Chapter I: Part 1

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GERMAN WAR PRACTICES

PART I

TREATMENT OF CIVILIANS

Edited by

DANA C. MUNRO Princeton University

GEORGE C. SELLERY and AUGUST C. KREY University of Wisconsin University of Minnesota

Issued by
The Committee on Public Information
The Secretary of State
The Secretary of War
The Secretary of the Navy
George Creel

November 15, 1917

EXECUTIVE ORDER.

I hereby create a Committee on Public Information, to be composed of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and a civilian who shall be charged with the executive direction of the Committee. As civilian Chairman of the Committee I appoint Mr. George Creel.

The Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Navy are authorized each to detail an officer or officers to the work of the Committee.

WOODROW WILSON.

April 14, 1917.

INTRODUCTION.

[Sidenote: Germany pledged to Hague regulations.]

For many years leaders in every civilized nation have been trying to make warfare less brutal. The great landmarks in this movement are the Geneva and Hague Conventions. The former made rules as to the care of the sick and wounded and established the Red Cross. At the first meeting at Geneva, in 1864, it was agreed, and until the present war it has been taken for granted, that the wounded, and the doctors and nurses who cared for them, would be safe from all attacks by the enemy. The Hague Conventions, drawn up in 1899 and 1907, made additional rules to soften the usages of war and especially to protect noncombatants and conquered lands. Germany took a prominent part in these meetings and with the other nations solemnly pledged her faith to keep all the rules except one article in the Hague Regulations. This was article 44, which forbade the conqueror to force any of the conquered to give information. All the other rules and regulations she accepted in the most binding manner.

[Sidenote: German policy of frightfulness.]

But Germany's military leaders had no intention of keeping these solemn promises. They had been trained along different lines. Their leading generals for many years had been urging a policy of frightfulness. In the middle of the nineteenth century von Clausewitz was looked upon as the greatest military authority, and the methods which he advocated were used by the Prussian army in its successful wars of 1866-1871. Consequently, because these wars had been successful, the wisdom of von Clausewitz's methods seemed to the Prussian army to be fully proven.

Now, the essence of von Clausewitz's teachings was that successful war involves the ruthless application of force. In the opening chapter of his master work, _Vom Kriege_ (_On War_), he says:

"Violence arms itself with the inventions of art and science. * * * Self-imposed restrictions, almost imperceptible and hardly worth mentioning, termed usages of international law, accompany it without essentially impairing its power. * * * Now, philanthropic souls might easily imagine that there is a skillful method of disarming or subduing an enemy without causing too much bloodshed, and that this is the true tendency of the art of war. However plausible this may appear, still it is an error which must be destroyed; for in such dangerous things as war, the errors which proceed from a spirit of 'good-naturedness' are precisely the worst. As the use of physical force to the utmost extent by no means excludes the cooperation of the intelligence, it follows that he who uses force ruthlessly, without regard to bloodshed, must obtain a superiority, if his enemy does not so use it."

In 1877-78, in the course of a series of articles upon "Military necessity and humanity," Gen. von Hartmann wrote, in the same spirit as von Clausewitz:

[Sidenote: Frightfulness advocated by German generals.]

"The enemy State must not be spared the want and wretchedness of war; these are particularly useful in shattering its energy and subduing its will." "Individual persons may be harshly dealt with when an example is made of them, intended to serve as a warning. * * * Whenever a national war breaks out, terrorism becomes a necessary military principle." "It is a gratuitous illusion to suppose that modern war does not demand far more brutality, far more violence, and an action far more general than was formerly the case." "When international war has burst upon us, terrorism becomes a principle made necessary by military considerations."

In 1881 von Moltke, who had been commander in chief of the Prussian army in the Franco-Prussian War, declared:

"Perpetual peace is a dream and not even a beautiful dream. War is an element in the order of the world established by God. By it the most noble virtues of man are developed, courage and renunciation, fidelity to duty and the spirit of sacrifice--the soldier gives his life. Without war, the world would degenerate and lose itself in materialism." "The soldier who endures suffering, privation, and fatigue, who courts dangers, can not take only 'in proportion to the resources of the country.' He must take all that is necessary to his existence. One has no right to demand of him anything superhuman." "The great good in war is that it should be ended quickly. In view of this, every means, except those which are positively condemnable, must be permitted. I can not, in any way, agree with the Declaration of St. Petersburg when it pretends that 'the weakening of the military forces of the enemy constitutes the only legitimate method of procedure in war. No! One must attack all the resources of the enemy government, his finances, his railroads, his stock of provisions and even his prestige. * * *"

[Sidenote: Kaiser's "Hun" speech in 1900.]

Many other examples might be cited from the writings of German generals. The very best illustration of this attitude, however, is to be found in the Emperor's various speeches, and especially in his speech to his soldiers on the eve of their departure for China in 1900. On July 27 the Kaiser went to Bremerhaven to bid farewell to the German troops. As they were drawn up, ready to embark for China, he addressed to them a last official message from the Fatherland. The local newspaper reported his speech in full. In it appeared this advice and admonition from the Emperor, the commander in chief of the army, the head of all Germany.

"As soon as you come to blows with the enemy he will be beaten. No mercy will be shown! No prisoners will be taken! As the Huns, under King Attila, made a name for themselves, which is still mighty in traditions and legends to-day, may the name of German be so fixed in China by your deeds that no Chinese shall ever again dare even to look at a German askance. * * * Open the way for _Kultur_ once for all."

