THE RIMES OF GERMANY RESISTANCE (From (/1: Group by [ch on [he flrc dc 'I'n'amphe.) LONDON: THE FIELD & QUEEN (HORACE COX) LTD, BREAM'S BUILDXNGS. E.C. PRICE ONE SHILLING. 9: THE CRIMES OF GERMANY Being an Illustrated Synopsis of the violations of International Law and of Humanity by the armed forces of the German Empire. Based on the Official Enquiries of Great Britain, France, Russia and Belgium. With a Preface by Sir Theodore A. Cook. Being the Special Supplement issued by “ THE FIELD” NEWSPAPER revised and brought u P to date with extra illustrations. LONDON: Published by THE FIELD {9" QUEEN (HORACE COX), LTD., Bream's Buildings, EC‘ CONTENTS. PAGE 1 ~ man LIST OF CONTENTS. .. .. .. .. 3 (2) The Tradesman of Hamburg .. .. 49 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (3) Aerschot .. .. .. ,. ,. 51 (4-) Andenne .. .. .. .. ‘, 51 PREFACE by Sm THEODORE Coox .. ,. 5 Chapter VIII.—CIVILIANS AS SCREENS. Chapter I.—CnI.\nzs AGAINST WOMEN AND (1) Evidence 0f Bryce Report " " 52 CHILDREN. (2) Evidence of Belgian Commission . 55 (l) Across the Frontier .. .. .. 13 , (2) The March to Paris .. .. .. 15 Chapter IX.—-SUMMARY 0F MURDERS .. 56 (3) HOfStadc ” ' “ " 16 (4) Louvain, Chapter X.-—KILLING AND MUTILATING Tm: Malines, Aerschot . 19 VVOUNDED. Chapter IL—OTHER CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN (1) Evidence of Bryce Commission ... A 57 AND CHILDREN TESTIFIED BY (2) French Official Reports . 59 GERMANS. ‘ (3) Belgian Official Reports . 63 (1) German Letters and Diaries 22 (4) German Admissions " " " 65 (2) Outrages and Murders m Belgium 23 Chapter XI.—RUSS!AN WOUNDED IN GERMAN HANDS . 69 Chapter III.—OUTRAGES AGAINST CIVILIANS. (1) French Official Reports .. .. .. 25 Chapter XIIIXSERMANTREACHERY IN THE 73 (2) Eye-VVitnesses’ Stories . 27 L ~ ' . ' ' A Chapter XIII.—Pms0NERs IN GERMANY. Chapter IV.—OTIIER MURDEns ATTESTED BY . GERMANS. (l) Brltish, French and Russnan . 7’7 (1) The n Bath of Blood ,. A . ' . .. 31 (2) Russian Captives . 85 (2) Dinant . _ . 31 (3) Russians in Prison Camps , . ‘ . 87 ,(3) u \Viped Out n ' ' . _ . ‘ . 32 (4) Typhus at Schneidemiihle . 87 (5) Wittenburg Typhus Camp .. .. 89 Chapter V.——BURNING, Loor AXD PILLAGE‘ (6) Red Cross Prisoners .. -- ~- 91 (1) Through German Eyes . 33 Chapter XIV.—DEPORTATIONS INTO SLAVERY. Chapter VI.—1\IBELGXAN OFFICIAL REPORTS OF (1) Russian Citizens .. .. .. _. 92 T . ASSACRES' (2) Belgian VVorkmen . , . 93 2;; A2?” " -' -- -- -- :9 (3) Lille and District .4 .. .. 94. ennc . , . ’ 9 (3) Dinant .. .. .. .. 41 Chapter XV.—GEBMAN SUBMARINES .. H 96 (4) Hastiéres and Surice ‘ . 4-3 (5) Namur Province ,. .. .. ,. 45 Chapter XVL—POISONED WELLS .. .. 101 (6) Termonde .. .. .. 47 Chapter XVII.—EDITH CAVELL AND CHARLES Chapter VIL—GERMAN OFFICIAL Amussxoxs PRYATT " ‘ ' " 101 OF MASSAC'RES 1” BELFIUM' Chapter XVIII .—ZEPPELIN Runs AND BOM- (1) Women and Chlldren at Dlnant .. 49 BABDMENTS . 104. I LLUSTRATIONS. PAGE “ Nach Paris ” Medal Driving the Women of Louvain “ Gott Strafe England " Medal Captured as a Spy .. Ruined Porch of Rheims Cathedral Victims of the )Iassaeres at Andenne Louvain Library in 1913 More Victims of Massacre: at Andenne .. Louvain Library Burnt by the Germans .. Ruins of St. Martin, Ypres . Hall of Louvain University in 1913 A Street in Semaize ‘The Same Hall Burnt by the Germans Sermaize in Ruins .. Ypres Cloth Hall in 1913 Wreck of a Paris House .. Ypres Cloth Hall Burnt by the Germans .. Murder and Mutilation at Andenne Ruins of Gerbe’viller Terrible Savagery at Andenne Massacre at Gerbéviller Calais House Wrecked Burnt Interior of Rheims Cathedral A Shattered Church . Belgian Child Wounded A Wooden Saint A Civilian Prisoner . Wooden Colossus of Hindenburg . ‘Clcrmont-en-Argonne: As it is T0-day.. Bombs on “ The Fortress of London” .. Portable Flame-Thrower More Attacks on “ Fortified Places” Large Flame-Thrower Kultur in the Studio . A Statue of Eve from Rheims Advertisement of Looted Furniture Effect nf Fire on Rheims Cathedral Advertisement 0f Looted Horses . Rheims Cathedral in 1913 .. “Successful Operation” by German War- Carving in Rheims Cathedral ships . .. 80 Ruins of Roof of Rheims Cathedral Medals for Zeppelins and for Scarborough 82, 97 President Poincaré’s Chateau H.M.S. Persia . 102 A French Farm German Picture of the Lusitania .. 102 Incendiary Pastilles .. Statue of von Tirpitz . 102 General Lyautey’s House .. Funeral of the Victims of the Lusitania . 105 Germansilver medv‘ inscribed “ Nach Paris” on one side, with aportrait of General Von Kluck on the mo» Sir Whitworth Wallis says: “ The fooI-fury holding the flaming brand possibly delineates unconsciously that Teutonic ‘ Kultur’ with which we are- now acquainwd—if so, it must be reckoned one of the happiest designs on record." The medal, however, missed its purpose, as the designer, aspiring to the rank of a prophet, made it inlauticipation of the fall of Paris. A much 'aought after German medal' struck to commemorate the submarine blockude of England, Feb. 18, 1915. It provides the first example of the famous phrase “ Gen Strata Euglendl” PREFACE. “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of dem‘la and the hold 0] every joul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird . her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquitics . for she saith in her heart I sit a queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine . and the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their mer- chandise any more . cinnamon and odours and ointments and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves AND THE SOULS 0F MEN.”