



Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders




THEIR CRIMES



Translated from the French



1917.




_It is proposed to devote any profits from the sale of this work to The
League of Remembrance, or for relief work in Lorraine_.




CONTENTS


Preface

Introduction

Robbery

Incendiarism

Murder

Outrages on Women and Children

Killing the Wounded

Sheltering behind Women

Martyrdom of Civilian Prisoners

German Excuses: Lies and Calumny

The German Appeal

Appeal by Belgian Workmen

Conclusion




PREFACE.


The purpose of this book is to remind English-speaking people all over
the Empire and our Allies in America of the wanton destruction and
unspeakable terror which have overwhelmed the regions of France and
Belgium occupied by the Boche, and also to quicken a true perception of
the reparation and punishment due when peace is made with the enemy. In
many minds time has dimmed the horrors of August and September 1914.
When war weariness is apt to sap resolution and the possibility of a
patched up peace is furtively canvassed, the great world of the
English-speaking race should call to remembrance the inhuman and barely
credible acts of brutality and bestiality committed in cold blood by the
German race.

No apology is made for this book. It is a translation of a document
which has created a profound impression in France. It is an
authoritative record of German crimes committed on the people of Belgium
and Northern France, attested by the Mayors of twenty-six French towns.
Some time ago permission was obtained from the French Committee of
Publication (the Prefect of Meurthe-and-Moselle, and the Mayors of Nancy
and Luneville) to produce an English version on condition that the
translation be an "exact and literal translation." This has been
completed and the Editor, the Rev. J. Esslemont Adams, an Assistant
Principal Chaplain with the British Expeditionary Force in France, is
indebted to the friends who have assisted in producing the work.




INTRODUCTION


This is a book of horrors, but a book of plain truths! Where have we
discovered our facts? They are taken from three sources: _First_, Four
reports issued by the French Commission of Enquiry[1]; and "Germany's
Violation of the Laws of Warfare," published by the French Ministry of
Foreign Affairs; _Second_, Two volumes containing twenty-two reports of
the Belgian Commission[2], and the Reply to the German White Book of the
15th May, 1915; _Third_, Notebooks found upon a large number of German
soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and officers, who have been wounded
or taken prisoners, and translated under the direction of the French
Government. These valuable records, in which the bandits and their
leaders have imprudently given themselves away, are real "_pieces a
conviction_."

These reports in their entirety form an overwhelming indictment. We
wish that everyone could study them in full. But the books are large,
running to thousands of pages, and will not find their way to the
general public.

Yet everyone ought to know how the Germans carry on war. We have
therefore made selections from these documents in order to compile this
small pamphlet. A dismal task, this wading through mud and blood! And a
hard task, to run through all these reports, pencil in hand, with the
idea of underlining _the essential facts_! You find yourself noting down
each page, marking each paragraph; and, lo and behold, at the end of the
book, you have selected _everything_--- that is to say, nothing. One
might as well start to gather the hundred finest among the leaves of a
forest, or to pick up the hundred most glittering grains among the sand
on a beach. All we can do is to take the first examples which come to
hand. This, then, is not a collection of the most stirring and striking
German crimes, but simply a book of samples. Until complete statistics
are forthcoming, two classes of outrage stand out, and must remain ever
present to the mind: murdered civilians can be counted in thousands;
houses wilfully burned, in tens of thousands.

For want of time and space we have concerned ourselves here only with
crimes committed in Belgium and France, and we have had no thought of
separating the two neighbouring sister nations.

Our part in this work is a modest one. Taking at random a certain number
of _facts_, we have grouped them under different headings to make
perusal easier for the reader. To indicate the references would have
been impossible. Each line would have required a foot-note; the notes
would have been as long as the text, and both