[Sidenote: Opposition in Reichstag.]

Even the imperial councillors seem to have been shocked at the Emperor's speech, and efforts were promptly made to suppress the circulation of his exact words. The efforts were only partly successful. A few weeks later, when letters from the German soldiers in China were being published in local German papers, the leading socialist newspaper, _Vorwärts_, excerpted from them reports of atrocities under the title "Letters of the Huns." Many of the leaders in the Reichstag felt very keenly the brutality of the Emperor's speech. The obnoxious word "Huns" had excited almost universal condemnation. When the Reichstag met, in November, the speech was openly discussed. Herr Lieber, of the Center (the Catholic party), after quoting the "no mercy" portion of the speech, added, "There are, alas, in Germany groups enough who have regarded the atrocities told in the letters which have been published as the dutiful response of soldiers so addressed and encouraged." The leader of the Social Democrats, Herr Bebel, spoke even more pointedly. Toward the end of a two-hour address on the atrocities committed by the German soldiers in China and on the speech of the Emperor he said:

"If Germany wishes to be the bearer of civilization to the world, we will follow without contradiction. But the ways and means in which this world policy has been carried on thus far, in which it has been defined by the Emperor * * * are not, in our opinion, the way to preserve the world position of Germany, to gain for Germany the respect of the world."

The consequences of the Emperor's speech Bebel aptly described:

"By it a signal was given, garbed in the highest authority of the German Empire, which must have most weighty consequences, not only for the troops who went to China but also for those who stayed at home." "An expedition of revenge so barbarous as this has never occurred in the last hundred years and not often in history; at least, nothing worse than this has happened in history, either done by the Huns, by the Vandals, by Genghis Khan, by Tamerlane, or even by Tilly when he sacked Magdeburg."

[Sidenote: Atrocities in China.]

These stories of atrocities in China or "Letters of the Huns" continued to be published in the _Vorwärts_ for several years and appeared intermittently in the debates of the Reichstag as late as 1906. At that time the socialist, Herr Kunert, reviewing the procedure in a trial of which he had been the victim in the previous summer, stated that he had offered to prove "that German soldiers in China had engaged in wanton and brutal ravaging; that plunder, pillage, extortion, robbery, as well as rape and sexual abuses of the worst kind, had occured on a very large scale and that German soldiers had participated in them." He had not been given an opportunity to prove his allegations, but had been sentenced to prison for three months for assailing the honor of the "whole German Army." The outrageousness of this sentence was made clear by the revelations, made in the Reichstag shortly afterwards, of similar atrocities committed by German officials and soldiers in Africa in the campaign against the Hereros.

The teachings of Treitschke and Nietzsche and their evil influence upon the present generation in Germany are well known. The minds of the responsible officials were filled with ideas wholly different from those to which Germany had agreed at The Hague. The cult of might, and of war as its expression, found many disciples who flooded the press with pamphlets and panegyrics on war and its place in the natural and political development of a nation. Before the war the average number of volumes concerning war published each year in Germany was 700, and the vast majority of those written by the German Army officers advocated the ruthless policy of von Clausewitz, von Hartmann, and von Moltke.

These ideas, which have come to control the minds of the military class, are best shown in the _German War Book_ (_Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege_), published in 1902. The tone of this authoritative book may be judged from the following extracts:

[Sidenote: Teachings of the German War Book.]

"But since the tendency of thought in the last century was dominated essentially by humanitarian considerations which not infrequently degenerated into sentimentality and flabby emotion (_Sentimentalität und weichlicher Gefühlschwärmerei_), there have not been wanting attempts to influence the development of the usages of war in a way which was in fundamental contradiction with the nature of war and its object. Attempts of this kind will also not be wanting in the future, the more so as these agitations have found a kind of moral recognition in some provisions of the Geneva Convention and the Brussels and Hague Conferences."

"By steeping himself in military history an officer will be able to guard himself against excessive humanitarian notions; it will teach him that certain severities are indispensable to war, nay more, that the only true humanity very often lies in a ruthless application of them."

For the guidance of the officers in case the inhabitants of conquered territory should take up arms against the German Army, the _German War Book_ quotes with approval the letter Napoleon sent to his brother Joseph, when the inhabitants of Italy were attempting to revolt against him:

"The security of your dominion depends on how you behave in the conquered province. Burn down a dozen places which are not willing to submit themselves. Of course, not until you have first looted them; my soldiers must not be allowed to go away with their hands empty. Have three to six persons hanged in every village which has joined the revolt; pay no respect to the cassock" [that is, to members of the clergy.]

[Sidenote: German war proclamations in French translations.]

Some of the rules laid down in the _German War Book_ are illustrated and their spirit made more definite in _L'Interprète Militaire_. _Zum Gebrauch im Feindesland_ (Military Interpreter for Use in the Enemy's Country). This is a manual edited at Berlin in 1906. "It contains," says the introduction, "the French translation of the greater part of the documents, letters, and proclamations, and some orders of which it may be necessary to make use in time of war." Thus, eight years before this war began, the German military authorities were not only preparing their officers to wage war in a manner wholly contrary to the Hague regulations, but also were looking forward to the use of these proclamations in French or Belgian territory. Among its forms, ready for use by inserting names, date, and place, are the following:

"A fine of 600,000 marks in consequence of an attempt made by ---- to assassinate a German soldier, is imposed on the town of O. By order of ----.

