Chapter V

Article 28 of the Hague Convention of 1907, signed by Germany, runs thus "It is forbidden to pillage a town or locality even when taken by assault." Article 47 runs: "(In occupied territory), pillage is forbidden".

This is how the armies of Germany interpret these articles.

Private Handschuhmacher (of the 11 battalion of Jägers, reserve) writes in his diary:

"8^{th} August 1914. _Gouvy_, (Belgium). There as the Belgians had
fired on German soldiers we at once pillaged the Goods Station. Some
cases, eggs, shirts and all eatables were seized. The safe was gutted
and the money divided among the men. All securities were torn up."[18]

This took place on the fourth day of the war and enables us to understand why in a technical article on the Military Treasury (_der Zahlmeister im Felde_) the _Berliner Tageblatt_ of the 26^{th} Nov. 1914 (1 Supplement) notices as a mere incident an economic phenomenon which is however curious: "As it is a fact that far more money orders are sent from the theatre of operations to the interior of the country than vice versa ..." «_Da nun aber erfahrungsgemäss viel mehr Geld vom Kriegsschauplatz nach der Heimat gesandt wird_ ...».

But as, according to the common practice of the German armies, pillage is but the prelude to incendiarism, non-commissioned-officer Hermann Levith (of the 160^{th} Regt. VIII^{th} Army Corps) writes:

"The enemy had occupied the village of Bièvre and the skirts of the
wood. The 3^{rd} Company advanced in first line. We carried the
village and pillaged and burnt nearly all the houses."[19]

And P^{te} Schiller (133 Inf. XIX^{th} Corps) writes:

"It was at Haybes (Ardennes) on the 24^{th} of August that we had
our first battle. The 2^{nd} Battalion entered the village, searched
the houses sacked them and burnt all those from which shots had been
fired."[20]

Private Seb. Reishaupt (3 Bavarian Inf. 1^{st} Bavarian Corps) writes:

"Parux (Meurthe-et-Moselle) is the first village we burnt; then the
dance began: villages one after the other; by field and meadow on
bicycle to the ditches by the roadside, there we ate cherries."[21]

They vie with one another in stealing, they steal everything and anything, and they keep a record of their loot: "_Schnaps, Wein, Marmelade, Zigarren_" so writes this plain soldier; and the smart officer of the 178^{th} Saxon, who at first was indignant at the "Vandalismus" of his men, confesses in his turn, that the 1^{st} of September at Rethel, he stole "in a house near the _Hôtel Moderne_, a splendid mackintosh and a camera for Felix". Without distinction of grade, nor of arms, nor of Corps, they steal, and even in the ambulances the doctors steal. Here is an example from the diary of Private Johannes Thode (4. Reserve-Ersatz Regiment):

"Brussels 5. 10. 14. A motor arrives at the hospital with booty, a
piano, two sewing machines, a lot of albums and all sorts of other
things."[22]

Two sewing machines, as «booty» (_Kriegsbeute_). Stolen from whom? No doubt from two humble Belgian women. And for whom?