entered  the  town  since  the  19th  had  passed  on 
to  the  front  in  the  direction  of  Malines,  and  were  now 
engaged  in  resisting  the  Belgian  sortie  from  Antwerp, 
which  was  made  this  day.  As  the  Belgian  offensive 
made  progress,  the  sound  of  the  cannon  became  louder 
and  louder  in  Louvain,  §  and  the  German  garrison  grew 

*Ri,  24;  "Germans,"  pp.  28-9. 

tR29. 

JR2,  24,  29. 

§  "Germans,"  p.  31;  Grondijs,  p.  34;  e  i;  Ri,  8,  11,  17. 


LOUVAIN 

increasingly  uneasy.  Despatch  riders  from  the  front 
kept  arriving  at  the  Kommandantur  ;*  at  4.0  o'clock 
a  general  alarm  was  sounded  ;f  the  troops  in  the  town 
assembled  and  marched  out  towards  the  north-western 
suburbs; J  military  waggons  drove  in  from  the  north- 
west in  disorder,  "their  drivers  grasping  revolvers  and 
looking  very  much  excited." §  At  the  same  time,  re- 
inforcements ||  began  to  detrain  at  the  S>tation^  which 
stands  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  town,  and  is  con- 
nected with  the  central  Grand'  I* lace  and  with  the 
University  buildings  by  the  broad,  straight  line  of  the 
Rue  de  la  Station^  flanked  with  the  private  houses  of 
the  wealthier  inhabitants.  These  fresh  troops  were  bil- 
leted hastily  by  their  officers  in  the  quarters  nearest  the 
Station.^  The  cavalry  were  concentrated  in  the  Place 
du  Peuple^  a  large  square  lying  a  short  distance  to  the 
left  of  the  Rue  de  la  Station,  about  half-way  towards 
the  Grand'  Place.^*  The  square  was  already  crowded 
with  the  transport  that  had  been  sent  back  during  the 
day  from  the  front.f f  As  the  reinforcements  kept  on 
detraining,  and  the  quarters  near  the  Station  filled  up, 
the  later  arrivals  went  on  to  the  Grand'  Place  and  the 

♦"Germans,"  pp.  31-3. 

fe  I. 

:j:  e  I ;  "Germans,"  p.  32;  D7,  8. 

§  "Germans,"  p.  32. 

Q  "Germans,"  p.  32;  DavigooD,  p.  97;  R17. 

1  Chambry,  p.  21 ;  63 ;  R17. 

**R7;  D46. 

ttD46. 


8.0  P.  M.—THE  OUTBREAK 

Hotel-de-Ville^'^  which  was  the  seat  of  the  Komman- 
dantur. 

During  all  this  time  the  agitation  increased.  About 
7.0  o'clock  a  company  of  Landsturm  which  had 
marched  out  in  the  afternoon  to  the  north-western  out- 
skirts of  the  town,  were  ordered  back  by  their  battalion 
commander  to  the  Place  de  la  Station — the  extensive 
square  in  front  of  the  station  buildings^  out  of  which 
the  Rue  de  la  Station  leads  into  the  middle  of  the 
city.f  The  military  police  pickets^  in  the  centre  of 
the  city  were  on  the  alert.  Between  7.0  and  7.30  the 
alarm  was  sounded  again, §  and  the  troops  who  had  ar- 
rived that  afternoon  assembled  from  their  billets  and 
stood  to  arms.  ||  The  tension  among  them  was  extreme. 
They  had  been  travelling  hard  all  day;  they  had  en- 
tered the  town  at  dusk;  it  was  now  dark,  and  they  did 
not  know  their  way  about  the  streets,  nor  from  what 
quarter  to  expect  the  enemy  forces,  which  were  sup- 
posed to  be  on  the  point  of  making  their  appearance. 
It  was  in  these  circumstances  that,  a  few  minutes  past 
eight  o'clock,  the  shooting  in  Louvain  broke  out. 

All  parties  agree  that  it  broke  out  in  answer  to  sig- 
nals.   A  Belgian  witness,^  living  near  the  Tirlemont 

*  D46. 

tD7,  8. 
tei;  R8. 

§R7,  17- 

II  Chambry,  pp.  23"  3. 

irR6. 

95 


LOUVAIN 

Gaie,  saw  a  German  military  motor-car  dash  up  from 
the  Boulevard  de  Tirlemont^  make  luminous  signals 
at  the  Gate,  and  then  dash  off  again.  A  fusillade  im- 
mediately followed.  The  German  troops  bivouacked 
in  the  Place  de  la  Station  saw  two  rockets,  the  first 
green  and  the  second  red,  rise  in  quick  succession  from 
the  centre  of  the  town.*  They  found  themselves  under 
fire  immediately  afterwards.  A  similar  rocket  was  seen 
later  in  the  night  to  rise  above  the  conflagration.f  It 
is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  rockets,  as  well  as  the 
lights  on  the  car,  were  German  military  signals  of  the 
kind  commonly  used  in  European  armies  for  signalling 
in  the  dark.  There  had  been  two  false  alarms  already 
that  afternoon  and  evening;  there  is  nothing  incredible 
in  a  third.  The  German  troops  in  the  Flace  de  la 
Station  assumed  that  the  signals  were  of  Belgian  origin 
(and  therefore  of  civilian  origin,  as  the  Belgian  troops 
did  not  after  all  reach  the  town),  because  these  signals 
were  followed  by  firing  directed  against  themselves. 
They  could  not  believe  that  the  shots  were  fired  in 
error  by  their  own  comrades,  yet  there  is  convincing 
evidence  that  this  was  the  case. 

It  is  certain  that  German  troops  fired  on  each  other 
in  at  least  two  places — in  the  Kue  de  la  Station  and  in 
the  Kue  de  Bruxelles,  which  leads  into  the  Grand' 
Place  from  the  opposite  direction. 

*D7,  lo,  13,  13,  14-18,  32;  cp.  D46. 

96 


n 


u 


GERMAN  AGAINST  GERMAN 

"We  were  at  supper,"  states  a  Belgian  witness,* 
whose  house  was  in  the  Rue  de  la  Station,  "when 
about  8.15,  shots  were  suddenly  fired  in  the  street  by 
German  cavalry  coming  from  the  Station.  The  troops 
who  were  bivouacked  in  the  square  replied,  and  an 
automobile  on  its  way  to  the  Station  had  to  stop 
abruptly  opposite  my  house  and  reverse,  while  its  oc- 
cupants fired.  Within  a  few  seconds  the  din  of  re- 
volver and  rifle  shots  had  become  terrific.  The  fusil- 
lade was  sustained,  and  spread  (north-eastward)  to- 
wards the  Boulevard  de  Diest.  It  became  so  furious 
that  there  was  even  gun-fire.  The  encounter  between 
the  German  troops  continued  as  far  as  the  Grand' Place, 
where  on  at  least  two  occasions  there  was  machine-gun 
fire.  The  fight  lasted  for  from  fifteen  to  twenty  min- 
utes with  desperation ;  it  persisted  an  hour  longer  after 
that,  but  with  less  violence." 

"At  the  stroke  of  eight,"  states  another  witness,! 
"shots  were  heard  by  us,  coming  from  the  direction  of 
the  Place  du  Peuple,  where  the  German  cavalry  was 
concentrated.  Part  of  the  baggage-train,  which  was 
stationed  in  the  Rue  Leopold,  turned  right  about  and 
went  off  at  a  gallop  towards  the  Station.  I  was  at  my 
front  door  and  heard  the  bullets  whistling  as  they  came 
from  the  Place  du  Peuple.    At  this  moment  a  sustained 

*R4. 
tR7- 

97 


LOUVAIN 

fusillade  broke  out,  and  there  was  a  succession  of 
cavalry-charges  in  the  direction  of  the  Station" 

The  stampede  in  the  Place  du  Peuple  is  described  by 
a  German  officer*  who  was  present.  "I  heard  the  clock 
strike  in  a  tower.  .  .  .  Complete  darkness  already  pre- 
vailed. At  the  same  moment  I  saw  a  green  rocket  go 
up  above  the  houses  south-west  of  the  square.  .  .  . 
Firing  was  directed  on  the  German  troops  in  the 
square.  .  .  .  Whilst  riding  round  the  square,  I  was 
shot  from  my  horse  on  the  north-eastern  side.  I  dis- 
tinctly heard  the  rattling  of  machine-guns,  and  the  bul- 
lets flew  in  great  numbers  round  about  me.  .  .  .  After 
I  had  fallen  from  my  horse,  I  was  run  over  by  an 
artillery  transport  waggon,  the  horses  of  which  had 
been  frightened  by  the  firing  and  stampeded.  .  .  ." 

The  shots  by  which  this  officer  was  wounded  evi- 
dently came  from  Geraian  troops  in  the  Rue  Leopold^ 
where  they  were  attacking  the  house  of  Professor  Ver- 
helst.  The  Landsturm  Company  bivouacked  in  the 
Station  Square  was  already  replying  vigorously  to  what 
it  imagined  to  be  the  Belgian  fire,  coming  from  the 
Rue  Leopold  and  the  Rue  de  la  Station. 

"I  stood  with  my  Company,"  states  the  Company 
Commander,t  "at  about  ten  minutes  to  eight  in  the 
Station  Square.  I  had  stood  about  five  minutes,  when 
suddenly,  quite  unexpectedly,  shots  were  fired  at  my 


*D46. 
•J-DX. 


98 


GERMAN  EVIDENCE 

Company  from  the  surrounding  houses,  from  the  win- 
dows, and  from  the  attics.  Simultaneously  I  heard 
lively  firing  from  the  Rue  de  la  Station,  as  well  as  from 
all  the  neighbouring  streets."  (Precisely  the  district 
in  which  the  newly-arrived  troops  had  taken  up  their 
quarters.)  "Shots  were  also  fired  from  the  windows 
of  my  hotel — straight  from  my  room"  (which  had 
doubtless  been  occupied  by  some  newly-arrived  soldier 
during  the  afternoon,  while  the  witness  was  on  duty  at 
the  Malines  Gate).  .  .  . 

"We  now  knelt  down  and  fired  at  the  opposite 
houses.  ...  I  sought  cover  with  my  Company  in  the 
entrances  of  some  houses.  During  the  assault  five  men 
of  my  Company  were  wounded.  The  fact  that  so  few 
were  wounded  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  inhabitants 
were  shooting  too  high.  .  .  . 

"About  an  hour  later  I  was  summoned  to  His  Ex- 
cellency General  von  Boehn,  who  was  standing  near 
by.  His  Excellency  asked  for  an  exact  report,  and, 
after  I  had  made  it,  he  said  to  me:  /Can  you  take  an 
oath  concerning  what  you  have  just  reported  to  me — 
in  particular,  that  the  first  shots  were  fired  by  the  in- 
habitants from  the  houses?'  I  then  answered:  'Yes, 
I  can  swear  to  that  fact.'  " 

But  what  evidence  had  the  Lieutenant  for  the  "fact" 
to  which  he  swore?  There  was  no  doubt  about  the 
shots,  but  he  gives  no  proof  of  the  identity  of  those  who 

99 


LOUVAIN 

fired  them,  and  another  witness,*  who  lived  in  a  house 
looking  on  to  the  Station  Square,  is  equally  ppsitive 
that  the  assailants,  too,  were  German  soldiers. 

"Just  before  eight,"  he  states,  "we  heard  one  shot 
from  a  rifle,  followed  immediately  after  by  two  others, 
and  then  a  general  fusillade  began.  I  went  at  once 
to  my  garden;  the  bullets  were  passing  quite  close  to 
me ;  I  went  back  to  the  house  and  on  to  the  balcony, 
and  there  I  saw  the  Germans,  not  fighting  Belgians, 
but  fighting  each  other  at  a  distance  of  200  or  300 
yards.  At  8.0  o'clock  it  begins  to  be  dark,  but  I  am 
perfectly  certain  it  was  Germans  fighting  Germans. 
The  firing  on  both  sides  passed  right  in  front  of  my 
house,  and  from  the  other  side  of  the  railway.  I  was 
low  down  on  the  balcony,  quite  flat,  and  watched  it  all. 
They  fought  hard  for  about  an  hour.  The  officers 
whistled  and  shouted  out  orders ;  there  was  terrible  con- 
fusion until  each  side  found  out  they  were  fighting  each 
other,  and  then  the  firing  ceased.  About  half  an  hour 
after,  on  the  other  side  of  the  railway,  I  heard  a 
machine-gun — I  was  told  afterwards  that  the  Germans 
were  killing  civilians  with  it.  It  went  on  certainly  for 
at  least  five  or  six  minutes,  stopping  now  and  then  for 
a  few  seconds.  .  .  ." 

This  fighting  near  the  Station  seems  to  have  been 

the  first  and  fiercest  of  all,  but  the  panic  spread  like 

wildfire  through  the  city.    It  was  spread  by  the  horses 
___ 

100 


THE  GERMAN  PANIC 

that  stampeded  in  the  Place  du  Feuple  and  elsewhere, 
and  galloped  riderless  in  all  directions— across  the 
Station  Square,''  through  the  suburb  of  Corbeek-Loo.'^ 
down  the  Rue  de  la  Station.X  and  up  the  Rue  de  Tide- 
mont.l  the  Rue  de  Bruxelles,\\  and  the  Rue  de  Ma- 
lines.\  The  troops  infected  by  the  panic  either  ran 
amok  or  took  to  flight. 

''About  8.0  o'clock,"  states  a  witness,**  "the  Rue 
de  la  Station  was  the  scene  of  a  stampede  of  horses  and 
baggage  waggons,  some  of  which  were  overturned.    A 
smart  burst  of  rifle-fire  occurred  at  this  moment.    This 
came  from  the  German  police-guard  in  the  Rue  de  la 
Station,  who,  seeing  troops  arrive  in  disorder,  thought 
that  it  was  the  enemy.    Another  proof  of  their  mistake 
is  that  later  during  the  same  night  a  group  of  German 
soldiers,  under  the  command  of  an  officer,  got  into  a 
shop  belonging  to  the  F.'s  and  in  charge  of  their 
nephew  B.,  and  told  him,  pointing  their  revolvers  at 
him,  to  hide  them  in  the  cellar.    A  few  hours  after- 
wards, hearing  troops  passing,  they  compelled  him  to 
go  and  see  if  it  was  the  French  or  the  Germans,  and 
when  they  learnt  that  it  was  the  Germans,  they  called 


*D8,   22. 
tR20. 

IR3. 

§  "Germans,"  p.  33' 
IIR3- 
^Ri3. 
**  e  I ;  cp.  R8. 

101 


LOVVAIN 

out:  'Then  we  are  safe,'  and  rejoined  their  compatri- 
ots." 

