Show WRITTEN RECORD OF atrocities diaries of german geman So diers tell of murder and pillage in belgian cities CALLED DISGRACE TO ARMY no discrimination made between innocent and guilty infants shot in dead mothers arms testimony of brand whitlock very many german soldiers who have been taken prisoner had kepa diaries and these have been confiscated by the captors many have teen been published frequently with facsimile reproductions to guarantee their authenticity the following extracts with the testimony of brand whitlock are made public by tile the committee on public information at washington all aug 23 our men came back and said that nt at the point where t the he valley joined the mouse meuse we could not get any further ns as the villagers were shooting at us from every house we shot the whole lot 16 of them they were drawn up in three ranks the same shot did for three at a time the men had already shown their brutal brutal instincts the sight of the bodies of all tho inhabitants who had been shot was indescribable every house in the whole village was destroyed we dragged the villagers one after nn fin other out of the most unlikely corners the men were vere shot as well as the women and children who were in tile the con convent vent since shots hots had bad been fired from the convent windows and we burnt it afterwards the inhabitants might have escaped the penalty by handing banding over the guilty and paying francs the inhabitants fired on our men again the division took drastic steps to stop this the villages being burnt and the inhabitants being shot the pretty little village of gue dossus however was apparently set on fire without cause A cyclist f ell off on his machine and his rifle went off ile he immediately said he had been shot at all the inhabitants were burnt lu in the houses I 1 hope there will be no more such horrors disgrace to our arm army at leppe apparently men were shot there must have been some innocent men among them in future we shall have to hold an inquiry as to their guilt in tead of shooting hooting them in the evening we marched to maubert fontaane just as we were having our meal the alarm was sounded everyone Is very jumpy september 3 still at rethel on guard over prisoners the houses are charming inside the middle class in france has magnificent furniture we found stylish pieces every everywhere here and beautiful silk but in what a state good god eiery bit ot of furniture broken mirrors smashed the vandals themselves could not laic have dune done more damage this place is a disgrace to our army the inhabitants who nho fled could coul d not ot ha hae expected x of course that all their goods would have been loft left intact after so ninny many troops had passed but the column commanders are responsible tor for the greater part of the damage is as they could have prevented the looting and destruction the damage amounts to millions of marks even the safes have been attacked in a solicitors house in NN which Illch as luck would have it all was in ili excellent taste including a collection of old lace and eastern works of art everything was smashed to bits 1 I could not resist taking a little memento myself here and there one house avas particularly elegant everything in the best taste the hall was of light oak I 1 found a splendid raincoat under the staircase and a camera tor for felix froni from the diary of an officer in the one hundred seventy eighth regiment twelfth saxon corps but his horror apparently was not shared by the german commander in chief as Is evident from the following order to the people of liege the population of anderine An denne after making a display of peaceful intentions toward our troops attacked them inthe most treacherous manner with my authorization tile general commanding these troops has reduced the town to ashes and has had persons shot 1 I bring this fact to the knowledge of the people of liege in order that they may know what fate to expect should they adopt a similar attitude liege 22 ad august 1914 1014 GENERAL VON BUELOW brand whitlock writes of massacres hi his report of september 12 1917 to the secretary of state minister whitlock has much to tell of the polley policy of frightfulness the following folloNi Dg passages refer to the subject of massacres sac res su summary m mary executions took place at dilian dinant t without the least semblance of judgment the names and number of the victims are not known but they must be numerous I 1 have been unable to obtain precise details in this respect and the number of persons person who have fled Is unknown among the persons persona who were shot are mr defon marq of dinant sasserath first nl ni derman nimmer need aged seventy consul for the argentine republic victor poncelet who was executed in the presence of his wife ilfe and seven children Was Wassel gc and his two sons gustavc and leon nicaise NI calse two very old men jules monin find and others till all shot in the cellar of their brewery mr camille platte and son aged seventeen PhIl lippart