Joseph Bédier

“ How can there be such beings! Last night, a man of the Landwehr, a man of thirty-five, and a married man, tried to rape the daughter of a man in whose house he had been quartered, she was a child; and as the father tried to interpose he kept the point of his bayonet on the man’s breast. ”

“ In Belgium.—It is easy to imagine the state of fury of our soldiers, when you see the villages that have been destroyed. There is not one house left undamaged. All eatables are requisitioned by the soldiers no longer commanded. We have seen heaps of dead men and women who had been executed after trial. But the righteous anger of our soldiers goes hand in hand with sheer vandalism. ”

“ Yes, it is war, but such as even Attila would not have waged, had he agreed to certain engagements, for, to agree to them would have been to awake to the conception which alone distinguishes the civilized man from the barbarian—the nation from the horde—the respect of the given word.—Yes, it is war, but a war whose insolent principles could be constructed only by pedantic megalomaniacs, the Julius von Hartmanns, the Bernhardis, the Treitschkes ”

“ I have preferred that the evidence which I shall call shall be of such a nature that no living man, not even in Germany shall attempt to refute it. German atrocities shall be proved by German documents.
I shall take the evidence chiefly from those war diaries, which Article 75 of the Rules for Field service of the German Army advises soldiers to keep on the march, which we have confiscated from prisoners [1] , as being military papers. It goes without saying that their number increases daily. ”

“ Let us remember the terms of Art. 50 of the Hague Convention of 1907 signed in the name of the German Emperor by a gentleman, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein. «No collective punishment, pecuniary or other, can be [Pg 9] inflicted upon a community for individual acts for which they cannot be held responsible as a body.» ”

“ In ganz leeren Dörfer setzen sie den roten Hahn ganz willkürlich auf die Häuser. Mir tun [die] Leute leit. [Wenn] sie auch unfaire Waffen gebrauchen, so verteidigen sie doch nur ihr Vaterland. Die Grausamkeiten die verübt wurden und noch werden von seiten der Bürger werden wüst gerächt.
«Verstümmelungen der Verwundeten sind an Tagesordnung.»
[30] The pamphlet entitled «Appel aux nations civilisées» which the German government spread abroad, says: «Il n’est pas vrai que nous fassions la guerre au mépris du droit des gens. Nos soldats ne commettent ni actes d’indiscipline ni cruautés.» ”

“ Now, I ask my reader, no matter of what nationality: can he imagine such an article being printed in his own language, in the town in which he lives, and read by his wife and children? In what country, except Germany is such a thing conceivable? Not in France, at least.
Here is still one further convincing proof of how usual it is for the German army to mutilate the wounded. It is taken (Plates 17 and 18) from the diary of Pte Paul Glöde, of the 9th Battalion of the Pioneers (IX Corps) ”

“ We had arrested three civilians, and suddenly a good idea struck me. We placed them on chairs and made them understand that they must go and sit on them in the middle of the street. On one side entreaties, on the other blows from the butt-end of a gun. One gets terribly hardened after a while. At last they were seated outside in the street. ”

“ Every one shoots standing, a few, a very few fire kneeling. No [Pg 33] one tries to take shelter. We reach a little depression in the ground: here the red trousers dead or wounded lie on a heap ground. We knock ‘down’ or bayonet the wounded, for we know that those scoundrels fire at our backs when we have gone [Pg 34] by. There was a Frenchman there stretched out, full length, face down, pretending to be dead. A kick from a strong fusilier soon taught him that we were there. ”

“ Three hundred of the inhabitants were shot and the survivors were requisitioned as grave-diggers. [Pg 19] You should have seen the women at this moment! But you can’t do otherwise. During our march on Wilot, things went better: the inhabitants who wished to leave could do so and go where they liked. [16] But anyone who fired was shot. When we left Owele, shots were fired: but there, women and everything were fired on [17] ....
IV
Often when German troops wish to carry a position, they place civilians, men, women and children before them, and take shelter behind this shield of living flesh. ”

