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Show The Story of Suzanne Silver eruys, a Heroic Daughter of Belgium Her Graphic Description of the Hun Invasion, His Brutality and Insolence "My prayer for the young womanhood of America is that they may he spariti the brutality, thr insults, the anguish and suffering that halt' been heaped upon the helpless wornanliood of my own brave Belgium by the cruel and despotic Hun during these three years of horror. "That the fair young women of the I'nitcd Stales may escape the advances of supercilious, smirking German officers, who. when they occupied my city of Brussels, were angered because our girls did not fall in love with them, and then proceeded to force their attentions upon them. "That the girls and women of .interim may not suffer the terrible terri-ble fate that befell many of our young Belgian women, who were lined up in the city hall courtyards of their villages when the Germans arrived and then uerc dragged off into captivity when these, officers walked along the line, stroking their mustaches and pointing to any pretty girl whom they desired, with the remark, 'I'll take this one.' S th women of America may not see their youne men slain erSy the thousands, their fathers sent off into Germany as laborers, their mothers sent ,nto the fields to perform the hardest of menial labor, tneir own sisters shot down in defense of honor "All these things have happened in my own unhappy BelSium I hm-e seentt all with my own eyes-nd it is my prayer that you here m the I mted States may be spared all these things." By Charles TT". Duke fTHIS is the prayer of a daughter of Belgium, an exile from the barren ruins of her once fair and happy home-Ur.d. home-Ur.d. who, when she fled into Holland ca her way to England and the United Smtes. was told by her Teutonic tormentors tor-mentors "that she would never see .;er father and mother again: that she could never return to Belgium again, er.d that Belgium for all time would re Germac" Lister., please, for a few moments to S'jranne Silvercruys. the nineteen-year-old daughter of a Judge of the Supreme Court of Belgium, refined, ei'.ieated. well born, speaking not in the cultivated word of the paid propagandist, propa-gandist, but in the sheer innocence of youth telilr.j' the story of her own outraged Belgium that was ground to tarth under the despotic heel of the Hun and today dares not call its soul its own not until the Allies have forced the invader back beyond the Rain? again. ST.-.e brings a message, not alone womanhood of America, but to all ''ho read. She tells the story of stricken -e'.givm and in the telling paints va;tlirg picture of just what may hx?Hvj to any other nation that lies dormant before the menace of the lustful lust-ful German military machine. Like some modern Joan of Arc. Miss Sil-ercruys Sil-ercruys has survived the tortures of fct-r crucified country in order that she est point the way now for all those hosts of humanity and civilization who are surging on toward the frightful glare of the battlefield and on beyond i: '.j the glow of world freedom. Listen to Suzanne. She typifies ail Belgium. What happened to her happened hap-pened to all Belgium. What she has to say is more than the expression of an individual: it Is the voice of all Belgium speaking through one of her fairest daughters. Miss Silvercruys is new a guest in the home of her sister, the wife of Prof. A. J. Carnoy, formerly a member of the faculty of the University of Lcuvain. Belgium, now of the University Univer-sity of Pennsylvania. It was this Philadelphia home that she told her story. "War! Ton do not know the mean-it mean-it g of war here in America yet." she besar.. "Tour beautiful young women flag and dance and are happy and gay. Tour young men are marching sway into the camps, It Is true: but they know not yet of war In all its horror. Tou are busy preparing, in ei-ery town and city and it is all very wonderful the way your great country '-'V9 Koing into this conflict but you yet to f.nd out the true meaning of uS. ; "-xly prayer is that yon may never t know as Belgium knows; that you may never suffer as Belgium has suffered; suf-fered; that you will arise and end this terrible carnage before the Hun shall t, have arrived at your own gate. "I was but sixteen years old that summer when the storm broke over us. We were at our country home at Maaseyck, not far from Liege. In two weeks more I would have been on my way into Germany to boarding school. -Iy brother was with the army all our Belgian boys had to serve their term. He was to come home in September. Sep-tember. There had been reports of trouble: many of the peasants came to my father and told htm there were reports from over the border that Germany Ger-many was preparing for war and would strike through Belgium. But e felt secure. Mad not the neutrality t Belgium been guaranteed? "Then several days later came such hews that there seemed no doubt the Germans were arming and would soon pe upon us. My father hastened to Brussels and returned in a few hours. The Government was still hopeful that Belgium would not be attacked and he tried to reassure the frightened