These  new  troops  hurrying  into  the  town  in  the 
midst  of  the  uproar  were  infected  by  the  panic  in 
their  turn  and  flung  themselves  into  the  fighting.  "On 
August  25th,"  states  one  of  them  in  his  diary,*  "we 
hold  ourselves  on  the  alert  at  Gri7?tde  (a  sugar  refin- 
ery) ;  here,  too,  everything  is  burnt  and  destroyed. 
From  Grimde  we  continue  our  march  upon  Louvain; 
here  it  is  a  picture  of  horror  all  round;  corpses  of  our 
men  and  horses;  motor-cars  blazing;  the  water  poi- 
soned; we  have  scarcely  reached  the  outskirts  of  the 
town  when  the  fusillade  begins  again  more  merrily 
than  ever;  naturally  we  wheel  about  and  sweep  the 
street;  then  the  town  is  peppered  by  us  thoroughly." 

In  the  Rue  Leopold^  leading  from  the  Rue  de  la  Sta- 
tion into  the  Ylace  du  Feuple^  "at  8.0  o'clock  exactly 
a  violent  fusillade  broke  out."  The  newly-arrived 
troops,  who  had  been  under  arms  since  the  alarm  at 
7.0  o'clock,  "took  to  flight  as  fast  as  their  legs  could 
carry  them.  From  our  cellar,"  states  one  of  the  house- 
holders on  whom  they  had  been  billeted,f  "we  saw 
them  running  until  they  must  have  been  out  of  breath." 

There  was  a  single  shot,  followed  by  a  fusillade  and 
machine-gun  fire,  in  the  Rue  des  Joyeuses  Entrees,% 

♦Morgan,  p.  102. 
fChambry,  p.  23. 

+  R2. 

102 


THE  PANIC  SPREADS 

Waggons  and  motor-cars  were  flying  out  of  the  town 
down  the  Rue  de  Pare,  and  soldiers  on  foot  down  the 
Rue  de  Tirlemont.''  In  the  Rue  des  Flamands,  which 
runs  at  right-angles  between  these  two  latter  roads,  "at 
ten  minutes  past  eight,  a  shot  was  fired  quite  close  to 
the  Institut  Superieur  de  Pkilosopkie"  (now  converted 
into  the  Hopital  St.  Thomas).  "We  had  scarcely 
taken  note  of  it,"  states  one  of  the  workers  in  the  hos- 
pital,t  "when  other  reports  followed.  In  less  than  a 
minute  rifle-shots  and  machine-gun  fire  mingled  in  a 
terrific  din.  Accompanying  the  crack  of  the  firearms, 
we  heard  the  dull  thud  of  galloping  hoofs  in  the  Rue  de 

Tirlemont:' 

Mgr.  Deploige,  President  of  the  Institute  and  Di- 
rector of  the  Hospital,  reportsj  that  "a  lively  fusillade 
broke  out  suddenly  at  8.0  o'clock  (Belgian  time),  at 
different  points  simultaneously— at  the  Brussels  Gate, 
at  the  Tirlemont  Gate,  in  the  Rue  de  la  Station,  Rue 
Leopold,  Rue  Marie-There se.  Rue  des  Joyeuses  En- 
trees, Rue  de  Tirlemont,  etc.§  It  was  the  German 
troops  firing  with  rifles  and  machine-guns.  Some 
houses  were  literally  riddled  with  bullets,  and  a  num- 
ber of  civilians  were  killed  in  their  homes." 

Higher  up  the  Rue  de  Tirlemont,  in  the  direction  of 

*  "Horrors,"  p.  38. 
t  "Germans,"  p.  33- 

§A1^  in  the  Rue  Vital  Decoster,  north  of  the  Rue  de  la  Station 

(Ri3)- 

103 


LOUVAIN 

the  Grand'  Place,  there  was  a  Belgian  Infantry  Bar- 
racks, which  had  been  turned  into  a  hospital  for  slightly 
incapacitated  German  soldiers.  The  patients  were  in 
a  state  of  nervous  excitement  already.  "Every  man," 
states  one  of  them,*  "had  his  rifle  by  his  side,  also 
ball-cartridge." — "About  9.0  o'clock,"  states  another,f 
"we  heard  shots  .  .  .  We  had  to  fall  in  in  the  yard. 
A  sergeant-major  distributed  cartridges  among  us, 
whereupon  I  marched  out  with  about  20  men.  In  the 
Rue  de  Tirlemont  a  lively  fire  was  directed  against  us 
from  guns  of  small  bore.  .  .  .  We  pushed  our  way  into 
a  restaurant  from,  which  shots  had  come,  and  found  in 
the  proprietor's  possession  about  100  Browning  cart- 
ridges. He  was  arrested  and  shot." — "We  now,"  con- 
tinues the  former,  "stormed  all  the  houses  out  of  which 
shots  were  being  fired.  .  .  .  Those  who  were  found 
with  weapons  were  immediately  shot  or  bayonetted. 
...  I  myself,  together  with  a  comrade,  bayonetted 
one  inhabitant  who  went  for  me  with  his  knife.  ..." 
But  who  would  not  defend  himself  with  a  knife  when 
attacked  by  an  armed  man  breaking  into  his  house*? 
The  witness  admits  that  only  five  civilians  were  armed 
out  of  the  twenty-five  dragged  out.  Were  these 
"armed"  with  knives?  Or  if  revolver  bullets  were 
found  in  their  houses,  was  it  proved  that  they  had  not 
delivered  up  their  revolvers  at  the  time  when  they  had 

*D29;  cp.  R2. 
tDao;  cp.  035,  vj. 

104 


THE  GERMANS  RUN  AMOK 

been  ordered  to  do  so  by  the  municipal  authorities  and 
the  German  Command?  The  witness  does  not  claim 
to  have  found  the  revolvers  themselves  as  well  as  the 
ammunition,  though  even  if  he  had  that  was  no  proof 
that  his  victims  had  been  firing  with  them,  or  even  that 
they  were  theirs.  The  German  Army  uses  "Brown- 
ings" too,  and  at  this  stage  of  the  panic  many  German 
soldiers  had  broken  into  private  houses  and  were  firing 
from  the  windows  as  points  of  vantage.  Two  German 
soldiers  broke  into  the  house  of  Professor  Verhelst  {Rtie 
Leopold^  1 6),  and  fired  into  the  street  out  of  the  sec- 
ond storey  window.  Other  Germans  passing  shouted  : 
"They  have  been  shooting  here,"  and  returned  the  fire.* 
Mgr.  Ladeuze,  Rector  of  Louvain  University,  was 
looking  from  the  window  of  his  house  adjoining  the 
garden  of  the  Chemical  Institute^  Rue  de  Namur,  and 
saw  two  German  soldiers  hidden  among  the  trees  and 
firing  over  the  wall  into  the  street.f  Moreover,  there 
is  definite  evidence  of  Germans  firing  on  one  another 
by  mistake  in  other  quarters  beside  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  Station. 

"I  myself  know,"  declares  a  Belgian  witness,  J  "that 
the  Germans  fired  on  one  another  on  August  25th.  On 
that  day,  at  about  8.0  p.m.,  I  was  in  the  Rue  de 
Bruxelles  at  Louvain.    I  was  hidden  in  a  house.    There 


*  "Germans,"  pp.  41,  107;  624;  Rag. 
t  "Germans,"  p.  107;  Grondijs  p.  58. 
tes;  cp.  eis;  Rio. 


105 


LOUVAIN 

was  one  party  of  German  soldiers  at  one  end  of  the 
street  firing  on  another  party  at  the  other  end.  I  could 
see  that  this  happened  myself.  On  the  next  day  I 
spoke  to  a  German  soldier  called  Hermann  Otto — he 
was  a  private  in  a  Bavarian  regiment.  He  told  me  that 
he  himself  was  in  the  Rue  de  Bruxelles  the  evening 
before,  and  that  the  two  parties  firing  on  one  another 
were  Bavarians  and  Poles,  he  being  among  the  Ba- 
varians. ..." 

The  Poles  openly  blamed  the  Bavarians  for  the  error. 
A  wounded  Polish  Catholic,  who  was  brought  in  dur- 
ing the  night  to  the  Dominican  Monastery  in  the  Rue 
Juste-Lipse,  told  the  monks  that  "he  had  been  wounded 
by  a  German  bullet  in  an  exchange  of  shots  between 
two  groups  of  German  soldiers."*  On  the  Thursday 
following,  a  wounded  Polish  soldier  was  lying  in  the 
hospital  of  the  Sisters  of  Mary  at  Wesemael,  and,  see- 
ing German  troops  patrolling  the  road  between  Wese- 
mael and  Louvain,  exclaimed  to  one  of  the  nuns: 
"These  drunken  pigs  fired  on  us."f 

The  casualties  inflicted  by  the  Germans  on  each 
other  do  not,  however,  appear  to  have  been  heavy. 
One  German  witnessj  saw  "two  dead  transport  horses 
and  several  dead  soldiers"  lying  in  the  Place  du  Peuple. 
Another§   saw  a  soldier  lying  near  the  Juste-Lipse 

*xx\  p.  115. 

tRs- 
t  D20. 
§D9. 

106 


SELF-INFLICTED  CASUALTIES 

Monument  who  had  been  killed  by  a  shot  through  the 
mouth.    But  most  express  astonishment  at  the  light- 
ness of  the  losses  caused  by  so  heavy  a  fire.     "It  is 
really  a  miracle,"  said  a  German  military  doctor  to  a 
Belgian  Professor  in  the  course  of  the  night,*  "that  not 
one  soldier  has  been  wounded  by  this  violent  fusillade." 
— "A  murderous  fire,"  states  the  surgeon  of  the  Second 
Neuss  Landsturm  Battalion,f   "was  directed  against 
us  from  Rue  de  la  Station,  No.  120.     The  fact  that 
we  or  some  of  us  were  not  killed  I  can  merely  explain 
by  the  fact  that  we  were  going  along  the  same  side  of 
the  street  from  which  the  shots  were  fired,  and  that  it 
was  night." — "A  tremendous  fire,"  states  Major  von 
Manteuffel,  the  Etappen-Kommandant,J  "was  opened 
from  the  houses  surrounding  the  Grand'  Place,  which 
was  now  filled  with  artillery  (one  batter)0»  and  with 
transport  columns,  motor-lorries  and  tanks  of  benzine. 
...  I  believe  there  were  three  men  wounded,  chiefly 
in  the  legs."     General  von  Boehn,  commanding  the 
Ninth  Reserve  Army  Corps,  estimates  §  that  the  total 
loss,  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  of  his  General 
Command  Staff,  which  was  stationed  in  the  Place  du 
Peuple,  "amounts  to  5  officers,  2  officials,  23  men,  and 
95  horses." — "I  note  that  the  inhabitants  fired  far  too 

*Ri3. 
tD9. 

SDi. 

107 


LOUVAIN 

high,"  states  a  N.C.O.  of  the  Landsturm  Company 
drawn  up  in  the  Station  Square.'^  *'That  was  our  good 
luck,  because  otherwise,  considering  the  fearful  fire 
which  was  directed  against  us  from  all  the  houses  in 
the  Station  Square^  most  German  officers  and  soldiers 
would  have  been  killed  or  seriously  wounded." 

Thus  the  German  troops  in  Louvain  seem  not  merely 
to  have  iired  on  one  another,  but  to  have  exaggerated 
hysterically  the  amount  of  danger  each  incurred  from 
the  other's  mistake.  And  the  legend  grew  with  time. 
The  deposition  last  quoted  was  taken  down  on  Sep- 
tember 17th,  1914,  less  than  a  month  after  the  event. 
But  when  examined  again,  on  November  19th,  the  same 
witness  deposed  that  "Many  of  us  were  wounded,  and 
some  of  us  even  received  mortal  wounds.  ...  I  fully 
maintain  my  evidence  of  September  17th,"  he  naively 
adds  in  conclusion. 

On  the  night  of  August  25th  these  German  soldiers 
were  distraught  beyond  all  restraints  of  reason  and 
justice.  They  blindly  assumed  that  it  was  the  civilians, 
and  not  their  comrades,  who  had  fired,  and  when  they 
discovered  their  error  they  accused  the  civilians,  de- 
liberately, to  save  their  own  reputation. 

The  Director  and  the  Chief  Surgeon  of  the  Hopital 

St.'Thomas  went  out  into  the  street  after  the  first  fusil-. 

lade  was  over.     Three  soldiers  with  fixed  bayonets 

rushed  at  them  shouting:  "You  fired!  Die!" — audit 
_____ 

108 


GERMAN  HALLUCINATIONS 

was  only  with  difficulty  that  they  persuaded  them  to 
spare  their  lives.  When  the  firing  began  again  a  ser- 
geant broke  into  the  hospital  shouting:  "Who  fired 
here^" — and  placed  the  hospital  staff  under  guard.* 
This  was  the  effect  of  panic,  but  there  were  cases  in 
which  the  firing  was  imputed  to  civilians,  and  punish- 
ment meted  out  for  it,  by  means  of  criminal  trickery. 
It  was  realised  that  the  material  evidence  would  be 
damning  to  the  German  Army.  The  empty  cartridge 
cases  were  all  German  which  were  picked  up  in  the 
streets,*!*  and  it  is  stated  that  every  bullet  extracted 
from  the  bodies  of  wounded  German  soldiers  was  found 
to  be  of  German  origin.  J  The  Germans,  convicted  by 
these  proofs,  shrank  from  no  fraud  which  might  enable 
them  to  transfer  the  guilt  on  to  the  heads  of  Belgian 
victims. 

"The  Germans  took  the  horses  out  of  a  Belgian  Red 
Cross  car,"  states  a  Belgian  witness§  living  in  the 
.Station  Square,  "frightened  them  so  that  they  ran 
down  the- street,  and  then  shot  three  of  them.  Two 
fell  quite  close  to  my  house.  They  then  took  a  Belgian 
artillery  helmet  and  put  it  on  the  ground,  so  as  to  pre- 
pare a  mise-en-scene  to  pretend  that  the  Belgians  had 
been  fighting  in  the  street." 

*  "Germans"  pp.  33-5. 

tR25. 

:|:R29  (Statement  by  the  Abbe  van  den  Bergh,  accredited  by  His 
Eminence  Cardinal  Piffl,  Prince-Bishop  of  Vienna,  to  conduct  in- 
quiries on  behalf  of  the  Wiener  Priester-Verein) ;  cp.  R35. 

§e8. 