“ For my part I have examined but forty. They will suffice for my task. I shall make some extracts from them, taking care that each quotation bears sufficient proof of its genuineness.
In what order shall I arrange them? For many reasons, but chiefly because some of these documents only ten lines long contain proof of crimes of many kinds, I shall not attempt to adopt any rigid order of classification. I shall dip [Pg 7] haphazard into the heap; certain associations of ideas or pictures, and a certain similarity in the texts will alone enable me to group them. ”

“ A sad and beautiful sight, and one that made you shudder. At the entrance of the village there lay about 50 dead bodies strewn on the road. They had been shot for having fired on our troops from ambush. In the course of the night, many others were shot in the same way, so that we could count more than two hundred. The women and children, lamp in hand, were obliged to watch the horrible scene. We then ate our rice, in the midst of the corpses, for we had not tasted food since morning.” [9] ”

“ Oberst und Regiments-Kommandeur Neubauer; General-Major und Brigade-Kommandeur Stenger.
Translation. After to-day no more prisoners will be taken. All prisoners are to be killed. Wounded, with or without arms, are to be killed. Even prisoners already grouped in convoys are to be killed. Let not a single living enemy remain behind us.
Some thirty soldiers of Stenger’s Brigade (112 and 142nd Regt of the Baden Infantry) , were examined in our prisoners camps. ”

“ The Belgian Report questions whether the inhabitants of Andenne committed any hostile acts against German troops, and adds: «In reality, more than 200 persons were shot. Everything almost is ravaged. The houses have been burnt over a distance of nine miles.» ”

“ The population of unoccupied territory, who, at the approach of the enemy, spontaneously take up arms against the invading forces without having had time to organize according to the conditions of Art. ”

“ And they know full well what they are doing: these dead women must remain these, as an example; as an example, not for the other women in the village—these had already no doubt understood—, but as an example for the regiment, and for other regiments who were to come afterwards. These must be made [Pg 17] warlike, they must be taught their duty, that is to shoot women when the opportunity occurs. ”

“ H. M. the German Emperor, in ratifying the Hague Convention of 1907 agreed (Article 23) “that it is forbidden ... (c) [Pg 28] to kill or wound an enemy, who having laid down his arms and having no means of self-defence, gives himself up as a prisoner ”

“ In an unsigned note-book of a soldier belonging to the 32nd Infantry (IV Reserve Corps) we come across the following statement.
«3rd September. Creil. The iron bridge has been blown up. Consequently we burnt the streets and shot the civilians.» [3]
The regular French troops alone—the Engineers—had blown up the iron bridge at Creil ”

“ Diary of Lt Kietzmann (2nd Company, 1st Battalion of the 49th Regt of Infantry) , dated 18th August (Plate 3) .
Plate 3.
«A little in front of Diest [5] lies the village of Schaffen. About 50 civilians had hidden in the church tower and had fired on [Pg 11] our men with a machine-gun. All the civilians were shot.» [6]
c) Diary of a Saxon officer (unsigned) (178th Regt XII Army Corps, I Saxon Corps) .
“26th August. The pretty village of Gué-d’Hossus in the Ardennes has been burnt, although innocent of any crime, it seemed to me. ”

“ Without distinction of grade, nor of arms, nor of Corps, they steal, and even in the ambulances the doctors steal. Here is an example from the diary of Private Johannes Thode (4. Reserve-Ersatz Regiment) :
“Brussels 5. ”

“ Here is an order of the day given on the 26th August by General Stenger commanding the 58th German Brigade to his troops:
Von heute ab werden keine Gefangene mehr gemacht. Sämtliche Gefangene werden niedergemacht. Verwundete ob mit Waffen oder Wehrlos niedergemacht. Gefangene auch in grösseren 6 geschlossenen Formationen werden niedergemacht. Es bleibe kein Feind lebend hinter uns.
[Pg 29]
Oberleutnant und Kompagnie-Chef Stoy ”