Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-09-23
BELGIANS ACCUSED
OF GROSS CRUELTY
TOWARD PRISONERS
American Tourist Says Parts
of Human Bodies Were
Found in Pockets of Cap
tives Taken by Germans.
NEW YORK, Sent. %.

NEW YORK, Sept. %.
s A story from the European war zone
rivaling the torturos of the Spanish In
,risition was brought to port today by
.,sseneers on board the Uranium liner
princlpello from Rotterdam.
",yith my own eyes / saw ten Bel
,i.ps brought into the plaza at Bremen
aud when they were searched their
oockets were found to be full of parts of
human bodies," said Mrs. Frlede Bau-
mann. wife of an artist of Milwaukee,
Wis.
Mrs. Baumann, who was accompanied
nv her son, Arthur said she was stopping
At Diepholz, a suburb of Bremen, when
the war broke out,
"It was there that I saw such horrible
examples OF depravity and atrocities
against the Germans" said Mrs. Bau-
mann.
.The Belgian prisoners, ten in number,
we're all old men, too old, in fact for
military service. They were all shot.
seyeral days later l saw a German wo-
man who had been turned into a raving
maniac by cruelties inflicted upon her
children. She had been living upon the
Belg1an frontier when the war broke
out. According to her story, her chill
dren we're seized by Belgians and their
ayes burned out. Her husband was a
reservlst, and when he left to join the
German colors the Belgians raided her
homo and seized her four children.
"The Belgians accused the womans
husband Of being a spy. She denied, de-
elarlng that he had gone to join the
srmy. The Belgians then heated sword
until IL was red hot and drew the heated
edge across the eyes of one of her chill
dren,
NOW, will you tell us where the
spy is?' cried the Belgians. The second
and third child were tortured in this
dreadful manner. The mother swooned
and when she came to her senses her
four children were lying sightless and
unconscious on the floor. The sight of
1t drove the mother mad
IN the military hospitals at Bremen
] talked with German soldiers, who say
that Belgian girls, 1s years old and
younger, went out on the battlefield and
perpetrated shocking mutlations upon
wounded Germans. who were too badly
hurt to protect themselves from the
tortures.
Captain Hermann Trotzbein, a Ger
man officer, told me that in one Belgian
village the townspeople opened fire upon
the troops from cellars. lie took shelter
hnhtn hnr 81 1T
They could hear screams. and, upon
breaking into a nearby house, found Bel
gians in the act of saving the legs off a
German soldier who had been captured
The soldier was strapped into a chair and
the tormcntors were mocking his cries of
agony"
Tribute to the bravery OF the Germans
fighting in France was paid by Henri De
Sibour, of Washington, d. c., who, with
Mrs. De Sibour arrived from Europe on
the Red Star liner ICELAND, which left
Liverpool on September Q.
AT the outbreak of the war we were
In England said Mrs. Sbour IN
husband was in France and my three
sons were In Belgium with a governess.
Through the assistance of the American
diplomatic authorities we were finally
united in Paris, where we We're told about
affairs in the field by my cousin. who
Is military observer with the French
army.
My cousin told us of the fighting at
Charlerol and Arras. The daring of the
Germans was simply wonderful" he said.
The Germans would advance in close
formation right up against the French
guns. Ele declared he saw at least 10000
moved down like so much wheat. At
the end of the battle. he said, he walked
over the field and saw the dead so thick
,hat IN some places the bodies remained
In standing posture.
My cousin told of coming upon a Ger
man soldier who had had part of his
face blown away by a French shell. The
poor soldier asked for the loan of a
pistol and when 1t was given to him no
turned the muzzle against his forehead
and finished the job
My cousin also declared that the Ger
mans had been guilty of atrocities"