109 


LOUVAIN 

At  a  late  hour  of  the  night  a  detachment  of  German 
soldiers  was  passing  one  of  the  professors'  houses,  when 
a  shot  rang  out,  followed  by  a  volley  from  the  soldiers 
through  the  windows  of  the  house.  The  soldiers  then 
broke  in  and  accused  the  inmates  of  having  fired  the 
first  shot.  They  were  mad  with  fury,  and  the  professor 
and  his  family  barely  escaped  with  their  lives.  A  ser- 
geant pointed  to  his  boot,  with  the  implication  that 
the  shot  had  struck  him  there ;  but  a  witness  in  another 
house  actually  saw  this  sergeant  fire  the  original  shot 
himself,  and  make  the  same  gesture  after  it  to  incite 
his  comrades.* 

A  staff-surgeon  billeted  on  a  cure  in  the  suburb  of 
Blauwput  pretended  he  had  been  wounded  by  civilians 
when  he  had  really  fallen  from  a  wall.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  26th  the  officer  in  local  command  arrested 
fifty-seven  men  at  Blauwput^  this  cure  included,  in 
order  to  decimate  them  in  reprisal  for  wounds  which 
the  surgeon  and  two  other  soldiers  had  received.  The 
cure  was  exempted  by  the  lot,  when  the  surgeon  came 
up  with  a  handful  of  revolver-cartridges  which  he  pro- 
fessed to  have  discovered  in  the  cure's  house.  The 
officer  answered:  "Go  away.  I  have  searched  this 
house  myself,"  and  the  surgeon  slunk  off.  The  cure 
was  not  added  to  the  victims,  but  every  tenth  man  was 
shot  all  the  same.f 

*R3;  cp.  e24. 
tR29;  cp.  636. 

110 


GERMAN  BAD  FAITH 

That  "the  civilians  had  fired"  was  already  an  official 
dogma  with  the  German  military  authorities  in  Lou- 
vain.  Mgr.  Coenraets,  Vice-Rector  of  the  University, 
was  serving  that  day  as  a  hostage  at  the  Hotel-de-Ville. 
A  Dominican  monk,  Father  Parijs,  was  there  at  the 
moment  the  firing  broke  out,  in  quest  of  a  pass  for 
remaining  out-of-doors  at  night  on  ambulance  service. 
He  was  now  retained  as  well,  and  Alderman  Schmit 
was  fetched  from  his  house.  Von  Boehn,  the  General 
Commanding  the  Ninth  Reserve  Corps,  harangued 
these  hostages  on  his  arrival  from  the  Malines  front, 
and  von  Manteuffel,  the  Etappen-Kommandant,  then 
conducted  them,  with  a  guard  of  soldiers,  round  the 
town.  Baron  Orban  de  Xivry  was  dragged  out  of  his 
house  to  join  them  on  the  way.  The  procession  halted 
at  intervals  in  the  streets,  and  the  four  hostages  were 
compelled  to  proclaim  to  their  fellow-citizens,  in  Flem- 
ish and  in  French,  that,  unless  the  firing  ceased,  the 
hostages  themselves  would  be  shot,  the  town  would 
have  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  20,000,000  francs,  the 
houses  from  which  shots  were  fired  would  be  burnt,  and 
artillery-fire  would  be  directed  upon  Louvain  as  a 
whole.* 

But  "reprisals"  against  the  civil  population  had  al- 
ready begun.  The  firing  from  German  soldiers  in  the 
houses  upon  Geraian  soldiers  in  the  street  was  answered 
by  a  general  assault  of  the  latter  upon  all  houses  within 

*Di    (von  Boehn),  2,  3   (von  Manteuffel),  9,  49   (2). 

Ill 


LOUVAIN 

their  reach.  "They  broke  the  house-doors,"  states  a 
Belgian  woman,*  "with  the  butt-ends  of  their  rifles. 
.  .  .  They  shot  through  the  gratings  of  the  cellars." — 
"In  the  Hotel'de-Ville,"  states  von  Manteuffel,t  "I 
saw  the  Company  stationed  there  on  the  ground  floor, 
standing  at  the  windows  and  answering  the  fire  of  the 
inhabitants.  In  front  of  the  Hotel-de-Vzlle,  on  the 
entrance  steps,  I  also  saw  soldiers  firing  in  reply  to  the 
inhabitants'  fire  in  the  direction  of  their  houses." — 
"Personally  I  was  under  the  distinct  impression,"  states 
a  staff  officer,^  "that  we  were  fired  at  from  the  Hotel 
Maria  Theresa  with  machine-guns."  (This  is  quite 
probable,  and  merely  proves  that  those  who  fired  were 
German  soldiers.)  "The  fire  from  machine-guns  lasted 
from  four  to  five  minutes,  and  was  immediately  an- 
swered by  our  troops,  who  finally  stormed  the  house 
and  set  it  on  fire." — "The  order  was  passed  up  from 
the  rear  that  we  should  fire  into  the  houses,"  states  an 
infantryman  who  had  just  detrained  and  was  march- 
ing with  his  unit  into  the  town.§  "Thereupon  we  shot 
into  the  house-fronts  on  either  side  of  us.  To  what 
extent  the  fire  was  answered  I  cannot  say,  the  noise 
and  confusion  were  too  great." — "We  now  dispersed 
towards  both  sides,"  states  a  lance-corporal  in  the  same 

*ei3;  cp.  R17,  24. 

tD3. 

tDz;  cp.  Dii. 

§D36   (I). 

112 


21.    Capelle-au-Bois:  The  Church 


ATTACKS  ON  PRIVATE  HOUSES 

battalion,*  "and  fired  into  the  upper  windows.  .  .  . 
How  long  the  firing  lasted  I  cannot  say.  .  .  .  We  now 
began  shooting  into  the  ground-floor  windows  too,  as 
well  as  tearing  down  a  certain  number  of  the  shutters.  I 
made  my  way  into  the  house  from  which  the  shot  had 
come,  with  a  few  others  who  had  forced  open  the  door. 
We  could  find  no  one  in  the  house.  In  the  room  from 
which  the  shot  had  come  there  was,  however,  a  petro- 
leum lamp,  lying  overturned  on  the  table  and  still 
smouldering.  ..." 

These  assaults  on  houses  passed  over  inevitably  into 
wholesale  incendiarism.  "The  German  troops,"  as  the 
Editors  of  the  German  White  Book  remark  in  their 
summarising  report  on  the  events  at  Louvain,  "had  to 
resort  to  energetic  counter-measures.  In  accordance 
with  the  threats,  the  inhabitants  who  had  taken  part  in 
the  attack  were  shot,  and  the  houses  from  which  shots 
had  been  fired  were  set  on  fire.  The  spreading  of  the 
fire  to  other  houses  also  and  the  destruction  of  some 
streets  could  not  be  avoided.  In  this  way  the  Cathe- 
dral" (i.  e.,  the  Collegiate  Church  of  St.  Pierre)  "also 
caught  fire.  .  .  ." 

There  is  a  map  in  the  German  White  Book  which 
shows  the  quarters  burnt  down.  The  incendiarism 
started  in  the  Station  Square^  and  spread  along  the 
Boulevard  de  Tirlemont  as  far  as  the  Tirlemont  Gate. 
It  was  renewed  across  the  railway  and  devastated  the 

*D36  (2). 


LOUVAIN 

suburbs  to  the  east.  Then  it  was  extended  up  the  Rue 
de  la  Station  into  the  heart  of  the  town,  and  here  the 
Church  of  St.  Pierre  was  destroyed,  and  the  University 
Halles  with  the  priceless  University  Library — not  by 
mischance,  as  the  German  Report  alleges,  but  by  the 
deliberate  work  of  Gemian  troops,  employing  the  same 
incendiary  apparatus  as  had  been  used  already  at  Vise, 
Liege  and  elsewhere.'''- 

The  burning  was  directed  by  a  German  officer  from 
the  Vieux  Marchc^  a  large  open  space  near  the  centre 
of  the  town,  and  by  another  group  of  officers  stationed 
in  the  Vlace  du  Peuple.^  The  burning  here  is  de- 
scribed by  a  German  officer^:  (whose  evidence  on  other 
points  has  been  quoted  above).  "The  Company,"  he 
states,  "continued  to  fire  into  the  houses.  The  fire  of 
the  inhabitants  {sic)  gradually  died  down.  Thereupon 
the  German  soldiers  broke  in  the  doors  of  the  houses 
and  set  the  houses  on  fire,  flinging  burning  petroleum 
lamps  into  the  houses  or  striking  off  the  gas-taps,  set- 
ting light  to  the  gas  which  rushed  out  and  throwing 
table-cloths  and  curtains  into  the  flames.  Here  and 
there  benzine  was  also  employed  as  a  means  of  igni- 
tion.   The  order  to  set  fire  to  the  houses  was  given  out 

*  Area  of  incendiarism:  "Eye-witness"  p.  i;  "Horrors"  pp.  39,  43; 
"Germans"  pp.  35-S,  92;  Chambry  pp.  25,  92;  Apparatus:  ez,  13; 
R8,  13;  cp.  also  D31,  37   (2). 

t  R24. 

4:D46. 

114 


INCENDIARISM 

by  Colonel  von  Stubcnrauch,  whose  voice  I  distin- 
guished. .  .  ." 

In  the  Rue  de  la  Station  the  Germans  set  the  houses 
on  fire  with  incendiary  bombs.  This  was  seen  by  a 
Belgian  witness,*  and  is  confirmed  by  the  German  offi- 
cer just  cited,  who,  in  the  Place  du  Feuple^  "heard 
repeatedly  the  detonation  of  what  appeared  to  be 
heavy  gims"  round  about  him.  "I  supposed,"  he  pro- 
ceeds, "that  artillery  was  firing;  but  since  there  was 
none  present,  there  is  only  one  explanation  for  this — 
that  the  inhabitants  {sic)  also  threw  hand-grenades." 

In  the  Rue  de  Manege-\  another  Belgian  witness 
saw  a  soldier  pouring  inflammable  liquid  over  a  house 
from  a  bucket,  and  this  though  a  German  military  sur- 
geon, present  on  the  spot,  admitted  that  in  that  house 
there  had  been  nobody  firing.  Soldiers  are  also  stated 
to  have  been  seent  with  a  complete  incendiary  equip- 
ment (syringe,  hatchet,  etc.),  and  with  "Gott  mit  Uns" 
and  "Company  of  Incendiaries"  blazoned  on  their 
belts.  The  Germans  deny  that  the  Church  of  St.  Pierre 
was  deliberately  burnt,  and  allege  that  the  fire  spread 
to  it  from  private  houses  ;§  but  a  Dutch  witness  ||  saw 
it  burning  while  the  adjoining  houses  were  still  intact. 
There  is  less  evidence  for  the  deliberate  burning  of  the 

*  R8 ;  e23  ;  cp.  "Germans"  p.  46. 

tRi3;  cp.  614,  28. 

rjieis;  cp.  €24. 

§D4. 

II  R14  (Grondijs) ;  cp.  R19,  29. 

115 


LOUVAIN 

University  Halles^  containing  the  Library,  but  it  is 
significant  that  the  building  was  completely  consumed 
in  one  night  (a  result  hardly  possible  without  artificial 
means),  and  at  ii.o  p.m.,  in  the  middle  of  the  burn- 
ing, an  officer  answered  a  Belgian  monk,  who  protested, 
that  it  was  "By  Order."*  The  manuscripts  and  early 
printed  books  in  the  Library  were  one  of  the  treasures 
of  Europe.  The  whole  collection  of  250,000  volumes 
was  the  intellectual  capital  of  the  University,  without 
which  it  could  not  carry  on  its  work.  Every  volume 
and  manuscript  was  destroyed.  The  Germans  pride 
themselves  on  saving  the  Hotel-de-Ville,  but  they  saved 
it  because  it  was  the  seat  of  the  German  Komman- 
dantur,  and  this  only  suggests  that,  had  they  desired, 
they  could  have  prevented  the  destruction  of  the  other 
buildings  as  well. 

As  the  houses  took  fire  the  inhabitants  met  their  fate. 
Some  were  asphyxiated  in  the  cellars  where  they  had 
taken  refuge  from  the  shooting,  or  were  burnt  alive  as 
they  attempted  to  escape  from  their  homes.f  Others 
were  shot  down  by  the  German  troops  as  they  ran  out 
into  the  street,  t  or  while  they  were  fighting  the  flames.  § 
"The  franc-tireurs,"  as  they  are  called  by  the  German 
officer  in  the  Place  du  Peuple,\^  "were  without  excep- 

*R29;  cp.  "Eye-witness"  p.  3;  "Germans"  p.  37;  R25. 

tea,  23;  Rio,  ii,  18,  24. 

:l:ei;  R8. 

§Rio. 

II  D46. 

116 


Ph 


w 
o 

M 

h 
g 

o 


INCENDIARISM 

tion  evil-looking  figures,  such  as  I  have  never  seen  else- 
where in  all  my  life.  They  were  shot  down  by  the 
German  posts  stationed  below.  .  .  ." 

Others,  again,  tried  to  save  themselves  by  climbing 
garden  walls.*  "I,  my  mother  and  my  servants," 
states  one  of  these,t  ''took  refuge  at  A.'s,  whose  cel- 
lars are  vaulted  and  therefore  afforded  us  a  better  pro- 
tection than  mine.  A  little  later  we  withdrew  to  A.'s 
stables,  where  about  30  people,  who  had  got  there  by 
climbing  the  garden  walls,  were  to  be  found.  Some  of 
these  poor  wretches  had  had  to  climb  20  walls.  A 
ring  came  at  the  bell.  We  opened  the  door.  Several 
civilians  flung  themselves  under  the  porch.  The  Ger- 
mans were  firing  upon  them  from  the  street." 

"When  we  were  crossing  a  particularly  high  wall,'' 
states  another  victim, J  "my  wife  was  on  the  top  of 
the  wall  and  I  was  helping  her  to  get  down,  when  a 
party  of  15  Germans  came  up  with  rifles  and  revolvers. 
They  told  us  to  come  down.  My  wife  did  not  follow 
as  quickly  as  they  wished.  One  of  them  made  a  lunge 
at  her  with  his  bayonet.  I  seized  the  blade  of  the 
bayonet  and  stopped  the  lunge.  The  German  soldier 
then  tried  to  stab  me  in  the  face  with  his  bayonet.  .  .  . 

"They  kept  hitting  us  with  the  butt-ends  of  their 
rifles — the  women  and  children  as  well  as  the  men. 


*R8,  26;  ei4. 

t  ei. 

^eS;  cp.  "Horrors"  p.  39;  eij;  R8,  15,  17. 

117     ' 


LOUVAIN 

They  struck  us  on  the  elbows  because  they  said  our 
arms  were  not  raised  high  enough.  .  .  . 

"We  were  driven  in  this  way  through  a  burning 
house  to  the  Place  de  la  Station.  There  were  a  num- 
ber of  prisoners  already  there.  In  front  of  the  station 
entrance  there  were  the  corpses  of  three  civilians  killed 
by  rifle  fire.  The  women  and  the  children  were  sepa- 
rated. The  women  were  put  on  one  side  and  the  men 
on  the  other.  One  of  the  German  soldiers  pushed  my 
wife  with  the  butt-end  of  his  rifle,  so  that  she  was 
compelled  to  walk  on  the  three  corpses.  Her  shoes 
were  full  of  blood.  .  .  . 

