New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2: Who Began the War, and Why?Various
History
New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2: Who Began the War, and Why?
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Sir: The Commission of Inquiry begs to make the following report on the
deeds of which the City of Louvain and the surrounding localities and
the vicinity of Malines have been the theatre.
The German Army penetrated into Louvain on Wednesday, Aug. 19, after
having set fire to the towns through which it had passed.
From the moment of their entrance into the City of Louvain the Germans
requisitioned lodgings and victuals for their troops. They entered every
private bank of the city and took over the bank balances. German
soldiers broke the doors of houses abandoned by their inhabitants,
pillaged them and indulged in orgies.
The German authorities took hostages--the Mayor of the city, Senator
Vander Kelm, the Vice Rector of the Catholic University, the Dean of the
city; magistrates and Aldermen were also detained. All arms, down to
fencing foils, had been handed over to the town administration and
deposited by the said authorities in the Church of St. Peter.
In a neighboring village, Corbeek-Loo, a young matron, 22 years old,
whose husband was in the army, was surprised on Wednesday, Aug. 19, with
several of her relatives, by a band of German soldiers. The persons who
accompanied her were locked in an abandoned house, while she was taken
into another house, where she was successively attacked by five
soldiers.
In the same village, on Thursday, Aug. 20, German soldiers were
searching a house where a young girl of 16 years lived with her parents.
They carried her into an abandoned house, and while some of them kept
the father and mother off, others went into the house, the cellar of
which was open, and forced the young woman to drink. Afterward they
carried her out on the lawn in front of the house and attacked her
successively. She continued to resist, and they pierced her breast with
their bayonets. Having been abandoned by the soldiers after these
abominable attacks, the girl was carried off by her parents, and the
following day, owing to the gravity of her condition, she was
administered the last rites of the Church by the priest of the parish
and carried to the hospital at Louvain. At that time her life was in
danger.
On Aug. 24 and 25 Belgian troops, leaving the intrenched camp in
Antwerp, attacked the German Army which was outside of Malines.
The German troops were driven back as far as Louvain and Vilvorde.
Penetrating the towns which had been occupied by the enemy, the Belgian
Army found the whole country devastated. The Germans, while retiring,
had ravaged and set fire to the villages, taking with them all the male
inhabitants, driving them before them.
Old Woman Killed by Bayonets.
Upon entering Hofstade, on Aug. 25, the Belgian soldiers found there the
corpse of an old woman who had been killed by bayonet thrusts; she still
held in her hands the needle with which she was sewing when she was
attacked; one mother and her son, aged about 15 or 16 years, lay there,
pierced with bayonet wounds; one man was found hanging.
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