Their Crimes | Page 4

in Lorraine, at Lunéville, Baccarat, and
elsewhere.
All note-books, more or less, contain such items as these: "Wholesale
pillage and abundant loot," "Everything destroyed or sacked," "Looting
going strong," "Played the piano; looting going strong." This very
German formula frequently occurs, "Methodically plundered." And
again, "We have been allowed to plunder; we didn't require to be told
twice: whole bales of loot."
"Rethel. The Vandals could not have done better." (The officer who
makes this indiscreet admission and seems to protest against the thefts
committed, writes on the following page: "I have found a silk rainproof
coat and a camera for Felix.")
"Courcy. The village, and the workmen's cottages looted and sacked.
Atrocious. There is something, after all, in what they say of German
barbarians."

"Ottignies. The village was pillaged. The blond beast has made plain
what he is. The Huns and the free-lances of the Middle Ages could not
have done better."
"Cirey. During the night incredible things were done: shops sacked,
money stolen, rapes: enough to make one's hair stand on end."
FOOTNOTES:
[3] We have not found this fact recorded in the Commission's Reports.
It was told to us, on his return from captivity, by Dr. Marlier, of the
20th Corps, taken prisoner at Morhange, and Dr. Marlier is the soul of
honour.

INCENDIARISM
In order to punish imaginary crimes, attributed to individuals or
townships, or without even taking the trouble to discover any kind of
pretext, the Germans often, especially after looting, set everything on
fire so as to make all traces disappear. Sometimes, as at Courtaçon,
they compelled the inhabitants to provide the material for burning their
own houses; or, as at Recquignies, forced prisoners "to set the houses
of the doctor and mayor on fire with lighted straw." But generally they
do the work themselves. They have a special service for this, and all the
requisite incendiary material is carefully prepared; torches, grenades,
fuses, oil pumps, firebrands, satchels of pastilles containing very
inflammable compressed powder, etc. German science has applied
itself to the perfecting of the technique of incendiarism. The village is
set alight by a drilled method. Those concerned act quite coolly, as a
matter of duty, as though in accordance with a drill scheme laid down
and perfected beforehand.
Of course, fire once let loose, these people have to see that it does its
work completely: accordingly, at Louvain, they destroyed the
fire-engines and fire-escapes; at Namur, they stopped the firemen at the
very moment they were preparing to do their duty.

In this way they sometimes wilfully burned down whole blocks of
dwellings (Lunéville): sometimes an entire district (105 houses at
Senlis, 112 at Baccarat): sometimes almost a whole town itself (more
than 300 houses at Gerbéviller, 800 at Sermaize, 1,200 at Dinant, 1,800
at Louvain[4]). On other occasions they did not leave a house standing
(Nomeny, Clermont-en-Argonne, Sommeilles).
The complete list of buildings, cottages, farms, villas, factories, or
châteaux, burned wilfully in this way by hand, will be a formidable one,
amounting to tens of thousands.[5]
Refinement of cruelty frequently occurs. At Aerschot "women had to
witness the sight of the conflagration holding their hands up. Their
torture lasted six hours." At Crévic, the Germans began their sinister
work by burning a château which they knew belonged to General
Lyautey. The troops, commanded by an officer, shouted out for
Madame and Mademoiselle Lyautey "that they might cut their heads
off."
The houses destroyed by fire were not always uninhabited. At Maixe,
M. Demange, wounded in both knees, dragged himself along and fell
prostrate in his kitchen; his house was set on fire and Madame
Demange was forcibly prevented from going to the rescue of her
husband, who perished in the flames. At Nomeny, Madame Cousin,
after being shot, was thrown into the burning building and roasted. At
the same place, M. Adam was thrown alive into the flames. Let us note
in connection with him, to their credit, an act of comparative humanity.
Finding that the unhappy man was not being burnt fast enough, they
ended his misery in the flames by shooting him. At
Monceau-sur-Sambre, where they set fire to 300 houses, they confined
the two brothers S. in a shed, and the unfortunate men were burnt
alive.[6]
The soldiers' diaries are filled with descriptions of incendiarism, some
of which we now quote. "Returned by Mazerulles, which was burnt as
we passed through, because the engineers found a telephone there
connected up with the French."[7] "The whole village was in ablaze.
Everything destroyed in the street, except one small house; in front of

the door was a poor woman with her six children, her arms raised and
begging for mercy. And every day it is the same thing."
Parnx. "The first village burnt (in Lorraine, on the 10th August); after
that