As to Person: My name is Carl Schwarz. I am 34 years of age, of the Protestant faith.
As to Case: On the 19th of August I was sent in advance of Colonel Stenger, who later was shot, and was commanding the 8th Infantry Brigade, to Aerschot, to find quarters for the staff. The Mayor of Aerschot suggested to me that his own house, situated in the market-place, would provide the best accommodation. I entered this house, and was received in the most friendly manner by the Mayor's wife. Between four and five in the afternoon, Colonel Stenger and the Orderly Officer, Lieutenant of Reserve Beyersdorff, arrived.
Shortly before eight in the evening, soon after I had had a short interview with the Colonel in his room, there suddenly arose a brisk rifle-fire in the town; it was directed on the troops, who were partly passing through and partly halting in the market-place. The first shots, which, according to the sound, seemed to come from a northerly direction, I thought came from the enemy's fire, who had been reported as advancing from the north. But I was soon convinced by the shots directed on our house that they were intended for us. The shots did not emanate from our troops. After a short pause, the firing was renewed with equal violence. In the meantime, the Mayor was brought to me by the men of the 140th Infantry Regiment. I had to protect him from the fury of the men. I now went through the streets with the Mayor, and through him tried to bring the citizens to reason. After the firing had died down, I handed the Mayor over to the commandant of the town, Major Jenrich.
As I now returned to the Mayor's house to receive orders from Colonel Stenger, I found him lying seriously wounded on the floor of his room. Owing to the many shots fired at our adjoining rooms, and to the fact that the townsfolk obviously knew that the commander was billeted in the Mayor's house (indicated on the door), and further, that Colonel Stenger could be seen through the wide-open doors of the balcony, I was under the impression that the fire was specially directed against the Colonel.
After Colonel Jenrich had given the command that the troops should leave Aerschot, I personally, accompanied by a few men of the 140th Infantry Regiment, made a thorough search of the Mayor's house, from which shots were supposed to have been fired. On this occasion, by my orders, the locked cellar doors, of which the keys were alleged to have been lost, were broken in with axes. In the cellar, in front of the window which opened on to the street, I found a conspicuous stand from which shots must have been fired. The window-panes were completely shattered. Whilst we were searching the living-rooms, the Mayor's son came towards us from a darkened room. I, personally, handed him over to the sentry in the market-place. Those calumnies about our doings in the Mayor's house, published in a foreign newspaper, are untrue.
The negotiations concerning the housing and catering were conducted on both sides in a friendly fashion, mostly with the Mayor's wife, as the Mayor was occupied at the town hall. It was natural that, after the shooting of Colonel Stenger, the friendly tone which had reigned should have been changed to a strictly official one, and I did not omit to show my horror at the sad event.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: Schwarz.
Hereupon the witness took the oath.
2. Reserve Lieutenant Beyersdorff of the 12th Dragoon Regiment.