And they did! There were few Belgian houses more thoroughly robbed of the desired metal than was the house of these pretended German allies!
The ever-dreaded visits from soldiers were like swords of Damocles hanging over our heads. No one dared leave his house for any length of time, for fear of returning to find it ransacked and looted, and himself perhaps under arrest because a forgotten Times or other forbidden literature had been discovered. An innocent conscience did little to allay this fear, as many persons were imprisoned on the slightest excuse. Even when liberated later, they had every detail pried into of their private life, correspondence, and financial circumstances, besides being held in close confinement and intense suspense for two or three weeks, often much longer.
One entire family we know, a family of high standing in Brussels, was arrested upon suspicion, not excepting the delicate mother. She was confined in a cell for seven weeks, pending investigation—which failed to find any proof of guilt on her part or that of the others. Neither they nor anyone knew why they were seized, save that the son was suspected of having received or passed on the Libre Belgique. After a trial that led to no definite verdict of guilt the family was liberated, but obliged to pay a fine of twenty thousand marks!
Not only were suspected persons arrested, but their close friends and everyone who innocently happened to call at their homes after, or at the time of their arrest.
In the offices of a business friend of ours, an employé failed to appear one morning, and a young girl typewriter was sent to his house to learn the reason of his absence. As she did not reappear, another employé was sent in quest of her, who also did not return. In the afternoon the typewriter’s mother came to inquire why her daughter had not gone home for dinner at midday; and, on being told whither the latter had gone, she hastened to the absent clerk’s house, fearing some calamity had befallen the girl. When she too failed to return, our friend’s mystification became apprehension. He appealed to the police, who informed him all had been arrested as possible accomplices of the suspected clerk, who was afterwards proven quite innocent, and liberated.
Such circumstances naturally kept everyone in a state of nervous tension.
A rather interesting and significant fact in regard to these raids was the change of demeanour shown by those obliged to do this work during the second copper requisition in the autumn of 1917. These men were late recruits, usually young fellows, dragged from honourable occupations to serve their bitter time in the trenches, and forced to perform this distasteful service during intervals of rest. At the house of an acquaintance of ours two soldiers of this type very politely asked permission to search for copper, entered, looked about in a half-hearted manner; then, after grunting, “S’gut; hier gibts nichts,” said they were very tired, and asked permission, which was granted, to lie on two sofas in a back sitting-room and sleep for half an hour!
Our place was raided at this period by two such tired lads, fresh from the trenches and expecting to return to action in a few days.
When they first entered one assumed an autocratic manner, made rather ludicrous by his frail physique and boyish countenance; but, after we exchanged with him a few words in his native tongue, this bearing disappeared. The two looked through the house indifferently, and, as all metal such as they sought had been hidden, found nothing. They kindly hinted, however, that some brass beds and gas-heating installations would be taken at a later raid should they be found there!—a hint we acted upon at once. Some few articles of silver remained in the dining-room for daily use;—the rest was secreted, as many families, on one excuse or another, had already been robbed of their silverware. One, a finely-worked fruit-dish, purchased as solid silver and, as we thought, not likely to be seized, because of the workmanship, was subjected to a damaging filing process which revealed it as heavily plated on copper. Although the amount of copper contained was certainly too insignificant to be worth having, the fruit-stand was claimed, and noted on a card to be called for later. However, it was hidden, and one of less artistic value set in its place before that predicted call!
It is only fair to conjecture that many instances of inexcusable brutality to which the Belgians were subjected were caused by a stupid fear, on the soldiers’ part, of not strictly obeying orders, rather than by any individual wish to cause pain; although in some cases it was quite the opposite.