Title: The Martyrdom of Belgium - Official Report of Massacres of Peaceable Citizens, Women - and Children by The German Army
Author: Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Language: English
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  THE MARTYRDOM OF BELGIUM

  OFFICIAL REPORT OF

  Massacres of Peaceable Citizens, Women and Children

  BY THE

  German Army

  TESTIMONY OF EYE-WITNESSES


    “It is by a deep study of the history of wars
    that one may protect oneself against exaggerated
    humanitarian ideas.”
      --“KRIEGSGEBRAUCH IM LANDKRIEGE”
    Published by the German General Staff, 1902.
    Pages 6 and 7.


  THE W. STEWART BROWN COMPANY, INC. PRINTERS BALTIMORE, MD.



PREFACE.


The Official Belgian Commission of Inquiry, which has been charged with
the task of examining into the violation of the rules of International
Law and of the Customs of War, is composed of Statesmen and Jurists of
the highest standing. The Reports of the Commission have been published
from time to time. Report XI will be found in the following pages.

These reports are given out by the Commission only after careful
examination of the evidence. Consequently the findings of the
Commission command the same respect as the findings of the highest Law
Court.

Names of witnesses have, in certain cases, been withheld from
publication. All the depositions are, however, in the possession of
the Commission and the names of the witnesses will be given out at
the proper time. The publication of these names at the present moment
would, inevitably, cause the German troops to take revenge upon
witnesses, or upon the relatives of witnesses, remaining within the
German lines.

The authenticity of the depositions is guaranteed by the eminent
Statesmen and Jurists who compose the Commission and who have signed
the Reports.

No commentary can add anything to the tragic eloquence of these simple
and well-authenticated depositions. Who can read the recital of these
horrors without feeling his heart throb with righteous indignation,
and without feeling an infinite sorrow at the thought that these
abominations have been committed, after two thousand years of Christian
civilization, by a nation which, only yesterday, claimed to be the
foremost in modern Progress.

It should be remembered that Belgium had done nothing to bring on the
war nor to involve her in it. She was a neutralized country. Every
shot fired by a German soldier in Belgium is a violation of the solemn
treaty whereby Germany pledged her faith to uphold the neutrality of
Belgium.

At the end of this pamphlet (page 20) will be found extracts from the
“Laws of War on Land,” published by the German General Staff in 1902,
and other documents, showing that the massacres, arson and pillage
committed by the German army in Belgium are attributable, not to the
innate brutality of the German soldier, but rather to an organized
system of terrorism laid down and ordered by the superior German
Military authorities.

The authenticity of the following text of the Report of the Commission
of Inquiry is certified by the Belgian Legation, Washington, D. C.



OFFICIAL BELGIAN COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

on the violation of the Rules of International Law, and of the Laws and
Customs of War.

ELEVENTH REPORT SUBMITTED TO HIS EXCELLENCY, MR. CARTON DE WIART,
Belgian Minister of Justice.


(I.) INCIDENTS AT NAMUR.

On August 21st, 1914, the Germans bombarded the town of Namur, without
any previous notice given. The bombardment began about 1 p. m. and
continued for twenty minutes. The besieger was in possession of
long-range guns, which enabled him to fire upon the town before the
forts had been taken. Shells fell upon the prison, the hospital, the
Burgomaster’s house and the railway station, causing conflagrations and
killing several persons.

On August 23rd, the German Army pierced the exterior line of defence,
and the Belgian 4th Division retreated by the angle between the rivers
Sambre and Meuse, while the greater number of the forts were still
uninjured and continuing to resist. The German troops penetrated into
the town of Namur on the same day about 4 p. m.

On this day order was preserved: officers and soldiers requisitioned
food and drink, paying for them sometimes with coined money, more often
with requisition-certificates. Most of the latter were bogus documents,
but the townspeople were trustful and ignorant of the German language,
and so accepted them without making difficulties.

Matters went on in the same way on August 24th till 9 o’clock in the
evening. At that hour shooting suddenly began in several quarters of
the town, and German infantry were seen advancing in skirmishing order
down the principal streets. Almost at the same moment an immense column
of smoke and fire was seen rising from the central quarter of the
place: the Germans had fired houses in the Place d’Armes and four other
spots, the Place Leopold, Rue Rogier, Rue St. Nicolas and the Avenue de
la Plante.

All was now panic among the peaceable and defenseless townsfolk: the
Germans began breaking open front doors with the butts of their rifles,
and throwing incendiary matter into the vestibules. Six dwellers in the
Rue Rogier, who were flying from their burning houses, were shot on
their own doorsteps. The rest of the inhabitants of this street were
forced to avoid a similar fate by escaping through their back gardens.
Many of them were in their night clothes, for they had not the time to
dress or to pick up their money.

In the Rue St. Nicolas several workmen’s dwellings were set on fire,
and a larger number, together with some wood-yards, were burned in the
Avenue de la Plante.

The conflagration in the Place d’Armes continued till Thursday. It
destroyed the Town Hall, with its archives and pictures, the adjacent
group of houses, and the whole quarter bounded by the Rue du Pont, the
Rue des Brasseurs, and the Rue Bailly, with the exception of the Hotel
des Quatre Fils Aymon.

No serious attempt was made to prevent the fire from spreading. At its
commencement some of the townspeople came out at the appeal of the
Fire-Bell, but they were forbidden to stir from their houses. The Chief
of the Fire Brigade, though the balls were whistling round him, got as
far as the site of the disaster; but an officer arrested him in the
Place d’Armes, and then, acting under the orders of his superior, sent
him away under an escort.