"Efforts have been made, without result, to obtain the withdrawal of the fine.

"The term fixed for payment expires to-morrow, Saturday, December 17, at noon ----.

"Bank notes, cash, or silver plate will be accepted."

* * * * *

"I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated the 7th of this month, in which you bring to my notice the great difficulty which you expect to meet in levying the contributions. * * * I can but regret the explanations which you have thought proper to give me on this subject; the order in question which emanates from my Government is so clear and precise, and the instructions which I have received in the matter are so categorical that if the sum due by the town of R---- is not paid the town will be burned down without pity!"

* * * * *

"On account of the destruction of the bridge of F----, I order: The district shall pay a special contribution of 10,000,000 francs by way of amends. This is brought to the notice of the public who are informed that the method of assessment will be announced later and that the payment of the said sum will be enforced with the utmost severity. The village of F---- will be destroyed immediately by fire, with the exception of certain buildings occupied for the use of the troops."

These forms have been of great use to the German commanders in Belgium and northern France. The closeness with which they have been followed in these conquered lands, during the present war, may be seen by reading the following proclamations and the other proclamations which are printed elsewhere in this pamphlet.

"The City of Brussels, exclusive of its suburbs, has been punished by an additional fine of 5,000,000 francs on account of the attack made upon a German soldier by Ryckere, one of its police officials.

"The Governor of Brussels,
"BARON VON LUETTWITZ.

"_November 1, 1914._"

Placard posted on the walls of Lunéville by order of the German authorities:

"Notice to the People.

"Some of the inhabitants of Lunéville made an attack from ambuscade on the German columns and wagons (_trains_). The same day [some of the] inhabitants shot at sanitary formations marked with the Red Cross. In addition, German wounded and the military hospital containing a German ambulance were fired upon.

"Because of these acts of hostility a fine of 650,000 francs is imposed upon the commune of Lunéville. The mayor is ordered to pay this sum in gold or silver up to 50,000 francs, September 6, 1914, at nine o'clock in the morning, to the representative of the German military authority. All protests will be considered null and void. No delay will be granted.

"If the commune does not punctually obey the order to pay the sum of 650,000 francs, all property that can be levied upon will be seized.

"In case of non-payment, visits from house to house will be made and all the inhabitants will be searched. If anyone knowingly has concealed money or attempted to hold back his goods from the seizure by the military authorities, or if anyone attempts to leave the city, he will be shot.

"The Mayor and the hostages taken by the military authorities will be held responsible for the exact execution of the above orders.

"The Mayor is ordered to publish immediately this notice to the Commune.

"Hénaménil, Sept. 3, 1914.

"The General in Chief,

"VON FASBENDER."

The German officers were provided with the forms to be used in terrorizing the conquered people. The common soldiers were provided with phrase books which would enable them to impose their will upon the terrified people. Minister Brand Whitlock in his report to the State Department on September 12, 1917, writes:

"The German soldiers were provided with phrase books giving alternate translations in German and French of such sentences as:

"'Hands up.' (It is the very first sentence in the book.)

"'Carry out all the furniture.

"'I am thirsty. Bring me some beer, gin, rum.

"'You have to supply a barrel of wine and a keg of beer.

"'If you lie to me, I will have you shot immediately.

"'Lead me to the wealthiest inhabitants of this village. I have orders to requisition several barrels of wine.

"'Show us the way to ----. If you lead us astray, you will be shot.'"

[Sidenote: The system of frightfulness.]

The quotations and proclamations printed above show clearly the attitude of mind of the German military authorities. The policy of frightfulness had been exalted into a system with every minute detail worked out in advance. The _German War Book_ with its "cold-blooded doctrines of the nature of war and of the means which may be employed in prosecuting war," did its work in training the German military officials. Of this book it has been well said: "It is the first time in the history of mankind that a creed so revolting has been deliberately formulated by a great civilized State." The generals gave their sanction to this policy of frightfulness. Gen. von Bernhardi was quoted in an interview in the _Neue Freie Presse_ of Vienna, as follows:

"One cannot make war in a sentimental fashion. The more pitiless the conduct of the war, the more humane it is in reality, for it will run its course all the sooner. The war which of all wars is and must be most humane is that which leads to peace with as little delay as possible."

This interview was reproduced in the _Berliner Tageblatt_ of November 20, 1914.

Mr. F.C. Walcott, of the Belgian Relief Commission, tells, in the _Geographical Magazine_ for May, 1917, of meeting Gen-von Bernhardi:

[Sidenote: Interview with Bernhardi.]

"As I walked out, General von Bernhardi came into the room, an expert artillery-man, a professor in one of their war colleges. I met him the next morning, and he asked me if I had read his book, _Germany and the Next War_.

"I said I had. He said, 'Do you know, my friends nearly ran me out of the country for that. They said, "You have let the cat out of the bag." I said, "No, I have not, because nobody will believe it." 'What did you think of it?'

"I said, 'General, I did not believe a word of it when I read it, but I now feel that you did not tell the whole truth;' and the old general looked actually pleased."

Speaking on August 29, 1914, at Münster, of the extreme measures which the Germans had felt obliged to take against the civil population of Belgium, Gen. von Bissing said:

[Sidenote: Statement by von Bissing.]

