There are proofs of German premeditation—warnings from German soldiers to civilians on whom they were billeted,[62] and an ammunition waggon which drew up at 8.0 a.m. in the Rue des Pitteurs, and twelve hours later disgorged the benzine with which the houses in that street were drenched before being burnt.[63]
“The city was perfectly quiet,” declares a Belgian witness,[64] “until about 8.0 p.m. At about 9.15 p.m. I was in bed reading when I heard the sound of rifle-fire.... The noise of the firing came nearer and nearer.” The first shot was fired from a window of “Emulation Building,” looking out on the Place de l’Université, in the heart of the town.[65] The Place was immediately crowded with armed German soldiers, firing in the air, breaking into houses, and dragging out any civilians they could find. First nine men (5 of them Spanish subjects) were shot in a batch, then 7 more.[66] “About 10.0 p.m. they were shooting everywhere. About 10.30 p.m. several machine guns were firing and artillery as well.” (The artillery was firing on private houses from the opposite side of the Meuse.[67]) “About 11.0 p.m. I saw between 45 and 50 houses burning. There were two seats of the fire—the first at the Place de l’Université (8 houses—I was close by at the time), the second across the Meuse on the Quai des Pecheurs, where there were about 35 houses burning. I heard a whole series of orders given in German, and also bugle calls, followed by the cries of the victims, and I saw women with children running about in the street, pursued by soldiers....” (a 28).
5. Ans: The Church
6. Liége: A Farm House
The arson was elaborate. In the Rue des Pitteurs the waggon loaded with benzine moved from door to door.[68] “About 20 men were going up to each of the houses. One of them had a sort of syringe, with which he squirted into the house, and another would throw a bucket of water in. A handful of stuff was first put into the bucket, and when this was thrown into the house there was an immediate explosion” (a 31). At the Place de l’Université, when the Belgian fire-brigade arrived, they were forbidden to extinguish the fire, and made to stand, hands up, against a wall (a 28, 29). Later they were assigned another task. “About midnight,” states a witness (a 30), “a whole heap of civilian corpses were brought to the Hôtel de Ville on a fire-brigade cart. There were 17 of them. Bits were blown out of their heads....”
As the houses caught fire the inmates tried to escape. The few who reached the street were shot down (a 24, 26). Most were driven back into the flames. “At about 30 of the houses,” a witness states (a 31), “I actually saw faces at the windows before the Germans entered, and then saw the same faces at the cellar windows after the Germans had driven the people into the cellars.” In this way a number of men and women were burnt alive.[69] In some cases the Germans would not wait for the fire to do their work for them, but bayonetted the people themselves. In one house, near the Episcopal Palace,[70] two boys were bayonetted before their mother’s eyes, and then the man—their father and her husband. Another man in the house was wounded almost to death, and the Germans were with difficulty prevented from “finishing him off,” next morning, on the way to the hospital. An orphan girl, who lodged in the same house, was violated.
Next morning, August 21st, the district round the University Buildings on either side of the Meuse was cleared of its inhabitants—such inhabitants as survived and such streets as still stood. The people were evicted at a few hours’ notice, and not allowed to return for a month.[71] The same day a proclamation was posted by the German authorities: “Civilians have fired on the German soldiers. Repression is the result.”[72] The indictment was not convincing, for “Emulation Building,” from which the first shot was fired on the night of the 20th, had been cleared of its Belgian occupants some days before and filled entirely with German soldiers. Later the German Governor of Liége shifted his ground, and laid the blame on Russian students “who had been a burden on the population of the city.”[73] A clearer light is thrown on the outbreak of August 20th by what occurred on the night of August 21st-22nd. “Aug. 22nd, 3 a.m., Liége,” writes a German in his diary. “Two infantry regiments shot at each other. Nine dead and 50 wounded—fault not yet ascertained.” But in the other diary, quoted before, the incident is thus recorded under the same date: “August 21st. In the night the soldiers were again fired on. We then destroyed several houses more.” The soldiers fire, the civilians suffer reprisals, but the Germans’ object is gained. The conquered population is terrorised, the invaders feel secure. “On August 23rd everything quiet,” the latter diarist continues. “The inhabitants have so far given in.
“August 24th. Our occupation is bathing, and eating and drinking for the rest of the day. We live like God in Belgium.”