The Germans, with the object of justifying their proceedings, alleged
that shots had been fired against their troops on the Monday evening.
Every circumstance demonstrates the absurdity of this statement. The
juxtaposition of observed facts and the sequence of concordant evidence
lead to the conclusion that the incidents at Namur were deliberately
prepared, and merely formed part of the general system of terrorism
which was habitually practised by the German Army in Belgium.

Fifteen days back the people of Namur had given over to the Belgian
Authorities all the firearms that they possessed. They had been
informed by Official Notices as to the tenor of the Laws of War, and
had been invited by the Civil and Military Authorities, by the Clergy
and the Press, to take no part with the belligerents. The Belgian
troops had evacuated the town 36 hours before the conflagration. The
people, even if they had possessed weapons, would not have been so
insane as to rise and assail the masses of German troops who crowded
the town and occupied all its approaches. And how can anyone account
for the strange fact that, at all the five points at which the alleged
rising was supposed to have broken out, the Germans were found in
possession of the incendiary substances which were required for the
prompt burning of the place?

The disorder which followed helped the pillage in which the German
Army habitually engages. In the Place d’Armes houses were thoroughly
sacked before they were set on fire. In the quarter by the Gate of St.
Nicolas the inhabitants, when they returned to their homes, found that
everything had been plundered; in one case a safe had been broken up
and 17,000 francs worth of securities had disappeared.

On the subsequent days, though things were comparatively quiet, pillage
continued. In several houses where German officers were quartered,
the furniture was broken up, and wine and underclothing (even female
underclothing) was stolen.

Our witnesses have detailed to us several outrages on women. In one
case we have evidence concerning the rape of a girl by four soldiers. A
Belgian quartermaster of Gendarmes saw the daughter of the proprietor
of the hotel in which he was staying outraged by two German soldiers,
without being able to intervene for her protection, at four o’clock in
the morning.

Many inhabitants of Namur perished during the fire and the fusillade.
Some aged people were left in the burning houses: others were
killed in the streets, or shot in their own dwellings. In all,
seventy-five civilians perished in one of these ways or another on the
23rd-24th-25th August.

We may mention, without detailing, the arrest of hostages, and the
brutal treatment to which the most distinguished inhabitants of the
town were exposed during the early days of German occupation.

Namur and the seventeen neighbouring communes were subjected to a war
contribution of fifty million francs (£2,000,000), which was afterwards
reduced to thirty-two millions, on condition that the first million
should be paid within twenty-four hours. The deposits at a private bank
(the _Banque Generale_ Belge) were confiscated. On the petition of its
directors the concession was made that the sum seized should count
towards the war contribution.

The immediate neighborhood of the town was the scene of many similar
acts of violence. In this part of the province many mansions and
villas were systematically pillaged. One citizen of Namur saw his own
furniture from his country house going to the rear on a German cart.
The plunder was all sent off to Germany.

At Vedrin a boy was shot because he was found to have in his possession
an empty German cartridge case. Twenty-six priests and members of
religious orders were shot in the diocese of Namur.


(II.) MASSACRE AT TAMINES.

Tamines was a rich and populous village situated on the Sambre between
Charleroi and Namur. It was occupied by detachments of French troops on
the 17th, 18th and 19th of August last. On Thursday, the 20th August,
a German patrol appeared in front of the suburb of Vilaines. It was
greeted by shots fired by French soldiers, and by a party of the Civic
Guards of Charleroi. Several Uhlans were killed and wounded, and the
rest fled. The people of the village came out of their houses and
cried: “Vive la Belgique!” “Vive la France!” In all probability it was
this incident which caused the subsequent massacre of Tamines.

Some time afterwards the Germans arrived in force at the hamlet of
Alloux. They there burnt two houses and made all the inhabitants
prisoners. An artillery combat broke out between the German guns posted
at Vilaines and at Alloux and the French guns placed in a battery at
Arsimont and at Hame-sur-Heure.

About 5 o’clock on 21st August, the Germans carried the bridge of
Tamines, crossed the River Sambre, and began defiling in mass through
the streets of the village. About 8 o’clock the movement of troops
stopped, and the soldiers penetrated into the houses, drove out the
inhabitants, set themselves to sack the place, and then burnt it. The
unfortunate peasants who stopped in the village were shot; the rest
fled from their houses. The greater part of them were arrested either
on the night of the 21st of August or on the following morning. Pillage
and burning continued all next day (22nd).

On the evening of the 22nd (Saturday) a group of between 400 and 450
men was collected in front of the Church, not far from the bank of the
Sambre. A German detachment opened fire on them, but as the shooting
was a slow business the officers ordered up a machine gun, which soon
swept off all the unhappy peasants still left standing. Many of them
were only wounded and, hoping to save their lives, got with difficulty
on their feet again. They were immediately shot down. Many wounded
still lay among the corpses. Groans of pain and cries for help were
heard in the bleeding heap. On several occasions soldiers walked up
to such unhappy individuals and stopped their groans with a bayonet
thrust. At night some who still survived succeeded in crawling away.
Others put an end to their own pain by rolling themselves into the
neighboring river.

All these facts have been established by depositions made by wounded
men who succeeded in escaping. About 100 bodies were found in the river.