"The innocent must suffer with the guilty. * * * In the repression of infamy, human lives cannot be spared, and if isolated houses, flourishing villages, and even entire towns are annihilated, that is assuredly regrettable, but it must not excite ill-timed sentimentality. All this must not in our eyes weigh as much as the life of a single one of our brave soldiers--the rigorous accomplishment of duty is the emanation of a high _Kultur_, and in that, the population of the enemy countries can learn a lesson from our army."

Gen. von Bissing, after his appointment as governor general of Belgium, repeated in substance the above opinion to a Dutch journalist. The interview is published in the _Düsseldorfer Anzeiger_ of December 8, 1914.

Irvin S. Cobb states his conclusions on the responsibility of the higher German command for the atrocities:

"But I was an eyewitness to crimes which, measured by the standards of humanity and civilization, impressed me as worse than any individual excess, any individual outrage, could ever have been or can ever be; because these crimes indubitably were instigated on a wholesale basis by order of officers of rank, and must have been carried out under their personal supervision, direction, and approval. Briefly, what I saw was this: I saw wide areas of Belgium and France in which not a penny's worth of wanton destruction had been permitted to occur, in which the ripe pears hung untouched upon the garden walls; and I saw other wide areas where scarcely one stone had been left to stand upon another; where the fields were ravaged; where the male villagers had been shot in squads; where the miserable survivors had been left to den in holes, like wild beasts.

"Taking the physical evidence offered before our own eyes, and buttressing it with the statements made to us, not only by natives but By German soldiers and German officers, we could reach but one conclusion, which was that here, in such and such a place, those in command had said to the troops: 'Spare this town and these people.' And there they had said: 'Waste this town and shoot these people.' And here the troops had discriminately spared, and there they had indiscriminately wasted, in exact accordance with the word of their superiors." Irvin S. Cobb, _Speaking of Prussians_, New York, 1917, pp. 32-34.

These ideas, then, were systematically impressed upon the military and official classes. It was necessary, however, to work upon the minds of the German people, so that they might lend themselves to the inhuman policies advocated by the military leaders. To do this was difficult, for, as has been shown above, many of the civilian leaders of public opinion, time and again, expressed their horror of the new spirit which was animating the military authorities. The Reichstag debates give ample evidence of this, and the task of the military leaders would have been still more difficult if the Reichstag had had any real power. (See War Information Series, No. 3, _The Government of Germany_; see also Gerard's _My Four Years in Germany_, Chap. II.)

[Sidenote: Hatred against Belgians.]

The military authorities and those in sympathy with them have done all in their power to stimulate a hatred of other peoples in the minds of the Germans. A campaign of education before the war was carried on with the object of impressing upon the minds of the Germans the treacherous nature of the peoples against whom the military leaders were anxious to wage war. Not only were the Germans gradually led to believe that it was necessary to fight a defensive war against unscrupulous foes, but also that these foes would violate every precept of humanity, and consequently must be crushed without mercy as a measure of self-defense. The fruits of this campaign of suspicion and hatred became evident when almost at the outbreak of the war many Germans became possessed with the belief that the whole population of Belgium, the first country to be invaded, had violated every rule of honorable warfare, that the _francs-tireurs_ (guerillas) were everywhere present doing their deadly work in secrecy or under the cover of darkness; that women and even children were mutilating and killing the wounded or helpless prisoners.

The effect of the fables upon the popular mind may be seen in the following extracts from German letters:

Extract from a letter written by a German soldier to his brother. (This letter, now in the possession of the United States Government, was obtained for this pamphlet from Mr. J.C. Grew, formerly secretary to the United States Embassy at Berlin.)

"NOVEMBER 4, 1914.

"The battles are everywhere extremely tenacious and bloody. The Englishmen we hate most and we want to get even with them for once. While one now and then sees French prisoners, one hardly ever beholds French black troops or Englishmen. These good people are not overlooked by our infantrymen; that sort of people is mowed down without mercy. The losses of the Englishmen must be enormous. There is a desire to wipe them out, root and all."

Extract from another letter to a brother:

"SCHLESWIG, 25, 8, 14 [Aug. 25, 1914].

"DEAR BROTHER, * * * You will shortly go to Brussels with your regiment, as you know. Take care to protect yourself against these _Civilians_, especially in the villages. Do not let anyone of them come near you. _Fire without pity on everyone of them who comes too near._ They are very clever, cunning fellows, these Belgians; even the women and children are armed and fire their guns. Never go inside a house, especially alone. If you take anything to drink make the inhabitants drink first, and keep at a distance from them. _The newspapers relate numerous cases in which they have fired on our soldiers whilst they were drinking._ You soldiers must spread around so much fear of yourselves that no civilian will venture to come near you. Remain always in the company of others. _I hope that you have read the newspapers and that you know how to behave. Above all have no compassion for these cut-throats. Make for them without pity with the butt-end of your rifle and the bayonet._ * * *

"Your brother,

"WILLI."

The Emperor gave his sanction to the reports of the brutal acts of the Belgians in a telegram to President Wilson.

[Sidenote: Emperor's telegram.]

"BERLIN, VIA COPENHAGEN, _Sept. 7, 1914_.

"SECRETARY OF STATE,

"_Washington_.

