German Atrocities. A Record of Shameless Deeds

The statement concluded: “The Government of the Republic, respecting International conventions which it has ratified, protests against those violations of International law, and holds up to reprobation before the opinion of the world the behaviour of an enemy who respects no rule and goes back on his signature affixed to International agreements.”

The Red Hand of Destruction.

Upon the Franco-German frontier the red hand of destruction was indeed laid heavily, and it seemed incredible that a civilised nation should resort to the methods of savages. Yet it was, alas, true, as was proved in hundreds of cases. Atrocities were committed everywhere; civilians, women, and children were shot down in blind rage. A German officer captured by the French near Blamont admitted that the Germans wanted no prisoners, and that the wholesale massacre of peaceful villagers was according to orders.

German infantrymen belonging to the Bavarian regiments systematically set fire to the villages through which they passed in the region of Barras, Harbone, and Montreux, for during the engagement no artillery fire could have caused such conflagrations. In the same district they forced the inhabitants to precede their scouts. According to the same report the German troops were daily massacring peaceful villagers, and actually made children march before them when debouching from the villages upon the field of battle.

An official report was made by M. Mirman, Prefect of the Meurthe and Moselle, to the French Minister of the Interior, after a visit paid to the districts of Bardonviller, Cirey, and Blamont, in the Luneville area. He stated that it was impossible to cite all the acts of savagery and brutality on the part of the German troops which had come under his notice. He could make out a long list of women, young girls, and old men and women who had been executed without the least reason and upon the slightest pretext. Houses had been systematically burned by order of the German officers as they advanced, and then again as they retreated.

Petrol on Burning Houses.

At Bardonviller, where one of the Kaiser’s sons was with the troops, eleven of the inhabitants had been murdered, among whom was the wife of the mayor, and a woman with her infant child, while seventy-eight houses were burned with petrol and specially-prepared faggots. After pillaging the town and looting everything they could, they fired on and demolished the church, and took fifteen of the inhabitants, including a magistrate, away as hostages.

At Bremeuil the Prefect found a pitiful and shameful state of affairs. There, five inhabitants, one a little lad, were butchered, as well as an old man of seventy-four, who was “trussed and shot like a rabbit.” The Communal building was destroyed, and nearly the whole town swept away, not during battle, but by the soldiers on their arrival.

The French troops in Lorraine had seized an entire mail, letters written by German soldiers to their families. In these it was shown that the chief occupation of the troops was eating and drinking, and in more than twenty of the letters it was stated that all French civilians were shot if they only looked suspicious or evil-disposed. All the men, and even boys under age, were shot.

Another official statement issued by the French Ministry of War stated that two Uhlans who were reconnoitring on the frontier entered the little village of Affleville. They were ejected by a patrol of three mounted riflemen. On the following day a detachment of Uhlans returned, set fire to a farmhouse, and killed the farmer, who attempted to save his property. The inhabitants protested that their village had not interfered with the enemy, but later that evening a further squadron of Uhlans arrived while all the villagers were attending service in the church, and after sprinkling the houses with petroleum set the whole place on fire. The terrified inhabitants fled without money or other property to Verdun, the parish priest being shot.

“We Kill Everyone.”

Many other sensational indictments of the blood-lust of the Kaiser’s savage hordes reached the French Ministry of Justice. The Curé of Pillon, in the Metz district, states that on August 10th fifteen Germans entered his house and pointed their rifles at him. He was dragged into the road and brought before the General. On the way there he was hurried along with the butts of his captors’ rifles. When he stopped they hit him. He took out his handkerchief, and they confiscated it. He shouted: “You are a set of brutes. Take me before one of your officers who speaks French.” An officer replied in French, “It’s all up with you.” A French shell burst not far from the German troops. The Germans threw themselves down, but compelled the priest to remain standing.

Seven lads from French Lorraine at Baroncourt saw a body of Uhlans driving before them old men, women, and children. They struck those that would not or could not walk. Three Uhlans moved aside to a field where a boy of fifteen was tending a herd of cows. The youth attempted to prevent the seizure of the cattle. The troopers shot him point-blank, and he fell without a cry.

In Lorraine a large number of letters written by German soldiers were captured, and these letters are full of descriptions of acts of wanton cruelty. Most of the writers make reference to food and drink. One says, “We have no need for money. We simply take.” In another it is written, “Before burning the village we took away everything that was eatable or drinkable,” and again, “The first village across the frontier was completely destroyed. It was a sight which was both sad and agreeable.” In another letter it is stated, “We have shot the inhabitants of from fourteen to sixty years old. There were thirty of them.” In twenty other letters the phrases recur, “All were shot. We kill everyone.”

“The efforts directed towards the abolition of war must not only be termed foolish, but absolutely immoral, and must be described as unworthy of the human race.” —Gen. Von Bernhardi.

Village Ruthlessly Bombarded.

