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Transcriber’s Notes:

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.

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[Illustration: THE INVADED COUNTRY]

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THE GERMAN TERROR IN BELGIUM


  _An Historical Record_

  BY
  ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE
  LATE FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE,
  OXFORD

  NEW YORK
  GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
  MCMXVII

       *       *       *       *       *

  COPYRIGHT, 1917,
  BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA




PREFACE


The subject of this book is the treatment of the civil population in
the countries overrun by the German Armies during the first three
months of the European War. The form of it is a connected narrative,
based on the published documents[1] and reproducing them by direct
quotation or (for the sake of brevity) by reference.

With the documents now published on both sides it is at last
possible to present a clear narrative of what actually happened. The
co-ordination of this mass of evidence, which has gradually accumulated
since the first days of invasion, is the principal purpose for which
the book has been written. The evidence consists of first-hand
statements--some delivered on oath before a court, others taken down
from the witnesses without oath by competent legal examiners, others
written and published on the witnesses’ own initiative as books or
pamphlets. Most of them originally appeared in print in a controversial
setting, as proofs or disproofs of disputed fact, or as justifications
or condemnations of fact that was admitted. In the present work,
however, this argumentative aspect of them has been avoided as far
as possible. For it has either been treated exhaustively in official
publications--the case of Louvain, for instance, in the German White
Book and the Belgian Reply to it--or will not be capable of such
treatment till after the conclusion of the War. The ultimate inquiry
and verdict, if it is to have finality, must proceed either from a
mixed commission of representatives of all the States concerned,
or from a neutral commission like that appointed by the Carnegie
Foundation to inquire into the atrocities committed during the Balkan
War. But the German Government has repeatedly refused proposals,
made both unofficially and officially, that it should allow such
an investigation to be conducted in the territory at present under
German military occupation,[2] and the final critical assessment will
therefore necessarily be postponed till the German Armies have retired
again within their own frontiers.

Meanwhile, an ordered and documented narrative of the attested facts
seems the best preparation for that judicial appraisement for which
the time is not yet ripe. The facts have been drawn from statements
made by witnesses on opposite sides with different intentions and
beliefs, but as far as possible they have been disengaged from this
subjective setting and have been set out, without comment, to speak
for themselves. It has been impossible, however, to confine the
exposition to pure narration at every point, for in the original
evidence the facts observed and the inferred explanation of them
are seldom distinguished, and when the same observed fact is made a
ground for diametrically opposite inferences by different witnesses,
the difficulty becomes acute. A German soldier, say, in Louvain on
the night of August 25th, 1914, hears the sound of machine-gun firing
apparently coming from a certain spot in the town, and infers that at
this spot Belgian civilians are using a machine gun against German
troops; a Belgian inhabitant hears the same sound, and infers that
German troops are firing on civilians. In such cases the narrative
must be interpreted by a judgment as to which of the inferences is
the truth, and this judgment involves discussion. What is remarkable,
however, is the rarity of these contradictions. Usually the different
testimonies fit together into a presentation of fact which is not open
to argument.

The narrative has been arranged so as to follow separately the tracks
of the different German Armies or groups of Armies which traversed
different sectors of French and Belgian territory. Within each sector
the chronological order has been followed, which is generally identical
with the geographical order in which the places affected lie along the
route of march. The present volume describes the invasion of Belgium up
to the sack of Louvain.

  ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE.

  _March, 1917._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A schedule of the more important documents will be found in the
“List of Abbreviations” pp. xi-xiii.

[2] Belgian Reply pp. vii. and 97-8.




