Part 14 (1/2)
[Footnote 106: ”Mit der Kluck'schen Armee nach Belgien” (”With von Kluck's Army into Belgium”), by Dr. Jos. Risse, p. 17.]
Dr. Risse's interesting diary contains one or two important pa.s.sages ill.u.s.trating the relation between conquerors and conquered. Like many other German writers, he saw no hostile act on the part of the civilian population, but they came to him as rumours. ”That night we slept in a barn. Here we heard that a village near Dahlem had been burned down because the inhabitants had cut the throat of a sleeping ambulance attendant.
”On continuing our march we suddenly entered a wide vale. The horizon was blood-red and huge clouds of smoke drifted heavenwards. On all sides the villages were in flames. In the last village before Louvain the sight was terrible in the extreme; houses ablaze; pools of blood in the street; here and there a dead civilian; pieces of Belgian equipment, haversacks, boots and trousers lay around; while the inhabitants stood about with their hands raised above their heads.
”It was said that hostile cavalry had hidden in the village and together with a part of the inhabitants had fired on our troops. We only saw the consequences.
”After a long rest before Louvain we entered the town at 7 p.m. Our artillery had taken up a semi-circular position on the heights around and directed their cannon on to the town.”[107]
[Footnote 107: Ibid., pp. 22-3.]
The above events occurred on August 19th, exactly six days before the sack of Louvain. It strikes one as remarkable that the German cannon were even on that day directed against an unfortified city.
Risse was among the first German troops to enter Brussels. ”Our route took us through some of the princ.i.p.al streets, and various splendid buildings including the Royal palace. Joy shone in our faces and a feeling of pride swelled our b.r.e.a.s.t.s at being the first to enter Belgium's capital. These feelings found expression in our talk and shouts. The man behind me shouted to every bewildered, staring Belgian whom we pa.s.sed: 'Yes, young fellow, you are astonished, you blockhead!'
On we marched with the air of victors.
”The inhabitants were exceedingly kind, so that one had not at all the feeling of being in the capital of an enemy. They brought us water, lemonade, beer, cigars, cigarettes, etc., without asking for any payment.”[108]
[Footnote 108: Ibid., pp. 26-7.]
The same writer refers to similar hospitality in various parts of his book. After pa.s.sing through Brussels he continues his diary: ”Sunday, August 23rd. Nothing came of our hopes for a rest-day. Shortly after 5 a.m. we were ready for the march. A fine rain was falling as we pa.s.sed through village after village. We saw the villagers with frightened faces hurrying to church, carrying prayer-books. Notices from the Belgian Government were placarded on the houses, warning the people to avoid every kind of hostility towards the Germans.”[109]
[Footnote 109: Ibid., p. 31.]
From the last sentence it is evident that the Belgian authorities did not incite the civilian population to resistance. Other German war-writers state that the Belgian and French Governments had organized a _franc-tireur_ warfare long before, and this accusation is one of the pillars of Germany's defence for the destruction of Louvain.
”Soon after crossing the frontier we saw the first ruined house. Our route led us down the same road on which a few days before the violent and bitter struggles had taken place between German troops and Belgian soldiers, aided by the inhabitants. The Belgians have supported their troops in a manner which can only be described as b.e.s.t.i.a.l and cruel.
From the houses they have shot at troops on the march, and of course their homes have been reduced to ashes.
”The road from Aix-la-Chapelle to Liege is one long, sad line of desolation.[110] Otherwise the district is fertile; now, however, sadness and devastation reign supreme. Nearly every second house is a heap of ruins, while the houses which are still standing are empty and deserted.
[Footnote 110: On September 8th, 1914, the Kaiser sent a long telegram to President Wilson, in which he defended the German armies against the charges of ruthless atrocities. He euphemistically stated that ”a few villages have been destroyed.”]
”On every side signs of destruction; furniture and house utensils lie around; not a pane of gla.s.s but what is broken. Still the inhabitants themselves are to blame, for have they not shot at our poor, tired soldiers?”[111]
[Footnote 111: ”Mit den Konigin-Fusilieren durch Belgien” (”With the Queen Fusiliers through Belgium”), by H. Knutz, p. 13.]
That is the utmost sympathy which any German has expressed for Belgium.
The German public is fully informed of all that has been done, and considers that _they_ have been brutally, wrongfully treated. Lord Bryce's report as well as the French and Belgian official reports have been dealt with at considerable length in the German Press, but receive no credence whatever; they are lies, all lies invented to blacken the character of poor, n.o.ble, generous Germany!
Germans are well aware of the awful number of brutal crimes which their men-folk commit year by year at home. Yet they are absolutely convinced that these same men are immediately transformed into chivalrous knights so soon as they don the Kaiser's uniform. They seem incapable of conceiving that a race which debauches its own women, can hardly be expected to show the crudest forms of respect to the women of an enemy people.
Herr Knutz--an elementary school-teacher in civilian attire, and a non-commissioned officer when in the German army--seems to possess some rays of human feeling. ”Just as I was leaving the fort I saw seven or eight Belgian civilians guarded by our men with fixed bayonets. They were charged with firing on German soldiers. I must say that the lamentations of these men--aged from 20 to 50--made a deep impression on me. They had thrown themselves upon their knees, and with raised hands were weeping and beseeching that their lives might be spared.
”The villagers are exceedingly ignorant, and when their land is in danger, believe themselves justified in seizing any old shot-gun or revolver which lies at hand. Probably some of the more prudent are aware that it is a mad enterprise, but the instinct of self-defence is so innate in the simple country people that advice does not help in the least.” (Von Bethmann-Hollweg and von Tirpitz justify the use of gas, the sinking of merchant vessels containing women and children, the dropping of bombs on open towns, etc., etc., by the plea of self-defence.--Author.)
”But it is otherwise with regard to the atrocities on our wounded; these are a stain on Belgium's national honour which will not easily be wiped out. A German would never perpetrate such monstrous crimes,[112] and that we can say without any overweening opinion of ourselves.”[113]