"Other  prisoners  were  being  continually  brought  in. 
I  saw  one  prisoner  with  a  bayonet-w^ound  behind  his 
ear.  A  boy  of  fifteen  had  a  bayonet-wound  in  his 
throat  in  front.  .  .  .  The  priests  were  treated  more 
brutally  than  the  rest.  I  saw  one  belaboured  with  the 
butt-ends  of  rifles.  Some  German  soldiers  came  up  to 
me  sniggering,  and  said  that  all  the  women  were  going 
to  be  raped.  .  .  .  They  explained  themselves  by  ges- 
tures. .  .  .  The  streets  were  full  of  empty  wine  bot- 
tles. .  .  . 

"An  officer  told  me  that  he  was  merely  executing 
orders,  and  that  he  himself  would  be  shot  if  he  did  not 
execute  them.  .  .  ." 

The  battue  of  civilians  through  the  streets  was  the 
final  horror  of  that  night.  The  massacre  began  with 
the  murder  of  M.  David-Fischbach.    He  was  a  man  of 

118 


THE  MURDER  OF  M.  DAVID-FISCHBACH 

property,  a  benefactor  of  the  University  and  the  town. 
Since  the  outbreak  of  war  he  had  given  10,000  francs 
to  the  Red  Cross.  Since  the  Gern[ij;:in  occupation  he 
had  entertained  Grerman  officers  in  his  house,  which 
stood  in  the  Rue  de  la  Station  opposite  the  Statue  of 
Juste-Lipse^  and  about  9.0  o'clock  that  evening  he  had 
gone  to  bed. 

"Close  to  the  Monument  Square"  states  Dr.  Berg* 
hausen,  the  German  military  surgeon  who  was  respon- 
sible for  M.  David-Fischbach's  death,*  "I  saw  a  Ger- 
man soldier  lying  dead  on  the  ground.  .  .  .  His  com- 
rades told  me  that  the  shot  had  been  fired  from  the 
corner  house  belonging  to  David-Fischbach.  There- 
upon I  myself,  with  my  servant,  broke  in  the  door  of 
the  house  and  met  first  the  owner  of  the  house,  old 
David-Fischbach.  I  challenged  him  concerning  the 
soldier  who  had  been  murdered.  .  .  .  Old  David- 
Fischbach  declared  he  knew  nothing  about  it.  There- 
upon his  son,  young  Fischbach,  came  downstairs  from 
the  first  floor,  and  from  the  porter's  lodge  appeared  an 
old  servant.  I  immediately  took  father,  son,  and  ser- 
vant with  me  into  the  street.  At  that  moment  a 
tumult  arose  in  the  street,  because  a  fearful  fusillade 
had  opened  from  a  few  houses  on  the  same  side  of  the 
street  against  the  soldiers  standing  by  the  Monument 
and  against  myself.  In  the  darkness  I  then  lost  sight 
of  David-Fischbach,  with  his  son  and  servant.  .  .  ." 

*D9;  cp.  R34;  C14  (M.  David-Fischbach's  servant). 

119 


LOUVAIN 

The  soldiers  set  the  old  man  with  his  back  against 
the  statue.  Standing  with  his  arms  raised,  he  had  to 
watch  his  house  set  on  fire.  Then  he  was  bayonetted 
and  finally  shot  to  death.  His  son  was  shot,  too.  His 
house  was  burnt  to  the  ground,  and  a  servant  asphyxi- 
ated in  the  cellar.* 

"Later,"  adds  Dr.  Berghausen,  "I  met  Major  von 
ManteufFel  with  the  hostages,  and  all  four  or  five  of 
us  saw  the  dead  soldier  lying  in  front  of  the  monu- 
ment and,  a  few  steps  further  on,  old  David-Fischbach. 
I  assumed  that  the  comrades  of  the  soldier  who  had 
been  killed  ,  .  .  had  at  once  inflicted  punishment  on, 
the  owner  of  the  house.  ..." 

The  corpse  was  also  seen  by  a  professor's  wife  who 
made  her  way  to  the  Hopital  St.-Thomas — the  old 
man's  white  beard  was  stained  with  blood.f 

The  massacre  spread.  Six  workmen  returning  from 
their  work  were  shot  down  from  behind. J  A  woman 
was  shot  as  she  was  beating  for  admittance  on  a  door.§ 
A  man  had  his  hands  tied  behind  his  back,  and  was 
shot  as  he  ran  down  the  street.  ||  Another  witness  saw 
20  men  shot.^  One  saw  19  corpses,**  and  corpses 
were  also  seen  with  their  hands  tied  behind  their  backs, 

*  Charabry  pp.  26-7. 
t  "Germans"  p.  42. 
+  ei6. 
§ei. 
II  ei5. 
ITeiy. 
**  ei5. 

120 


MURDERS  IN  THE  STREETS 

like  the  victim  mentioned  above.*  There  was  the  body 
of  a  woman  cut  in  two,  with  a  child  still  alive  beside 
her.f  Other  children  had  been  murdered,  and  were 
lying  dead.J  There  was  the  body  of  another  mur- 
dered woman,  and  a  girl  of  fourteen  who  had  been 
wounded  and  was  being  carried  to  hospital.  A  Ger- 
man soldier  beckoned  a  Dutch  witness  into  a  shop,§ 
and  showed  him  the  shop-keeper's  body  in  the  back- 
room, in  a  night-shirt,  with  a  bullet-wound  through 
the  head. 

These  were  the  "evil-looking  franc-tireurs"  whom 
the  German  soldiers  shot  down  at  sight.  Inhabitants 
of  Louvain  dragged  as  prisoners  through  the 
streets  II  recognised  the  corpses  of  people  they 
knew.  Here  a  bootmaker  lay,1[  here  a  hair- 
dresser,!]" here  a  professor.  The  corpse  of  Pro- 
fessor Lenertz  was  lying  in  front  of  his  house  in 
the  Boulevard  de  Tirlemont.  It  was  recognised  by  Dr. 
Noyons,  one  of  his  colleagues  (though  a  Dutchman  by 
nationality),  who  was  serving  in  the  Hopital  St.- 
Thomas,  and  so  escaped  himself.**  "On  the  27th," 
states  a  Belgian  lady,tt  "M.  Lenertz'  body  was  still 

*  619. 

tei7. 

+  ei3. 

§  Grondijs  p.  39. 

II  "Germans"  pp.  46-7.  ' 

1fRi9. 

**  "Germans"  p.  43. 
ttR2. 

1:21 


LOUVAIN 

lying  on  the  Boulevard.  When  his  wife  and  children 
were  evicted  by  the  Grermans  and  came  out  of  their 
house,  members  of  the  family  had  to  stand  in  front  of 
the  body  to  hide  it  from  Madame  Lenertz'  sight." 

The  dead  were  lying  in  every  quarter  of  the  town. 
In  the  Boulevard  de  Tlrlemont  there  were  six  or  seven 
more.*  There  was  one  at  the  end  of  the  Rue  du 
Manege.^  But  the  greatest  number  were  in  the  Station 
Square,  where  they  were  seen  by  all  the  civilian  prison- 
ers herded  thither  this  night  and  the  following  day.J 
Their  murder  is  described  by  a  German  sergeant-major§ 
who  was  fighting  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Station. 
"Various  civilians,"  he  remarks,  "were  led  off  by  my 
men,  and  after  judgment  had  been  given  against  them 
by  the  Commandant,  they  were  shot. in  the  Square  in 
front  of  the  Station.  In  accordance  with  orders,  I 
myself  helped  to  set  fire  to  various  houses,  after  hav- 
ing in  every  case  previously  convinced  myself  that  no 
one  was  left  in  them.  Towards  midnight  the  work 
was  done,  and  the  Company  returned  to  the  station 
buildings,  before  which  were  lying  shot  about  15  in- 
habitants of  the  town." 

The  slaughter  itself  increased  the  thirst  for  blood. 
A  Dutch  witness  II  met  a  German  column  marching  in 

*Rn,   17. 
tRi3. 

tei,  9,  13;  R7,  8,  26. 

§D37(2). 

II  Grondijs  p.  41. 

122 


MURDERS  IN  THE  STREETS 

from  Aerschot.  "The  soldiers  were  beside  themselves 
with  rage  at  the  sight  of  the  corpses,  and  cried: 
'Schweinhunde !  Schweinhunde!'  They  regarded  me 
with  threatening  eyes.    I  passed  on  my  way.  .  .  ." 

The  soldiers  in  their  frenzy  respected  no  one.  The 
Hostel  for  Spanish  students  in  the  Rue  de  la  Station 
was  burnt  down,  though  it  was  protected  by  the  Span- 
ish flag.  Father  Catala,  the  Superior  of  the  Hostel  and 
formerly  Vice-Consul  of  Spain,  barely  escaped  with 
his  life.  There  was  no  mercy  either  for  the  old  or  the 
sick.  A  retired  barrister,  bedridden  with  paralysis,  had 
his  house  burnt  over  his  head,  and  was  brought  to  the 
Hopital  St.'Thomas  to  die.  Another  old  man,  more 
than  eighty  years  old  and  in  his  last  illness,  was  cast 
out  by  the  soldiers  into  the  street,  and  died  in  the 
Hopital  St.'Thomas  next  day."''  An  aged  concierge 
was  cast  alive  into  the  blazing  ruins  of  the  house  it 
was  his  duty  to  guard. f  So  it  went  on  till  dawn,  when 
the  havoc  was  completed  by  salvoes  of  artiller}^  "At 
four  o'clock  in  the  morning,"  states  an  officer  of  the 
Ninth  German  Reserve  Corps  Staff, J  "the  Army  Corps 
moved  out  to  battle.  We  did  not  enter  the  main 
streets,  but  advanced  along  an  avenue.  ...  As  the 
road  carrying  our  lines  of  communication  was  continu- 
ously fired  on,  the  order  was  given  to  clear  the  town  by 

♦"Germans"  pp.  43-5;  tz. 
tR24. 

123 


LOUVAIN 

force.  Two  guns  were  sent  with  150  shells.  The  two 
guns,  firing  from  the  Railway  Station,  swept  the  streets 
with  shells.  Thus  at  least  the  quarter  surrounding  the 
Railway  Station  was  secured,  and  this  made  it  possible 
to  conduct  the  supply-columns  through  the  town.  .  .  ." 

It  was  now  the  morning  of  August  26th.  At  dawn 
Mgr.  Coenraets  and  Father  Parijs,  the  hostages  of  the 
preceding  night,  were  placed  under  escort  and  marched 
round  the  City  once  more.  If  the  firing  continued  the 
hostages  were  to  be  shot.  They  had  to  proclaim  this 
themselves  to  the  inhabitants  from  point  to  point  of 
the  town,  and  they  were  kept  at  this  task  till  far  on 
in  the  day.*  The  inhabitants,  meanwhile,  were  pay- 
ing the  penalty  for  the  shots  which  not  they  but  the 
Germans  had  already  fired. 

In  one  street  after  another  the  people  were  dragged 
from  their  houses,  and  those  not  slaughtered  out  of 
hand  were  driven  by  the  soldiers  to  the  Station  Square. 
"I  only  had  slippers  on,"  states  one  victim,^  "and  no 
hat  or  waistcoat.  On  the  way  to  the  Station  Square, 
soldiers  kicked  me  and  hit  me  with  the  butt-ends  of 
their  rifles,  and  shouted:  'Oh,  you  swine!  Another 
who  shot  at  us  I  You  swine!'  My  hands  were  tied 
behind  my  back  with  a  cord,  and  when  I  cried:  'Oh, 
God,  you  are  hurting  me,'  a  soldier  spat  on  me." — 
"We  had  to  go  in  front  of  the  soldiers,"  adds  this 

*  "Horrors"  p.  40;  "Germans"  p.  47;  xxi  p.  115;  R6,  10. 
te3. 

124 


25.    Louvain:  The  Church  of  St.  Pierre — Interior 


TRIALS  m  THE  STATION  SQUARE 

witness's  wife,*  "holding  our  hands  above  our  heads. 
All  the  ladies  who  lived  in  the  Boulevard — invalids 
or  not — were  taken  prisoners.  One  of  them,  an  old 
lady  of  85,  who  could  scarcely  walk,  was  dragged  from 
her  cellar  with  her  maid." 

When  they  reached  the  Station  Square  the  men  were 
herded  to  one  side,  the  women  and  children  to  the 
other.  It  was  done  by  an  officer  with  a  loaded  revol- 
ver.f  "We  were  separated  from  our  families,"  states 
one  of  the  men;t  "we  were  knocked  about  and  blows 
were  rained  on  us  from  rifle  butts;  the  women  and 
children  and  the  men  were  isolated  from  one  an- 
other. ..." 

The  men's  pockets  were  rifled.  Purses,  keys,  pen- 
knives and  so  on  were  taken  from  them.§  One  gen- 
tleman's servant  had  7,805  francs  taken  from  his  bag, 
and  was  given  a  receipt  for  7,000  francs  in  exchange.  || 
This  was  the  preliminary  to  a  "trial,"  conducted  by 
Captain  Albrecht,1f  a  staff  officer  of  the  Ninth  Re- 
serve Corps.  "The  soldiers,"  states  a  German  trades- 
man who  acted  as  Captain  Albrecht's  interpreter,** 
"brought  forward  the  civilians  whom  they  had  seized. 
...  In  all  about  600  persons  may  have  been  brought 

*  64 ;  cp.  R7. 

tei  =  R8;  cp.  Ri,  7. 

$Ri7. 

§63- 

||ei=R8. 

H  Killed,  October,  1914. 
**  D38. 

125 


LOUVAIN 

in,  the  lives  of  at  least  500  of  whom  were  spared,  be* 
cause  no  clear  proof  of  their  guilt  seemed  to  be  estab- 
lished at  the  trial.  These  persons  were  set  on  one  side. 
.  .  .  Captain  Albrecht  followed  the  course — I  imagine, 
by  the  command  of  his  superiors — of  ordering  that 
those  among  the  men  brought  forward  upon  whom 
either  a  weapon  or  an  identification  mark  was  discov- 
ered, or  in  whose  case  it  was  established  by  at  least  two 
witnesses  that  they  had  fired  upon  the  German  troops, 
should  be  shot.  It  is  an  utter  impossibility,  according 
to  my  firm  conviction,  that  any  innocent  man  should 
have  lost  his  life.  .  .  ." 

But  was  there  really  "clear  proof  of  guilt'*  in  any 
of  these  cases?  Not  one  of  these  "identification  marks" 
(assumed  to  establish  that  the  bearer  was  a  member 
of  the  Belgian  Army)  has  been  brought  forward  as  ma- 
terial evidence  by  the  German  Government.  And  was 
the  other  material  evidence  so  clear?  One  man,  for  in- 
stance,'-" had  a  German  bullet  in  his  pocket  which  he 
had  picked  up  in  the  street.  "He  was  shot  down,  and 
two  of  his  comrades  had  to  make  a  pit  and  bury  him 
in  the  place  where  he  was  shot."t  One  priest  was  shot 
"because  he  had  purposely  enticed  the  soldiers,  ac- 
cording to  their  testimony,  under  the  fire  of  the  franc- 
tireurs."J    Two  other  priests  were  shot  "for  distribut- 

*  C4 ;  cp.  R20, 

t  e4. 

