German Barbarism: A Neutral's IndictmentMaccas, Léon
History
German Barbarism: A Neutral's Indictment
Maccas, Léon
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities
These acts of German troops did not always make Germans ashamed. On the
contrary, in certain cases they even thought it was a clever thing to
boast about it. For instance, a story, which had come from the German
non-commissioned officer Klemt (154th infantry regiment, 1st company),
was published in a newspaper of Jauer in Silesia on the 18th October,
1914. The paper even put as a marginal note the following phrase “_The
24th September, 1914, a day of honour for our troops._” In his pamphlet,
_German Crimes according to German Evidence_, M. Bédier has put on record
the non-commissioned officer’s story.
“We bludgeon and transfix the wounded,” says the wretch, “for we know
that these scoundrels, when we have passed by, would fire at our backs.
There lies at full length a Frenchman, face to the ground, but he is
shamming death. A kick from the foot of a stout fusilier lets him know
that we are there. Turning round, he asks for quarter, but we say to him,
‘That is how, you ⸺, your tools work,’ and we pin him to the ground.
Beside me, I hear strange crashing noises. They are blows from the
butt-end of a rifle which a soldier of the 154th regiment is vigorously
applying to a Frenchman’s bald head: very cleverly he used a French
rifle for his work, lest he should break his own. Men with exceptionally
tender hearts do the French wounded the favour of finishing them off with
a bullet, but others distribute as many cuts and thrusts as they can.
Our opponents had fought bravely: they were picked troops whom we had
in front of us: they let us come as close as thirty and even ten metres
to them: too close. Knapsacks and arms thrown in a heap prove that they
wanted to take to flight, but at sight of the ‘grey phantoms,’ terror
paralysed their limbs, and on the narrow path which they were taking
the German bullet brought them the order to ‘halt.’ At the entrance to
their hiding-place of boughs of trees they lie, groaning and asking
for quarter. But, whether they were lightly or seriously wounded, the
fusiliers spare the fatherland the expensive attentions which would have
to be given to a crowd of enemies.”
The non-commissioned officer adds that Prince Oscar of Prussia, on being
informed of the exploits of the 154th and of the regiment which with
the 154th forms a brigade, declared they were both worthy of the name
“King’s Brigade.” “When evening came,” he continued, “with a prayer of
thanks upon our lips we fell asleep in expectation of the following day.”
Then, having added by way of postscript a little bit of verse, “Return
from Battle,” he brings the whole, prose and verse, to his lieutenant,
who countersigns it, “Certified to be correct, De Niem, lieutenant and
company commander.”
GERMAN MURDER OF PEOPLE ATTACHED TO THE MEDICAL SERVICE AND THE RED CROSS
No more than the wounded were people engaged in tending or transporting
the wounded spared by the Germans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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