People. "And then, it all came like a bolt frm the sky. At o'clock in the mrning we were awakened by a cou-r'-r on horseback, hastening from house to house, advising all the peo-',at peo-',at the Germans were coming and "deta:llng each soldier to the mobiliza tion point of hts regiment. I remember remem-ber first of all came the droning sound In the. air and. looking up, we saw the airplane of the German scout the advance agent of the Hun. "Can I describe to you all that followed? fol-lowed? Tou have pictured some of it here in America: mothers, sisters and. loved ones hanging on the necks of their soldier boys, unwilling to give them up; my own mother hysterically rolling in the earth crying for her own boy. I can hear yet the voice of my father that awful first night of the war as he knelt at the window praying for my brother; Just praying that God would bring him back so that he could look upon his face and talk tohim r,. , . - - - - y . v ws " ''w---'-.j :: .'. - j. ...e(w. r - .v"--' -'"i ' -iC'-.1 -"-- - "A . -j r v ' -? t ' 1 ' " " ' - I -'-V' . v V s ir. f-. yi'VK'.v ,... -' -.-.. :-.." .1- 1" ' '.! ' ' . - - k 1 I -a'v ; sA-fr-'ivyv'ii'tK-fr:': ,1 ;! f & "'.M -vv'f 7- v.-'-' ..'T'l..l:v,;;:'yi,,il;,i,i..-....r'.;-ji . i 1 . v i ' , - - - , ; ! : . , - - ' , s J - j t " ' 4 - ' j ' V " . ... . f v ' - '-vh. .' .! C ' , . 5 . - . viH, , .... 'k :a v ' " : r - - -..: .-. - ;-: 'i Tiv"- y "'fwfsjffr, t - .;". :-'- - ... . -. .1 v. ':'v');.Vi w-'i :.j:t ' - -V- f . " ' : 4 . J s - ' - ' , - - - 1 . . , Zi s p- r J - ' i i ' . , J J. : r. :, J .v- . t C ,;-v, - if . , -. i r : - r - ' r: i$ 1 f ' i ' Is " v 1 f A i , U " t t r , ..J i - A-n Peeliug potatoes uud washing dishes was all there was for a sixteen-year-old girl to do in the military hospital in Belgium Bel-gium biit Mies Silvercruys did it gladly '"because it was r my bit"' whether his lrnibs were blown off or not. just so he could talk to him and see his face. -Can you picture it the retreat of Belgium before the advancing Germans. Ger-mans. They came by thousands; yes. by millions later on. Before the Germans, Ger-mans, along the country roads, straggled strag-gled the peasant Belgian families, lugging lug-ging their children and their belongings. belong-ings. All the time we could hear the dull roar of tho guns. Up the roads marched our own bruve troops many of them never to return. 'Suppose here in the United States the Germans had appeared suddenly at New Tork with a mighty army and navy. Tou had fled before thorn to Trenton and then to Philadelphia. On, on they came relentlessly. SU11 you fell back until you arrived in Washington. Wash-ington. And then after many days the city of Washington was surrounded sur-rounded by the enemy and they occupied occu-pied tho city. That was what happened hap-pened to us in Felgium. "Then we found what war was like. My brother's regiment was in the thick of the righting at Liege. He was in twenty battles; until he fell fighting bravely for Belgium. Recovered Recov-ered from his wounds he was taken ill with fever; but we got him home and. yes, lie is alive today and In this country, where he still serves Belgium. "In those days our boys found what war was like. My brother was moving to a night attack with his regiment near Liege against a party of Germans Ger-mans who liad occupied a vantage point at the top of a hill. As they tramped along in the moonlight suddenly sud-denly the German artillery let loose. Next to my brother marched one of his closest companions. He fell dying; my brother, terrified in the presence of death, bent over his friend, shaking his body and calling to him to speak. An officer stepped forward, shook my brother rudely and said roughly. 'Go ahead now, you w.ll soe lots of that from now on.' flight days later my brother encountered the mother and father of that boy In a di.slant village of Belgium. They pressed forward, through the crowd to ask arout their . boy. My brother tried to evade them, but had to turn back finally and tell them that their son had been 'wounded. An exile from her outraged Belgium, her father and mother still "over there." 3ii.5 Silvercruys works here in America from 9 a. ni. to 5 p. m. every day writing letters to soldiers, jewing, packing clothes, knitting anything to help Belgium "So Belgium suffered in the horror of those days. I saw the flames of Louvain as we retreated later toward Brussels. I saw all the horror of that stricken city. Walking near the ruins of burned homes where the Germans Ger-mans were digging I saw them removing remov-ing bodies of women and children. The German officers saw me and commanded com-manded me to move on. 'Remember, you have seen nothing,' they would say. "In Brussels I wanted to do my bit. so I asked my father whether I could not be a nurse in one of our hospitals. I was but sixteen years old and he laughed at my earnestness. However. I persisted and won my way. He took me to the hospital and introduced me to the head of the place, who laughed again when father said that I was determined to bo a nurse. " 'There is nothing you can do here.' said the superintendent of the hospital, hos-pital, 'except to peel potatoes and wash dishes. " 'All right.' I said, 'then I will peel potatoes and wash dishes: it is my bit and I am very happy to do it." And T did It until later, when I took up the more active work of nursing tho wounded soldiers. Oh. our soldiers were brave men: fighting until they were overwhelmed. "I remember one brave fellow whom r. 