Next day, Sunday, the 23rd, about 6 o’clock in the morning, another
party consisting of prisoners made in the village and the neighborhood
were brought into the Square. One of them makes the following
deposition:--

“On reaching the Square the first thing that we saw was a mass of
bodies of civilians extending over at least 40 yards in length by 6
yards in depth. They had evidently been drawn up in rank to be shot. We
were placed before this range of corpses, and were convinced that we
too were to be shot.

“An officer then came forward and asked for volunteers to dig trenches
to bury these corpses. I and my brother-in-law and certain others
offered ourselves. We were conducted to a neighbouring field at the
side of the Square, where they made us dig a trench 15 yards long by
10 broad and 2 deep. Each received a spade. While we were digging the
trenches soldiers with fixed bayonets gave us our orders. As I was
much fatigued through not being accustomed to digging, and being faint
from hunger, a soldier then brought me a lighter spade, and afterwards
filled a bucket of water for us to drink. I asked him if he knew what
they were going to do with us. He said that he did not. By the time
that the trenches were finished it was about noon. They then gave us
some planks, on which we placed the corpses and so carried them to the
trench. I recognized many of the persons whose bodies we were burying.
Actually fathers buried the bodies of their sons and sons the bodies of
their fathers. The women of the village had been marched out into the
Square, and saw us at our work. All around were the burnt houses.

“There were in the Square both soldiers and officers. They were
drinking champagne. The more the afternoon drew on the more they
drank, and the more we were disposed to think that we were probably
to be shot too. We buried from 350 to 400 bodies. A list of the names
of the victims has been drawn up and will have been given to you (the
Commissioner).

“While some of us were carrying the corpses along I saw a case where
they had stopped and called to a German doctor. They had noticed that
the man whom they were conveying was still alive. The doctor examined
the wounded man and made a sign that he was to be buried with the rest.
The plank on which he was lying was borne on again, and I saw the
wounded man raise his arm elbow-high. They called to the doctor again,
but he made a gesture that he was to go into the trench with the others.

“I saw M. X---- carrying off the body of his own son-in-law. He was
able to take away his watch, but was not allowed to remove some papers
which were on him.

“When a soldier, seized with an impulse of pity, came near us, an
officer immediately scolded him away. When all the bodies had been
interred, certain wounded were brought to the Church. Officers
consulted about them for some time. Four mounted officers came into
the Square, and, after a long conversation, we with our wives and
children were made to fall into marching order. We were taken through
Tamines, amid the debris which obstructed the streets, and led to
Vilaines between two ranks of soldiers. Think of our mental sufferings
during this march! We all thought that we were going to be shot in the
presence of our wives and children. I saw German soldiers who could not
refrain from bursting into tears, on seeing the despair of the women.
One of our party was seized with an apoplectic fit from mere terror,
and I saw many who fainted.”

When the cortege arrived at Vilaines, an officer told the unhappy
people that they were free, but that anyone returning to Tamines
would be shot. He obliged the women and children to cry: “Vive
l’Allemagne.” The Germans burnt, after sacking them, 264 houses in
Tamines. Many persons, including women and children, were burnt or
stifled in their own homes. Many others were shot in the fields. The
total number of victims was over 650. The Commission of Enquiry
devoted special attention to ascertaining whether the inhabitants of
the village had fired on the German troops. Every surviving witness
unanimously declared the contrary. They explained the massacre of
their fellow-villagers by the fact that the Germans attributed to the
inhabitants the shots which had been fired by the French skirmishers,
or perhaps to the anger produced among the Germans by the success of an
attack which had been made on them that night by the French troops.


(III.) PILLAGE AND MASSACRE AT ANDENNE.

The town of Andenne is situated on the right bank of the Meuse between
Namur and Huy. It is connected by a bridge with the village of Seilles,
which is built along the river on the opposite, or left, bank. The
German troops who were wishing to invade the territory on the left
bank of the Meuse arrived at Andenne on Thursday, August 19th, in
the morning. Their advance guard of Uhlans found that the bridge was
not available. A regiment of Belgian Infantry had blown it up at 8
o’clock on the same morning. The Uhlans retired after having seized the
Communal cash box at Andenne and brutally maltreated the Burgomaster,
Dr. Camus, an old man of more than 70 years. The Burgomaster had
several days before taken the most minute precautions to prevent the
population from engaging in hostilities. He had posted up everywhere
placards ordering non-resistance. All firearms had been collected in
the Hotel de Ville, and the local authorities had personally visited
certain of the inhabitants to explain their duty to them.

The main body of the German Troops arrived at Andenne in the
afternoon. The Regiment halted in the Town and outside it, waiting
for the completion of a pontoon bridge, which was not finished till
the following morning. The first contact between the troops and the
people was quite pacific. The Germans ordered requisitions, which were
satisfied. The soldiers at first paid for their purchases and for the
drink which they served to them in the Cafes. Towards the evening the
situation began to grow more strained. Whether it was that discipline
was getting relaxed, or that alcohol commenced to produce its effect,
the soldiers ceased paying for what they were taking. The inhabitants
were too scared to resist. No friction took place and the night was
calm.

On Thursday, the 20th August, the bridge was finished and the troops
defiled through the town in great numbers in the direction of the
left bank. The inhabitants watched them passing from their houses.
Suddenly, at 6 o’clock in the evening, a single rifle shot was heard
in the street, followed immediately by a startling explosion. The
troops halted, their ranks fell into disorder, and nervous men fired
haphazard. Presently a machine gun was set up at a corner and commenced
to fire against the houses, and later a cannon dropped three shells
into the town at three different points.

