New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-05-13
Liege and District.

!
and south were covered with German
Deaths Head Hussars and Uhlans
pressing forward TO seize the passage
over the Mouse. From the very begin
ming Of the operations the civilian
population Of the villages lying upon
The line Of the German advance were
made TO experience the extreme nor
rors Of war "On the 4th OF August,
saws one witness, "at Herve q village
not far from the frontier ! saw at
about o'clock in the afternoon, near
the station, FIVE Uhlsns; these were
the first German troops ! had seen.
They were followed by German off,
Ger and some soldiers in motor car.
The men In the car called out 10 q
couple Of young fellows who were
standing about thirty yards away. The
young men, being afraid, ran on, ana
then the Germans fred and killed one
of them, named D. The murder
Of this innocent fugitive civilian was
a prelude 10 the burning and pillage or
Herve and Of other villages IN the
neighborhood. 20 the indscriminate
shooting Of civilians Of both sexes and
10 the organized military execution OF
patches Of selected males. Thus at
Herve some fifty men escaping from
the burning houses were seized, taken
outside the town and shot. At MeIen,
hamlet west Of Herve, forty men
were shot. In one household alone the
father and mother names given were
shot. the daughter died after being re-
peatedlv outraged and the son was
wounded. Nor were children exempt.
about August T." says one witness,
near Nottem. we were pursuing some
Uhlans. saw man, woman and a
girl about nine who had been killed.
They were on the threshold Of house,
one on top of the other as II they had
been shot down, one after the other, as
they tried 10 escape"
Atrocities Follow Check.
The burning of the villages in this
neighborhood and the wholesale slaugh-
ter of civilians, such as occurred at
Herve. Micheroux and Soumagne, APP
near 10 be connected with the eXaspera-
lion caused by the resistance OF Fort
| Fl4ron. whose guns barred the main
road from AK la Chapelle TO Llege;;
Fnraged by The losses which they had
sustained, suspicious of the temper OF
/ the civilian population and probably
/ thinking that by exceptional seventies
at the outset they could COW the spirit
of the Belgian nation, the German OIL
7 ncerS ana men spttNi4! "NNN ~,
themselves TO the slaughter OF civil
ians How rapidly the process was el-
7 fccted is illustrated by an entry IN tne
diary of Kurt Hoffman, one years
man in the LIST Jagers, who on August
; was in front Of Fort Fleron. llo H.
/ Illustrates his story by sketch zap.
THE position" he says, was danger
Gus. As suspicious civilians were hang
/ ing about houses !, ., 3, 4 and We're
/ cleared. the owners arrested and shot
/ The following day.. suddenly Village
/ was fired at Out of 1t bursts our
baqgage train. and the 4th Company OF
the 9th Regiment, who had lost heir
/ way and been shelled by our own ar
tillerv. From the point ID. +. tshown
/ in diary ! shoot a civilian with rlhe
al 400 metres slap through the mead, as
We afterward aScertained.
( In Soumagne and Mlcheroux very
many civilians were summary shot
In field belonging 20 man named
+. ffty-six or fifty-seven were put
TO death. A German officer said you
have shot at us" One OF the villagers
asked to be allowed to speak and said:
"If YOU think these people fired, Kill
me. but let them 60" The answer was
three vollevs. The survivors were bayo-
neted. Their cOrpses were seen IN the
field that night by another witness.
One al least had been mutilt<rd. These
were not the only victims in SOumagne.
Tho eyewitness of the massacre saw
on his way home twenty bodies, one
that Of a young girl Of thirteen. An
other witness saw nineteen corpses IN
meadow.
Shot-No Reason Given.
At Blegny Trembleur. on the 9Th,
some civilians were captured by Ger
man soldiers, who took steps TO put
them TO death forthwith, but were re-
strained by the arrival of an officer.
The prisoners subsequently were taken
off TO Battice and five were shot IN a
field. No reason was assigned for their
murder.
In the meantime house burners were
at work. On the 9th Battice was de-
stroyed in part From the Sth to the
10th over 800 houses were burned al
Herve. while mounted men shot into
doors and windows to prevent the es'
cape of the inhabitants.
Az Heure le Roman on or about The
10Th of August all the male inhabi
tants. including some bedridden ole
men, were imprisoned in the church
The burgomaster's brother and the
priest were bayoneted
Entries in Germa' diary show thai
on the 18th the German soldiers gave
themselves up TO debauchcry in thu
streets of Liege. and on the night o.
the Goth Thursday massacre tooi
place in the streets, beginning near th'
Cafe Carpenter, at which there is sane
10 have been a dinner attended by Rus
sian and other students.
Though the cause of the massacre /!
in dispute, the results are known viii
certainty. The Rue des Pitteurs anC
houses in the Place de pCniversite ant
the Quai des Pecheurs were systemat
ically fired with benzine and many IN
habitants were burned alive in theil
houses, their efforts 10 escape belni
prevented by rife fire. Twenty people
we're shot, while trying TO escape, be
fore the eyes Of one OF the witnesses
The Liege Fire Brigade turned out, bu
was not allowed 70 ertinguish the fire
It's carts, however, were usefully EN-
ployed in removing heaps Of civilian
eorpses TO the Town Hall. The fr'
burned on through the night and th'
murders continued on the following
day. the 2lst. Thirty-two civilians
were killed on that day in the Place
de lUniyersite alone, and witness
states that this was followed by th'
rape in open day of fifteen or twent,
women on tables In the square itself
Diary Tells Outrsges.
No dispositions are before US which
deal with events in the city OF LEG,
after this date. Outrages, however
continued in various places in thu
province.
An entry In one Of the diaries says
"We crossed the Belgian frontier OF
August Is, 1914, at 1850 in the fore
nnnn aud than ,ra runrt stnndilr nlnnl