The German Fury in Belgium: Experiences of a Netherland Journalist during four months with the German Army in BelgiumMokveld, L. (Lambertus)
History
The German Fury in Belgium: Experiences of a Netherland Journalist during four months with the German Army in Belgium
Mokveld, L. (Lambertus)
Belgium -- History -- German occupation, 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities
"The inquiry also brought to light that the German soldiers on
the right bank, who were exposed to the fire of the French, hid
themselves here and there behind civilians, women and children.
"In short the town of Dinant is destroyed. Of 1,400 houses,
200 only remained standing. The factories, where the labouring
population got their bread and butter, were wrecked systematically.
Many inhabitants were sent to Germany, where they are still kept
as prisoners. The majority of the others are scattered all over
Belgium. Those who stayed in the towns were starved.
"The committee has a list of the victims. It contains 700 names,
and is not complete. Among those killed are seventy-three women and
thirty-nine children between six months and fifteen years old.
"Dinant had 7,600 inhabitants, of whom ten per cent. were put to
death; not a family exists which has not to mourn the death of some
victims; many families have been exterminated completely."
When we entered the town in our motor-car, those of the unfortunate
population who had escaped from the murderous massacre had already left
the town. Between the ruins and the deserted French Red Cross cars we
drove to the pontoon bridge which the Germans had flung across the
river by the side of the Meuse bridge, which had been blown up. Here
we were stopped by German soldiers who guarded the pontoon bridge. In
a café we came across a few of the citizens who had remained. These
unfortunate people had no home, no money, and no food, lacked the
wherewithal to go farther away, and now depended on the charity of the
murderers of their relatives. Twice a day they were allowed to call at
one of the German stores for a piece of bread, in exchange for a ticket
which they might get at the commander's office. The Germans, upholders
of morality and "Kultur," saw to it that their victims did not overeat
themselves.
Our passport had to be stamped by this same commander, and my colleague
had to ask him for a permit to take photographs. The commander
would not hear of this, but finally agreed, after my colleague had
snapshotted him and his staff in front of the office. Our passport was
marked: "1. Landsturm Infantry Battalion, Dresden."
Dinant offered a terrible sight; it no longer existed. On foot, of
course, we walked along the place where a large shop once stood, but
one could not even distinguish where the road had been. Not one street
was left, and the few houses that were saved are not in the centre of
the town. On a slope on the left bank of the Meuse there had been two
large monasteries, which had been turned into hospitals. They had been
wrecked completely by gun-fire, and as if in bitter mockery at the
cruel fate, the Red Cross flags flew there still undamaged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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