At the first rifle shot the inhabitants of the streets through which
the troops were defiling, guessing what might happen, took refuge in
their cellars or, climbing out over the walls of their gardens, sought
refuge in the open country or in distant cellars. A certain number
of people who would not or could not make their escape were killed
in their houses by shots fired from the street, or in some cases by
soldiers who burst into their dwellings.

Immediately afterwards commenced the pillage of the houses in the
principal streets of the Town. Every window shutter and door was broken
in. Furniture was smashed and thrown out. The soldiers ran down into
the cellars, got drunk there, breaking the bottles of wine that they
could not carry away. Finally, a certain number of houses were set on
fire. During the night rifle shooting broke out several times. The
terrified population lay low in their cellars.

Next day, Friday, the 21st August, at 4 o’clock in the morning, the
soldiers spread themselves through the Town, driving all the population
into the streets and forcing men, women and children to march before
them with their hands in the air. Those who did not obey with
sufficient promptitude, or did not understand the order given them in
German, were promptly knocked down. Those who tried to run away were
shot. It was at this moment that Dr. Camus, against whom the Germans
seemed to have some special spite, was wounded by a rifle shot, and
then finished off by a blow from an axe. His body was dragged along
by the feet for some distance. A watchmaker, a Fleming by birth, who
had lived for some time in the Town, was coming out of his house on
the order of the soldiers, supporting on his arm his father-in-law,
an old man of 80. Naturally, therefore, he could not hold up both his
hands. A soldier stepped up to him and struck him with an axe on the
neck. He fell mortally wounded before his own door. His wife tried to
bring him assistance, was pushed back into the house, and had to assist
helplessly at the last agony of her husband. A soldier threatened to
shoot her with his revolver if she crossed the door-sill.

Meanwhile the whole population was being driven towards the Place des
Tilleuls. Old men, the sick and the paralysed were all brought there.
Some were drawn on wheel-chairs, others pushed on hand carts, others,
again, borne up by their relations. The men were separated from the
women and children, then all were searched, but no arms were found on
them. One man had in his pocket some empty cartridge cases both German
and Belgian. He was immediately apprehended and set aside. So was a
cobbler who had a wounded hand; the wound was a month old. An engineer
was also put apart because he had in his pocket a spanner, which was
considered as a weapon. Another man seems to have been arrested because
his face showed his contempt and rage at what was going on. These
people were shot in presence of the crowd and all died bravely.

Subsequently the soldiers, on the order of their officers, picked out
of the mass some 40 or 50 men who were led off and all shot, some along
the bank of the Meuse, and others in front of the Police Station.

The rest of the men were kept for a long time in the Place. Among
them lay two persons, one of whom had received a ball in the chest,
and the other a bayonet wound. They lay face to the ground with blood
from their wounds trickling into the dust, occasionally calling for
water. The officers forbade their neighbours to give them any help.
One soldier was reproved for having wished to give one of them his
water-bottle. Both died in the course of the day.

While this scene was going on in the Place des Tilleuls, other soldiers
spread themselves through the Town, continuing their work of sack,
pillage and arson. Eight men belonging to the same household were led
out into a meadow some 50 yards from their dwelling, some of them were
shot, the rest cut down with blows of an axe. One tall red-haired
soldier with a scar on his face distinguished himself by the ferocity
with which he used an axe. A young boy and a woman were shot.

About 10 in the morning the officers told the women to withdraw, giving
them the order to gather together the dead bodies and to wash away the
stains of blood which defiled the street and the houses. About midday
the surviving men to the number of 800 were shut up as hostages in
three little houses near the bridge, but they were not allowed to go
out of them on any pretext, and so crammed together that they could
not even sit down on the floor. Soon these crowded buildings reached a
highly insanitary condition. The women later in the day were allowed
to bring food to their husbands. Many of them, fearing outrage, had
fled from the Place. These hostages were not finally released till the
Tuesday following.

The statistics of the losses at Andenne give the following
total:--Three hundred were massacred in Andenne and Seilles, and
about 300 houses were burnt in the two localities. A great number of
inhabitants have fled. Almost every house has been sacked; indeed, the
pillage did not end for eight days. Other places have suffered more
than Andenne, but no other Belgian Town was the theatre of so many
scenes of ferocity and cruelty. The numerous inhabitants whom we have
cross-examined are unanimous in asserting that the German troops were
not fired upon. They told us that no German soldier was killed either
at Andenne or in its neighbourhood. They are incapable of understanding
the causes of the catastrophe which has ruined their town, and to
explain it they give various hypotheses. Some think that Andenne was
sacrificed merely to establish a reign of terror, and quote words
uttered by officers which seemed to them to show that the destruction
of the place was premeditated. Others think that the destruction of the
bridge, the ruining of a neighbouring tunnel, and the resistance of
the Belgian troops were the causes of the massacre. All protest that
nothing happened in the place to excuse the conduct of the Germans.


(IV.) SACK OF DINANT.

The town of Dinant was sacked and destroyed by the German Army, and its
population was decimated on the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th August.

On August 15th a lively engagement took place at Dinant between the
French troops on the left bank of the Meuse and the German troops
coming up from the East. The German troops were routed by the French,
who passed over to the right bank of the river following them. The
town had little to suffer on that day. Some houses were destroyed by
German shells, aimed no doubt at French regiments on the left bank, and
a citizen of Dinant belonging to the Red Cross was killed by a German
ball as he was picking up a wounded man.