"Number 53. September 7. I am requested to forward the following telegram from the Emperor to the President:

"'I feel it my duty, Mr. President, to inform you as the most prominent representative of principles of humanity, that after taking the French fortress of Longwy, my troops discovered there thousands of dumdum cartridges made by special government machinery. The same kind of ammunition was found on killed and wounded troops and prisoners, also on the British troops. You know what terrible wounds and suffering these bullets inflict and that their use is strictly forbidden by the established rules of international law. I therefore address a solemn protest to you against this kind of warfare, which, owing to the methods of our adversaries has become one of the most barbarous known in history. Not only have they employed these atrocious weapons, but the Belgian Government has openly encouraged and since long carefully prepared the participation of the Belgian civil population in the fighting. The atrocities committed even by women and priests in this guerilla warfare, also on wounded soldiers, medical staff and nurses, doctors killed, hospitals attacked by rifle fire, were such that my generals finally were compelled to take the most drastic measures in order to punish the guilty and to frighten the blood-thirsty population from continuing their work of vile murder and horror. Some villages and even the old town of Loewen [Louvain], excepting the fine hôtel de ville, had to be destroyed in self-defense and for the protection of my troops. My heart bleeds when I see that such measures have become unavoidable and when I think of the numerous innocent people who lose their home and property as a consequence of the barbarous behavior of those criminals. Signed. William, Emperor and King.'

"GERARD. _Berlin._"

Lorenz Müller in the German Catholic review, _Der Fels_, February, 1915, made the following statement in regard to the Emperor's telegram:

[Sidenote: Refutation by a German.]

"Officially no instance has been proven of persons having fired with the help of priests from the towers of churches. All that has been made known up to the present, and that has been made the object of inquiry, concerning alleged atrocities attributed to Catholic priests during this war, has been shown to be false and altogether imaginary, without any exception. Our Emperor telegraphed to the President of the United States of America that even women and priests had committed atrocities during this guerilla warfare on wounded soldiers, doctors and nurses attached to the field ambulances. How this telegram can be reconciled with the fact stated above we shall not be able to learn until after the war."

The _Vorwärts_, of Berlin, October 22, 1914, said:

[Sidenote: Refutation by Vorwärts.]

"We have already been able to establish the falseness of a great number of assertions which have been made with great precision and published everywhere in the press, concerning alleged cruelties committed, by the populations of the countries with which Germany is at war, upon German soldiers and civilians. We are now in a position to silence two others of these fantastic stories.

"The War Correspondent of the _Berliner Tageblatt_ spoke a few weeks ago of cigars and cigarettes filled with powder alleged to have been given out or sold to our soldiers with diabolical intent. He even pretended that he had seen with his own eyes hundreds of this kind of cigarettes. We learn from an authentic source that this story of cigars and cigarettes is nothing but a brazen invention. Stories of soldiers whose eyes are alleged to have been torn out by francs-tireurs are circulated throughout Germany. Not a single case of this kind has been officially established. In every instance where it has been possible to test the story its inaccuracy has been demonstrated.

"It matters little that reports of this nature bear an appearance of positive certitude, or are even vouched for by eyewitnesses. The desire for notoriety, the absence of criticism, and personal error play an unfortunate part in the days in which we are living. Every nose shot off or simply bound up, every eye removed, is immediately transformed into a nose or eye torn away by the francs-tireurs. Already the _Volkszeitung_ of Cologne has been able, contrary to the very categorical assertions from Aix-la-Chapelle, to prove that there was no soldier with his eyes torn out in the field ambulance of this town. It was said, also, that people wounded in this way were under treatment in the neighborhood of Berlin, but whenever enquiries have been made in regard to these reports, their absolute falsity has been demonstrated. At length these reports were concentrated at Gross Lichterfelde. A newspaper published at noon and widely circulated in Berlin printed a few days ago in large type the news that at the Lazaretto of Lichterfelde alone there were 'ten German soldiers, only slightly wounded, whose eyes had been wickedly torn out.' But to a request for information by comrade Liebknecht the following written reply was sent by the chief medical officer of the above-mentioned field hospital, dated the 18th of the month:

"'SIR,

'Happily there is no truth whatever in these stories.

'Yours obediently,

'PROFESSOR RAUTENBERG.'"

[Sidenote: German soldiers protest against atrocities.]

Thus the teachings of the _German War Book_ and of the German apostles of frightfulness, suspicion, and hatred, had now begun to bear their natural fruit. But the voice of protest was not entirely silent. A considerable number of letters by German soldiers who were shocked by the German atrocities were sent to Ambassador Gerard, because he was the representative of the United States, the leading neutral nation. The three letters which follow, in translation, were received by the American ambassador from German soldiers. They were obtained for this pamphlet from Secretary Grew; they illustrate both the system and the horror of it, which the writers felt.

Here is the protest of a German soldier, an eyewitness of the slaughter of Russian soldiers in the Masurian lakes and swamps:

"It was frightful, heart-rending, as these masses of human beings were driven to destruction. Above the terrible thunder of the cannon could be heard the heart-rending cries of the Russians: 'O Prussians! O Prussians!'--but there was no mercy. Our Captain had ordered: 'The whole lot must die; so rapid fire.' As I have heard, five men and one officer on our side went mad from those heart-rending cries. But most of my comrades and the officers joked as the unarmed and helpless Russians shrieked for mercy while they were being suffocated in the swamps and shot down. The order was: 'Close up and at it harder!' For days afterwards those heart-rending yells followed me and I dare not think of them or I shall go mad. There is no God, there is no morality and no ethics any more. There are no human beings any more, but only beasts. Down with militarism.

"This was the experience of a Prussian soldier. At present wounded; Berlin, October 22, 1914.

