The German Army in Belgium, the White Book of May 1915Germany. Auswärtiges Amt
History
The German Army in Belgium, the White Book of May 1915
Germany. Auswärtiges Amt
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities; World War, 1914-1918 -- Belgium
Present:
President, Dr. CZARNIKOW.
Secretary, THIELE.
ALLEMANT IN FRANCE, _December 18th, 1914_.
There appeared as witness Lieutenant Brandt of the Reserve, Infantry
Regiment von Alvensleben (6th Brandenburg) No. 52, who, after the
importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, was examined as
follows:
As to Person: My name is Kurt Brandt, aged 32; Protestant; book-keeper
in the printing works of J. Schmidt at Markneukirchen, Saxony.
As to Case: I can only repeat the statements which I made in my report
to my regiment on September 27th.
The report was then read to the witness, and he then declared the
following: The report is the one just mentioned by me. I repeat its
contents. The letter of the Belgian Government mentioned therein
and the list of members of the Garde Civique found, I handed to the
regiment on the following day. Lieutenant Dunkel of the Reserve will
confirm the correctness of my statements; he was then also at Louvain,
and led a train of the Army Telegraph Section 1.
During the firing, field gendarmes handed over to me about five
civilians who bore no badge or uniform. The gendarmes reported that
they had taken the persons with arms in their hands, and they also
produced the arms. I did not examine the prisoners, but had them taken
to the Commandant.
The owner of the hotel mentioned by me, who appeared in the morning
from within the hotel when it was already quite burned down, was handed
over by me to the General Staff Officer of the IX. Reserve Army Corps,
a captain, whose name I do not know. It was the same officer who had
given me instructions to destroy the two hotels. The civilian was
examined by the officer and shot about half an hour later. At about the
same time two priests were shot; when I saw them, they had already been
apprehended. On inquiry, an orderly officer of the Commander General
told me that they had distributed ammunition among the civilians.
Major Hildebrand, mentioned in my report, had expressly pointed out
that he and his people had been fired on particularly from the houses
opposite the station.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: KURT BRANDT.
The witness was sworn.
Proceedings closed.
Signed: CZARNIKOW. Signed: THIELE.
Sender: BRANDT (KURT), Lieutenant of Reserve.
Place of dispatch: Wood near Fort Condé.
Date: 27.9, 4 p.m.
_Report._
To Infantry Regiment No. 52.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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