The days which followed were calm. The French occupied the neighborhood
of the town. No engagement took place between the hostile armies, and
nothing happened which could be interpreted as an act of hostility by
the population. No German troops were anywhere near Dinant. On Friday,
the 21st, about 9 o’clock in the evening, German troops coming down the
road from Ciney entered the town by the Rue St. Jacques. On entering
they began firing into the windows of the houses, and killed a workman
who was returning to his own house, wounded another inhabitant, and
forced him to cry “Long live the Kaiser.” They bayoneted a third
person in the stomach. They entered the cafes, seized the liquor, got
drunk, and retired after having set fire to several houses and broken
the doors and windows of others. The population was terrorised and
stupefied, and shut itself up in its dwellings.

Saturday, August 22nd, was a day of relative calm. All life, however,
was at an end in the streets. Part of the inhabitants, guided by the
instincts of self-preservation, fled into the neighbouring country
side. The rest, more attached to their homes, and rendered confident by
the conviction that nothing had happened which could be interpreted as
an act of hostility on their part, remained hidden in their houses.

On Sunday morning next, the 23rd, at 6.30 in the morning, soldiers
of the 108th Regiment of Infantry invaded the Church of the
Premonastrensian Fathers, drove out the congregation, separated the
women from the men, and shot 50 of the latter. Between 7 and 9 the same
morning the soldiers gave themselves up to pillage and arson, going
from house to house and driving the inhabitants into the street. Those
who tried to escape were shot. About 9 in the morning the soldiery,
driving before them by blows from the butt ends of rifles men, women,
and children, pushed them all into the Parade Square, where they were
kept prisoners till 6 o’clock in the evening. The guard took pleasure
in repeating to them that they would soon be shot. About 6 o’clock a
Captain separated the men from the women and children. The women were
placed in front of a rank of infantry soldiers, the men were ranged
along a wall. The front rank of them were then told to kneel, the
others standing behind them. A platoon of soldiers drew up in face of
these unhappy men. It was in vain that the women cried out for mercy
for their husbands, sons, and brothers. The officer ordered his men
to fire. There had been no inquiry nor any pretense of a trial. About
20 of the inhabitants were only wounded, but fell among the dead. The
soldiers, to make sure, fired a new volley into the heap of them.
Several citizens escaped this double discharge. They shammed dead for
more than two hours, remaining motionless among the corpses, and when
night fell succeeded in saving themselves in the hills. Eighty-four
corpses were left on the Square, and buried in a neighbouring garden.

The day of August 23rd was made bloody by several more massacres.
Soldiers discovered some inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Pierre in the
cellars of a brewery there and shot them.

Since the previous evening a crowd of workmen belonging to the factory
of M. Himmer had hidden themselves, along with their wives and
children, in the cellars of the building. They had been joined there by
many neighbours and several members of the family of their employer.
About 6 o’clock in the evening these unhappy people made up their
minds to come out of their refuge, and defiled all trembling from the
cellars with the white flag in front. They were immediately seized and
violently attacked by the soldiers. Every man was shot on the spot.
Almost all the men of the Faubourg de Leffe were executed _en masse_.
In another part of the town 12 civilians were killed in a cellar. In
the Rue en Ile a paralytic was shot in his armchair. In the Rue Enfer
the soldiers killed a young boy of 14.

In the Faubourg de Leffe the viaduct of the railway was the scene of a
bloody massacre. An old woman and all her children were killed in their
cellar. A man of 65 years, his wife, his son and his daughter were shot
against a wall. Other inhabitants of Leffe were taken in a barge as far
as the rock of Bayard and shot there, among them a woman of 83 and her
husband.

A certain number of men and women had been locked up in the Court of
the Prison. At six in the evening a German machine gun, placed on the
hill above, opened fire on them, and an old woman and three other
persons were brought down.

While a certain number of soldiers were perpetrating this massacre,
others pillaged and sacked the houses of the town, and broke open all
safes, sometimes blasting them with dynamite. Their work of destruction
and theft accomplished, the soldiers set fire to the houses, and the
town was soon no more than an immense furnace.

The women and children had been all shut up in a Convent, where they
were kept prisoners for four days. These unhappy women remained in
ignorance of the lot of their male relations. They were expecting
themselves to be shot also. All around the town continued to blaze. The
first day the monks of the Convent had given them a certain supply of
food. For the remaining days they had nothing to eat but raw carrots
and green fruit.

To sum up, the town of Dinant is destroyed. It counted 1,400 houses;
only 200 remain. The manufactories where the artisan population worked
have been systematically destroyed. Rather more than 700 of the
inhabitants have been killed; others have been taken off to Germany,
and are still retained there as prisoners. The majority are refugees
scattered all through Belgium. A few who remained in the town are dying
of hunger. It has been proved by our Enquiry that German soldiers,
while exposed to the fire of the French entrenched on the opposite bank
of the Meuse, in certain cases sheltered themselves behind a line of
civilians, women and children.


(V.) MASSACRES AT HASTIERE AND SURICE

On August 23rd, the Germans entered the village of
Hastiere-par-dela.(1) They arrested Dr. Halloy, a Surgeon of the Red
Cross, and shot him. Crossing the street, they went to the house of
Alphonse Aigret, a butcher, drove out him, his wife and his children,
and shot him and his elder son. Next they went to the farm of Jules
Rifon, took him out of his cellar, where he had hidden with his
daughters, and shot him. They also killed the farmer Bodson and his
two sons, with ten other inhabitants of the village. The place was
then sacked, and the greater part of the houses burned. The number of
persons killed or wounded was very large.