126 


THE  EXECUTIONS 

ing  ammunition  to  civilians,"*  but  this  was  only  a 
story  heard  from  General  Headquarters  at  second-hand. 
The  witness  who  tells  it  was  sent  with  a  squad  "to 
set  on  fire  two  hotels  in  the  Statioft  Square  and  drive 
out  their  inmates.  The  chief  culprits  found,  appar- 
ently, a  way  of  escape  in  good  time  over  the  roofs, 
since  only  the  proprietor  of  one  of  the  hotels  presented 
himself  at  5.0  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  very  shortly 
afterwards  received  the  reward  he  deserved."  But 
what  was  the  proof  that  he  deserved  it?  Not  any 
material  evidence  on  his  person,  or  the  testimony  of 
two  witnesses  who  had  seen  him  fire,  but  simply  the 
fact  that  he  was  the  only  Belgian  found  in  a  certain 
building  the  inmates  of  which  had  been  condemned, 
a  priori,  as  franc-tireurs.  The  logic  of  this  proceeding 
is  defended  by  the  tradesman  interpreter,  who  submitsf 
that  "apart  from  all  evidence,  the  persons  brought  to 
trial  must  have  acted  somehow  in  a  suspicious  manner 
— otherwise  they  would  never  have  been  brought  to 
trial  at  all." 

"It  is  untrue,"  nevertheless  he  states  expressly,  "that 
an  arbitrary  selection  among  the  persons  brought  for- 
ward was  made  when  the  order  for  execution  was  is- 
sued." But  one  of  the  Belgian  women'|  held  prisoner 
in  the  Station  Square  describes  how  "the  men  were 


*D48. 

tDsS. 

4:ei3. 

127 


LOUVAIN 

placed  in  rows  of  five,  and  the  fifth  in  each  row  was 
taken  and  shot,"  as  she  affirms,  "in  my  presence.  If 
the  fifth  man  happened  to  be  old,  his  place  was  taken 
by  the  sixth  man  if  he  happened  to  be  younger.  This 
was  also  witnessed  by  my  grandmother,  my  uncle  and 
his  wife,  my  cousin  and  our  servant.  .  .  ." 

"The  whole  day  long,"  states  another  Belgian 
woman,*  "I  saw  civilians  being  shot — twenty  to 
twenty-five  of  them,  including  some  monks  or  priests — 
in  the  Station  Square  and  the  Boulevard  de  Tirlemont, 
opposite  the  warehouse.  The  victims  were  bound  four 
together  and  placed  on  the  pavement  in  front  of  the 
Maison  Hamaide.  The  soldiers  who  shot  them  were 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Boulevard,  on  the  warehouse 
roof.  For  that  matter,  the  soldiers  were  firing  every- 
where in  all  directions." 

The  executions  were  also  witnessed  by  the  German 
troops.  "On  the  morning  of  August  26th,"  states  a 
soldier,f  "I  saw  many  civilians,  more  than  a  hundred, 
among  them  five  priests,  shot  at  the  Station  Square  in 
Louvain  because  they  had  fired  on  German  troops  or 
because  weapons  were  found  on  their  persons." 

This  went  on  all  day,  and  all  day  the  women  were 
compelled  to  watch  it,  while  the  surviving  men  were 
marched  away  in  batches,  and  the  houses  on  either  side 
of  the  railway  continued  to  burn.     When  night  came 

*R9. 

tDi9;cp.  D37  (3),  41,  43. 

1:28 


THE  WOMEN 

the  women  were  confined  in  the  Station.  "My  aunt," 
continues  the  witness  quoted  above,*  "was  taken  to 
the  Station  with  her  baby  and  kept  there  till  the  morn- 
ing. It  rained  all  the  night,  and  she  wrapped  the  baby 
in  her  skirt.  The  baby  cried  for  food,  and  a  German 
soldier  gave  the  child  a  little  water,  and  took  my  aunt 
and  the  child  to  an  empty  railway-carriage.  Some 
other  women  got  into  the  carriage  with  her,  but  during 
the  whole  night  the  Germans  fired  at  the  carriage  for 
amusement.  .  .  ." 

The  firing  by  German  soldiers  had  never  ceased  since 
the  first  outbreak  at  8.0  o'clock  the  evening  before.  An 
eye-witness  records  two  bursts  of  it  on  the  26th — one 
at  5.0  p.m.,  and  a  more  serious  one  at  8.45.t  This 
firing  was  due  in  part  to  panic,  but  was  in  part  of  a 
more  deliberate  character.  "The  whole  day,"  states  a 
Belgian  witness,  J  "the  soldiers  went  and  came  through 
the  streets,  saying:  'Man  hat  geschossen,'»but  it  seems 
that  the  shots  came  from  the  soldiers  themselves.  I 
myself  saw  a  soldier  going  through  the  streets  shooting 
peacefully  in  the  air."  There  was  also  killing  in  cold 
blood.  A  cafe  proprietor  and  his  daughter  were  shot 
by  two  German  soldiers  waiting  to  be  served.  The 
other  daughter  crept  under  a  table  and  escaped.§ 

*  ei3  ;  cp.  Chambry  pp.  38-9. 

t  "Eye-witness"  p.  4;  cp.  "Horrors"  p.  39;  Chambry  pp.  33,  71-2; 

I>37(2)- 

■^  62. 

§  Grondijs  pp.  50-1, 

129 


LOUVAIN 

The  women  held  prisoner  at  the  Station  were  only 
released  at  8.0  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  27th,* 
but  they  had  suffered  less  during  these  hours  than  the 
men.  "Of  the  men,"  as  a  German  witness  puts  it,t 
"some  were  shot  according  to  Martial  Law.  In  the 
case  of  a  large  number  of  others  it  was,  however,  im- 
possible to  determine  whether  they  had  taken  part  in 
the  shooting.  These  persons  were  placed  for  the  mo- 
ment in  the  Station;  some  of  them  were  conveyed 
elsewhere." 

The  first  batch  J  of  those  "not  found  guilty"  was 
"conveyed"  by  the  Boulevard  de  Diest  round  the  out- 
skirts of  the  town,  and  out  along  the  M alines  Road^ 
about  11.0  o'clock  in  the  morning.  It  consisted  of 
from  70  to  80  men,  one  of  whom  at  least  was  75  years 
old,  while  five  were  neutrals — a  Paraguayan  priest, 
Father  Gamarra,§  the  Superior  of  the  Spanish  Hostel, 
Father  Catala,  and  three  of  Father  Catala's  students. 
There  were  doctors,  lawyers,  and  retired  officers  among 
the  Belgian  victims.  One  prisoner  was  driven  on 
ahead  to  warn  the  country  people  that  all  the  hostages 
would  be  executed  if  a  single  shot  were  fired  ;||  the 
rest  were  searched,  had  their  hands  bound  behind  their 
backs,  and  were  marched  in  column  under  guard.     On 

*e4;  R9. 

tD44. 

:j:Ri,  7,  8    (=ei),  20,  26. 

§R26   (his  deposition);  cp.  Grondijs,  pp.  70-1. 

II  Ri,  8    (==ei). 

130 


THE  PRISONERS— FIRST  BATCH 

the  way  to  Herent  they  were  used  as  a  screen.*  The 
village  of  Herent  was  burning,  and  they  had  to  run 
through  the  street  to  avoid  being  scorched  by  the 
flames.f  "Carbonised  corpses  were  lying  in  front  of 
the  houses." — "At  Herent"  states  the  South  American 
priest,J  "I  saw  lying  in  the  nook  of  a  wall  the  corpse 
of  a  girl  twelve  or  thirteen  years  old,  who  had  been 
burnt  alive."  On  the  road  from  Herent  to  Bueken 
"everything  was  devastated."  Beyond  Bueken  and 
Campenhout  they  were  made  to  halt  in  a  field,  and 
were  told  that  they  were  going  to  be  executed.  Squads 
of  soldiers  advanced  on  them  from  the  front  and  rear, 
and  they  were  kept  many  minutes  in  suspense.  Then 
they  were  marched  on  again  towards  Campenhout^  sur- 
rounded by  a  company  which,  they  were  given  to  un- 
derstand, was  the  "execution  company."  Crowds  of 
German  troops,  bivouacked  by  the  roadside,  shouted 
at  them  and  spat  on  them  as  they  passed.  They 
reached  Campenhout  at  dusk,  and  were  locked  up  for 
the  night  in  the  church  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  vil- 
lage. At  4.30  a.m.  they  were  warned  to  confess,  as 
their  execution  was  imminent.  At  5.0  a.m.  they  were 
released  from  the  church,  and  told  they  were  free.  But 
at  Bueken  they  were  arrested  again  with  a  large  num- 
ber of  country  people,  and  were  marched  back  towards 
■  ^ 

*Ri,  7,  26. 
tRr,  8. 
:i:R26. 


LOUVAIN 

Campenhout.  One  of  these  countrywomen  bore  a  baby 
on  the  road.*  From  the  outskirts  of  Campenhout  they 
were  suddenly  ordered  to  make  their  own  way  as  best 
they  could  to  the  Belgian  lines.  They  arrived  at 
Malines  about  1 1.30  in  the  morning  (of  August  27th), 
about  200  strong.  Within  four  hours  of  their  arrival 
the  German  bombardmentf  of  Malines  began,  and  they 
had  to  march  on  again  to  Antwerp. 

A  second  batch^  was  driven  out  along  the  Brussels 
Road  on  August  26th  between  1.0  and  2.0  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon.  As  they  marched  through  Louvain  by 
the  Rue  de  Bruxelles,  the  guard  fired  into  the  win- 
dows of  the  houses  and  shot  down  one  of  the  prisoners, 
who  was  panic-stricken  and  tried  to  escape.  §  At 
Herent  they  were  yoked  to  heavy  carts  and  made  to 
drag  them  along  by-roads  for  three  hours,§  and  an- 
other civilian  was  shot  on  the  way.§  At  10.0  p.m. 
they  were  made  to  lie  down  in  an  open  field  with  their 
feet  tied  together,  and  lay  thus  in  pouring  rain  till  6.0 
o'clock  next  morning.  Then  they  .were  marched 
through  Bueken,  ThUdonck,  Wespelaer — still  in  pour- 
ing rain — with  their  hands  bound  by  a  single  long 
cord.  They  reached  Catnpenhout  at  noon,  and  were 
set  to  digging  trenches.  At  7.0  p.m.  they  were  allowed 
to  sit  down  and  rest,  but  only  just  behind  the  batteries 

*R7. 
tR8. 

q:xxi  p,  117;  ei8,  21;  R23;  "Germans"  pp.  59-61, 
§  ezi. 

132 


THE  PRISONERS—SECOND  BATCH 

bombarding  the  Antwerp  forts,*  which  might  have 
opened  retahation  fire  on  them  at  any  moment.  That 
night  they  passed  in  Campenhout  church,  and  at  9.0 
o'clock  next  morning  (August  28th)  they  were  marched 
back  again  to  Louvain,  about  1,000  in  all — women  and 
children  as  well  as  men.  "The  houses  along  the  road 
were  burning.  The  principal  streets  of  Louvain  itself 
were  burnt  out."*  That  night  at  Louvain  they  were 
crowded  into  the  Cavalry  Riding  School  in  the  Rue  du 
Manege.  Six  or  seven  thousand  people  were  impris- 
oned there  in  all.f  The  press  was  terrible,  and  the 
heat  from  the  burning  buildings  round  was  so  great 
that  the  glass  of  the  roof  cracked  during  the  night.f 
Two  women  went  out  of  their  minds  and  two  babies 
died.^  Next  morning  a  German  officer  read  them  a 
proclamation  to  the  effect  that  their  liberty  was  given 
them  because  Germany  had  already  won  the  war,§  and 
they  were  marched  out  again  through  the  streets.  They 
passed  corpses  left  unburied  since  the  night  of  August 
25th. §  "The  German  soldiers  giggled  at  the  sight."  || 
Once  more  they  were  driven  round  the  countryside.  At 
Herent  the  women  and  children,  and  the  men  over 
forty,  were  set  free.  At  Campenhout  the  cure  was 
added  to  the  company,  after  being  dragged  round  his 

*  621. 

tei8. 

tR22;  cp.  ei8,  21;  "Germans"  p.  60. 

§R22;  ei8. 

II  xxi  p.  117. 


LOUVAIN 

parish  at  the  tail  of  a  cart.*  At  Boortmeerheek  the 
men  between  twenty  and  forty  were  also  released  at 
last,  and  told  to  go  forward  to  the  Belgian  lines,  under 
threat  of  being  shot  if  they  turned  back.  They  ar- 
rived in  front  of  Fort  Waelhem  in  the  dark,  at  1 1  .o 
p.m.  on  the  29th,  and  were  fired  on  by  the  Belgian 
outposts ;  but  they  managed  to  make  themselves  known 
and  came  through  to  safety. 

The  third  batch  "conveyed  elsewhere"  from  Lou- 
vain  on  August  26th  consisted  of  the  Garde  Civique.f 
All  members  of  this  body  v/ere  summoned  by  proclama- 
tion to  present  themselves  at  the  Hotel-de-Ville  at  2.0 
p.m.^  The  95  men  who  reported  themselves  were 
informed  that  they  were  prisoners,  taken  to  the  Station^ 
and  entrained  in  two  goods-vans.  There  were  250 
other  deportees  on  the  train,  including  the  Gardes 
Civiques  of  Beygkem  and  Grimberghen,  and  about  a 
hundred  women  and  children.  They  did  not  reach  the 
internment  camp  at  Miinster  till  the  night  of  the  28th, 
and  on  the  journey  they  were  almost  starved.  At 
Cologne  Station  a  German  Red  Cross  worker  refused 
one  of  the  women,  who  asked  her  in  German  for  a  little 
milk  to  feed  her  sick  baby  fourteen  months  old.§  In 
the  camp  at  Miinster  all  the  men  were  crowded  pro- 

*  cp.  p.  76  above. 
tR23. 

^  Chambry  p.  33;   Grondijs  p.  47. 

§  A  German  soldier  was  so  much  shocked  at  this  that  he  fetched 
the  milk  himself. 