CONTENTS


  FRONTISPIECE      _The Invaded Country (Map)_

                                            PAGE

  PREFACE                                      v

  TABLE OF CONTENTS                           ix

  LIST OF MAPS                                ix

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS                        x

  LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS                       xi

  CHAPTER I.: THE TRACK OF THE ARMIES         15

  CHAPTER II.: FROM THE FRONTIER TO LIÉGE     23

       (i) ON THE VISÉ ROAD                   23

      (ii) ON THE BARCHON ROAD                27

     (iii) ON THE FLÉRON ROAD                 31

      (iv) ON THE VERVIERS ROAD               37

       (v) ON THE MALMÉDY ROAD                38

      (vi) BETWEEN THE VESDRE AND THE OURTHE  42

     (vii) ACROSS THE MEUSE                   44

    (viii) THE CITY OF LIÉGE                  46

  CHAPTER III.: FROM LIÉGE TO MALINES         52

      (i) THROUGH LIMBURG TO AERSCHOT         52

     (ii) AERSCHOT                            57

    (iii) THE AERSCHOT DISTRICT               74

     (iv) THE RETREAT FROM MALINES            77

      (v) LOUVAIN                             89




MAPS


  THE INVADED COUNTRY                   _Frontispiece_

  THE TRACK OF THE ARMIES: FROM THE
    FRONTIER TO MALINES[3]             _End of Volume_

  LOUVAIN, FROM THE GERMAN WHITE BOOK  _End of Volume_

FOOTNOTE:

[3] _This map shows practically all the roads and places referred to in
the text._




ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                         PAGE

   1. MOULAND                               _To face page_ 16

   2. BATTICE                                              17

   3. LIÉGE FORTS: A DESTROYED CUPOLA                      32

   4. ANS: AN INTERIOR                                     33

   5. ANS: THE CHURCH                                      48

   6. LIÉGE: A FARM HOUSE                                  49

   7. LIÉGE UNDER GERMAN OCCUPATION                        52

   8. LIÉGE UNDER THE GERMANS: RUINS AND PLACARDS          53

   9. LIÉGE IN RUINS                                       60

  10. “WE LIVE LIKE GOD IN BELGIUM”                        61

  11. HAELEN                                               64

  12. AERSCHOT                                             65

  13. BRUSSELS: A BOOKING-OFFICE                           80

  14. MALINES AFTER BOMBARDMENT                            81

  15. MALINES: RUINS                                       84

  16. MALINES: RUINS                                       85

  17. MALINES: CARDINAL MERCIER’S STATE-ROOM AS A RED
      CROSS HOSPITAL                                       92

  18. MALINES: THE CARDINAL’S THRONE-ROOM                  93

  19. CAPELLE-AU-BOIS                                      96

  20. CAPELLE-AU-BOIS                                      97

  21. CAPELLE-AU-BOIS: THE CHURCH                         112

  22. LOUVAIN: NEAR THE CHURCH OF ST. PIERRE              113

  23. LOUVAIN: THE CHURCH OF ST. PIERRE                   116

  24. LOUVAIN: THE CHURCH OF ST. PIERRE ACROSS THE RUINS  117

  25. LOUVAIN: THE CHURCH OF ST. PIERRE--INTERIOR         124

  26. LOUVAIN: STATION SQUARE                             125




ABBREVIATIONS


  ALPHABET, LETTERS OF THE:--

    CAPITALS Appendices to the German White Book entitled: “_The
      Violation of International Law in the Conduct of the Belgian
      People’s-War_” (dated Berlin, 10th May, 1915); Arabic numerals
      after the capital letter refer to the depositions contained in
      each Appendix.

    LOWER CASE Sections of the “_Appendix to the Report of the
      Committee on Alleged German Outrages, Appointed by His Britannic
      Majesty’s Government and Presided Over by the Right Hon. Viscount
      Bryce, O.M._” (Cd. 7895); Arabic numerals after the lower case
      letter refer to the depositions contained in each Section.

  ANN(EX) Annexes (numbered 1 to 9) to the _Reports of the Belgian
    Commission (vide infra)_.

  BELG. _Reports (numbered i to xxii) of the Official Commission of the
    Belgian Government on the Violation of the Rights of Nations and
    of the Laws and Customs of War._ (English translation, published,
    on behalf of the Belgian Legation, by H.M. Stationery Office, two
    volumes.)

  BLAND “_Germany’s Violations of the Laws of War, 1914-5_”; compiled
    under the Auspices of the French