The ancient church of Hastiere suffered odious profanation. Horses
were stabled in it. The priestly vestments were torn and befouled. The
lamps, statues, and holy-water stoups were broken. The reliquary was
smashed, and the relics scattered about. Among them were some relics
of the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne, which had escaped the fury
of the Huguenots of 1590 and the Revolution of 1790. The tabernacle
resisted an attempt at burglary, but two of the four altars were
profaned; the sepulchres at the altars were broken open and the remains
in them thrown out and trampled under foot.

The parish priest of Hastiere, Abbe Emile Schogel, had taken refuge in
the crypt, with his brother-in-law, M. Ponthiere, a professor of the
University of Louvain, the wife and two daughters of the professor, two
servants, the schoolmaster of the village with his wife and family, and
other inhabitants. The Germans fired at them through the windows of the
crypt, and then forced them to come up to the road, where they were
brought before several officers, of whom some were intoxicated. Some
questions were put to the Abbe, but he was given no time to answer.
The women were then dragged apart from the men, and the priest, M.
Pointhiere, the schoolmaster, and the other men were shot; their bodies
were left lying on the road. All this happened on August 24th, 1914, at
about 5.30 in the afternoon.

On this same day the village of Surice was occupied by the German
troops. At about 11 p. m. they set fire to some of the houses. Next
morning, about 6 o’clock, the soldiers broke open doors and windows
with the butts of their rifles, and forced all the inhabitants to come
out. They were led off in the direction of the church. On the way
several most inoffensive people were fired upon. For example, the old
choirman, Charles Colot, aged 88, was shot as he came out of his door;
the soldiers rolled his body in a blanket, and set fire to it.

A man named Elie Pierrot was seized by the Germans as he was coming
out of his burning house, carrying his aged and impotent step-mother
(she was over 80 years of age), and was shot at short range. The clerk,
Leopold Burniaux, his son Armand, who had been recently ordained
priest, and another of his sons were shot before the eyes of Madame
Burniaux. She, with her last surviving son, a professor at the College
of Malonne, were marched off with the surviving inhabitants on the road
to Romedenne. In a garden below the road there was a dead woman lying,
with two small children crying over her.

On arriving at Fosses the party were led to a piece of fallow
ground--they numbered between 50 and 60 persons of both sexes. “It was
about 7.15 a. m. when the men and the women were separated. An officer
came up who said to us in French with a strong German accent, ‘You all
deserve to be shot: a young girl of 15 has just fired on one of our
Commanders. But the Court-martial has decided that only the men shall
be executed: the women will be kept prisoners.’

“The scene that followed passes all description: there were eighteen
men standing in a row: besides the parish priests of Anthee and
Onhaye, and the Abbe Gaspiard, there was our own priest, Mons. Poskin,
and his brother-in-law, Mons. Schmidt, then Doctor Jacques and his
son Henri, aged just 16, then Gaston Burniaux, the clerk’s son, and
Leonard Soumoy: next them two men named Balbeur and Billy, with the
17-year-old son of the latter: last two men from Onhaye and Dinant who
had taken refuge in Surice, and two people more whom I did not know.
Mons. Schmidt’s little boy of 14 was nearly put into the line--the
soldiers hesitated, but finally shoved him away in a brutal fashion. At
this moment I saw a young German soldier--this I vouch for--who was so
horror-struck that great tears were dropping onto his tunic: he did not
wipe his eyes for fear of being seen by his officer, but kept his head
turned away.

“Some minutes passed: then under our eyes and amid the shrieks of
women who were crying ‘Shoot me too; shoot me with my husband!’ and
the wailing of the children, the men were lined up on the edge of the
hollow way which runs from the high road to the bottom of the village.
They waved last greetings to us, some with their hands, others with
their hats or caps. The young Henri Jacques was leaning on the shoulder
of one of the priests, as if to seek help and courage from him: he was
sobbing, ‘I am too young; I can’t face death bravely.’ Unable to bear
the sight any longer, I turned my back to the road and covered my eyes
with my hands. The soldiers fired their volley, and the men fell in a
heap. Someone said to me, ‘Look, they are all down!’ But they were not
all shot dead; several were finished off by having their skulls beaten
in with rifle-butts. Among these was the priest of Surice, whose head
(as I was afterwards told) was dreadfully opened out.

“When the massacre was over the Germans plundered the corpses. They
took from them watches, rings, purses, and pocket-books. Madame Schmidt
told me that her husband had on him about 3,000 francs, which was
stolen. Dr. Jacques had also a good sum on him, though his wife could
not say exactly how much.

“After this some more German soldiers brought up a man named Victor
Cavillot, and shot him before he reached the spot where the others were
lying; they fired on him, and I saw him double up and fall into the
hollow way.”(2)

The village of Surice was thoroughly sacked. The pillage began on
Tuesday night, and continued all day on Wednesday. The safe of Madame
Laurent-Mineur, a widow, was blown open with dynamite. Of the 131
houses of the village only eight escaped the conflagration.