THE  PRISONERS— FOURTH  BATCH 

miscuously  into  a  single  wooden  shed.  The  floor  was 
strewn  with  straw  (already  old),  which  was  never 
changed.  The  blankets  (also  old,  and  too  thin  to  keep 
out  the  cold)  were  never  disinfected  or  washed.  There 
was  no  lighting  or  heating.  The  food  was  insufficient 
and  disgusting.  The  sanitary  arrangements  were  in- 
decent. And  the  deportees  had  to  live  under  these 
conditions  for  months,  in  the  clothes  they  stood  in, 
though  many  had  come  in  slippers  and  shirt-sleeves — 
the  proclamation  having  taken  them  completely  by 
surprise.  In  neighbouring  huts  there  were  the  400 
Russian  students  from  Liege,  600  or  700  people  from 
Vise,  the  Gardes  Civiques  of  Hasselt  and  Tongres, 
people  from  Hac court  and  from  several  communes  in 
the  Province  of  Limburg — about  1,700  prisoners  in 
all.  On  October  4th  an  article  in  the  Berliner  Tage- 
hlatt,  signed  by  a  German  general,  admitted  that 
''only  two  of  the  prisoners  at  Milnster  were  under  sus- 
picion of  having  fired" ;  but  none  of  the  prisoners  from 
Louvain  were  released  till  October  30th,  and  then  only 
cripples  and  men  over  seventy  years  of  age.  The  rest 
were  retained,  including  a  man  with  a  wooden  leg.  .  .  . 

The  fourth  batch  of  prisoners  on  August  26th  started 
about  3.0  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  also  by  way  of  the 
Boulevard  de  Diest  and  the  Malines  Road:^  This 
group  seems  to  have  been  treated  even  more  brutally 
than  the  rest.     One  man  was  so  violently  mishandled 

*  e3=:Ris;  R17. 


LOUVAIN 

that  he  fainted,  and  was  carried  in  a  waggon  the  first 
part  of  the  way.  He  came  to  himself  in  time  to  see 
his  own  house  burning  and  his  wife  waving  him  fare- 
well. He  was  then  thrown  out  of  the  waggon  and 
made  to  go  on  foot.  His  bonds  cut  so  deeply  into  his 
flesh  that  his  arms  lost  all  sensation  for  three  days. 
The  party  was  marched  aimlessly  about  between 
Herent^  Louvain^  Bueken,  and  Herent  again  till  ii.o 
at  night,  when  they  had  to  camp  in  the  open  in  the 
rain.  They  were  refused  water  to  drink.  At  3.0  a.m. 
on  August  27th  they  were  driven  on  again,  and 
marched  till  3.0  p.m.,  when  they  arrived  at  Rotselaer. 
At  Rotselaer  they  were  shut  up  in  the  church — a  com- 
pany of  3,000  men  and  women,  including  all  the  in- 
habitants of  the  village.  This  respite  only  lasted  an 
hour,  and  at  4.0  o'clock  they  started  once  more  along 
the  Louvain  Road.  They  were  destined  for  a  still 
worse  torment,  which  will  shortly  be  described. 

These  preliminary  expulsions  on  the  26th  were  fol- 
lowed up  by  more  comprehensive  measures  on  the 
morning  of  the  27th.  Between  8.0  and  9.0  a.m.  Ger- 
man soldiers  went  round  the  streets  proclaiming  from 
door  to  door:  "Louvain  is  to  be  bombarded  at  noon; 
everyone  is  to  leave  the  town  immediately."*  The 
people  had  no  time  to  set  their  affairs  in  order  or  to 
prepare  for  the  journey.     They  started  out  just  as 

*  "Germans"  pp.   52-4,   71 ;    Chambry  pp.  40-1,   73 ;    "Horrors"  pp. 
40-1;  Grondijs  p.  52;  "Eye-witness"  p.  5;  e2;  Rii;  D31. 

136 


THE  EXPULSION  ON  AUGUST  27TH 

they  were,  fearing  that  the  bombardment  would  over- 
take them  before  they  could  escape  from  the  town. 
The  exodus  was  complete.  About  40,000  people  alto- 
gether were  in  flight,'''  and  the  majority  of  them 
streamed  towards  the  Station  Square^  where  they  had 
been  ordered  to  assemble,  and  then  out  by  the  Boule- 
vard de  Tirlemont,  along  the  Tirlemont  Road. 

The  Dominicans  from  the  Monastery  in  the  Rue 
Juste-Lipse  were  expelled  with  the  rest.  "At  the  mo- 
ment when  they  were  leaving  the  Monastery  an  old 
man  was  brought  in  seriously  wounded  in  the  stomach ; 
it  was  evident  that  he  had  but  a  few  hours  to  live.  A 
German  officer  proposed  to  'finish  him  off,'  but  was 
deterred  by  the  Prior.  One  of  the  monks  attempted  to 
pick  up  a  paralysed  person  who  had  fallen  in  the  street ; 
the  soldiers  prevented  him,  striking  him  with  the  butt- 
ends  of  their  muskets.  The  weeping,  terrified  popula- 
tion was  hurrying  towards  the  Railway  Station.  .  .  ."f 
At  the  Station  the  Dominicans  were  stopped  and  sent 
to  Germany  by  train ;  the  rest  of  the  crowd  was  driven 
on.  There  were  from  8,000  to  10,000  people  in  this 
first  column.J  "Nothing  but  heads  was  to  be  seen — 
a  sea  of  heads.  .  .  .  The  wind  was  blowing  violently, 
and  a  remorseless  rain  scourged  us.  .  .  .  The  crowd 
was  pressing  upon  us,  suffocating  us,  and  sometimes 

*  "Germans"  p.  54. 
t  xxi  p.  116. 
4:Rii. 


LOUVAIN 

literally  lifting  us  along  like  a  wave,  our  feet  not  touch- 
ing the  ground.  We  progressed  with  difficulty,  and 
had  to  stop  every  ten  metres.  Sometimes  a  German 
asked  us  if  we  had  any  arms.  .  .  ."*  When  they 
arrived  at  Tirlejnont  they  were  kept  outside  the  town 
till  nightfall. f  The  inhabitants  did  their  best  for 
them,  but  Tirle?nont,  too,  had  been  ravaged  by  the 
invasion.  The  number  of  the  refugees  was  overwhelm- 
ing, and  there  was  a  dearth  of  supplies.  "My  mother 
and  I,"  states  a  Professor  of  Louvain  University,^ 
"had  to  walk  about  20  miles  on  the  27th  and  the  fol- 
lowing day  before  we  could  find  a  peasant  cart.  We 
had  to  carry  the  few  belongings  we  were  able  to  take 
away,  and  to  walk  in  the  heavy  rain.  We  could  find 
nothing  to  eat,  but  other  people  were  yet  more  unfortu- 
nate than  we.  I  saw  ladies  walking  in  the  same  plight, 
without  hats  and  almost  in  their  night-dresses.  Sick 
persons,  too,  dragged  themselves  along  or  were  carried 
in  wheel-barrows.  Thousands  of  people  were  obliged 
to  sleep  in  Tirlemont  on  the  church  pavements.  We 
found  a  little  room  to  sleep  in.    .    .    ." 

Ecclesiastics  were  singled  out  for  special  maltreat- 
ment. This  professor,  and  twelve  other  priests  or 
monks  with  him,  was  stopped  by  German  troops  en- 
camped at  Lovenjoul.    They  were  informed  that  they 

*  Chambry  pp.  53-4. 
fRii. 


AUGUST  27TH—0N  THE  TERVUEREN  ROAD 

were  going  to  be  shot  for  "having  incited  the  popula- 
tion."— "A  soldier,"  states  the  professor,  "called  me 
'Black  Devil'  and  pushed  me  roughly  into  a  dirty  little 
stable." — "I  was  thrust  into  a  pig-stye,"  states  one  of 
his  fellow-victims,*  "from  which  a  pig  had  just  been 
removed  before  my  eyes.  .  .  .  There  I  was  compelled 
to  undress  completely.  German  soldiers  searched  my 
clothes  and  took  all  I  had.  Thereupon  the  other  ec- 
clesiastics were  brought  to  the  stye ;  two  of  them  were 
stripped  like  me;  all  were  searched  and  robbed  of  all 
they  had.  The  soldiers  kept  everything  of  value — 
watches,  money  and  so  on — and  only  returned  us 
trifles.  Our  breviaries  were  thrown  into  the  manure. 
Some  of  the  ecclesiastics  were  robbed  of  large  sums — 
one  had  6,000  francs  on  him,  another  more  than  4,000. 
All  were  brutally  handled  and  received  blows."  They 
were  saved  from  death  by  the  professor's  mother,  who 
appealed  to  a  German  officer  with  more  sense  of  justice 
than  his  colleagues,  and  they  were  thankful  to  rejoin 
the  other  refugees. 

A  second  stream  of  refugees  was  pouring  out  of 
Louvain  by  the  Tervueren  Road,'\  towards  the  south- 
west. "On  the  road,"  states  a  professor,^  "we  had  to 
raise  our  arms  each  time  we  met  soldiers.     An  officer 

*Rl3, 

t  "Eye-witness"  pp.  5-9;  "Germans"  p.  58;  Grondijs  pp.  61-71 
(=Ri4)  ;  Chambry  p,  73;  R4,  13,  21  (=xxi  pp.  117-9;  "Eye-witness" 
pp.  8-9). 

:i:Ri3. 


LOUVAIN 

in  a  motor-car  levelled  his  revolver  at  us.  He  threat- 
ened fiercely  a  young  man  walking  by  himself  who 
only  raised  one  arm — he  was  carrying  a  portmanteau 
in  the  other  hand,  which  he  had  to  put  down  in  a  hurry. 
At  Tervueren  we  were  searched  several  times  over,  and 
then  took  the  electric  tram  for  Brussels.    .    .    ." 

But  here  the  ecclesiastics  were  singled  out  once  more. 
One  was  searched  so  roughly  that  his  cassock  was  torn 
from  top  to  bottom.*  Another  was  charged  with 
carrying  "cartridges,"  which  turned  out  to  be  a  packet 
of  chocolates.f  One  soldier  tried  to  slip  a  cartridge 
into  a  Jesuit's  pocket,  but  the  trick  was  fortunately 
seen  by  another  monk  standing  by.J  Insults  were 
hurled  at  them — "Swine";  "Beastly  Papists";  "You 
incite  the  people  to  fire  on  us";  "You  will  be  castrated, 
you  swine  I"  Then  they  were  driven  into  a  field,  and 
surrounded  by  a  guard  with  loaded  rifles.  About  140 
ecclesiastics  were  collected  altogether,  §  including  Mgr. 
Ladeuze,  the  Rector  of  Louvain  University;  Canon 
Cauchie,  the  Professor  of  History;  Mgr.  Becker,  the 
Principal  of  the  American  Seminary;  and  Mgr.  Wil- 
lemsen,  formerly  President  of  the  American  College. 
After  they  had  waited  an  hour,  26  of  them  were  taken 
and  lined  up  against  a  fence.  Expecting  to  be  shot, 
they  gave  one  another  absolution,  but  after  waiting 

*R22. 

t  "Eye-witness"  p.   5. 

:;R2i. 

§  "Eye-witness"  p.  6. 

140 


THE  EXECUTION  OF  FATHER  DUFIERREUX 

seven  or  eight  minutes  they  were  marched  out  of  the 
field  and  lined  up  once  more  with  their  backs  to  a  wood. 
As  they  marched,  a  soldier  muttered  that  "one  of  them 
was  going  to  be  shot."     The  two  Americans  showed 
their  passports  to  an  officer,  but  were  violently  rebuffed. 
Then  Father  Dupierreux,  a  Jesuit  student  23  years 
old,  was  led  before  them  under  guard,  and  one  of  their 
number  was  called  forward  to  translate  aloud  into  Ger- 
man a  paper  that  had  been  found  on  Father  Dupier- 
reux's  person.    The  paper  (it  was  a  manuscript  mem- 
orandum of  half-a-dozen  lines)  compared  the  conduct 
of  the  Germans  at  Louvain  to  the  conduct  of  Genseric 
and  of  the  Saracens,  and  the  burning  of  the  Library  to 
the  burning  of  the  Library  at  Alexandria.    The  officer 
cut  the  recitation  short.     Father  Dupierreux  received 
absolution,  and  was  then  ordered  to  advance  towards 
the  wood.    Four  soldiers  were  lined  up  in  front  of  him, 
and  the  26  prisoners  were  ordered  to  face  about,  in 
order  to  witness  the  execution.     Among  their  number 
was  Father  Robert  Dupierreux,  the  twin  brother  of 
the  condemned.*    "Father  Dupierreux,"  states  Father 
Schill,t  the  Jesuit  who  had  been  forced  to  translate 
the  document,  "had  listened  to  the  reading  with  com- 
plete calm.     ...     He  kept  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
crucifix.     .     .     .     The  command  rang  out:     'Aim! 
Fire!'     We  only  heard  one  report.     The  Father  fell 


*R3i;  "Eye-witness"  p.  7- 
fRsi. 

141 


LOUVAIN 

on  his  back;  a  last  shudder  ran  through  his  limbs.  Then 
the  spectators  were  ordered  to  turn  about  again,  while 
the  officer  bent  over  the  body  and  discharged  his  pistol 
into  the  ear.     The  bullet  came  out  through  the  eye." 

The  others  were  then  placed  in  carts,  and  har- 
angued:* "When  we  pass  through  a  village,  if  a 
single  shot  is  iired  from  any  house,  the  whole  village 
will  be  burnt.  You  will  be  shot  and  the  inhabitants 
likewise."  They  were  paraded  in  these  carts  through 
the  streets  of  Brussels  and  liberated,  at  7.0  o'clock  in 
the  evening,  at  eight  kilometres'  distance  beyond  the 
city. 

Meanwhile,  the  proclamation  of  the  morning  had 
had  its  effect.  Louvain  was  cleared  of  its  inhabitants, 
but  the  bombardment  did  not  follow.  Between  1 1 .0 
and  12.0  o'clock  a  few  cannon  shots  were  heard  in  the 
distance,  but  that  was  all.f  "At  Rolselaer"  states  an 
inhabitant  of  Louvain  who  was  in  the  party  conveyed 
there  on  the  27th,J  "I  understood  from  the  prisoners 
in  the  church  that  all  the  people  of  Rotselaer  were 
made  to  leave  their  houses  on  the  pretext  that  they 
were  in  danger  of  bombardment,  and  the  Germans 
stated  that  they  were  being  placed  in  the  church  for 
security.  While  all  these  people  v/ere  in  the  church 
the  Germans  robbed  the  houses  and  then  burned  the 

*R2I. 

t  "Germans"  p.  72 ;  "Horrors"  p.  42 ;  cp.  Charabry  p.  56. 