—Rev. xviii. 2, e! seq. _SOME people are beginning to forget the “ Belgian atrocities " of August and September, 1914- They do not realise that Germany has continued them—in one form 01' another—ever since. They do not understand that a nation convicted of such conduct cannot be given the consider- ation usually granted in such cases when the question of peace becomes practical; and (they appreciate still less the influence which this conduct must have upon the terms of peace themselves. If German soldiers had kept their swords clean in a fair fight for the supremacy of Europe, or for anything else, we should have shaken hands with them when we had beaten them and have retained nothing but admiration for the greatest military effort the world has ever Seen. This they have made impossible. For it is clear that the rules broken by Germany were made not so much to mitigate the horrors of war as to allow men who had fought out an issue to live together afterwards in peace. Germany’s conduct must, therefore, have very far-reaching results. For the deliberate policy authorised by the Kaiser, framed by his General Staff, and carried out by his soldiers and sailors, the whole German nation must in the end be held responsible, and must in the end suffer penalties proportionate to its continued approval of that policy and its readiness to profit by it. Not only must we carefully safeguard peace by the same methods of force Which Germany herself invoked to (shatter all covenants that bound her. but we cannot make peace at all until Germany is powerless to break it. The Prime Minister has solemnly pledged Great Britain, with the full approval not only of the Empire but of the civilised world, to exact full reparation from all Who have been responsible for ‘these violations of civilised warfare. Among the worst are: von Bissing, in Brussels; Manteufiel, ,at Louvain; Bi‘xlow and Schonmann, at Andenne; Bayer, at Dinant; Bohn, at Sommerfeld and 'Termonde ; Stenger, who signed the general order to kill the wounded ; Nieher, at VVavre ; 'Wittenstein, at Clermont—en-Argonne; Fosbender, at Lunéville; Tanner and Clauss, at Gerbéviller and Frambois ; Schrfider, at Compiégne ; the Colonel of the 70th Regiment of Infantry, who mutilated their wounded by order; Major Kastendick (57th Infantry) and Captain Diiltingen, who ordered ‘two women and a child to be killed. There are many others, and the proof of their guilt will become more and more important as the close of active hostilities approaches. Those who urge this country to make peace proposals prematurely will belittle it. Germany herself will attempt in every possible way to deny and to obscure it. But the evidence against her is to be found not merely in the sworn statements of eye-witnesses and of her victims themselves, but in the signed letters and documents of her own soldiers. That evidence proves more than her guilt in certain cases or in a. particular campaign. It proves her deliberate intention to incorporate these atrocious methods in all her subsequent wars and to menace the future peace and civilisation of the whole world with similar barbarities whenever she may think them necessary. Two other points deserve notice. The first is that Germany’s complaints invariably allege serious breaches of international law on the part of other people, without the slightest hint that she proposes to observe the law herself. The second is that, though many opportunities have been given her to answer the accusations made against :her, she has been careful to give no reply. Viscount Grey’s offer that questions of maritime law (7298 (0) should be submitted to an American tribunal was rudely rejected. There was also the offer of the Belgian Bishops to the Catholic Episcopate of Germany and Austria for the full investigation of the whole question of the “ Belgian Atrocit1es ” by a joint committee under a neutral president. Nothlng fairer could have been suggested. No clearer presumption of Germany’s guilt could be adduced than her refusal to entertain the offer. The cynical and immediate contempt shown by Germany for the Hague Conventions and other rules of civilised war has convinced everyone that the strict and continuous observance of such conventions in the future must obtain the sanction of such forcible measures as could be applied, When necessary, by the rest of the world, to the Germanic peoples or to any others who might wantonly violate the agreements of civilisation.