This Report gives no more than an incomplete picture of the German
ravages and crimes in the Province of Namur. We lack detailed knowledge
of what went on in three of the six cantons which form the district of
Namur. The total of 800 persons killed and 1,160 houses burned in that
district may have to be largely increased. In the district of Dinant,
that town itself and 21 villages have been destroyed. In the district
of Philippeville 20 villages have been sacked, plundered, and more or
less burned down. In the whole province, which has 364,000 inhabitants,
nearly 2,000 unoffending people--men, women, and children--have been
massacred.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Commission makes it a rule to limit its publications to a mere
statement of facts, thinking that no commentary could add anything to
their tragic eloquence. It thinks, however, that the evidence given
above leads to certain conclusions.

It has been said that when Belgium makes up the account of her
losses, it may appear that war has levied more victims from the civil
population than from the men who were called out to serve their country
on the battlefield. This prophecy, which seemed contrary to reason, is
now confirmed as regards the Province of Namur. In certain parts of
it half the male adult population has disappeared: the horrors of the
conflagrations at Louvain and Termonde, of the massacres at Aerschot
and in Luxembourg and Brabant, are all surpassed by those of the
slaughter at Dinant, at Andenne, at Tamines, and at Namur.

In this twentieth century the people of Namur have had to live through
all the frightful details of a mediæval war, with its traditional
episodes of massacres _en masse_, drunken orgies, sack of whole towns,
and general conflagration. The “exploits” of the mercenary bands of the
XVIIth Century have been surpassed by those of the national army of a
State which claims the first place among civilized nations!

The German Government cannot deny the truth of these facts--they are
attested by the ruins and the graves which cover our native soil. But
already it has set to work to excuse its troops, affirming that they
only repressed, in consonance with the Laws of War, the hostile acts of
the Belgian civil population.

From the day of its First Session our Commission has been trying to
discover what foundation there might be for this charge--a charge
which seemed very unconvincing to anyone who knew the character of the
Belgian people. After having examined hundreds of witnesses--foreigners
and natives--and after having exhausted every possible means of
investigation, we affirm once more that the Belgian people took no part
in the hostilities. The supposed “France-Tireur” War, which is said
to have been waged against the German Army, is a mere invention. It
was invented in order to lessen in the eyes of the civilized world the
impression caused by the barbarous treatment inflicted by the German
Army on our people, and also to appease the scruples of the German
nation, which will shudder with fear on the day when it learns what a
tribute of innocent blood was levied by its troops on our children, our
wives, and our defenseless fellow-citizens.

Moreover, the chiefs of the German Army have made a singular error
when they try to influence the verdict of the civilized world by this
particular argument. They seem unaware of the fact that the repression
by general measures of individual faults--a system condemned by the
International Conventions at which they scoff--has long been condemned
by the conscience of the nations of to-day. Among those nations
Germany appears for the future as a monstrous and disconcerting moral
phenomenon.

  (Signed) COOREMAN,
    _Minister of State, President_.

  COMTE GOBLET DE AVIELLA, _Vice-President,
    Minister of State and Vice-President of the
      Belgian Senate_.

  CHEVALIER ERNEST DE BUNSWYCK,
    _Chief Secretary to the Minister of Justice_.

  ORTS,
    _Councillor of Legation to H.M. the King of the
      Belgians_.

FOOTNOTES:

(1) Testimony of the Right Reverend Monsignor X---- annexed to the
proceedings of the Session of Dec. 18, 1914.

(2) From the testimony of Mademoiselle Aline Diericz, of Tenham,
annexed to the Report of the Session of Dec. 18, 1914.



THE GERMAN MILITARY CODE


In 1902 the Historic Section of the German General Staff published a
collection of works for the instruction and guidance of the officers
of the German Army. Among these works is a Manual upon “The Laws of
War on Land.” (“Kriegsgebrauch im Landkriege.”) The following extracts
from this manual show that the ideas of the German General Staff on the
conduct of warfare are diametrically opposed to the views generally
adopted by civilized countries. It is the systematic carrying-out of
these ideas which has caused the devastation and desolation of Belgium.

 It is by making a deep study of the history of wars that, “_one may
 protect oneself against exaggerated humanitarian ideas_.”

      (Laws of War on Land, pp. 6 and 7)

 The claims of professors of International Law (in regard to a certain
 point under discussion) “should be deliberately rejected in principle
 as being opposed to the rules of war.”

      (Ibid page 46)

 The claims of certain professors of International Law in this respect
 are absolutely contrary to the necessities of warfare, “and should be
 rejected by military men.”

      (Ibid pages 44 and 45)

 An energetically conducted war cannot be carried on solely against
 the combatant enemy and his defenses, but extends and should extend
 to _the destruction of his material and moral resources. Humanitarian
 considerations, such as respect for persons and property, can be taken
 into consideration only provided that the nature and object of the war
 adapt themselves to that course._

      (Ibid page 3)

The above extracts indicate clearly the spirit of the German military
class, namely,

 To protect themselves against humanitarian ideas, as against a
 dangerous infection.

 To cast aside international law if found incompatible with convenience.

 To strike not only at the enemy’s armed forces, but to terrorise him
 by striking at his “material and moral resources,” _i. e._ his home
 and property, his wife and children.

These injunctions of the German Code of 1902 have been fully carried
out in Belgium, and have converted the German army into “a horde of
barbarians and a band of incendiaries.”

The “ethics” of the German Military Code have also been supported by
German jurists inoculated with the germ of the same “Kultur.”

