Chapter I: Front Matter

German Atrocities
Their Nature and Philosophy

By Newell Dwight Hillis

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German Atrocities
Their Nature and Philosophy

_Studies in Belgium and France
During July and August of 1917_

By
NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS

NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
Fleming H. Revell Company
LONDON AND EDINBURGH

Copyright, 1918, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street

Foreword

These inquiries into German atrocities were begun in the latter part of September, 1914. Friends who had escaped from Belgium during the latter part of August brought stories of German frightfulness that filled all hearers with horror. Being unwilling to accept their testimony without further evidence, I began a careful research, collecting letters, magazine articles, testimony of eye-witnesses, books, photographs, reports of the various commissions, by former Ambassador Bryce and Professor Toynbee, with those of the Commissions of Belgium, France, Poland, Serbia and Armenia. Last May, in the interest of the first Liberty Loan, Mr. Lawrence Chamberlain and I made a tour of eighteen states, speaking in some thirty-five cities, and often giving two, three and even five addresses in a single day. Everywhere during that tour we found public men raising the question, "What about the German atrocities? Do they not represent falsehoods invented by the enemy states?"

In the belief that this question was vital to the success of the second and all subsequent Liberty Loans, and for the full awakening of the American people, at the request of several bankers of New York, with Mr. Chamberlain I sailed for France late in June, and returned to this country in September. As guests of the British and French governments we had every opportunity of visiting the devastated regions of Belgium and France, and those long journeys through the ruined farms, villages and cities brought the opportunity of conversing with hundreds of victims of German cruelty, who gave us their testimony on the very spots where the atrocities had been committed. At the request of Henry M. and W. C. Leland of Detroit, and Richard H. Edmonds of Baltimore, I have brought together this simple record of the bare facts that came under our own personal scrutiny. In the nature of the case, many atrocities that were carefully studied cannot be presented in this report because the witnesses reasonably fear that their families, just behind the German lines, might be made to suffer were their testimony to become known. It should be added that Mr. Chamberlain will shortly make his report from the view-point of the financier and investigator of industrial conditions in Belgium and France.

The first two of the following chapters embody the substance of addresses given in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis, and some thirty other cities during October, 1917, in connection with the Second Liberty Loan. The third substantially presents views of addresses in Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Butte, Denver, and thirty other cities during the First Liberty Loan.

N. D. H. _Brooklyn, N. Y., January, 1918._

Contents

I. GERMAN ATROCITIES, THEIR NATURE AND PHILOSOPHY 13
II. THE PAN-GERMAN EMPIRE SCHEME, FOR
WHICH GERMANY LOST HER SOUL 63
III. WHAT THE UNITED STATES AND HER
ALLIES ARE FIGHTING FOR 101
IV. ASTOUNDING CLAIMS AND RECORDS FROM
GERMAN SOURCES 141
V. ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAYING GERMAN ATROCITIES 161

I

German Atrocities, Their Nature and Philosophy

_Did the Kaiser's Charge Render the Later Atrocities Inevitable?_

When Charles IX of France was urged to kill Coligny, he finally
consented, in these words, "Assassinate Admiral Coligny, but
leave not a Huguenot alive in France to reproach me." That first
assassination made the later atrocities inevitable. When the Kaiser
and his War Staff determined to kill, they delayed for a time, but
once their hands were dripping with blood, the first massacres made
it necessary to go on, and kill the Belgians and Frenchmen who had
witnessed the crimes. So came the unspeakable atrocities of the
Germans.

"Take heed that ye offend not against one of my little ones. If
any man offend against one of my little ones, it were better for
him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were
drowned in the depths of the sea."--_The Gospel of Matthew (Jesus
Christ)._