"If you are a truth-loving man, please receive these lines from a common Prussian soldier."

Here is the testimony of another German soldier on the Eastern front.

"RUSSIAN POLAND, _December 18, '14_.

"In the name of Christianity I send you these words.

"My conscience forces me as a Christian German soldier to inform you of these lines.

"Wounded Russians are killed with the bayonet according to orders.

"And Russians who have surrendered are often shot down in masses according to orders, in spite of their heart-rending prayers.

"In hope that you, as the representative of a Christian State will protest against this, I sign myself,

"A GERMAN SOLDIER AND CHRISTIAN.

"I would give my name and regiment, but these words could get me court-martialed for divulging military secrets."

* * * * *

The third letter, from the Western front, shows the same horror of the system of which the writer was a witness.

"To the
"AMERICAN GOVERNMENT,
"_Washington, U.S.A._

"Englishmen who have surrendered are shot down in small groups. With the French one is more considerate. I ask whether men let themselves be taken prisoner in order to be disarmed and shot down afterwards? Is that chivalry in battle? It is no longer a secret among the people; one hears everywhere that few prisoners are taken; they are shot down in small groups. They say naïvely: 'We don't want any unnecessary mouths to feed. Where there is no one to enter complaint, there is no judge.' Is there then no power in the world which can put an end to these murders and rescue the victims? Where is Christianity? Where is right? Might is right.

"A SOLDIER AND MAN WHO IS NO BARBARIAN."

[Sidenote: Socialists oppose system.]

Many of the Germans, as has been already indicated, do not believe the reports of the atrocities committed by the Belgian civilians and refuse to accept the system of frightfulness. The _Vorwärts_, the leading socialistic paper, which has a very wide circle of readers, has opposed the policy of frightfulness. All honor to its editors who have so courageously opposed powerful military authority! Its editorial, entitled "Our Foes," published August 23, 1914, reads as follows:

"We wish to show ourselves humane and friendly towards those whom the fortune of war has played into our hands as prisoners. But we wish also to be humane towards our foes on the field. We must fight them. * * * But fighting does not mean murdering. It does not mean being barbarous. * * *

"What should one say when even such an organ as the _Deutsches Offizier-Blatt_ expresses its sympathy with a demand that 'the beasts' who are taken as francs-tireurs should not be killed but only wounded so that they may then be left to a fate 'which makes any help impossible?' Or what should we say when the _Deutsches Offizier-Blatt_ states that 'a punitive destruction even of whole regions' cannot 'afford full recompense for the bones of a single murdered Pomeranian grenadier' Those are the desires of blood-thirsty fanatics and we are thoroughly ashamed of ourselves because it is possible that there are people among us who urge such things. Such disclosures in themselves, even if they are not followed out, are likely to place our fighting quite in the wrong before all the world. * * * Let us show knightliness even though we are of the proletariat. Let us take such pains that when the fight has finally been fought it will also not be so difficult again to work in common as brothers with our class associates on the other side of the border."

On the following day, August 24, 1914, the _Vorwärts_ returned to the attack in an editorial "Against Barbarism."

[Sidenote: Some Germans demand "orgies of barbarism."]

* * * "One might, in the first place, possibly believe that such a demand for a bloody vengeance [against alleged Belgian outrages] emanates from a single disease-racked brain; but it appears that whole groups among certain classes who represent German _Kultur_ want to indulge in orgies of barbarism and to devise a whole system for the purpose of organizing 'a war of revenge.'

"What of law and custom! Such thoughts do not stir a 'great nation'. Thus in a leading article of the _Berliner Neueste Nachrichten_, the demand is made that all the authorities in Brussels--one, the second Burgomaster, is generously excepted--should be immediately seized and subjected to trial in order to expiate the wrongs which, according to fragmentary and highly uncertain reports, were said to have been committed by the people. They demand that the captured city should immediately pay a fine of 500,000,000 marks; that all stores of the conquered territory be requisitioned without paying the inhabitants a single penny for them."

Three years later, August 26, 1917, the _Vorwärts_ quoted the following passage from the _Deutsche Tagezeitung_:

[Sidenote: Still hold same opinions.]

"We have a ring of politicians who hold that might makes right (_Machtpolitiker_) who despise the forces of the inner life and believe that they must eliminate all ethical points of view * * * from foreign and social politics. For them, Germany of the present and of the future is the country of the Krupps and Borsigs, of the Zeppelins and the U-boats. Any idea of a connection between politics and morals is rejected and any reference to the right of a moral method of consideration is ridiculed as delusion and sentimentality."

[Sidenote: Belgian warning of danger.]

Naturally the reports of the atrocities committed by the Germans and the Emperor's declaration that the war would henceforth assume a terrible character (_grausamen Charakter_) caused grave anxiety among the Belgians. In order to avoid the danger of reprisals, the Belgian Government, at the beginning of the invasion, had every Belgian newspaper publish each day the following notice on its first page, in large print:

"TO CIVILIANS.

"The Minister of the Interior advises civilians in case the enemy should show himself in their district:

"Not to fight;

"To utter no insulting or threatening words;

"To remain within their houses and close the windows; so that it will be impossible to allege that there was any provocation;

"To evacuate any houses or isolated hamlet which the soldiers may occupy in order to defend themselves, so that it cannot be alleged that civilians have fired;

"An act of violence committed by a single civilian would be a crime for which the law provides arrest and punishment. It is all the more reprehensible in that it might serve as a pretext for measures of oppression, resulting in bloodshed or pillage, or the massacre of the innocent population with the women and children."

