Chapter IV

Often when German troops wish to carry a position, they place civilians, men, women and children before them, and take shelter behind this shield of living flesh. As the stratagem consists essentially in speculating upon the noblemindedness of the adversary, of saying to him: "You will not fire upon these unhappy people, I know, and I hold you at my mercy, disarmed, because I know you are less cowardly than I", as it implies a homage to the enemy, and humiliation of oneself, it is almost inconceivable that soldiers can resort to it, and that is why it represents a new invention in the long list of human cruelties, and the most fearful _Penitentiels_ (_Summæ peccatorum_) of the middle ages have not recorded it. And it is also why, in presence of accounts, French, English or Belgian accusing the Germans of such practices I for a long time doubted, I admit if not the truth of the evidence, at least its importance: such acts must, it seemed to me, prove only the unavowed crimes of officers, individual acts which do not dishonour a nation, for a nation on learning them would repudiate them. But now can we doubt that the German nation accepts such ruffianly exploits as worthy of her, that she recognizes and acquiesces in them, when the following narrative, signed by a Bavarian officer, Lt. A. Eberlein is laid before us in one of the best known newspapers in Germany, in the issue of 7^{th} Oct. 1914 (n^o 513 _Vorabendblatt_ p. 2 of the _Münchner Neueste Nachrichten_)? Lt Eberlein describes the occupation of St Dié at the end of August. After entering the town at the head of a column, he was obliged to barricade himself inside a house until reinforcements came up (_Plate 9_):

We had arrested three civilians, and suddenly a good idea struck me.
We placed them on chairs and made them understand that they must go
and sit on them in the middle of the street. On one side entreaties,
on the other blows from the butt-end of a gun. One gets terribly
hardened after a while. At last they were seated outside in the
street. I do not know how many prayers of anguish they said; but they
kept their hands tightly clasped all the time. I pitied them; but
the devise worked immediately. The shooting at us from the house at
the side stopped at once; we were able to occupy the house in front,
and became masters of the principal street. Every one after that who
showed himself in the street was shot. The artillery, too did good
work during this, and when towards seven in the evening, the brigade
advanced to free us, I was able to report that "St Dié is free of the
enemy".

As I learnt later on, the ... regiment of reserve which had entered
St Dié more from the north had had similar experiences to ours. The
four civilians that had been made to sit in the street had been
killed by French bullets. I saw them myself, stretched out in the
middle of the street, near the Hospital.