'L pou entering Belgian villages the Germans would line un the young wnmeu in the city hall courtyard; smirking, smiling officers w ould walk along the line, pick out the prettiest girl and say. 'I'll take this one - and she was dragged off to a fate worse than death' we encountered in our flight from Maaseyck to Louvain. He had bee detailed to blow up a bridge at the approach of the Germans. It meant certain d;a;h to him. for he must stand in the middle of the struoturs and light the powder that would blow up the bridge and thus prevent the advance of the Germans. But he saluted sa-luted my father fearlessly as we passed and smiled as he told us bravely of what he was to do. "Atrocities! It is all too horrible to recall, but I do know many, many cases : and for every one who doubts that the Germans w-ere merciless and cruelly brutal in their treatment of the Belgians I can tell of my own experience ex-perience and I can produce my brother, who also was witness of many barbarous things. "Such a thing as to find upon the person of a wounded German the fin-, ger rings of many Belgian women was not an uncommon occurrence. "Near my sister's home in Louvain was a family whose home was invaded in-vaded by the Germans. Several of the oillcers were at dinner with the family, when suddenly there came a great clamor outside the house followed by shots and a battering upon the front door of the Belgian home. - In burst several wildly infuriated members of a German patrol. " 'Some one in this house fired upon our patrol.' thundered the leader of the Germ. party. "The Belgian stoutly insisted in-sisted that there must be some mistake and turned to Ins guests other German Ger-man officers -telling the newly arrived that they could learn from the lips of their own i fTlcers that the family had been seated quietly ot the dinner table and that there had ton no shooting from within the hou.-e. "'I tell you some one shot at our p.itrol and he must pay the penalty," continued the incensed German. "The man of the house still maintained main-tained his Innox-enre. and vainly besought be-sought his tcuests for some word in defense. But it was not forthcoming, whereupon the patrol officer ordered the man of the house to make ready immediately to accompany the patrol party. The Belgian pleaded for five minutes In which to go upstairs and see his baby before leaving. With a growl the German officer permitted him to go upstairs. "In the meantime the rest of the party moved about through the house helping themselves to whatever they wanted. After five minutes or more the Belgian's wife, uneasy over the prolonged absence of her husband, started to go upstairs. She was met on the staircase by a bayoneted German Ger-man soldier coming downstairs. "'Have you seen anything of my husband?" the woman aiked In her anguish. "For a moment the German leered at her, and then burst into a frenzied laugh like an Insane bru'.o. " Huh,' he laughed, with a curse, 'so that was your husband that I ran through with my bayonet. Hah. hah, hahl' And it was, too! The Belgian father had been killed as he bent over his child bidding It farewell. "That was what happened in Belgium. Bel-gium. There are many, many cases just like that stories too horrible to relate. Thousands of homeless people; peo-ple; thousands of hungry people: thousands thou-sands of suffering people. Some of your people are suffering here In America now because of the fuel famine. Multiply that many times for Belgium, where, for three years, they have had no fuel or food, except that provided by relief work or the meager allowance of the Germans. 'Tt has been the middle classes of Belgium who have suffered most When the soup houses were opened and the American relief poured in the poor people went immediately to these places and availed themselves ot the food. The rich could buy for themselves, them-selves, but the middle class' suffered because in so very many cases they were too proud to go forth In quest of food. "The world will never know the outrages out-rages inflicted upon the women of Belgium Bel-gium by the Germans. They are stories too horrible to relate. The girls in Belgium have been made to do just what the Germans commanded of them. No work was too hard or too lowly. At the command of the German officers these girls of refinement refine-ment from the best homes of Belgium were made to scmb floors, shine boots and do the general bidding of their captors. "Many, many times when the Germans Ger-mans entered a village or town they would compel the girls to line up in the city hall square or courtyard. Smirking and smiling In their vanity, these Hun officers would walk along in front of the girls, clip them under the chin, stick their fingers in the girls' cheeks and offer all manner of insults. An officer would single out a pretty girl and tell her she must go with him and do his bidding. If she refused it meant certain death, or a fate worse than death. ' "Let me recall a case in particular that happened in the city of Aerschot, above Louvain. When the Germans captured the place they compelled all the young women of the town to fall in line. Included am-mg the girls was the daughter of the Lord Mayor of the town. A German officer singled her out and commanded that she fall out of her place in line. He told her to go with h.im. "The father of the girl objected, and for his words was shot down in coA blood before his daughter's eyes. The girl's captor started to lead her away, when her brother apiwared upon the scene and threw himself upon the C.