Refugees from Lorraine had a pathetic story to tell. The village of Pontsurseille was burned on August 21st by the Germans. Like several others in the neighbourhood, it was close to the border-line, and courteous relations continued between its inhabitants and the enemy, even after the first days of the war. But on August 14th a body of Uhlans suddenly appeared and commandeered a number of things. They were supplied at once with 200 chickens, a quantity of oats, and some other provisions. The Guard Champêtre himself delivered the objects commandeered, and took them across the border into the German camp. He was not allowed to return immediately, and was detained for two days. On Monday, August 17th, when the Guard Champêtre had returned, a shell suddenly burst over the village. It exploded a few yards from a place where a couple of women were engaged in milking the cows. Other shells followed. They came from a battery erected on the other side of the border.

No French soldier had been seen at the village for three days. They had made their appearance only for a short time, and had fallen back. The firing stopped after a while, but was resumed during the night and continued for several nights following. All the able-bodied men had left for the garrisons, and only the women, the children, and some aged men remained. The Guard Champêtre was the only person with any authority that remained, and he took over the administration of the commune. Meanwhile he was compelled every day to go back and forwards between the village and the German camp and supply the provisions that were commandeered.

A young seminarist acted as secretary at the Mairie, and the wife of the Guard Champêtre took charge of the fire-engine and tried to put out the fire caused by the shells with the help of some other women.

On the night of August 20th it became evident that the Germans intended to lay the village in ruins. The bombardment was continued all night and the following day. The inhabitants took refuge in the cellars, which protected them against the shells. About forty of them found shelter in a big cellar belonging to a rich farmer, M. François Michel.

Helpless Children.

There were small children of three, six, and nine years, and infants only a few months old. The Guard Champêtre, assisted by his wife, directed everything. He had the openings protected by mattresses, which prevented the Germans from discharging their rifles into the cellar.

By making a hole in one of the walls he secured a retreat into an adjoining cellar. Suddenly an officer came, had the door opened, and ordered everybody to come out at once. M. François Michel was the first to step out, and he was instantly shot down by a group of soldiers standing by. Next a boy of six, a nice little lad, stepped out. He was also shot down. Everybody in the cellar then rushed back, amid cries of horror raised by the wife of M. Michel and his children.

The Germans shouted, “Come out, or we shall burn you alive,” and fired a volley down the steps of the cellar. The soldiers poured petroleum down the cellar and on the mattresses, and set fire to it. The people inside took refuge in the adjoining cellar, and the Guard Champêtre and his wife were the last to leave. From this cellar they finally escaped and fled across the field. The soldiers meanwhile had seized the young seminarist, and another young man, aged twenty, and shot them, declaring that they were of age for military service.

XIII

The Desecration of Churches

Other refugees from Lorraine had harrowing stories to tell of German brutalities, and many made statements which were officially registered. Whole villages, they said, had been put to fire and sword. One man told an official of the Catholic Society that he had, with his own eyes, seen two German soldiers chop off the arms of a child which clung to its mother’s skirts. Other narratives show once more that the Germans entered closed houses and shot or bayoneted the inmates on the pretence that they had been fired upon by them. Miners had in many places been wilfully entombed, and other miners had been forced to dig trenches for the enemy under the threat of being shot. Germans had stabled their horses in churches, which they desecrated, and even covered their animals with priests’ vestments.

Under their usual plea the Germans burned the town of Burzweiler, in Alsace-Lorraine, blowing up its factories.

An eye-witness, M. Gaudefroy-Demonhynes, who was attempting to return to France from Baden, made a sworn statement to a Paris magistrate, explaining how he had found himself on August 1st detained with other Frenchmen and some Russians at the railway station of Lorrach, in Baden, a few miles from the French frontier. The party were arrested by soldiers and taken to the police station, where they and their luggage were searched. They were then led under guard through the town amid hostile demonstrations by the inhabitants to the square in front of the railway station, where they found another party of about thirty Frenchmen and twenty Russians.

One of this party, a French commercial traveller, a stout man aged about forty, suddenly shouted “Vive la France!” Instantly the two soldiers guarding him took him before an officer or a non-commissioned officer, standing a few paces away from a group of officers. People standing between M. Demonhynes and the scene prevented him from hearing what was said, but a few seconds later a shot – only one shot – rang out.

“I don’t know who fired,” the witness says, “but I know that just before the report the Frenchman was standing before my eyes against the wall of a restaurant facing the station, held fast by his two guards in the position of one who is about to be executed.

“Hardly had the shot rang out than protests arose from our little band. Among those who protested most vigorously were three young Frenchmen from eighteen to twenty years old. They looked to me like students leaving Germany, like myself. I did not speak to them and do not know their names. Just as the soldiers seized him and his comrades one of the young Frenchmen tried to speak to an officer who was wearing a large, light grey cloak. This officer did not listen to him. Some order must have been given, I don’t know by whom.

