German Barbarism: A Neutral's IndictmentMaccas, Léon
History
German Barbarism: A Neutral's Indictment
Maccas, Léon
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities
“Messrs. Sanson, Pierson, Lallemand, Adam, Jeanpierre, Meunier,
Schneider, Raymond, Dupoucel, Hazatte, father and son, were murdered on
the street by rifle shots. M. Killian, seeing himself threatened with a
sabre stroke, put his hands on his neck to protect himself. Three of his
fingers were cut off and his throat cut open. An old man of eighty-six
years old, M. Petitjean, who was seated in his armchair, was struck by
a ball which cracked his skull, and a German thrust Mme. Bertrand in
front of the body, saying to her, ‘You saw that ⸺!’ M. Chardin, municipal
councillor and acting mayor, was ordered to supply a horse and carriage.
He had hardly promised to do all he could to comply, when he was killed
by a shot. M. Prevot, who saw the Bavarians rushing into the chemist’s
shop of which he was in charge, told them that he was the chemist, and
that he would give them all that they wanted, but three shots rang out
and he fell with a heavy groan. Two women who happened to be with him
escaped, but were pursued with blows from the butt-ends of rifles up to
the approaches to the railway station, where they saw in the garden and
on the road many corpses heaped together.
“Between three and four o’clock in the afternoon the Germans forced their
way into Mme. François’ butcher’s shop. Thereupon she came out of her
cellar with her son Stub and an employee named Contal. As soon as Stub
came to the threshold of the outside door he fell, seriously wounded by
a rifle shot. Then Contal, who escaped into the street, was immediately
murdered. Five minutes afterwards, as the death-rattle was still in
Stub’s throat, a soldier leant over him and dispatched him with a blow of
a hatchet in the back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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