142 


PILLAGE 

village."  At  Louvain  the  German  strategy  was  the 
same.  The  bombardment  was  only  a  pretext  for  the 
wholesale  expulsion  of  the  inhabitants,  which  was  fol- 
lowed by  systematic  pillage  and  incendiarism  as  soon 
as  the  ground  was  clear.  The  conflagration  of  two 
nights  before,  which  had  never  burnt  itself  out,  was 
extended  deliberately  and  revived  where  it  was  dying 
out;  the  plundering,  which  had  been  desultory  since 
the  Germans  first  occupied  the  town,  was  now  con- 
ducted under  the  supervision  of  officers  from  house  to 
house.* 

On  the  morning  of  August  27th,  even  before  the 
exodus  began,  a  Dutch  witnessf  waiting  at  the  Hotel- 
de-Ville  saw  "soldiers  streaming  in  from  all  sides,  laden 
with  huge  packages  of  stolen  property — clothes,  boxes 
of  cigars,  bottles  of  wine,  etc.  Many  of  these  men 
were  drunk." — "I  saw  the  German  soldiers  taking  the 
wine  away  from  my  house  and  from  neighbours' 
houses,"  states  a  Belgian  witness.^  "They  got  into 
the  cellar  with  a  ladder,  and  brought  out  the  wine 
and  placed  it  on  their  waggons." — "The  streets  were 
full  of  empty  wine  bottles,"  states  another.§  "My 
factory  has  been  completely  plundered,"  states  a  cigar- 
manufacturer.  ||      "Seven   million   cigars   have   disap- 

«  R24. 

t"Grondijs"  p.  51. 

§e8. 
II  Rio. 


LOUVAIN 

peared."  The  factory  itself  was  set  on  fire  on  the 
26th,  and  was  only  saved  by  the  Germans  for  fear  the 
flames  might  spread  to  the  prison.  They  saved  it  by 
an  extinguishing  apparatus  which  was  as  instantaneous 
in  its  effect  as  the  apparatus  they  used  for  setting  houses 
alight.  "The  soldiers,  led  by  a  non-commissioned 
officer,  went  from  house  to  house  and  broke  in  the  shop 
fronts  and  house  doors  with  their  rifle  butts.  A  cart 
or  waggon  waited  for  them  in  the  street  to  carry  away 
the  loot."*  Carts  were  also  employed  in  the  suburb 
of  Blauwput,  on  the  other  side  of  the  railway.  "I  saw 
German  soldiers  break  into  the  houses,"  states  a  wit- 
ness from  Blauwput.^  "One  party  consisting  of  six 
soldiers  had  a  little  cart  with  them.  I  saw  these  break 
into  a  store  where  there  were  many  bottles  of  cham- 
pagne and  a  stock  of  cigars,  etc.  They  drank  a  good 
deal  of  wine,  smoked  cigars,  and  carried  off  a  supply 
in  the  cart.  I  saw  many  Germans  engaged  in  looting." 
This  employment  of  carts  became  an  anxiety  to  the 
Higher  Command.  A  type-written  order,  addressed 
to  the  Officers  of  the  53rd  Landwehr  Infantry,  lays 
down  that  "For  the  future  it  is  forbidden  to  use  army 
carts  for  the  transport  of  things  which  have  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  service  of  the  Army.  At  some 
period  these  carts,  which  travel  empty  with  our  Army, 
will  be  required  for  the  transport  of  war  material. 

*R24. 
te26. 


ARSON 

They  are  now  actually  loaded  with  all  sorts  of  things, 
none  of  which  have  anything  to  do  with  military 
supplies  or  equipment."* 

This  systematic  pillage  went  on  day  after  day. 
"The  Station  Square,"  states  a  refugee  from  Louvainf 
who  traversed  the  city  again  on  August  29th,  "was 
transformed  into  a  vast  goods-depot,  where  bottles  of 
wine  were  the  most  prominent  feature.  Officers  and 
men  were  eating  and  drinking  in  the  middle  of  the 
ruins,  without  appearing  to  be  in  the  least  incommoded 
by  the  appalling  stench  of  the  corpses  which  still  lay 
in  the  Boulevard.  Along  the  Boulevard  de  Diest  I 
saw  Landsturm  soldiers  taking  from  the  houses  any- 
thing that  suited  their  fancy,  and  then  setting  the 
house  alight,  and  this  under  their  officers'  eyes."  On 
September  2nd  there  was  a  fresh  outbreak  of  plunder 
and  arson  in  the  Rue  Leopold  and  the  Rue  Marie- 
Therese-X  As  late  as  September  5th — ten  days  after 
the  original  catastrophe — the  Germans  were  pillaging 
houses  in  the  Rue  de  la  Station  and  loading  the  loot 
on  carts.  §  Householders  who  returned  when  all  was 
over  found  the  destruction  complete.  "I  found  my 
parents'  house  sacked,"  states  one.||  "A  great  deal  of 
the  furniture  was  smashed,  the  contents  of  cupboards 

*  Chambry  p.  86 ;  v.  p.  29. 

tRii. 

%  "Germans"  pp.  73,  89. 

§Rio. 

llRiS- 

145 


LOUVAIN 

and  drawers  were  scattered  about  the  rooms.  .  .  . 
In  my  sister's  house  the  looking-glasses  on  the  ground 
floor  were  broken.  On  the  bedding  of  the  glass  the 
imprint  of  the  rifle-butts  was  clearly  visible." — "In- 
side our  house,"  states  another,*  "everything  is  upside 
down.  .  .  .  The  floors  are  strewn  with  flowers  and 
with  silver  plate  not  belonging  to  our  house,  the  writ- 
ing room  is  filled  with  buckets  and  basins,  in  which 
they  had  cooled  the  bottles  of  champagne.  .  .  . 
There  was  straw  everywhere — in  short,  the  place  was 
like  a  barn.  To  crown  everything,  my  father  was  not 
allowed  to  sleep  in  his  own  house.  .  .  .  When  the 
Germans  at  last  quitted  our  residence,  it  was  necessary 
to  cleanse  and  disinfect  everything.  The  lowest  stable 
was  cleaner  than  our  bedrooms,  where  scraps  from  the 
gourmandising  and  pieces  of  meat  lay  rotting  in  every 
corner  amid  half-smoked  cigars,  candle  ends,  broken 
plates,  and  hay  brought  from  I  don't  know  where." 

But  these  two  houses  were,  at  any  rate,  not  burnt 
down,  and  more  frequently,  when  they  had  finished 
with  a  house,  the  Germans  set  it  on  fire.  They  had 
begun  on  the  night  of  August  25th;  on  August  26th 
they  were  proceeding  systematically, f  and  the  work 
continued  on  the  27th  and  the  following  days.  All 
varieties  of  incendiary  apparatus  were  employed — a 

*  Chambry  pp.  74-7.  ^ 

tRi9. 

146 


GERMANS  AS  FRANCTIREURS 

white  powder,*  an  inflammable  stick,f  a  projectile 
fired  from  a  rifle. i:  They  introduced  these  into  the 
house  to  be  burnt  by  staving  in  a  panel  of  the  front 
door  §  or  breaking  a  window,  ||  and  the  conflagration 
was  immediate  when  once  the  apparatus  was  inside. 
This  scientific  incendiarism  was  the  regular  sequel  to 
the  organised  pillage.  The  firing  by  German  soldiers 
also  went  on.  "On  August  27th,"  states  one  German 
witness,^  "I  was  fired  at  from  a  garden  from  behind 
the  hedge,  without  being  hit.  It  was  in  the  afternoon ; 
I  could  not  see  the  person  who  had  shot."  The  identi- 
fication can  be  inferred  from  the  experience  of  the 
Rector  of  Louvain  University,  Mgr.  Ladeuze,  on  the 
night  of  August  25'th,  when  he  detected  two  German 
soldiers  firing  over  the  garden  wall  of  the  Chemical 
Institute  into  the  Rue  de  Namur."^^^  Another  German 
witness,  a  military  surgeon  in  the  Neuss  LandstunTi,tf 
who  arrived  at  Louvain  in  the  afternoon  of  August 
27th,  testifies  that  "in  the  course  of  the  afternoon  I 
heard  the  noise  of  firing  in  the  Rue  de  la  Station.  .  .  . 
I  had  the  impression  that  we  were  being  shot  at  from 
a  house  there,  in  spite  of  my  conspicuous  armlet  with 

*  ei6. 
tRi9. 

§  Chambry  p.   53. 

II  Ri9- 

ID19. 

**  "Germans"  p.  107 ;  Grondijs  p.  58 ;  cp.  p.  105  above. 
tt  D21. 


LOUVAIN 

the  Red  Cross.  We  approached  the  house.  A  German 
soldier  of  another  battalion  leapt  out  from  the  first 
floor,  and  in  so  doing  broke  the  upper  part  of  his  thigh. 
He  told  me  that  he  had  just  been  pursued  and  shot  at 
by  six  civilians  in  the  house,"  The  surgeon,  a  young 
man  of  twenty-five,  a  new-comer  to  Louvain,  and  un- 
used to  the  notion  of  German  soldiers  firing  on  one 
another,  repeats  this  story  without  seeing  that  it  fails 
to  explain  the  shots  fired  from  the  house  and  directed 
against  himself,  and  he  takes  the  presence  of  the  "six 
civilians"  on  faith.  Was  the  soldier  who  escaped 
punishment  by  this  lie  firing  into  the  street  from  panic  *? 
This  may  have  been  so,  for  the  German  troops  were  in 
a  state  of  nervous  degeneration,  but  there  is  another 
possible  explanation.  Two  days  later,  on  August  29th, 
when  Mr.  Gibson,  Secretary  of  the  American  Legation 
at  Brussels,  visited  Louvain  to  enquire  into  the  catas- 
trophe, his  motor-car  was  fired  at  in  the  Rue  de  la 
Station  from  a  house,  and  five  or  six  armed  men  in 
civilian  costume  were  dragged  out  of  it  by  his  escort 
and  marched  off  for  execution.  But  they  were  not 
executed,  for  they  were  German  soldiers  disguised  to 
give  Mr.  Gibson  an  ocular  demonstration  that  "the 
civilians  had  fired."  The  German  Higher  Command 
had  already  adopted  this  as  their  official  thesis,  and 
they  were  determined  to  impose  it  on  the  world.* 

*R27     (Deposition    of    Mgr.    Deploige,    President    of    the    Institut 
Superietir  de  Phtlosophie  and  Director  of  the  Hopital  St.-Thomas)  ; 

148 


THE  DEPORTATION  TO  COLOGNE 

After  the  exodus  on  the  morning  of  the  27th,  Lou- 
vain  la)'"  empty  of  inhabitants  all  day,  while  the  burn- 
ing and  plundering  went  on.  But  at  dusk  a  procession 
of  civilians,  driven  by  soldiers,  streamed  in  from  the 
north.  They  were  the  fourth  batch  of  prisoners  who 
had  been  marched  out  of  Louvain  on  the  previous  day. 
They  had  spent  the  night  in  the  open,  and  had  been 
locked  up  that  afternoon  in  Rotselaer  church.  But 
after  only  an  hour's  respite  they  had  been  driven  forth 
again,  and  the  whole  population  of  Rotselaer  with 
them,  along  the  road  leading  back  to  the  city. 

"On  the  way,"  states  one  of  the  victims,*  "we  rested 
a  moment.  The  cure  of  Rotselaer,  a  man  86  years  of 
age,  spoke  to  the  officer  in  command :  'Herr  Offizier, 
what  you  are  doing  now  is  a  cowardly  act.  My  people 
did  no  harm,  and,  if  you  want  a  victim,  kill  me.  .  .  .' 
The  German  soldiers  then  seized  the  cure  by  the  neck 
and  took  him  away.  Some  Germans  picked  up  mud 
from  the  ground  and  threw  it  in  his  face.  ..." 

"We  entered  Louvain,"  states  the  cure  himself,f 
"by  the  Canal  and  the  Rue  du  Canal.  No  ruins.  We 
reached  the  Grand'  Place — what  a  spectacle!  The 
Church  of  Saint-Pierre!  Rest  in  front  of  the  Hotel- 
de-ViUe.  Fatigue  compelled  me  to  stretch  myself  on 
the  pavement,  while  the  houses  blazed  all  the  time. 

R29  (Report  by  Abbe  Van  den  Bergh,  accredited  by  His  Eminence 
Cardinal  Piffl,  Prince-Bishop  of  Vienna,  to  make  enquiries  on  behalf 
of  the  Vienna  Priester-Verein). 

*e3.  tRi6. 

149 


LOUVAIN 

"Other  prisoners  from  Louvain  and  the  neighbour- 
hood kept  arriving.  Soon  I  saw  fresh  prisoners  arrive 
from  Rotselaer — women,  children  and  old  men,  among 
others  a  blind  old  man  of  eighty  years,  and  the  wife 
of  the  doctor  at  Rotselaer,  dragged  from  her  sick-bed. 
(She  died  during  the  journey  to  Germany.)    .    .    ." 

"In  the  Grand'  Flace,""  states  the  former  witness,* 
"the  heat  from  the  burning  houses  was  so  great  that 
the  prisoners  huddled  together  to  get  away  from 
it.     .     .     ." 

"After  we  had  remained  standing  there  about  an 
hour,"  states  a  third,f  "we  had  to  proceed  towards  the 
Station  along  the  Rue  de  la  Station.  In  this  same 
road  we  saw  the  German  soldiers  plundering  the  houses. 
They  took  pleasure  in  letting  us  see  them  doing  it.  In 
the  city  and  at  Kessel-Loo  the  conflagration  redoubled 
in  intensity." 

"The  houses  were  all  burning  in  the  Rue  de  la 
Station,'''  states  the  first, ^  "and  there  were  even  flames 
in  the  street  which  we  had  to  jump  across.  We  were 
closely  guarded  by  German  soldiers,  who  threatened 
to  kill  us  if  we  looked  from  side  to  side." 

Yet  these  victims  in  their  misery  were  accused  of 
shooting  by  their  tormentors.  "On  August  27th," 
states  an  officer  concerned,  §  "the  Third  Battalion  of 
*  63. 

t  Ri7- 
§034. 


THE  CATTLE-TRUCKS 

the  Landwehr  Infantry  Regiment  No.  53  had  to  take 
with  it  on  its  march  from  Rotselaer  to  Louvain  a  con- 
voy of  about  1,000  civilian  prisoners.  .  .  .  Among 
the  prisoners  were  a  number  of  Belgian  priests,  one  of 
whom,'^  especially  caught  my  attention  because  at  every 
halt  he  went  from  one  to  another  of  the  prisoners  and 
addressed  words  to  them  in  an  excited  manner,  so  that 
I  had  to  keep  him  under  special  observation.  In  Lou- 
vain we  made  over  the  prisoners  at  the  Station.  .  .  . 
On  the  following  morning  it  was  reported  to  me  .  .  . 
that  the  above-mentioned  priest  had  shot  at  one  of  the 
men  of  the  guard,  but  had  failed  to  hit  him,  and  in 
consequence  had  himself  been  shot  in  the  Station 
Square." 

