The Sentinel=record., 1914-09-17
BELGIANS IN
WASHINGTON
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two miles away. They then released
her and as she fled was fred on with.
out being hit. Her husband was car
ried to point in another direction
land fired on; he is dying. The same
! troops sacked and burned the house
of railway Waterman.
| Farmer JEFF Dkerckx, of Neerhes-
lpen, is an eye witness to the follow.
I ing atrocities committed by German
I cavalry between Orsmael and Neer.
Ihespen, August 10, II, and ~. An old
man had his arm cut in three longi-
tudinal slices. He then was hanged
downward and burned alive. Young
gir's were raped and little children
Outraged at Orsmael and mutilations
/ too horrible to describe were inflct-
ed on other Inhabitants. Prisoners
were hanged while others were tied
together to posts and shot
After an engagement at Haelen
Commandant Van Damme was so Sc
vere1y wounded that he was lying
prone on his back lie was murdered
by German infantry firing their re-
volvers into his mouth.
Numerous wounded and unarmed
soldiers were i'll treated or killed by
German troops and in different placcs
doctors and nurses and ambulances
were fired on
at times the Germans went into
the battle with a Belgian rag.
while digging trenches and with
the white flag hoisted, Belgian sol.
diers we're set on by Germas and shot.
Another time near a fort at Lon
Gin. a group of German infantry
hoisted the white flag and when the
Belgian soldiers approached them TO
take them prisoners they were fired
on at close range"
"The massacre Of Aerschot:
"Aerschot, a town of 5000 inhabi-
tants, was invested by the Germans
i on the morning OF August 10, No
Belgian troops remained behind. No
sooner had the Germans entered the
city when they began shooting sew
erai noffensive civilians. In the
evening, claiming that a superior Ger
man officer had been shot by the son
of the burgomaster, or, according TO
! another version of their story, tina, a
conspiracy had been Matched against
! the German commandant by the bur-
gQmaster and his family, the Ger
mans took hold Of every man in the
city, carrying them fifty at a time,
within some distance of the town.
There they grouped them in lines OF
four men, made them run ahead Of
them and fired upon them killing
them afterward with their bayonets.
More than forty men were found thus
| massacred.
They pillaged the whole town,
| taking from private residences all
they could lay their hands on. The
following morning they took one
| man out of every three whom they
had arrested the previous evening,
and leading them outside the city,
shot them. Among these were the
| burgomaster Of the town, his 15-year-
old son and his brother.
Then they compelled the remain
ing villagers to dig holes to bury
their victims.
For three whole days they con-
tinued to plage and set fire to every.
thing in their way.
About $50 inhabitants of Aersehot
are supposed to have thus persisted.
The largest part of the city is de-
stroyed. Five times the Germans
tried to set fire to the big church,
having sacqed the interior of its con-
tents. The town records were de-
| stroyed or carried off.
1T must be borne in mind that the
civil population had been repeatedly
warned by their burgomaster not TO
offer any resistance or commit any
| hostile act towards the invaders. The
Germans shot at the fleeing citizens,
set fire to private houses and sacked
them. They wanted to make the vic
timized citizens declare that thss
J themselves had set fire to their
homes. Everywhere along the road
of the German march the same hor-
rors were visible. The witness nen-
tions the names of sixteen persons
who to his knowledge were massa-
cred at Aerschot.
"The destruction of Louvain.