World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities; World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
"Yes, we have French soldiers, but they are wounded. They have no arms."
One of them, mighty, with a truculent air, pulled out his sword.
"They have their arms," he shouted, and he brandished his sword.
"They won't hurt you. Enter," I said.
A Lorraine to say to a German "Enter," that means mischief. (Un
Lorraine dire à un Allemand "Entrez": Que cela fait mal!)
Two of the officers dismounted. Each of them hid a dagger somewhere in
his breast. That thought that they could harm my poor little wounded
men made me turn my look a few seconds on the action. And as they took
out their revolvers at the same time, I did not see where they had
hidden the daggers.
The finger on the trigger, they nodded their head for me to go on in
front of them. I went in front and led the way into this room where
there was nothing but four walls, and no furniture except the thirteen
beds of my wounded. I entered by this door, not knowing in the least
what they wanted to do. Imagine this room with the first bed here, and
then the second here, et cetera, et cetera. I went automatically to
the first and, more involuntarily still, placed my hand on the bed of
wounded Number One, a dragoon wounded by a horse.
See, now, what took place: the imposing one of them walked in with his
dagger in his left hand (son poignard, la gauche); the other man with
his revolver was there, ready. With his dagger in his left hand, the
first man stripped the bed for its full length, lifting the sheet,
the coverlet and the bedclothes. He looked down in a manner evil,
malevolent, ill-natured (méchante, malveillante, mauvaise).
No response from the wounded men.
He did not say anything when he had seen what he wished to see. He
stepped up to the head of the wounded man. I made a half turn toward
him. I was separated from him by our wounded man who was between the
two of us.
He said to my poor unfortunate, with a harsh gesture:
"You and your men, you make our wounded suffer on the battlefield. You
cut off their ears. You put out their eyes. You make them suffer."
Still no response. (Pas réponse encore.)
When I saw the state of mind he was in, I went round at once on the
left side of the wounded, and I said:
"This is a wounded man, and this place is the Red Cross. Here we do
well for all and ill for none, and if you mean well, do not hurt us.
Leave us in peace as you do everywhere else. We will nurse your wounded
and nurse them well."
He had turned around to watch the smoke of the fires which was pouring
into the room through that opening, and he stood there several seconds
with set face.
My little wounded men hardly ventured to breathe. Seeing that calm,
that brooding which did not bode anything good, I exerted myself to
repeat once more:
"If you mean well, do not hurt us. We will nurse your wounded."
And, at last, to help him come out of his speechlessness:
"See, there, everything is on fire over there."
He answered me:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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