The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-06-06
FrightfuIness Taught by German
Leaders Belongs to Age Of
Barbarism.
SOLEMN PLEDGE MERE WORDS
Kaiser's Statesmen Had No Intention
Of Keeping Faith With Their
Agreement On international Law
Horrors Told by Diaries.

ity IN Belgium, says a pamphlet IS
sued BY the committee on public IN
formation, the evidence is drawn
mainly from German and American
sources. The German sources in
clude official proclamationS and
other official utterances, letters and
diaries of German soldiers. and quo
tations from German newspapers.
The Rules for Field Service" Of the
German army advises each soldier
TO keep such a diary while On active
service.
In the wars waged in ancient times
1t was taken for granted that con-
quered peoples might be either killed,
tortured, or held as slaves; that their
property would be taken and that their
lands would be devastated. "Vae vic
tbs woe to the conquered" For two
centuries or more there has been a
steady advance In introducing ideas Of
humanity and especially in combining
the evils Of warfare to the combatants.
The ideal seemed to have become so
thoroughly established as a part of in
ternational law that the powers at The
Hague thought 1t sufficient merely to
state the general principles in Article
XLvI Of the regulations "Family hon.
ors and rights, the lives of persons
and private property, as well as re-
ligious convictions and practice, must
he respected. Private property cannot
be conlscated." Germany, in common
With the other powers, solemnly
pledged her faith to keep this article,
but her military leaders had no inten-
ton Of doing &c. They had been
trained in the ideas voiced by Gen. o
Hartmann 40 years ago: Terrorism
IS seen to be a relatively gentle pro-
cedure, useful to keep the masses Of
the people In a state Of obedience"
This had been Bismarck's policy, too.
According to Morltz Busch, Blsmark's
biographer, Bismarck, exasperated by
he French resistance, which was still
continuing in January, 1871, said:
IF in the territory which we occupy,
We cannot supply everything for our
troops, from time to time we shall send
/ flying column into the localities
which are recalcitrant. We shall shoot,
hang and burn. After that has hap
pened a few times, the inhabitants will
come to their senses"
Horrors Told In Soldiers Diaries.
The frightfulness taught by the Ger
man leaders held full sway in Belgium.
This is best seen In the entries in the
diaries of the individual German SOL
diers.
During the night of August 1915
Engineer CIR gave the alarm In the
Of Wise. Every one was shot or
iaken prisoner, and the houses were
burnt. The prisoners were made to
march and keep up with the troops"
(From the diary of noncommissioned
officer Reinhold Koehn Of the Second
battalion Of engineers, Third army
"A horrible bath of blood. The whole
burnt, the French thrown into
the blazing houses, civilians with the
rest" (From the diary Of Private
.assemer Of the Eighth army corps.)
"In the night Of August 1910 the vii
Of Saint-Maurice was punished
FOR having fired on German soldiers by
being burnt to the ground by the Ger
nan troops 1.-TWO regiments, the
Twelfth landwehr and the Seven
The village vas surrounded,
men posted about a yard from m an
other, so that no n could get out.
Then h elUhlans set fire to 1t, house
house. Neither man, woman, nor
,hild could escape; only the greater
part of the live stock we carried off,
Is that could be used. Anyone who
ventured to come out was shot down.
All the inhabitants left in the village
we're burnt with the houses" (From
he diary of Private Karl Scheufele Of
he Third Bavarian regiment and land
yehr infantry
AT ttu ClOCh III the eNeulug TIE
lrst battalion Of the One hundred and
,eventy-eighth marched down the steep
ncline into the burning. village to the
burning village to the north of Dinant.
4 terrific spectacle Of CHASTITY beauty.
At the entrance to the village lay about
fifty dead civilians, shot for having
1red upon our troops from ambush. In
he course Of the night many others
we're also shot, so that we counted over
700. Women and children, lamp in
land, were forced to look on at the
horrible scene We ate our rice later
n the-midst of the corpses, for we had
nothing since morning. When we
searched the houses we found plenty
If wine and spirit, but no eatables.
Captain Hamann was drunk" (This
asst phrase In shorthand.) (From the
liary Of Private Philip of the One
Hundred and Seventy-eighth regiment |
# infantry, Twelfth army corps.)
Writing from Belgium in 1916 Irwin
!. Cobb said:
Briefly what | saw was this. I saw