C. App. 73.
Present:
Military Magistrate, Naumann.
Secretary of the Military Court, Schwarzbach.
La Malmaison, December 5th, 1914.
In the inquiry concerning the violations of International Law committed against German troops, there appeared as witness Transport Soldier of Reserve Müller, 2nd Field Pioneer Company, Pioneer Battalion No. 12, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, made the following statement:
My name is Emil Erwin Müller, 26 years old; Protestant; fruit grower.
On the afternoon of August 25th, 1914, in company with Non-commissioned Officer Fehrmann, I saw a number of bodies of civilians and that of a woman lying in front of a house in a cross-street in Dinant. We entered the house. In the room on the right there lay an officer—a lieutenant of Infantry Regiment No. 182—a sofa-cushion under his head; his head and a part of his chest were covered with a white cloth. All three civilians wore the uniform of Infantry Regiment No. 182. In the adjoining room there lay stretched out dead a non-commissioned officer and five privates of the same regiment.
I lifted up the cloth covering the lieutenant and saw that he had received a shot in the head. I did not see any further injuries to the officer.
One of the privates who lay beside the lieutenant had his trousers unbuttoned in front so that one could see his body. This soldier had a shot in the lower part of the body. Extending from the larynx to at least 10 cm. to the left was a cut which was bloody and the edges were probably 1 cm. apart. The blood had flowed down towards the side. I am convinced that it could only have been a wound from a cut.
In the other room the trousers of one of the soldiers were unbuttoned so that one could see the body. This man had a cut or stab wound in the lower body about 3 cm. wide. The clothing of the remaining soldiers showed no disarrangement, they all bore shot-wounds.
The scene conveyed the impression that the officer, the non-commissioned officer and the men had been attacked in their sleep by the inhabitants in that quarter. I infer this from the fact that the officer had a sofa-cushion and the others either a cloth or a knapsack under their heads. The rifles stood in a corner.