Their Crimes

Their Crimes, by Various

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Title: Their Crimes
Author: Various
Release Date: November 24, 2003 [EBook #10225]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CRIMES ***

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THEIR CRIMES

Translated from the French

1917.

It is proposed to devote any profits from the sale of this work to The
League of Remembrance, or for relief work in Lorraine.

CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
Robbery
Incendiarism
Murder
Outrages on Women and Children
Killing the Wounded
Sheltering behind Women
Martyrdom of Civilian Prisoners
German Excuses: Lies and Calumny
The German Appeal
Appeal by Belgian Workmen
Conclusion

PREFACE.

The purpose of this book is to remind English-speaking people all over
the Empire and our Allies in America of the wanton destruction and
unspeakable terror which have overwhelmed the regions of France and
Belgium occupied by the Boche, and also to quicken a true perception
of the reparation and punishment due when peace is made with the
enemy. In many minds time has dimmed the horrors of August and
September 1914. When war weariness is apt to sap resolution and the
possibility of a patched up peace is furtively canvassed, the great world
of the English-speaking race should call to remembrance the inhuman
and barely credible acts of brutality and bestiality committed in cold
blood by the German race.
No apology is made for this book. It is a translation of a document
which has created a profound impression in France. It is an
authoritative record of German crimes committed on the people of
Belgium and Northern France, attested by the Mayors of twenty-six
French towns. Some time ago permission was obtained from the French
Committee of Publication (the Prefect of Meurthe-and-Moselle, and the
Mayors of Nancy and Luneville) to produce an English version on
condition that the translation be an "exact and literal translation." This
has been completed and the Editor, the Rev. J. Esslemont Adams, an
Assistant Principal Chaplain with the British Expeditionary Force in
France, is indebted to the friends who have assisted in producing the
work.

INTRODUCTION
This is a book of horrors, but a book of plain truths! Where have we
discovered our facts? They are taken from three sources: First, Four
reports issued by the French Commission of Enquiry[1]; and
"Germany's Violation of the Laws of Warfare," published by the
French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Second, Two volumes containing
twenty-two reports of the Belgian Commission[2], and the Reply to the
German White Book of the 15th May, 1915; Third, Notebooks found
upon a large number of German soldiers, non-commissioned officers,
and officers, who have been wounded or taken prisoners, and translated

under the direction of the French Government. These valuable records,
in which the bandits and their leaders have imprudently given
themselves away, are real "pièces à conviction."
These reports in their entirety form an overwhelming indictment. We
wish that everyone could study them in full. But the books are large,
running to thousands of pages, and will not find their way to the
general public.
Yet everyone ought to know how the Germans carry on war. We have
therefore made selections from these documents in order to compile
this small pamphlet. A dismal task, this wading through mud and blood!
And a hard task, to run through all these reports, pencil in hand, with
the idea of underlining the essential facts! You find yourself noting
down each page, marking each paragraph; and, lo and behold, at the
end of the book, you have selected everything--- that is to say, nothing.
One might as well start to gather the hundred finest among the leaves
of a forest, or to pick up the hundred most glittering grains among the
sand on a beach. All we can do is to take the first examples which come
to hand. This, then, is not a collection of the most stirring and striking
German crimes, but simply a book of samples. Until complete statistics
are forthcoming, two classes of outrage stand out, and must remain ever
present to the mind: murdered civilians can be counted in thousands;
houses wilfully burned, in tens of thousands.
For want of time and space we have concerned ourselves here only
with crimes committed in Belgium and France, and we have had no
thought of separating the two neighbouring sister nations.
Our part in this work is a modest one. Taking at random a certain
number of