German Barbarism: A Neutral's IndictmentMaccas, Léon
History
German Barbarism: A Neutral's Indictment
Maccas, Léon
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities
“On the 4th September, during the night the 121st and 122nd Wurtemberg
regiments entered, breaking the doors of the houses as they passed, and
giving themselves up to unrestrained pillage, which was to continue
during the whole of the following day. Towards midday a soldier kindled
the fire. When the fire had gone out, pillage recommenced in the houses
spared by the flames. Articles of furniture taken from the house of M.
Desforges, fabrics stolen from the shop of M. Nordman, linen-draper, were
piled up in the motors. A surgeon-major took all the hospital dressing
materials, and a commissioned officer, after writing at the entrance to
the Lebondidier’s house a notice forbidding pillage, caused a large part
of the furniture with which this mansion was furnished to be taken away
in a cart, intending them, as he boasted without shame, for the adornment
of his own villa.
“At the time when all these incidents took place the town of
Clermont-en-Argonne was occupied by the 13th Wurtemberg corps under the
orders of General von Durach, and by a troop of Uhlans, under command of
the Prince of Wittenstein.”
LOOTING OF CHÂTEAU-THIERRY
Château-Thierry was looted in the presence of officers, who must even
have taken part in it, if we are to judge by the example of two German
doctors, surprised in town by the arrival of the French troops, and who
were then included in an exchange of prisoners. Their cases were opened,
and in them were found articles of clothing obtained by looting shops.
“During the whole week which the German occupation of Château-Thierry
lasted,” wrote the _Temps_ of the 25th October, 1914, “shops and rooms
were methodically pillaged; jewellers and bazaar owners were plundered
most of all. Patients under treatment in the Red Cross hospital whose
wounds did not prevent them walking, went through the town all day,
thieving here and there, and then returned in the evening with their
booty to sleep in hospital.
“One day they offered Mlle. X some bonbons which they had just stolen,
and they appeared much surprised when the young Frenchwoman refused their
present.
“Lorries loaded with stolen articles were lined up on the road to
Soissons as far as the eye could reach. A non-commissioned officer and
four men were seen to drag along a little English cart, nicely fitted,
quite loaded with booty.
“Needless to say, the cellars were completely emptied. Not a single
pot of preserve at Château-Thierry; blankets, sheets, table-cloths,
napkins—everything was carried off. The Château of Belle-Vue, which
belongs to M. Jules Henriet, was not burnt, but everything in it was
plundered. Chests, desks, all the furniture were forced open. As for
silver, for the most part it disappeared from the houses that were
sacked.”
SERBIA AND RUSSIA
The same kind of thing took place in Poland and Serbia. At Chabatz the
shops were broken open and the goods which they contained stolen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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