Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1914-09-26
GERMAN ACCOUNT
OF BELGIAN HORRORS
Newspaper Man Lays Entire Blame
Upon Civilians Who Re
sisted Invaders.
WOUNDED WERE MUTILATED
Declares DesOIntion In Army's wake.
Awful, hut Contends it Was
Brought About by Treach-
cry of Population.

Correspondent Of the Associated Press
BERLIN. Sept. IA cry OF indgna-
ton has been called forth throughout the
world" writes w. SCheuernann, a cor
respondent of several German newspa-
pers. who accompanied the German staff
by the so-Called cruelty with which the
Germans are carrying on this war In
all countries that get their news through ,
English and French sources, stories of
German barbarsm are repeated It Is, |
therefore, doubly the duty for war cor
respondent, who can speak OF what his ,
own eyes have seem to report what he
saw and what he can answer for before !
the forum Of historical truth.
II have spent days in the worst Franc
Tireur regions OF Belgium and France.
My first impressions of the horrors of
war were obtained at Battice on the
road from Aichen to Liege. where fight
ing took place between Franc ireurs
and our soldiers. Instead of flourishing
villages with neat houses and villas one
sees there today charred ruins stretching
along the highway for a mile
village Entirely Burned,
II saw things there that l shall re-
member as long as | live. | passed
through village that was quite burned
cut, where only few German soldiers
were standing guard-no other living he
ings visible anywhere. But when l came
TO the doorway of a house that had
fallen in l saw in what had probably been
the living room. white-haired woman
with a kitchen knife ralSing in the de
bris ] called to her. She did not hear
mo. Her face was like gray stone, and
her eyes fixed as in death. She looked
rs If she was expecting to find some
thing under the fallen bricks.
in front garden which had been
scorched by the flames, a woman in a
black dress was crouching and weeping.
: have stood at many an open grave in
the church yard. but I have never heard !
anybody weep like that woman. The
sound of it will ring in my ears forever
one of the most terrible experiences
of my life.
Even the petty losses of property are
painful to see. In the upper story of one
house everything had been destroyed by
fire, but in one corner hung the Giscol-
ored picture OF a woman probably long
dead. At one place a blue enameled
.hilds bedstead peers out of the smoking
debris still filled with its scorched mat
tIesses and pillows. Whoever has a child
at home in its snow white bed
Hurls Curse.
But curse and thrice a curse on |
those who caused all this misery. For
them there is no punishment in this |
world sufficient to atone for their evil |
deed And when they now denounce our |
brave warriors as the cause of this desc
Loft SIa af,,I -
is does not weigh much in comparison
with that they actually did
our German soldiers and landwehr
men marched into the country of the
enemy with the same order and discipline
that they maintain on the drill ground
and in army maneuvers. Wherever we |
came we guaranteed to the inhabitants
security for life and property we are
waging war with the armies of an enemy !
not with civilians. In Battice the Ger
man proclamation promising the Belgians
peace and the integrity of their territory
was still seen on the walls of the burned
houses.
Fell ON Germans in Night.
Now what happened in Battice. CIer-
mont, Herve, Fleron and other Belgian
places was, with singular similarity as
follows:
The inhabitants let the Germans
march in, received them with bringing
frlendliness. offered them wine in super
fluffy and then fell on them at night 1t
goes without saying-for mere self
preservation demanded it-that every
murdered German was avenged When
the murderers could be caught they were
brought before a court-martial and if
pl1ilf avid
or hanged.
IAN this was done in perfect order.
How far the self-control of our troops
extended was proved to me by an example
only day before Yesterday At the en-
trance TO the French fortress of Longwy,
Just completed. | saw German soldiers
bring in a troop of Franc-Tireurs, quite
. old fellows, and among them a few COM
mon thieves scarcely beyond schoolboy
age, all OF them with criminal faces of
the hardest type. Pity that we did not
photograph them that the world might
see what hdeous scamps are killing our
men.
What did these men do?' demanded
an officer. They put on Red Cross
scarfs, then went on the battlefield and
mutilated our wounded. We caught them
in the act was the reply.
Why didn't you beat the scoundrels
to death at once? We dare not do that
They must be brought before a court
martial
Hyenas Of Battlefield.
The reader should know what was the
character of this mutilation. The eyes
of our wounded men, lying helpless in
their pain on the battlefield, were cut out
with knives. But this was not by far
the most cruel thing these beasts in
vented Old and young men and women
were caught as hyenas of the battlefield
and they received their reward.
AT Wise a 16-year-old girl had to be
shot because she was caught in the act
of mutiiating our wounded.
There is no mercy for such deeds, and
there can be none / should like 10 know
what other people i'm the world possess
the same self-Festraint in~the presence of
such shameful crimes. to wait and bring
the criminals before court.
Beyond all doubt, this Franco-Treur
warfare against us was organized. Other
wise it would be impossible to explain
the uniform character of the mutations,