PROCLAMATION TO THE POPULATION OF RHEIMS.
"In order to insure sufficiently the safety of our troops and the tranquility of the population of Rheims, the persons mentioned have been seized as hostages by the Commander of the German Army. These hostages will be shot if there is the least disorder. On the other hand, if the town remains perfectly calm and quiet these hostages and inhabitants will be placed under the protection of the German Army.
"The General Commanding.
"Rheims, 12th September, 1914."
Over 80 hostages in Rheims.
Beneath this proclamation there were posted the names of 81 hostages and a statement that others had also been seized as hostages. The lives of all these men depended in reality upon the interpretation which the German military authorities might give to the elastic phrase, "the least disorder," in the proclamation.
Hugh Gibson, in A Journal from our Legation in Belgium, page 184, explains what was likely to happen:
"Another thing is, that on entering a town, they hold the burgomaster, the procureur du roi, and other authorities as hostages to insure good behavior by the population. Of course, the hoodlum class would like nothing better than to see their natural enemies, the defenders of law and order, ignominiously shot, and they do not restrain themselves a bit on account of the hostages."
STATEMENT FROM DIARY OF BOMBARDIER WETZEL.
"Aug. 8th. First fight and set fire to several villages.
"Aug. 9th. Returned to old quarters; there we searched all the houses and shot the mayor and shot one man down from the chimney pot, and then we again set fire to the village.
"On the 18th August Letalle (?) captured 10 men with three priests because they have shot down from the church tower. They were brought to the village of Ste. Marie.
Hostages at Willekamm.
"Oct. 5th. We were in quarters in the evening at Willekamm. Lieut. Radfels was quartered in the mayor's house and there had two prisoners (tied together) on a short whip, and in case anything happened they were to be killed.
"Oct. 11th. We had no fight, but we caught about 20 men and shot them." (From the diary of Bombardier Wetzel, Second Mounted Battery, First Kurhessian Field Artillery, Regiment No. 11.)
The Germans also found it convenient on many occasions to secure civilians, both men and women, who could be forced to march or stand in front of the troops, so that the countrymen of the civilians would be compelled first to kill their own people if they resisted the Germans. This usage is illustrated in the following:
LETTER OF LIEUT. EBERLEIN.
"October 7, 1914.
Civilians used as screens.
"But we arrested three other civilians, and then I had a brilliant idea. We gave them chairs, and we then ordered them to go and sit out in the middle of the street. On their part, pitiful entreaties; on ours, a few blows from the butt end of the rifle. Little by little one becomes terribly callous at this business. At last they were all seated outside in the street. I do not know what anguished prayers they may have said but I noticed that their hands were convulsively clasped the whole time. I pitied these fellows, but the method was immediately effective.
"The flank fire from the houses quickly diminished, so that we were able to occupy the opposite house and thus to dominate the principal street. Every living being who showed himself in the street was shot. The artillery on its side had done good work all this time, and when, toward 7 o'clock in the evening, the brigade advanced to the assault to relieve us I was in a position to report that Saint Dié had been cleared of the enemy.
"Later on I learned that the regiment of reserve which entered Saint Dié further to the north had tried the same experiment. The four civilians whom they had compelled in the same way to sit out in the street were killed by French bullets. I myself saw them lying in the middle of the street near the hospital."
"A. Eberlein,
"First-Lieutenant."Letter published on the 7th October, 1914, in the "Vorabendblatt" of the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten.
Minister Whitlock, in his report of September 12, 1917, to the Secretary of State, gives an instance of this German practice of seeking protection.
"No respect to the cassock."