In the hope of arousing the sympathy and securing the aid of the neutral nations, the Belgian Government appointed a committee to ascertain the facts about the German practices. The evidence collected by the Belgian commissioners is detailed and explicit, and their reports give names, places, and dates. It is not possible, however, to include in this pamphlet more than the following summary of the charges they make against the Germans:

"1. That thousands of unoffending civilians, including women and children, were murdered by the Germans.

"2. That women had been outraged.

"3. That the custom of the German soldiers immediately on entering a town was to break into wineshops and the cellars of private houses and madden themselves with drink.

"4. That German officers and soldiers looted on a gigantic and systematic scale, and, with the connivance of the German authorities, sent back a large part of the booty to Germany.

"5. That the pillage had been accompanied by wanton destruction and by bestial and sacrilegious practices.

"6. That cities, towns, villages, and isolated buildings were destroyed.

"7. That in the course of such destruction human beings were burnt alive.

"8. That there was a uniform practice of taking hostages and thereby rendering great numbers of admittedly innocent people responsible for the alleged wrongdoings of others.

"9. That large numbers of civilian men and women had been virtually enslaved by the Germans, being forced against their will to work for the enemies of their country, or had been carried off like cattle into Germany, where all trace of them had been lost.

"10. That cities, towns, and villages had been fined and their inhabitants maltreated because of the success gained by the Belgian over the German soldiers.

"11. That public monuments and works of art had been wantonly destroyed by the invaders.

"12. And that generally the Regulations of the Hague Conference and the customs of civilized warfare had been ignored by the Germans, and that amongst other breaches of such regulations and customs, the Germans had adopted a new and inhuman practice of driving Belgian men, women, and children in front of them as a screen between them and the allied soldiers."

The German authorities undertook to defend themselves against the terrible indictment in the report published by the Belgian Government and appointed a German commission, which collected a huge mass of materials designed to show that their acts of cruelty were merely acts of reprisal necessitated by the deeds of the Belgians. This mass of testimony was published in a _German White Book_ with the title _Die völkerrechtswidrige Führung des Belgischen Volkskriegs_.

The German commission declared in its findings that the German soldiers had acted with humanity, restraint, and Christian forbearance. But the sworn statements of German soldiers, which the commission published, show the reverse to be true.

[Sidenote: German White Book reveals atrocities.]

It has been well said that the publication of this _German White Book_ was "an amazing official blunder." The neutral world, whose good opinion Germany sought, was not convinced by it that the Belgians had committed the atrocities with which the Germans charged them. On the other hand, this _White Book_, published by the German Government, will be accepted by everyone as conclusive evidence of the massacres and other brutal deeds which were carried out as "reprisals" by the orders of the German military authorities in Belgium. The names of the German officers who gave the terrible orders are published officially, and "frequently the very men themselves come forward and depose coldly and callously to acts which have degraded the German Army and left a stain upon its banners that [future] generations of chivalry will not efface."

Indeed, in the light of the admissions of the _German White Book_, it is not too much to say that the time has already come which was spoken of by President Wilson in his dispatch to President Poincaré, September 19, 1914, when he said (speaking for "a nation which abhors inhuman practices in the conduct of a war"):

"The time will come when this great conflict is over and when the truth can be impartially determined. When that time arrives those responsible for violations of the rules of civilized warfare, if such violations have occurred, and for false charges against their adversaries, must of course bear the burden of the judgment of the world."

CHARACTER OF THE MATERIAL USED IN THIS PAMPHLET.

[Sidenote: German sources.]

In this pamphlet throughout, as in the preceding pages, the evidence is drawn mainly from German and American sources. The German sources include official proclamations and other official utterances, letters and diaries of German soldiers, and quotations from German newspapers. The diaries which are so frequently quoted form a unique source. The _Rules for Field Service_ of the German Army advises each soldier to keep such a diary while on active service. Very many German soldiers who have been taken prisoner had kept such diaries, and these have been confiscated by the captors. Many have been published, frequently with facsimile reproductions to guarantee their authenticity. The best known collection was made by Bédier, whom Prof. Hollmann, of the University of Berlin, properly described as "the distinguished Prof. Joseph Bédier of the Collège de France." Of Bédier's publication Prof. Nyrop, of the University of Copenhagen, says:

"He has translated the diaries and commented upon them just as one does with all old historical documents, and, in order that everyone may be in a position to check up his work, he has also accompanied the account with facsimile copies of the documents he used. Here, accordingly, at the outset every proof of the evidence which he has employed is provided. No falsification is possible. The accounts are those of eyewitnesses, and these eyewitnesses are Germans. They tell what they themselves or their comrades have done, and Bédier accompanies their remarks with running comments which show that not only have common law and the Hague Conventions been violated, but sins have also been committed against the most elementary laws of humanity. Both the material and the presentation are unassailable. The details which are provided by the German soldiers in regard to their own violent acts are horror-striking."

Prof. Hollmann attempted to prove that Bédier had made mistakes in translating and interpreting, but he did not deny the genuineness of the diaries. "These notebooks," he says, "may well be authentic and I accept this without further comment for all those which are provided with the name of their authors and whose authenticity can in any case be established after the war."

[Sidenote: American sources.]

