Many of the people of Tintigny, Rossignol, and other localities, who had been taken away as civil prisoners, were shot by the roadside. Those of Musson escaped only because the order had come from Germany not to kill any more prisoners: by July 1915 they were not as yet repatriated.
The Return of Civil Prisoners.
In November and December there returned to their "homes" (we mean to their native towns, not to their houses, which were burned) about 450 inhabitants of Dinant, more than 400 of Aerschot, and several hundred people of Louvain, of the 1,200 which had been taken away.
Many of them bore, painted in white oil paint on the back of their waistcoats the words: Kriegsgefangene-Münsterlager. Until March 1915 those living at Dinant had to present themselves regularly before the military authorities.
On the occasion of their return the communal administration of Dinant was compelled publicly to thank the Germans.
City of Dinant.
On the occasion of the return of a portion of our civil prisoners, I believe it my duty to invite the whole population to observe the most absolute calm. Any demonstration might be severely repressed.
The return of a portion of our fellow-citizens, held in captivity for nearly three months, constitutes an act of benevolence, an act of generous humanity on the part of the military authorities, to whom we offer the thanks of the administration and those of the people of Dinant. By its tranquillity the latter will endeavour to manifest its gratitude.
I also beg the returning prisoners immediately to resume their labours. This measure is necessary, as much in the interest of their families as in the interest of society.
For the Burgomaster, absent,
E. Taziaux,
Communal Councillor.
Dinant, the 18th November, 1914.
At the end of January 1915 about 2,500 inhabitants of Brabant were sent back in a body. They had left the camps on Sunday, the 24th January, and they reached Louvain on Friday the 29th, and Brussels and Vilvorde on Saturday the 30th. During this five days' journey they had not been allowed to leave the trucks into which they were crammed; for all nourishment they received some black bread and water, and on occasion a turnip or a beet. The Louvain prisoners had the greatest trouble in the world to walk as far as the ruins of their houses. Those from beyond Assche were set down at the Gare du Nord in Brussels; they had to be carried as far as the tram for Berchem; their swollen feet refused all service. These unhappy people were still wearing the light clothes which they were wearing in August, when they were dragged from their villages, and since then they had never had a fire. Those from Tervueren were taken from the trucks at Schaerbeek; they were driven home in carts.
German Admission of the Innocence of the Civil Prisoners.
What crime had these unhappy folk committed to be treated in so terrible a fashion? None. The Germans themselves admit it; none (2nd Grey Book, No. 87). The German authorities communicated the following note to the Belgian newspapers—we copy it from the Écho de la presse internationale of the 30th January, 1915:—