The Washington herald., 1917-06-07
Writer Tells How Germans
Violated French Graves

In bundles Of American pauers
which have reached Paris since the
United States, too, has gone into the
war, I still see the assertion made
that ''the demand of the wounded
soldiers in all the belligerent coun-
tries, the cry Of millions OF bereft
women on those lands" is peace at
any price, says the New York Even
ing Post, in a dispatch from Paris.
One American says that the soldiers
In all armies are fighting only be-
cause they are led to the slaughter.
The soldiers and women Of France
belle each assertion land each, by
Said the wandering American profess
sor, after he had been weeks with
in sound of fighting at the front and
cries of real French women: I'VE In
America have been too much In the
habit OF considering this war as a
present in our hearts and souls the
aggression and cruel injustice which
come home to every one here"
/ desire to make heard authentic
voices from men and women who
are struggling and suffering.
Benjamin Vallotton Is Swiss, who
needs no certificate in the writing
world. He has been lately in the re
gion of the Somme, from which the
German troops have been driven. He
has seen and heard. In Champion,
which was once a little village be-
yond Ham and is now a stone-heap,
he found a German bupying-ground
with hundreds Of tombs decently in
scribed with names-and then a COM
mon trench of unknown soldiers, I"
twenty-five French and five Germans
buried together. On the wall the Ger
man troops had perched a statue OF
peace with the inscription. Friend
and Foe in Death Are One. When
the Incoming French saw the state
of the village, they tore this statue
from its wall and broke 1t in pieces.
Germans Deseerated Graves.
docs that surprise you?" asked one
Of their officers. You will soon under
stand. But first look carefully at the
stones and crosses and wreaths, What
ever may be the indignation OF our
soldiers at what they have seen, they
respect their enemies last sleep"
Nothing had been touched among
the myriad German inscriptions, Rest
in peace" and Here sleeps in God. I"
Only the lying statue was overturned
and the reason was soon plain to be
seen. Through mud where roads had
been the party reached the village
cemetery-or what had once been such
beside what had been the village
what he saw in the place OF them:
THE church had been burned. Moth
ing remained OF II but blackened walls
and columns which had no longer
anything to support. 1 thought this
must be the worst, but the worst
was yet to be seen. Yes. It must be
said, monstrous as II is. All these
village tomOs had been violated. The
stones of family vaults weighing their
had been torn up and
broken. The German soldiers hae
gone down into the vaults and un-
scaled the pave on which the coffins
were resting. Collins and human bones
hauled out and cast anywhere. The
graphing vaults are empty. and on the
mutilated tombs there are only the
names OF those who once slept there.
And yet. in one burial vault the up
per coffins had been taken and the
lowest one left. But II had been
broken open with picks. and there still
lay the bones OF the dead. mixed with
ordure and broken bottles and pre-
served-meat cans. l should like to
say that such nameless crimes were
the work of two or three madmen,
as madmen may exist anywhere or of
vampires. But 1t Is all the tombs that
have been thus broken open, all round
the church. through the four sides OF
the cemetery. The work must have
been done with levers and pulleys and
squads OF men under orders. You can
see orders were given and followed
up and executed methodically. A great
mr. tree shaded a part Of the cemetery.
II has been sawed through at the foot,
and lies its length, giving the finish
ing touch, and making US sure the
crime was done under orders from
the chief of the German troops in the
place. OF course, We must not accuse
I he whole Gernan arrny-hut this Dro
fanation Of the cemetery Of Champion
Is not an isolated fact. How are you
going to explain It?
standing before those upturned
graves there were the minister Of a
neutral Fower. two italian journal