The American evidence is drawn mainly from material in the archives of the State Department. In addition, statements from our ambassadors and ministers and other well-known officials and authors are given. Messrs. Hoover, Kellogg, and Walcott have written statements especially for this pamphlet. All of this material is essentially the testimony of neutrals, for it is based wholly on observations made before the United States entered the war. Occasionally official documents and well authenticated facts from foreign sources are used.

[Sidenote: Frightfulness as a system.]

The purpose of this pamphlet is to show that the system of frightfulness, which is itself the greatest atrocity, is the definite policy of the German Government, against which more humane German soldiers themselves revolted at times. For this reason it has not seemed necessary to set forth the individual acts of cruelty; such acts are cited only when necessary to illustrate the system. Anyone who wishes to read chapters of horrors can find them in the _Report of the Committee on Alleged German Outrages_, presided over by the former British Ambassador to this country and therefore generally known as "the Bryce report;" in the official reports by the Belgian _Commission d'Enquête_; in the official French reports compiled under the auspices of the French minister for foreign affairs; in many other publications, and especially in the conclusive admissions of the official _German White Book_ cited above. The last, published by the German Government, is the most damning testimony concerning the system of frightfulness.

I. MASSACRES.

[Sidenote: Protection of noncombatants agreed to by Germany.]

[Sidenote: But her military leaders did not acquiesce.]

In the wars waged in ancient times it was taken for granted that conquered peoples might be either killed, tortured, or held as slaves; that their property would be taken and that their lands would be devastated. "_Vae victis!_--woe to the conquered!" For two centuries or more there has been a steady advance in introducing ideas of humanity and especially in confining the evils of warfare to the combatants. The ideal seemed to have become so thoroughly established as a part of international law that the powers at The Hague thought it sufficient merely to state the general principles in Article XLVI of the regulations: "Family honors and rights, the lives of persons and private property, as well as religious convictions and practice, must be respected. Private property can not be confiscated." Germany, in common with the other powers, solemnly pledged her faith to keep this article, but her military leaders had no intention of doing so. They had been trained in the ideas voiced by Gen. von Hartmann 40 years ago: "Terrorism is seen to be a relatively gentle procedure, useful to keep the masses of the people in a state of obedience." This had been Bismarck's policy, too. According to Moritz Busch, Bismarck's biographer, Bismarck, exasperated by the French resistance, which was still continuing in January, 1871, said:

[Sidenote: Bismarck's idea in 1871.]

"If in the territory which we occupy, we can not supply everything for our troops, from time to time we shall send a flying column into the localities which are recalcitrant. We shall shoot, hang, and burn. After that has happened a few times, the inhabitants will finally come to their senses."

The frightfulness taught by the German leaders had held full sway in Belgium. This is best seen in the entries in the diaries of the individual German soldiers.

EXTRACTS FROM GERMAN WAR DIARIES.

"During the night of August 15-16 Engineer Gr---- gave the alarm in the town of Visé. Everyone was shot or taken prisoner, and the houses were burnt. The prisoners were made to march and keep up with the troops." (From the diary of noncommissioned officer Reinhold Koehn of the Second Battalion of Engineers, Third Army Corps.)

* * * * *

"A horrible bath of blood. The whole village burnt, the French thrown into the blazing houses, civilians with the rest." (From the diary of Private Hassemer, of the Eighth Army Corps.)

* * * * *

"In the night of August 18-19 the village of Saint-Maurice was punished for having fired on German soldiers by being burnt to the ground by the German troops (two regiments, the 12th Landwehr and the 17th). The village was surrounded, men posted about a yard from one another, so that no one could get out. Then the Uhlans set fire to it, house by house. Neither man, woman, nor child could escape; only the greater part of the live stock was carried off, as that could be used. Anyone who ventured to come out was shot down. All the inhabitants left in the village were burnt with the houses." (From the diary of Private Karl Scheufele, of the Third Bavarian Regiment of Landwehr Infantry.)

* * * * *

"At 10 o'clock in the evening the first battalion of the 178th marched down the steep incline into the burning village to the north of Dinant. A terrific spectacle of ghastly beauty. At the entrance to the village lay about fifty dead civilians, shot for having fired upon our troops from ambush. In the course of the night many others were also shot, so that we counted over 200. Women and children, lamp in hand, were forced to look on at the horrible scene. We ate our rice later in the midst of the corpses, for we had had nothing since morning. When we searched the houses we found plenty of wine and spirit, but no eatables. Captain Hamann was drunk." (This last phrase in shorthand.) (From the diary of Private Philipp, of the One Hundred and Seventy-eighth Regiment of Infantry, Twelfth Army Corps.)

* * * * *

"Aug. 6th crossed frontier. Inhabitants on border very good to us and give us many things. There is no difference noticeable.

"Aug. 23rd, Sunday (between Birnal and Dinant, village of Disonge). At 11 o'clock the order comes to advance after the artillery has thoroughly prepared the ground ahead. The Pioneers and Infantry Regiment 178 were marching in front of us. Near a small village the latter were fired on by the inhabitants. About 220 inhabitants were shot and the village was burnt--artillery is continuously shooting--the village lies in a large ravine. Just now, 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the crossing of the Maas begins near Dinant * * * All villages, châteaux, and houses are burnt down during this night. It was a beautiful sight to see the fires all round us in the distance.

"Aug. 24th. In every village one finds only heaps of ruins and many dead. (From the diary of Matbern, Fourth Company, Eleventh Jäger Battalion, Marburg.)

* * * * *