Part 1 (1/2)
Their Crimes.
by Various.
PREFACE.
The purpose of this book is to remind English-speaking people all over the Empire and our Allies in America of the wanton destruction and unspeakable terror which have overwhelmed the regions of France and Belgium occupied by the Boche, and also to quicken a true perception of the reparation and punishment due when peace is made with the enemy. In many minds time has dimmed the horrors of August and September 1914.
When war weariness is apt to sap resolution and the possibility of a patched up peace is furtively canva.s.sed, the great world of the English-speaking race should call to remembrance the inhuman and barely credible acts of brutality and b.e.s.t.i.a.lity committed in cold blood by the German race.
No apology is made for this book. It is a translation of a doc.u.ment which has created a profound impression in France. It is an authoritative record of German crimes committed on the people of Belgium and Northern France, attested by the Mayors of twenty-six French towns.
Some time ago permission was obtained from the French Committee of Publication (the Prefect of Meurthe-and-Moselle, and the Mayors of Nancy and Luneville) to produce an English version on condition that the translation be an ”exact and literal translation.” This has been completed and the Editor, the Rev. J. Esslemont Adams, an a.s.sistant Princ.i.p.al Chaplain with the British Expeditionary Force in France, is indebted to the friends who have a.s.sisted in producing the work.
INTRODUCTION
This is a book of horrors, but a book of plain truths! Where have we discovered our facts? They are taken from three sources: _First_, Four reports issued by the French Commission of Enquiry[1]; and ”Germany's Violation of the Laws of Warfare,” published by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; _Second_, Two volumes containing twenty-two reports of the Belgian Commission[2], and the Reply to the German White Book of the 15th May, 1915; _Third_, Notebooks found upon a large number of German soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and officers, who have been wounded or taken prisoners, and translated under the direction of the French Government. These valuable records, in which the bandits and their leaders have imprudently given themselves away, are real ”_pieces a conviction_.”
These reports in their entirety form an overwhelming indictment. We wish that everyone could study them in full. But the books are large, running to thousands of pages, and will not find their way to the general public.
Yet everyone ought to know how the Germans carry on war. We have therefore made selections from these doc.u.ments in order to compile this small pamphlet. A dismal task, this wading through mud and blood! And a hard task, to run through all these reports, pencil in hand, with the idea of underlining _the essential facts_! You find yourself noting down each page, marking each paragraph; and, lo and behold, at the end of the book, you have selected _everything_--- that is to say, nothing. One might as well start to gather the hundred finest among the leaves of a forest, or to pick up the hundred most glittering grains among the sand on a beach. All we can do is to take the first examples which come to hand. This, then, is not a collection of the most stirring and striking German crimes, but simply a book of samples. Until complete statistics are forthcoming, two cla.s.ses of outrage stand out, and must remain ever present to the mind: murdered civilians can be counted in thousands; houses wilfully burned, in tens of thousands.
For want of time and s.p.a.ce we have concerned ourselves here only with crimes committed in Belgium and France, and we have had no thought of separating the two neighbouring sister nations.
Our part in this work is a modest one. Taking at random a certain number of _facts_, we have grouped them under different headings to make perusal easier for the reader. To indicate the references would have been impossible. Each line would have required a foot-note; the notes would have been as long as the text, and both the length of, and the cost of producing this pamphlet would have been doubled.
It is enough to state that there is not a single fact published here that cannot be verified by our readers in one or other of the doc.u.ments already referred to. Nothing but facts are set down, absolute bare facts, and it is for the reader to form his own conclusions. When he has studied these ”samples,” and begins by means of them to learn the truth, then, and only then, will he have the right to choose, according to his conscience, between remembrance and oblivion, between pardon and punishment.
L. MIRMAN, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
G. SIMON, Mayor of Nancy.
G. KELLER, Mayor of Luneville.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The members of this Commission were MM. G. Payelle (Premier President de la Cour des Comptes), A. Mollard (Ministre Plenipotentiaire), G. Maringer (Conseiller d'etat), E. Paillot (Conseiller a la Cour de Ca.s.sation)--Rapports et Proces-verbaux, vols i., ii., iii., iv., Imprimerie Nationale.
[2] The Commission, consisting of men of the highest position in Belgium, is presided over by M. Van Iseghem (President de la Cour de Ca.s.sation). Its reports and the ”Reply to the German White Book” have been published by Berger-Levrault, from which firm we have also ”Carnets de Route” (J. de Dampierre) and ”Paroles Allemandes.” ”Crimes allemands d'apres des te-moi gnages allemands,” by J. Bedier, is published by Colin.
ROBBERY
We shall not waste time over the looting of cellars, of larders, of poultry yards, of linen-chests, or of whatever can be consumed promptly, or immediately made use of by the troops--all these are the merest trifles. Let us also dismiss pillage, organised on a large scale by the authorities, of all sorts of raw material and industrial machinery: the bill on this score will come to several thousand million francs. Let us likewise put aside official robberies, committed by governors of towns, or provinces, from munic.i.p.al treasuries (even the treasury of the Red Cross at Brussels was robbed), usually under the form of fines, or of taxes imposed under transparent pretences. There again there will be millions to recover.
We shall deal here with _personal robberies_ only, as distinct from the pilfering carried on by hungry soldiers, distinct too from the regular contributions levied on a conquered country by an unscrupulous administration. These robberies are innumerable, committed sometimes by private soldiers, but often by officers, doctors, and high officials.
Here are some examples.