One of the most horrible tragedies of this war was the massacre of the Valkenaers family, at Thildonck, on the 26th August, 1914, while Louvain was burning. Because they had not prevented the Belgian soldiers from utilizing their farms as points of support, the members of the two Valkenaers households were shot down in cold blood. Of these fourteen unfortunate people three were grievously wounded and seven killed. The better to amuse themselves, the Germans forced the elder of the young girls to wave a sort of flag.
During the preceding night (that of the 25th August), in Louvain, they had savagely mangled the corpse of a young woman.
On the afternoon of the 25th, being still in the immediate neighbourhood, at Bueken, they had seized the curé and cut off his nose and ears before giving him the coup de grâce (p. [238]). At the same time began the torture of the curé of Pont-Brûlé, to end only on the 26th.
At Elewijt, on the 27th, they amused themselves by amputating the hands of four men—the three brothers Van der Aa and François Salu.
A little further to the east the first German troops who had passed through Schaffen, near Diest, on the 13th or 14th August, had there tortured the blacksmith Broeden. All day long he had laboured, shoeing the horses of the enemy's cavalry. Early in the evening he repaired to the church, with the sacristan, with the object of saving some precious articles which had not been placed in security. He was surprised by the soldiery and seized. Successively the Germans broke his wrists, his arms, and his legs; perhaps he suffered yet other tortures. When he was practically lifeless the soldiers asked him whether he thought that he would in future be capable of undertaking any kind of labour. On his replying, in an almost inaudible voice, that he did not, they declared that in that case he ought not to continue to live. Immediately they threw him, head first, into a ditch dug for the purpose; then the ditch was filled, leaving his feet protruding.
In other parts of the country also the most varied tortures. At Spontin, near Dinant, on the 23rd August, 1914, they pierced the curé and the burgomaster with bayonet-wounds until death ensued; but first they had bound each man with a strong cord, drawn violently tight round the waist by the combined efforts of two soldiers. It must be supposed that the officer who presided over the "severities" at Spontin had quite a special affection for cords, for having taken alive some 120 inhabitants of the place (the rest were killed, shot down while they were trying to escape), he had them all tied together by the wrists and conveyed them towards Dorinn; but many were shot before reaching that village.
On the same day, in Dinant prison, a soldier strangled a baby in the arms of its mother because it was crying too loud.
At Sorinnes, still in the Dinant district, and on the same day, Jules and Albert Houzieaux were burned alive.
At Aiseau, on the 21st August, the Germans shut two men into a house, to which they set fire. But the unexpected arrival of a shell prevented them from enjoying the sufferings of their victims.