The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-04-13
GERMANS EXCUSE
ATROcIOUS ACTS
Murder, PiIlage and Arson Part
of Deliberate Scheme of
Warfare.
HIGH OFFICERS GO ON RECORD
No Possible Evasion of Responsibility
for 8estiaI Acts Which for centu-
ries Have Had No Parallel
Officially Endorsed.

Inc people OF the United States
are beginning to learn the truth con-
corning the conduct of the uar By
Germany. Proof is offered that Ger
man officials deliberately lied an
their statements concerning Gtroci-
ties committed By the BeEgians and
allies. That their oDn soldiers were
disguised By the erueIties practiced
at the order of high officers of the
kaiser IS shot0n. Extracts taken
from pamphlets issued follow:
The Vorwaerts of Berlin, October q,
1914, said:
1--WE have already been able to es-
tablish the falseness of a great number
OF assertions which have been made
with great precision and published
everywhere in the press, concerning al
legged cruelties committed, by the popu-
lations Of the countries with which
Germany is at war, upon German sol
diers and, civilians. We are now in po-
sition to silence two others of these
fantastic stories.
"The war correspondent of the Ber-
liner Tageblatt spoke a few weeks
ago of cigars and cigarettes filed with
powder alleged to have been given out
or sold to our soldiers with diabolical
intent. He even pretended that he had
seen with his own eyes hundreds OF
this kind of cigarettes. We learn from
an authentic source that this story Of
cigars and cigarettes is nothing but
brazen invention. Stories of soldiers
whose eyes are alleged to have been
torn out by francs-tireurs are circulat-
ed throughout Germany. Not single
case of this kind has been officially es-
tablished.
"It matters little that reports Of this
nature bear an appearance of positive
gertrude, or are even vouched for by
| eye-witnesses. The desire for notoriety,
the absence of criticism, and personal
error play an unfortunate part in the
days in which we are living. Every
| nose shot of or simply bound up.
every eye removed, is Immediately
| transformed into nose or eye torn
| away by the francs-tireurs. Already the
Volkszeitung of Cologne has been able,
contrary to the very categorical asser-
/ lions from Aix-la- Chapelle, to prove
that there was no soldier with MS eyes
| torn out In the field ambulance of this
| town. 1t was said, also, that people
wounded in this way were under treat
ment in the neighborhood of Berlin,
but whenever inquiries have been made
I'm regard to these reports. their abso-
Lutte falsity has been demonstrated. At
! length these reports were concentrated
at Gross Lichterfelde. A newspaper
published at noon and widely circu-
lated in Berlin printed few days ago
i in large type the news that at the
Lazaretto of Lichterfelde alone there
| were ten German soldiers, only slight
/ ly wounded, whose eyes had been wick
1 edly torn out But to a request for
information by Comrade Liebknecht
the following written reply was sent
| aforementioned field hospital, dated
the eighteenth of the month:
Sir: Happily there is no truth
whatever in these stories.
Yours obediently,
PROFESSOR RAUTENBERG,'
German Soldiers Protested.
+ Thus the teachings of the German
War Book and of the German apostles
of frightfulness, suspicion and hatred,
had now begun to bea< their natural
fruit. But the voice of protest was
not entirely silent A considerable
number of letters by German soldiers
who were shocked by the German
atrocities were sent to Ambassador
Gerard, because he was the representa-
q tive of the United States, the leading
neutral nation. The three letters
which follow, in translation, were re
ceived by the American ambassador
from German soldiers.
Here is the protest of German sol
der, an eyewitness of the slaughter OF
! Russian soldiers In the Masurian lakes
and swamps:
at was frightful, heart-rending, al
these masses of human beings were
driven to destruction. Above the ter
: rfble thunder Of the cannon could bt
heard the heart-rending cries OF the
Russians: % Prussians! o Prussians
: had ordered: The whole lot must die
so rapid fire. As have heard, five
men and one officer on our side went
: mad from these heart-rendiDg cries
But most of my comrades and the off
!. GERS joked as the unarmed and helples.
Russians shrieked for mercy while
; they were being suffocated In tbs
!: swamps and shot down. The ordel
!. was: Close up and at it harderP Fol
.. DAYS afterwards those heart-rendin,
; wells followed me and dare not thinl
] of them or / shall go mad. There is NJ
I. God, there is no morality and no ethic.
any more. There are no human beings
I any more, but only beasts. Down witt
! miIitarism.
!: IF you are a truth-loving man
please receive these lines from a com
mon Prussian soldier"
Following is the testimony Of anothe