Innumerable German atrocities are on record and well authenticated. For example, Professor Jacobs, at a medical meeting in Edinburgh, stated that, as head of the Belgian Red Cross, he "had visited a chateau but found the Red Cross had not been respected. It had been completely destroyed, and the bodies of six girls, aged from ten to seventeen, were lying on the lawn. A convent containing sixty sisters had been entered by the German soldiers and every one had been violated. On the evidence of the doctor of the institution twenty-five were pregnant. Professor Jacobs had operated on the wife of a doctor living near Namur. Three weeks after the operation, when convalescing and still in bed, their house was entered by German soldiers; she was raped by seven of them and died two days after."[68]
1. A few typical examples of the wholesale atrocities of German troops are given in Appendix C, but to show that in many cases such atrocities were not only countenanced, but ordered by officers in command, we quote the following:—
August 22, 1914.
The inhabitants of the town of Andenne, after having protested their peaceful intentions, made a treacherous surprise attack on our troops.
It was with my consent that the General had the whole place burnt down, and about 100 people shot.
I bring this fact to the knowledge of the town of Liége, so that its inhabitants may know the fate with which they are threatened if they take up a similar attitude.
The General Commanding-in-Chief, Von Bulow.[69]
2. Here is an order of the day given on August 26 by General Stenger commanding the 58th German Brigade:—
After to-day no more prisoners will be taken. All prisoners are to be killed. Wounded, with or without arms, are to be killed. Even prisoners already grouped in convoys are to be killed. Let not a single living enemy remain behind us.
Oberlieutenant und Kompagnie-Chef Stoy;
Oberst und Regiments Kommandeur Neubauer;
General-Major und Brigade-Kommandeur Stenger.[70]
With reference to the above Order, Professor Joseph Bédier says: "Some thirty soldiers of Stenger's Brigade (112th and 142nd Regt. of the Baden Infantry), were examined in our prisoners' camps. I have read their evidence, which they gave upon oath and signed. All confirm the statement that this order of the day was given them on August 26, in one unit by Major Mosebach, in another by Lieut. Curtius, &c.; the majority did not know whether the order was carried out, but three of them say they saw it done in the forest of Thiaville, where ten or twelve wounded French soldiers who had already been spared by a battalion were despatched. Two others saw the order carried out on the Thiaville road, where some wounded found in a ditch by a company were finished off."[71]
3. The following are extracts from a Proclamation posted by the Germans at Namur on August 25, 1914:—
(3) Every street will be occupied by a German Guard, who will take ten hostages from each street, whom they will keep under surveillance. If there is any rising in the street the ten hostages will be shot.
(4) Doors may not be locked, and at night after eight o'clock there must be lights in three windows in every house.
(5) It is forbidden to be in the street after eight o'clock. The inhabitants of Namur must understand that there is no greater and more horrible crime than to compromise the existence of the town and the life of its citizens by criminal acts against the German Army.
The Commander of the Town,
Von Bulow.[72]
4. On October 5 the following Proclamation was posted in Brussels "and probably in most of the Communes of the Kingdom."