World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, German
handed all over to her husband with a radiant face. She laughed, once
again perhaps in a long time, and sent us grateful looks. The children
clung round their father and kissed him again and again. She accompanied
her husband, who carried two of the kiddies, one on each arm, while his
wife carried the third child. Beaming with happiness the family marched
along between the two landsturm men who had their bayonets fixed. When
they had to take leave, all of them, parents and children began to weep.
She knew that her husband was no longer in constant danger, and she was
happy, for though she had lost much, she still had her most precious
possessions.
Thousands of poor men and women have met such a fate near their homes.
Regular trains left Chatel. We quitted the place at 11 o'clock at night,
heartily glad to leave the Argonnes behind us. We had to change trains
at Vouzières, and took the train to Diedenhofen. There we saw twelve
soldiers with fixed bayonets take along three Frenchmen. They were
elderly men in civilian dress. We had no idea what it signified, so we
entered into a conversation with one of our fellow travelers. He was a
merchant, a Frenchman living at Vouzières, and spoke German fluently.
The merchant was on a business trip to Sédan, and told us that the three
civilian prisoners were citizens of his town. He said: "We obtain our
means of life from the German military authorities, but mostly we do not
receive enough to live, and the people have nothing left of their own;
all the cattle and food have been commandeered. Those three men refused
to keep on working for the military authorities, because they could not
live on the things they were given. They were arrested and are now being
transported to Germany. Of course, we don't know what will happen to
them."
The man also told us that all the young men had been taken away by the
Germans; all of them had been interned in Germany.
At Sédan we had to wait for five hours; for hospital trains were
constantly arriving. It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the following
day when we reached Montmédy, where we went to the hospital. There all
our clothes were disinfected in the "unlousing establishment," and we
could take a proper bath. We were lodged in the large barracks. There
one met people from all parts of the front, and all of them had only
known the same misery; there was not one among them who did not curse
this war. All of them were glad to be in safety, and all of them tried
their best to be "sick" as long as possible. Each day we were twice
treated with ointment; otherwise we were at liberty to walk about the
place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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