German Atrocities. A Record of Shameless Deeds

Although this happened within six kilometres of Brussels, yet no atrocities were known to have been committed in the capital, the Kaiser’s unrestrained savages being there under the eyes of the representatives of the Powers.

A Dutch gentleman named Couzy, of Amsterdam, was staying at Mont, a village in the hills above Comblain au Pont, when war broke out. Having missed the last train which the Belgians ran to Dinant, he was obliged to return to Mont, where he witnessed the arrival of thousands of Uhlans and many batteries of German artillery. Mr. Couzy declared that the treatment of the Belgians by the enemy was merciless. He was witness of many horrible scenes. He was present when, after the discovery of the bodies of two German officers in a horse-dealer’s yard at Comblain au Pont, seventy villagers were brought before the commanding officer. Without question, the officer selected thirty, who were shot without any form of trial whatever. Several of these men were known to Mr. Couzy as honest and trustworthy citizens.

On another occasion a number of villagers were searched for weapons. A young Dutchman, also known to Mr. Couzy, had upon him a razor which he used daily. Immediately he was placed against a wall and shot.

A refugee arriving at Maastricht from Bassenge stated that ten thousand Germans came from the direction of Louvain, and began to burn everything that had been left standing and shoot everyone opposed to them. Two hundred of the villagers were driven out by the Germans and ordered to hold their hands above their heads. Anyone who dropped his hands for an instant was shot, and anyone who looked at or showed sympathy with the victims shared the same fate. They were marched for two hours, and during that time many shots whistled over their heads. The Germans then stopped and threatened that the first who looked back would be shot.

A Senator’s Story.

“M. Leon Hiard, senator of Hainaut, one of the largest manufacturers in Belgium, lived at Haine Saint Pierre, where before the battle of Mons the Germans requisitioned everything. He states that, revolver in hand, threatening death for unpunctuality or disobedience, the German officers spread terror into the hearts of the inhabitants. At Peronne the mayor, M. Gravis, had very imprudently caused all the arms of the inhabitants to be deposited at his house instead of the town-hall. He also carried a revolver, and some of his carts had been used to bar a road.” The Daily Express correspondent continues —

“He was taken before the German general at the town-hall with his secretary. The séance was short. ‘Vous fusillé,’ said the general, and the unfortunate man was led out blindfolded and shot. As the secretary was following him a more kindly officer said in his ear, ‘Mais filez-donc, imbécile,’ and pushed him on one side.

“The body of M. Gravis was propped up against a wall for forty-eight hours as an example to the town. Men were billeted in all the houses, and although in the better houses the officers behaved with some restraint, in the peasants’ cottages unbridled licence was the rule.

“Women were treated infamously, indescribable scenes of debauchery taking place, while all the possessions of the unfortunates were wilfully wasted and destroyed. The fiery-tempered people were being driven to reprisals, so that an excuse for further cruelty might be found.”

What General von Boehn said.

I take the following extract from a long dispatch in the Daily Chronicle, from Mr. E. Alexander Powell, the Special Correspondent of the New York World: —

“Three weeks ago the Government of Belgium requested me to place before the American people, through the medium of the New York World, a list of specific and authenticated atrocities committed by German armies upon Belgian non-combatants.

“To-day General von Boehn, commanding the Ninth Imperial Field Army, and acting as mouthpiece of the German General Staff, has asked me to place before the American people the German version of the incidents in question…

“General von Boehn began by asserting that the accounts of the atrocities perpetrated on Belgian non-combatants were a tissue of lies.

“ ‘Look at these officers about you,’ he said; ‘they are gentlemen like yourselves. Look at the soldiers marching past in the road out there. They are most of them the fathers of families. Surely you do not believe that they would do the things they have been accused of.’

“ ‘Three days ago, General,’ I said, ‘I was in Aerschot. The whole town is now but a ghastly, blackened, bloodstained ruin!’

“ ‘When we entered Aerschot,’ he replied, ‘the son of the Burgomaster came into the room, drew a revolver, and assassinated my Chief of Staff. What followed was only retribution. The townspeople only got what they deserved!’

“ ‘But why wreak your vengeance on women and children?’

“ ‘None have been killed,’ the General asserted positively.

“ ‘I’m sorry to contradict you, General,’ I asserted, with equal positiveness, ‘but I have myself seen their mutilated bodies. So has Mr. Gibson, Secretary of the American Legation at Brussels, who was present during the destruction of Louvain.’

“It is War!”

“ ‘Of course, there is always danger of women and children being killed during street fighting,’ said the General, ‘if they insist on coming into the street. It is unfortunate, but it is war.’

“ ‘But how about the woman whose body I saw with the hands and feet cut off? How about the white-haired man and his son whom I helped to bury outside of Sempst, and who had been killed merely because the retreating Belgians had shot a German soldier outside their house? There were 22 bayonet wounds in the old man’s face. I counted them. How about the little girl, two years old, shot while in her mother’s arms by a Uhlan, and whose funeral I attended at Heyst-op-den-Berg? How about the old man that was hung from the rafters of his house by the hands and roasted to death by a bonfire being built under him?’