Such  were  the  rumours  that  passed  current  in  the 
German  Army ;  but  there  is  no  reference  in  this  officer's 
deposition  to  what  really  happened  at  the  Station  on 
the  night  of  the  27th-28th.  The  prisoners  arrived 
there  about  7.0  p.m.,  and  were  immediately  put  on 
board  a  train.  Their  numbers  had  risen  by  now  to 
between  2,000  and  3,ooo,t  and  the  overcrowding  was 
appalling.  The  cure  of  Rotselaer  was  placed  in  a  truck 
which  had  carried  troops  and  was  furnished  with 
benches;  but  even  this  truck  was  made  to  hold  50 


*  This  was  the  Priest  of  Herent,  the  Abbe  van  Bladel,  whose  body 
was  exhumed  at  Louvain  on  Jan.  14th,  191 5,  in  the  Station  Square 
(R30). 

tes,  7,  17;  R16. 


LOUVAIN 

people,*  while  the  majority  were  forced  into  cattle 
trucks — from  70  to  100  men,  women,  and  children  in 
each,f  which  had  never  been  cleaned,  and  were  knee- 
deep  in  dung4  They  stood  in  these  trucks  all  night, 
while  the  train  remained  standing  in  the  Statioti.  On 
August  28th,  about  6.0  in  the  morning,  they  started 
for  Cologne,  but  the  stoppages  and  shuntings  were 
interminable,  and  Cologne  was  not  reached  till  the 
afternoon  of  August  31st.  During  these  four  days — 
from  the  evening  of  August  27th  to  the  afternoon  of 
August  31st — the  prisoners  were  given  nothing  to  eat,§ 
and  were  not  allowed  to  get  out  of  the  train  to  relieve 
themselves  when  it  stopped.  ||  "We  had  nothing  to 
eat,"  states  one  of  them,1[  "not  even  the  child  one 
month  old." — "My  wife  was  suckling  her  child,"  states 
another,**  "but  her  milk  came  to  an  end.  My  wife  was 
crying  nearly  all  the  time.  The  baby  was  dreadfully 
ill,  and  nearly  died." — "We  had  been  without  food 
for  two  days  and  nights,  and  had  nothing  to  drink  till 
we  got  to  Cologne,  except  that  one  of  my  fellow- 
prisoners  had  a  bottle  of  water,  from  which  we  just 
wetted  our  lips."f  f — "I  asked  for  some  water  for  my 

*Ri6;  cp.  eio. 

te3,  7,  17;  "Germans"  p.  68   (Narrative  of  a  Bulgarian  student). 

$63,  7,  lo,  17;  "Germans"  p.  68. 

§e3,  5,  10;  R17. 

II  e3,  7.  17-  .         ' 

1fe3. 
**  65. 
tt  eio. 

152 


THE  DAYS  IN  THE  TRAIN 

child  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  it  was  refused.  It  was 
the  soldiers  that  I  asked,  and  they  spat  at  me  when 
they  refused  the  water.  The  soldiers  also  took  all  the 
money  that  I  had  upon  me."* — "We  had  not  been 
allowed  to  leave  the  train  to  obey  the  calls  of  nature, 
till  at  Cologne  we  went  on  our  knees  and  begged  the 
soldiers  to  allow  us  to  get  down."f 

The  brutality  of  the  soldiers  did  not  stop  short  of 
murder.  "At  Henne,"  where  the  train  stopped  at  3.30 
a.m.  on  August  29th,  "a  man  got  out  to  satisfy  nature. 
He  belonged  to  the  village  of  Wygmael.  He  was  go- 
ing towards  the  side  of  the  line  when  three  German 
soldiers  approached  him.  One  of  them  caught  hold  of 
him  and  threw  him  on  the  ground,  and  he  was  bay- 
onetted  by  one  or  other  of  them  in  his  left  side.  The 
man  cried  out;  then  the  German  soldier  withdrew  his 
bayonet  and  showed  his  comrades  how  far  it  had  gone 
in.  He  then  wiped  the  blood  off  his  bayonet  by  draw- 
ing it  through  his  hand.  .  .  .  After  the  soldier  had 
wiped  his  bayonet,  he  and  his  comrades  turned  the  man 
over  on  his  face.  ...  A  few  minutes  after  he  had 
wiped  his  bayonet,  he  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket  and 
took  out  some  bread,  which  he  ate.  .  .  ."J 

Between  Louvain  and  the  frontier  two  men  in  a 
passenger-carriage  "tried  to  escape  and  broke  the  win- 

*e5. 

tei7. 

:|:eio;  confirmed  by  eii. 


LOUVAIN 

dows.  The  German  sentinels  bayonetted  these  two 
men  and  killed  them."* 

Two  people  on  the  train  went  mad,f  and  two  com- 
mitted suicide.^  When  the  train  started  again  after 
its  halt  at  Liege,  a  man  from  Thildonck  was  run  over, 
and  it  was  supposed  that  he  had  thrown  himself  under 
the  wheels  to  put  himself  out  of  his  misery. §  When 
the  train  was  emptied  at  Cologne,  three  of  the  prisoners 
were  taken  out  dead.  || 

The  trucks  were  chalked  with  the  inscription: 
"Civilians  who  shot  at  the  soldiers  at  Louvain,"|f  and 
at  every  place  in  Germany  where  the  train  stopped  the 
prisoners  were  persecuted  by  the  crowd.**  "At  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,"  states  the  cure  of  Rotselaer,  "an  officer 
came  up  to  spit  on  me."ff  At  Aix,  too,  those  destined 
for  the  internment  camp  at  Munster  had  to  change 
trains  and  were  marched  through  the  streets.  "As  we 
went,"  states  one  of  them,^^  "the  German  women  and 
children  spat  at  us." — "We  arrived  at  Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle,""  states  another  witness.§§  "There  the  German 
people  shouted  at  us.  At  Diirren,  between  Aix-la- 
*  65. 

tes;  cp.  67;  R17. 

§eio,  II. 

II  ei6. 

1[ei6. 
**  eio. 
ttRi6. 

§§e3=Ri5. 


THE  CROWD  AT  COLOGNE 

Chapelle  and  Cologne,  4,000  German  people  crowded 
round.  I  turned  round  to  the  old  woman  with  eight 
children,  and  said:  'Do  these  people  think  we  are 
prisoners'?  Show  them  one  of  your  little  children,  at 
the  window.'  This  child  was  a  month  old,  and  naked. 
When  the  child  was  shown  at  the  window  a  hush  came 
over  the  crowd." 

"When  we  reached  Cologne  a  crowd  came  round  the 
trucks,  jeering  at  us,  and  as  we  marched  out  they 
prodded  us  with  their  umbrellas  and  pelted  us  and 
shouted:  'Shoot  them  dead!  Shoot  them  dead!'— 
and  drew  their  fingers  across  their  throats."* 

"At  Cologne,''  states  the  cure  of  Rotselaer,-\  "we 
had  to  leave  the  train  and  parade— men,  women  and 
children— through  the  streets  under  the  surveillance  of 
the  police."— "On  the  way,"  adds  another,i:  "the  chil- 
dren in  the  streets  threw  stones  at  us." 

They  were  herded  for  the  night  into  an  exhibition- 
ground  called  the  "Luna  Park,"  and  here  their  first 
food  was  served  out  to  them — for  every  ten  persons 
one  loaf  of  mouldy  bread.§  A  certain  number  found 
shelter  in  a  "joy-wheel";  the  rest  spent  the  night  in 
the  open,  in  the  rain.  The  guards  amused  themselves 
by  making  individuals  kneel  down  in  turn  and  threat- 


*  67 ;  cp.  eio. 

tRi6;  cp.   eio;  R17;  "Germans"  p.  68. 

§ei7;  R16. 


LOUVAIN 

ening  them  with  execution.*  Next  morning  they  were 
marched  back  to  the  station,  once  more  under  the  in- 
sults of  the  crowd,  and  started  to  retrace  their  journey, 
but  not  all  of  them  were  allowed  to  return.  A  batch 
of  300  men  were  kept  at  Cologne  for  a  week,  during 
which  time  60  of  their  number  were  shot  before  the 
eyes  of  the  rest,  while  the  survivors  were  paraded 
through  the  town  again  and  subjected  more  than  once 
to  a  sham  execution.f  OthersJ  were  sent  direct  from 
Azx-la-Chapelle  to  the  internment  camp  at  Miinster^ 
where  the  Garde  Civique  of  Louvain  had  been  sent 
before.  In  this  camp  the  men  were  separated  com- 
pletely from  the  women  and  children — one  of  them 
was  the  man§  whose  baby  had  nearly  died  on  the  way, 
and  for  six  weeks  he  was  kept  in  ignorance  of  what 
was  happening  to  the  baby  and  to  his  wife.  For  the 
first  six  weeks  they  were  given  no  water  to  wash  in, 
and  no  soap  during  the  whole  period  of  their  imprison- 
ment. They  were  not  allowed  to  smoke  or  read  or 
sing.  This  particular  prisoner  was  allowed  by  special 
grace  to  return  to  Louvain  with  his  family  on  Decem- 
ber 6th,  but  the  others  still  remained. 

Meanwhile,  the  main  body  of  the  prisoners  was 
being  transported  back  to  Belgium.  This  return  jour- 
ney was  almost  as  painful  as  the  journey  out;  they 

*Ri5. 
tei6. 
tes. 
§e5. 

156 


THE  RETURN  JOURNEY 

were  almost  as  badly  crowded  and  starved  ;'^  but  the 
delays  were  less,  and  they  reached  Brussels  on  Septem- 
ber 2nd.  While  they  were  halted  at  Brussels,  Burgo- 
master Max  managed  to  serve  out  to  each  of  them  a 
ration  of  white  bread.f  They  were  carried  on  to 
Schaerbeek,  detrained,  and  marched  in  column  to  Vil- 
vorde.  "I  was  in  the  last  file,"  states  one  of  them.J 
"We  were  made  to  run  quickly,  and  the  soldiers  struck 
us  on  the  back  with  their  rifles  and  on  the  arms  with 
their  bayonets." — "On  the  way  to  Vilvorde  one  man 
sprang  into  the  water,  a  canal — he  was  mad  by  then. 
The  German  soldiers  threw  empty  bottles  at  this  man 
in  the  water;  they  were  bottles  they  got  from  the  houses 
as  they  passed,  and  were  drinking  from  on  the  way."§ 
At  Vilvorde  they  were  informed  that  they  were  free.|| 
They  dragged  themselves  forward  towards  the  Belgian 
lines,  but  at  Sempst  another  party  of  Germans  took 
them  prisoner  again.  ||  "The  Germans  thrust  their 
bayonets  quite  close  to  our  chests,"  states  one  of  the 
prisoners  ;|[  "then  four  of  them  prepared  to  shoot  us, 
but  they  did  not  shoot.  One  of  the  prisoners  went 
mad;  I  was  made  to  hold  him,  and  he  hurt  me  very 
much."    Finally  the  officer  commanding  the  picket  let 


*e3. 

fey,  lo,  17;  R16,  17. 
tei7;  cp.  es;  R15,  16,  17. 
§  67;  R16,  17. 

II  es,  17;  Ri5- 

irei7. 


LOUVAIN 

them  go  once  more.  They  asked  if  they  might  return 
to  Louvain.  "If  you  go  back  that  way  we  will  kill 
you,"  the  officer  said;  "you  have  to  go  that  way,"  and 
he  pointed  towards  Malmes.^  It  was  now  midnight, 
and  pouring  with  rain.  The  prisoners  stumbled  on 
again,  and  made  their  way,  in  scattered  parties,  to  the 
Belgian  outposts. f 

This  horrible  railway  journey  to  Cologne  was  the 
last  stroke  in  the  campaign  of  terrorisation  carried  out 
against  Louvain  after  the  night  of  August  25th  by  the 
deliberate  policy  of  the  German  Army  Command.  A 
refugee  who  had  returned  to  the  city  on  August  28th, 
and  had  been  kept  prisoner  during  the  night,  was  re- 
leased with  her  fellow  prisoners  on  the  29th.  "We 
will  not  hurt  you  any  more,"  said  the  officer  in  com- 
mand; "stay  in  Louvain.    All  is  finished."  J 

On  August  30th  the  staff  of  the  Hopital  St.-Thomas, 
who  had  defied  the  proclamation  of  the  27th  and  re- 
mained continuously  at  their  posts,  took  the  task  of 
reconstruction  in  hand.§  A  committee  of  notables  was 
formed,  and  overtures  were  made  to  Major  von  Man- 
teuffel,  the  German  Etappen-Kommandant  in  the 
town.  On  September  1st  a  proclamation,  signed  by 
the  provisional  municipal  government,  was  posted  up, 

*e3;  R15. 
tRi6. 

§  "Germans"  p.  84  seqq.;  R27. 

158 


THE  DIARY  OF  GASTON  KLEIN 

with  von  Manteuffel's  sanction,  in  the  streets.*  It 
communicated  a  promise  from  the  German  Military 
Authorities  that  pillage  and  arson  should  thenceforth 
cease,  and  it  invited  the  inhabitants  to  come  back  to 
Louvain  and  take  up  again  their  normal  life.  The 
most  pressing  task  was  to  clear  the  ruins,  and  to  find 
and  bury  the  dead.  In  Louvain  alone,  not  including 
the  suburban  communes,  1,120  houses  had  been  de- 
stroyed and  100  civilians  had  been  killed  during  this 
week  of  terror. 

"We  arrived  at  Louvain,"  writes  a  German  soldier 
in  his  diary  on  August  29th.t  "The  whole  place  was 
swarming  with  troops.  Landsturmers  of  the  Halle 
Battalion  came  along,  dragging  things  with  them — 
chiefly  bottles  of  wine — and  many  of  them  were  drunk. 
A  tour  round  the  town  with  ten  bicyclists  in  search  of 
billets  revealed  a  picture  of  devastation  as  bad  as  any 
imaginable.  Burning  and  falling  houses  bordered  the 
streets ;  only  a  house  here  and  there  remained  standing. 
Our  tour  led  us  over  broken  glass,  burning  wood-work 
and  rubble.  Tram  and  telephone  wires  trailed  in  the 
streets.  Such  barracks  as  were  still  standing  were  full 
up.  Back  to  the  Station,  where  nobody  knew  what  to 
do  next.  Detached  parties  were  to  enter  the  streets, 
but  actually  the  Battalion  marched  in  close  order  into 

*  "Germans"  p.  86;  R37. 

t  Ann.  8   (Extract  from  the  Diary  of  Gaston  Klein)  ;  cp,  Bryce  p. 
80,  No.  33. 

159 


LOUVAIN 

the  town,  to  break  into  the  first  houses  and  loot — no, 
of  course,  only  to  'requisition' — for  wine  and  other- 
things.  Like  a  wild  pack  they  broke  loose,  each  on 
their  own;  officers  set  a  good  example  by  going  on 
ahead.  A  night  in  a  barracks  with  many  drunk  was 
the  end  of  this  day,  which  aroused  in  me  a  contempt 
I  cannot  describe." 


160 


THE  TRACK  OF  THE  ARMIES:  FROM  THE  FRONTIER  TO  MALINES. 


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Treatment  Date:     ^^^  ^001 

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