-rman officer. The laur calmly drew his revolver and shot the brother. "Such is the story cf Belgium. I could tell many, many stories of this kind concerning the outraged womanhood woman-hood of Belgium; but they are revolting revolt-ing stories. "It was Impossible to tell who was Gentian and who was r.oL Particularly Particu-larly In the early days of the German occupation the German spies were all around us. One could not tell but that the person next to him was a pecret agent of the German epy y-tem. y-tem. "In Brussels, before the German army arrived, was a 'priest' who came to our hospital. It was noticed that he did not make the sign of the Cross at mealtime. Confronted with the charge that he was a spy, the Trlesf admitted the truth of the accusation. At another time two 'Sisters of Charity' Char-ity' aroused suspicion by the fullness cf their garments. One of our party got very close to one of the 'sisters' and suddenly brushed against her with violence. In return came the squawk of a bird and the flutter of wings. The 'sisters' were spies who carried in the folds of their garments carrier pigeons to be released and carry back to the German lines information infor-mation concerning our army. "So was Belgium harassed by spie and harried until the invading millions mil-lions tramped over our nation and beat our smaller army by sheer weight of numbers. It is a long story of pain and suffering, a dark picture one of the darkest ever palmed in the history his-tory of the world. "But the spirit of Belgium Is unquenchable; un-quenchable; after the war. with the help of the Allies, she wii! arise triumphant, tri-umphant, superb. Here is an incident that I witnessed in Brussels that well illustrates the true spirit of Belgium. "In a street car traveled a war widow a Belgian woman and her son. He was a child of six years with pretty golden hair and fair-faced. After a bit there came Into the car a German army officer, a Bavarian. Probably he was thinking of his own home, his own wife and boy; at any rate, the Belgian child attracted his attention. Watching the boy for a few minutes in admiration, the officer moved toward to-ward the child and patted him on the head.' Bending over he asked the boy's name. "Instantly the little lad straightened, his eyes flashed and he turned a glance of withering scorn upon the Bavarian. " 'Do not speak to me." said the child slowly, sternly. 'Tou killed my daddy and I hate you." The officer offi-cer drew back, of course, and at the next corner left the car. "Beneath her mask of sorrow the true soul of Belgium still lingers. Belgium Bel-gium will never bend the knee to Germany; she will never acquiesce. "War means sacrifice. There is a part for every young woman to do and it is more than knitting, or emergency emer-gency aid, or anything of that kind. We've all got to give up everything that we possibly can and blend our efforts in the common cause. If we do not tiie Hun will come to America and America will suffer the fate of Belgium." And Suzanne Silvercruys practices just what she preaches. Every day, from 9 in the morning until 5 in the evening, she works at the headquarters headquar-ters of the Belgian relief committee. wounded soldiers. Uh. our soldiers f were brave men: fighting until they Jj" "pP " WJ' "Tj-s, ' f A were overwhelmed. f i f j f ', I , j J . I "I remember one brave fellow whom ' j ' P"' "1 ' ' I j j' "L pou entering Belgian villages the Germans would lJ.-r-.ij&i4 !': ' J Js&. 'VW'-' line un the young wnmeu in the city hall courtyard; gK .TfejSiii ' ': I ir2 y'vA '-3 VH' smirking, smiling officers would walk along the line, C -i !J f?Tf' $ '.'. L--"' VSSsJ ' pick out the prettiest girl and say. 'I'll take this i2yrHl'ff ;.';-' U ' J v ' :Jf-'.?- one" and s-he was dra'eaed off to a fate worse than B-F ' 1 $f f ' ixr : death"' . MM' W-n I?!-! 5 - 7?' m we encountered in our flight from "The Belgian stoutly in- w. ' : , . J.'igJS ' ' - wSi'"'?? I ' : ' "''' Maaseyck to Louvain. He had bee;. .fisted that there must be Nj.JliJ;. s:-'.f fJliSSte-- ' O.fSs f "" ":- detailed to blow up a bridge at the some mistake and turned '""" x4'5se:3liii n" .L" . f' jV.' approach of the Germans. It meant to his guests other Ger- Jj 'F J - ri? grf' r-" ' y ri .Pf certain dwith to him. for he must man officers -telling the f v y "- ft stand in the middle of the struoturs newly arrived that they 4 1 and light the powder that would blow could learn from the lips |
