Plate 6.
And they know full well what they are doing: these dead women must remain these, as an example; as an example, not for the other women in the village—these had already no doubt understood—, but as an example for the regiment, and for other regiments who were to come afterwards. These must be made warlike, they must be taught their duty, that is to shoot women when the opportunity occurs. The lesson bore fruit indeed. Here is sufficient proof: the young soldier who had that day seen and told us of “dead for the first time” makes the following note on the 10th and last page of his diary (Plate 6).
Plate 7.
“In this way we destroyed 8 houses with their inmates. In one of them two men with their wives and a girl of eighteen were bayonetted. The little one almost unnerved me so innocent was her expression. But it was impossible to check the crowd, so excited were they, for in such moments you are no longer men, but wild beasts.”[14]
And to prove that this murder of women and children is all in the days work of the German soldier, here is further evidence.
a) The author of an unsigned note-book (Plate 7) relates that at Orchies (Nord) a woman was shot for not having stopped at the word of command Halt! Thereupon, he adds, the whole place was burnt.[15]
b) The officer already mentioned of the 178th Saxon Regt reports that in the outskirts of Lisognes (Belgian Ardennes) “a scout from Marburg having placed three women one behind the other brought them all down with one shot”.
