The New York Times Current History, A Monthly Magazine: The European War, March 1915Various
History
The New York Times Current History, A Monthly Magazine: The European War, March 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
On the 6th of September at Champguyon, Mme. Louvet was present at the
martyrdom of her husband. She saw him in the hands of ten or fifteen
soldiers, who were beating him to death before his own house, and ran
up and kissed him through the bars of the gate. She was brutally
pushed back and fell, while the murderers dragged along the unhappy
man covered with blood, begging them to spare his life and protesting
that he had done nothing to be treated thus. He was finished off at
the end of the village. When his wife found his body it was horribly
disfigured. His head was beaten in, one of his eyes hung from the
socket, and one of his wrists was broken.
At Esternay, on the 6th of September, toward 3 in the afternoon,
thirty-five or forty Germans were leading away M. Lauranceau, when he
made a sharp movement as if to free himself. He was immediately shot
down.
In the same town the following facts have been laid before us:
During the night, between Sunday, the 6th of September, and Monday,
the 7th, the soldiers who were scattered among the houses pillaging,
discovered the widow Bouche, her two daughters, and Mmes. Lhomme and
Mace, who had taken refuge under the cellar staircase. They ordered
the two young girls to undress, then, as their mother tried to
intervene, one of the soldiers, bringing his rifle to his shoulder,
fired in the direction of the group of women. The bullet, after having
struck Mme. Lhomme near the left elbow, broke the right arm of Mlle.
Marcelle Bouche at the armpit. During the following day the young girl
died as a result of her wound. According to the declarations made by
witnesses, the wound was horrible to behold.
Further, our inquiry in the Department of the Marne established other
crimes of which women were the victims.
On the 3rd of September, at Suippes, Mme. X., 72 years of age, was
seized by a German soldier, who pushed the barrel of his revolver
under her chin and brutally flung her on her bed. Her son-in-law
rushed up at the noise, fortunately for her, at the moment when the
rape was about to be consummated.
At the same place and time little ----, 11 years old, was for three
hours the prey of a licentious soldier, who, having found her with her
sick grandmother, dragged her to a deserted house and stopped her
mouth with a handkerchief to prevent her crying out.
On the 7th of September, at Vitry-en-Perthois, Mme. X., aged 45, and
Mme. Z., aged 89, were both raped; the latter died a fortnight later.
At Jussecourt-Minecourt, on the 8th of September, toward 9 in the
evening, Mlle. X. was violated by four soldiers, who broke in the door
of her room with the help of a billhook. All four flung themselves on
this young girl, who was 21 years old, and ravished her in succession.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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