On Easter-Sunday night, the 64th German Infantry Regiment surrounded the Vauban Quarter, the horror of the scene being intensified by the Hôtel-de-Ville in flames.
Each night, until April 30th, 1,800 to 2,000 persons were wrested from their homes.
Although greatly depressed, the deported people recovered their courage as the trains left the station, and to the amazement of the Germans sang the "Marseillaise" in a mighty chorus.
Twenty-five thousand persons, mostly women and children, were forcibly taken from their homes and made to cultivate the soil, break stones, build bridges, make sand-bags, turn shells, etc., their only food consisting of a little black "bread," nauseating soup and broken scraps of meat.
As soon as the French Government learned the facts, a Note was sent to the Neutral Powers, protesting against these inhuman deportations, which were ordered by General Von Graevenitz, and executed by the 64th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Captain Himmel.
Five months later, thanks to the intervention of the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII., these unfortunate people were allowed to go back to their homes.
For several months in 1917 things went better, but in 1918, the German Authorities recommenced deporting. A first batch of men and women was interned at Holzminden, while on another occasion the women were sent to Holzminden and the men to Jewie, near Vilna (Lithuania). The Official Records, to which the reader is referred, contain full details of these inhuman crimes and of the abominable treatment to which the exiles were subjected: privations of every kind, humiliation, torture and degrading occupations.
M. JACQUET'S GRAVE
in the East Cemetery.
On September 30th, 1918, the Kommandantur ordered the evacuation of all males from 15 to 60 years of age, but the German soldiers carried out their instructions in a half-hearted way, and many escaped. The approaching sound of the guns and the lax discipline of the soldiers announced the Allies' Great Victory and the coming deliverance to the war-weary people.