Pl edfort his wife and daughter miss barsig ny during the execution of about forty inhabitants of dinnant the germans mans placed before the condemned their wives and children it is thus that madam albin who had just given birth to a child three days previously was brought on a mattress by german soldiers to witness the execution of her husband tier her cries and eions were so pressing that tier her husbands life was spared on the octh of august german soldiers entered various streets of louvain and ordered the inhabitants of the houses to proceed to tile the place de la station where the bodies of nearly a dozen assassinated persons were lying women and children were separated from rom the men ond and forced to remain on the rince place de la station during the whole day they had to witness the execution of many of their fellow citizens who were for the most part shot at the side of the square near the house of mr He lemaide Hemal maide dc the 1 women and children after havi having ng remained on the square for more than 15 hours were allowed to depart tile the gardes CIvi ques of louvain were also taken prisoners and sent to germany to tile the camp of munster minister where they were held tor for several weeks on thursday august 27 order was given to the inhabitants to leave lou vain because the city was to be bombarded old men women children the sick priests nuns were driven on oil the roads roada like cattle more than of the inhabitants were driven drilea as tar far as Tir lemont nearly 12 miles from louvain Lou infants shot in mothers arms one of the most sorely tried communities muni ties was that of the little village of Ta famines tamines mines down in what ahat Is known as the borinaga Borl Bor nage Inage the coal fields near charleroy charleroi Char lerol leroi famines tamines Is a mining village in the cambre Sain bre it 11 Is a collection of small cottages sheltering about inhabitants mostly all poor laborers the little graveyard in which the church stands bears its mute testimony to the horror of the event there are hundreds of new made graves each with its small wooden cross and its bit of flowers the crosses are so closely huddled that there Is scarcely room to walk between them the crosses crones are alike and all bear the same date the sinister date of august 22 1911 1014 but Nil whether lether their hands were cut off or not whether they were impaled on bayonets or not children were shot eliot down by military order in cold blood in id the awful crime of the rock of bayard there overlooking the mouse below dinant infants in their mothers arms were shot down without mercy the deed never surpassed in cruelty by any band of savages is described by the bishop of namur himself one scene surpasses in horror all others it is the fusillade of the bayard near dinant it appears to have been ordered by colonel this fusillade made many victims among the nearby parishes especially those of des Iti ravages and neffe it caused the death of nearly 90 persons without distinction of age or sex ses among the victims were bables babies in arms boys and girls fathers and mothers of fa families milles even old men dead children in pile of bodies it nas mas there that 12 en ildren under the age of six perished from the fire of tile the executioners execution ers six of them as they lay in their mothers arms the child bievet three weeks old maurice betels eleven months old nelly pollet eleven months old glida genon eighteen months old gilda marchat Mar chot two years old clara vay two years and six months the pile of bodies comprised also ninny many children from six to fourteen years eight large families have entirely disappeared four have but one survivor those men that escaped death and many of whom were riddled with bullets were oblige to bury in a summary and hasty fashion their fathers mothers brothers or sisters then after having been relieved of their money and being placed in chains they were sent to cassel prussia 1 11 mr hugh gibson the secretary of our legation in belgium visited lou vain during its systematic destruction by the germans in A journal from our legation in belgium new york 1017 pages lie relates what tile the german off leers told him it NN was as a story of clearing out civilians from a large pirt part of the town a systematic routing out of men from cellars and garrets wholesale shootings the generous use of machine guns and the free application of tho torch the whole story enough to to make one see red and tor for our guidance it was impressed on us that this would make people respect germany and think twice about resisting her german pastors anti and professors far from the excitement of the firing bring have defended this policy of frightfulness e g we are not only compelled to accept the war that la Is forced upon us but are even compelled to carry on this war with a cruelty a ruthlessness an employment of every imaginable device unknown in any previous war pastor D baumgarten in deutsche reden in zelt german speeches in difficult days |