“The General seemed somewhat taken aback by the amount and exactness of my data. ‘Such things are horrible if they are true,’ he said. ‘Of course, our soldiers, like soldiers in all armies, sometimes get out of hand, and do things which we would never tolerate if we knew it. At Louvain, for example, I sentenced two soldiers to 12 years’ penal servitude apiece for assaulting a woman.’

“ ‘Apropos of Louvain,’ I remarked, ‘why did you destroy the library? It was one of the literary store-houses of the world.’

“ ‘We regretted that as much as anyone else,’ answered the General. ‘It caught fire from the burning houses, and we could not save it.’

“ ‘But why did you burn Louvain at all?’ I asked.

“ ‘Because the townspeople fired on our troops. We actually found machine-guns in some of the houses; and,’ smashing his fist down upon the table, ‘whenever civilians fire upon our troops we will teach them a lasting lesson. If the women and children insist on getting in the way of bullets, so much the worse for women and children.’

“ ‘How do you explain the bombardment of Antwerp by Zeppelins?’ I queried.

“ ‘The Zeppelins have orders to drop their bombs only on fortifications and soldiers,’ he answered.

“ ‘As a matter of fact,’ I remarked, ‘they destroyed only private houses and innocent civilians, several of them women. If one of those bombs had dropped 200 yards nearer my hotel I wouldn’t be smoking one of your excellent cigars to-day.’

“ ‘That is a calamity which, thank God, didn’t happen,’ he replied.

“ ‘If you feel for my safety as deeply as that, General,’ I said earnestly, ‘you can make quite sure of my coming to no harm by sending no more Zeppelins.’

“ ‘Well, Herr Powell,’ said he, laughing, ‘we will think about it, and,’ he continued gravely, ‘I trust that you will tell the American people through your great paper what I have told you to-day. Let them hear our side of this atrocity business. It is only justice that they should be made familiar with both sides of the question.’

“I have quoted my conversation with General von Boehn as nearly verbatim as I can remember it. I have no comments to make.

“I will leave it to the readers of the World to decide for themselves just how convincing are the answers of the German General to the Belgian accusations.”

“We cannot doubt their (the Belgian Commission) competency for the task entrusted to them; nor can we mistrust their good faith. And of what nature is the story which their report, item by item, unrolls? They recount a series of acts committed by the German soldiery which, if even a half or a quarter be true, are enough to condemn them to everlasting shame as barbarians grosser and more criminal than Huns or Visigoths, or the hordes led by Yenghis Khan or Tamerlane the Great.”

    – From the Daily Telegraph.

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Atrocities Around Liége

Belgian officials reported from Liége devilish atrocities committed in the town and suburbs. In the Place de l’Université, the Rue des Pitteurs, and the Quai des Pecheurs most of the houses were burned. The occupants, who had been awakened by the acrid smoke, fled in terror, and fifteen persons, men, women, and children, were killed as they ran, while in one instance a family were called together, and father and son were killed and then mutilated in front of them. Apparently many of the soldiers breaking into cafés were drunk, and after firing accused the inhabitants of it, taking vengeance by burning and murders without restraint. This indeed appeared to be part of the German campaign, for not only in Belgium, but also in France, the same inhuman and dastardly excuses were resorted to in order to attempt to justify the awful crimes which these “cultured” barbarians committed.

Road Strewn with Dead.

Georges Just, a restaurant-keeper at Chenee, province of Liége, said: “When we heard of the German approach my wife and I fled across the river into Liége. It seems now like a dream. Just before they entered the town the Germans committed all kinds of outrages. Never shall I forget the terrible sights along the roadside. Mutilated corpses of people I knew, and many wounded and dying, lay strewn in our path. In some places we saw the dead piled in heaps fifteen feet high.”

A letter written by a niece of Mr. John Redmond, M.P., who was living in a Belgian town occupied by the Germans, contained the following: —

“They are absolute barbarians, and treat the women like dogs. For the least thing the inhabitants are shot, and they all live in fear of their lives. The town’s most prominent men, in relays of three, guarded by soldiers, guarantee with their lives the good behaviour of the people. My husband is one of the guarantors. On Wednesday night he spent his hours of vigil in the town hall. Imagine my feelings.

“The Germans take everything. No matter how well they are treated and received, they behave filthily and brutally, officers and men alike. Empty houses they smash from top to bottom.”

What an Eye-Witness Saw.

Another eye-witness was Mr. Henry Frenkel, a Russian living in Antwerp, who volunteered in the

“The Belgian people are enduring the horrors of war, and after making every allowance for the source from which our information comes, we do not doubt that they are enduring them in a form which ought to be impossible amongst civilized nations.” —Bonar Law.

6th regiment of the line to serve with his Belgian friends. While the Germans were in Liége he was sent there upon an important mission. This is how he tells his story: —