“One of the three Frenchmen, who must have been told of the fate awaiting him, cried out in German ‘Don’t hold us. We aren’t afraid; we are Frenchmen!’

“This time the officer replied coarsely, half turning round, ‘Shut up.’ The three Frenchmen of their own accord placed themselves against the wall of the same restaurant. Two lines of soldiers were drawn up on either side of them at right angles to the wall. Other soldiers – how many I did not count – took up their position in front of them about eight yards away. A volley rang out. The three Frenchmen fell.

“Fresh cries arose from our party. Horror-stricken women began to weep. I did not see the bodies removed, but I saw them fall to the ground.

“At this moment a great uproar broke out. Another Frenchman, a big man with a great black beard, whose age and appearance I forget and whom I did not know, began to shout, ‘Cowards! Murderers!’ Soldiers surrounded him. He struggled with them. They speedily overcame him, and, without taking the trouble to stand him up against the wall, without the intervention of any officer, one of the soldiers thrust the barrel of his rifle against his body and shot him down point blank before my eyes.

“I saw these same soldiers dragging his body along the ground. The man was struggling still. I had not the strength to look any more. I heard other shots. I don’t know if there were any other victims.”

The German troops allowed no considerations of religion or respect for antiquity to interfere with their scheme of devastation. Great works of art and architecture and ancient churches were destroyed by fire or shell, and in more than one instance it is stated that cathedrals were used for stabling horses. To-day many are the ruined churches in Belgium. Of the beautiful cathedral of Louvain only the walls stand, for the interior is reported to have been ruthlessly shelled, pillaged, and finally set on fire. Other churches in the ill-fated city similarly suffered, while at Malines, too, bare walls and loose masonry are all that remain of what were until recently sacred edifices of exceptional interest to visitors by reason of their ancient treasures.

“We believe that some of the generals and some of the officers have encouraged these crimes, which would be impossible without such countenance. Yet we trust that there are still German officers whose characters can be respected.”

    – From the Morning Post.

XIV

“It is not a fair fight. Germany is fighting foully; she is defying not only the rules of war, but the rules of humanity.” —Mr. Richard Harding Davis, the great American author.

Treatment of English Travellers

The treatment meted out to English travellers and residents in Germany at the time of the outbreak of the war was equally in keeping with the modern culture of the nation. British subjects arriving in England were loud in their protest of the manner in which they were treated, and even British, French, and Russian Consuls were treated like criminals. In regard to the latter, a mock formality of presenting the Consuls with passports was gone through before their departure, but, provided with these so-called guarantees of safe conduct, they were subjected to the grossest insults on the way, the women being the chief object of the mob’s fury. Insulting inscriptions were scribbled on the walls of their compartments, and they were the objects of very hostile demonstrations. At every station brave soldiers of the Kaiser presented their revolvers at the heads of the travellers, came up to the carriage windows, jeered at the occupants, and often threw rubbish into the compartments.

Mr. Drummond Hay, the British Consul at Dantzig, the French Consul, M. Michel, and the Russian Consul were, with their families, turned out from their consulates at an hour’s notice. They were told that they would be taken to the Russian frontier, but in reality they were conveyed to Bentheim, near the Dutch frontier, via Stettin, a journey which occupied three days. During the journey they were not given nor allowed to buy any food, and when the train reached Bentheim the travellers were curtly told to get out, and the Consuls were immediately separated from their families. The women and children were housed in a mean tavern under strict military guard, and the men, together with Mr. Drummond Hay’s sixteen-year-old son, were taken to the local prison. They were all put into one small cell, which they found already tenanted by M. Vassel, an attaché of the French Consulate at Bentheim, who had been imprisoned some days previously. M. Vassel had been arrested when looking after the luggage of the French Consul at Bentheim, who had just left for Holland.

In prison the Consuls were treated as though they belonged to the worst class of criminals. They were obliged to sleep on the floor, without covering of any kind, and with only a few wisps of straw between them and the cold stones, and their only food was the black bread which is served out to the ordinary convicts.

Having fallen ill on the journey, M. Michel asked to be allowed to see a doctor, but, in lieu of medical advice, he was given a very strong dose of castor oil, which made him very much worse. The conditions under which these four men and a boy lived cannot be described. The gaolers would not allow them nor anyone else to clean out the cell. Night and day the unfortunate prisoners were herded together. Their only recreation, a daily walk of half an hour’s duration, was taken in company with the convicts.

Ten days after leaving Dantzig Mr. Drummond Hay was set free, but the others were detained amid the awful surroundings which have been described.

It was ascertained that there were forty-eight other foreigners – among them fifteen Frenchmen – who are being kept in the town of Bentheim under the strictest military observation.

The state of affairs in Dantzig when the Consuls left was terrible; many people were being shot daily, often upon the very scantiest suspicion.