Meurer, in his book on the Hague Peace Conference, says that there is
no violation of international law “when an act of war is necessary to
support the troops or to defend them against a danger which cannot be
avoided by any other means, or when the act is necessary in order to
realize or assure the success of a military operation which is not in
itself prohibited.”

      (“Die Haager Friedenskonferenz,” II Band, page 14)

In other words “Necessity Knows No Law.” It is the same doctrine
proclaimed by the Imperial German Chancellor, Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg,
and upheld by other German jurists such as Dr. Karl Strupp, who says:

 “A body of troops may be obliged to let their prisoners starve, if the
 commander thinks this is the only means of carrying out an order which
 he has received, for example, an order to reach, at a certain time, a
 place indispensable for the proper conduct of the operations.

 “The stipulations of the Laws of War may be disregarded whenever
 the violation of them seems to be the only means of carrying out
 a military operation or of assuring its success, or, indeed, of
 supporting the armed forces, even though it be only one soldier.”

      (“Das Internationale Landkriegsrecht,” 1914,
        pages 7 and 8)

In short, according to the German idea, the recognized Laws of War,
as understood by civilized nations, are to be practised by Germany
only when found convenient. The alleged killing of one German soldier
in Aerschot led to the destruction of the whole town and the massacre
of many innocent citizens. It was contrary to Law, but it was in
accordance with the spirit of the German Military Code of 1902.

The German Army invaded Belgium with the full intention, in case of
resistance, of carrying on a war of terror by means of massacre,
robbery and destruction--a war to “destroy the material and moral
resources of the enemy.” Moreover, the German officers were provided
with forms drawn up in the French language to facilitate them,
especially in their work of robbery and arson.

They do not seem to have needed anything to facilitate them in their
work of massacre.

These forms are found in a book published at Berlin by Bath, in 1906,
entitled “The Military Interpreter,” destined for the use of German
officers “in the enemy’s country,” which seems to be a French speaking
country such as Belgium or France, as the forms are drawn up in French.
The book contains, to quote its introduction, “the French text of the
majority of the documents, letters, proclamations and other forms which
may be needed in time of war.”

Among these interesting documents we find the following form to be
used by officers when wishing to rob a whole city at once. It will be
observed that the pretended excuse for the robbery is supplied. The
document is as follows:

 “A fine of 600,000 marks, on account of the attempted assassination of
 a German soldier by a .........., has been imposed upon the City of
 O......... by order of...........

 “Fruitless efforts have been made to secure the remittance or
 reduction of this fine.

 “The limit of time fixed for the payment of the fine expires tomorrow,
 Saturday, December 17th, at noon.

 “Bank Notes, Coin, or Silverware will be accepted.”

The general outline of this useful form was followed by General Baron
von Leutwitz when on November 1st, 1914, he imposed upon the City of
Brussels “an additional fine of Five Million Francs” on account of an
alleged altercation between a Belgian policeman, named De Ryckere, and
a German soldier.

Here is another form, intended to give an air of justification to an
act of robbery:

 “The German authorities, having demanded a war contribution of two
 million francs from the city of M........., because its inhabitants
 fired upon the German troops when entering the city, and the
 municipality having declared that it has not the necessary funds
 and that it cannot find such funds among the citizens, the German
 authorities demand a settlement by bills of exchange.”

If the above demand failed to produce the desired results, the German
Commanders were provided with another form to be used as a “follow-up”
letter. This is a form of letter to be written by the Commanding
General to his subordinate, and the substance is to be communicated to
the recalcitrant citizens.

 “I acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 7th of this month telling
 me of the great difficulties you think you will meet in collecting the
 contributions.

 “I can only regret the explanations that you think proper to make on
 this subject. The order in question (which comes from my Government)
 is so clear and precise, the orders which I have received (on this
 subject) are so explicit, that, _if the amount due by the City of
 B......... is not paid the city will be burned without mercy_.”

The foregoing form seems to have been substantially followed by
Lieutenant General von Niebur in his letter to the Burgomaster of Wavre
on August 27th, 1914. A fine of three million francs was imposed upon
the little town of Wavre for an alleged attack on the German troops,
and in his letter of the above date Lieutenant General von Niebur
declares that “_the City of Wavre will be burned and destroyed if the
levy is not paid in due time, without regard for anyone; the innocent
will suffer with the guilty_.”

Here is another form for extorting money from a community:

 “On account of the destruction of the bridge at F......... I command,
 as follows:

 “The district shall pay an additional contribution of ten million
 francs, as a fine. This information is brought to the knowledge of
 the public with the following notice, namely, that the manner of
 distributing the assessment will be indicated later, and that the
 payment of the said amount will be exacted with the greatest severity.
 _The village of F......... has been at once burned with the exception
 of certain houses reserved for the use of the troops._”

  The foregoing form recalls the Proclamation of General von Buelow to
    the Municipal Authorities of Liege, on August 22nd, 1914, in which
    he said:

“_It is with my consent that the Commander-in-Chief has ordered the
whole town (of Andenne) to be burned and that about one hundred people
have been shot._”

The scenes of horror and barbarism depicted in the Reports of the
Official Belgian Commission of Inquiry have not been brought about
by accident. They are the direct result of the orders given and the
doctrines inculcated by the German General Staff.



       *       *       *       *       *

Transcriber’s Notes

The use of Roman numerals for the section headings was made consistent.

Minor punctuation errors have been corrected.

On page 18, “druken” was changed to “drunken.” (drunken orgies, sack of
whole towns)





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