App. 55.
Military Court Examination of the Reservists, Gustav Voigt, Fritz Marks, and Heinrich Hartmann, Infantry Regiment No. 165.
Proceedings at Quedlinburg, in the Reserve Hospital.
Present:
President of the Court, Keil.
Secretary, Fahlberg.
Schilling, November 11th, 1914.
In the Reserve Hospital at Schilling, to which the above-mentioned Court officials had proceeded, the following examinations took place after the witnesses had been individually warned as to the importance of the oath:
1. Reservist Gustav Voigt.
As to Person: My name is Gustav Voigt. I am 24 years old; Protestant; Reservist of the 6th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 165.
As to Case: On the morning of August 6th found myself with seven comrades separated from my detachment. In order to get cover we had to creep through the gardens of a village lying just beyond Herve in Belgium. We suddenly saw five Belgian soldiers, who held up their arms and offered to surrender. They called to us, and when we reached them we noticed that they had with them two German soldiers of the 10th Hussars in handcuffs. One of them brought to our notice that a third hussar was hanging dead in the tree. We observed that the ears and nose of the corpse had been cut off. The two hussars told us also that the five Belgians, who were there, had hung and mutilated their comrade. The Belgians were just on the point of slaughtering or mutilating these two also, had we not arrived on the scene. We disarmed the Belgians, took them prisoners, and handed them over to a party of five Uhlans, who were already taking several Belgian prisoners away with them. We, too, then joined the Uhlans in order to regain our company, and, while passing through the village, were fired at from the cellars and windows. The name of the village I do not know, but it lies between Herve and a large coalpit shaft in the direction of Liège. I myself was wounded in the street-fighting at Liège. On the day before this occurrence our company had an outpost fight to the right of Herve, in the course of which an Einjähriger of the 5th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 165, was wounded and left behind. When we passed this spot again on the following morning we found the body of the Einjähriger lying under a garden fence; both his eyes had been gouged out. We were all convinced that this had been done by villagers.
On about August 7th, as we were advancing towards Liège, we saw a German infantry-man; I believe he belonged to Infantry Regiment No. 27. He showed no marks of any shot wound, but was dead, and all his private parts had been cut away.