By common consent good treatment of prisoners of war is a law imposed on civilised nations. American instructions, in their article 56, do but put into words the feelings of civilised mankind when they say, “A prisoner of war must suffer no penalty in so far as he is a public enemy; no suffering, no dishonour will be intentionally imposed upon him by way of reprisal, neither imprisonment, nor deprivation of food, nor mutilation, nor death, nor any barbarous treatment.” Such is the line of conduct which belligerents long have followed in this matter; such is the idea they entertain of their duty in war.

The German Idea

In the present war, however, we have seen the Germans change all that: in this respect, as in so many others, they have shown unmitigated contempt for current conceptions of war. They have been seen to vent their hatred and desire for vengeance upon a prisoner. Therein is the reaction of a feeling of cruel pride. Have not the prisoners of war who fall into German hands committed the crime of offering resistance to the actions of the first people in the world? Consequently, M. Pierre Nothomb remarks, in his book, Belgique Martyre, “in the hands of the German a prisoner is not a soldier who has been unlucky, but a victim who is to endure his hatred.”

Germany took good care not to advertise this principle. It would have been too open a violation of the law of nations, and, besides, it would have exposed her to reprisals. Prisoners who surrendered in a body were spared up to a certain point. But the case was different with prisoners taken in little groups. Towards them, because their fate was more obscure, and the manner in which they were treated might appear to involve less responsibility for the whole system, no ill-treatment and cruelty, from insults to death, were omitted. They were jeered at, and from mockery their tormentors went on to blows and wounds.

Blows

At Camperhout (in Belgium) the Germans amused themselves with imposing on the prisoners fatigue-duty, in the course of which the latter were struck on the slightest pretext. A Greek, who was a volunteer in the French army, has told what happened, in a letter to the Nea Himera at Athens. “There were eight hundred prisoners of us, five of whom were Greeks. We were brought before German officers, who ordered us to undress. Then they had us tied with ropes and whipped by six German soldiers.”

They were undressed and stripped of what they had. “When I was able to get my clothes again,” said the same witness, “I found that a sum of 3850 francs and an old gold medal had disappeared.”

Cross-examination

At the same time that vengeance was being taken on the prisoners, attempts were made to extract from them information which would be useful for carrying on the war. They were questioned as to what they had seen, as to the enemy forces and the positions occupied by them, and in general on all military or strategic questions on which they might be supposed to have knowledge, as an hour previously they had been in the trenches. Sometimes, in order to obtain information like this, they were content to resort to a ruse; on other occasions they went as far as threats followed by actions.

Despicable German officers dared to cross-examine prisoners whom they had just made. Brought bound before the officers, the prisoners found they were ordered to reply under penalty of being tortured and killed. Near Aerschot, a Belgian soldier, who had been made a prisoner, understood that he was asked in this manner, by an officer and three soldiers, where were his regiment and the body of his troops. This soldier, who had refused to reply, was thrown to the ground, kicked, and finally abandoned, still tied with ropes.

On the 29th March the Germans took prisoner, north of Mychinetz, a Russian non-commissioned officer, Paphyre Panasiouk, and tortured him in the presence of ten German officers, who tried to drag information from him about the positions of the Russian troops. Having refused to act as a traitor to the advantage of his enemies, the wretched non-commissioned officer had the lobe of his right ear cut off by a German officer, who then, in four strokes, cut off the top of the ear, leaving only a piece of cartilage round the auricular passage. In the meantime, another officer was mutilating his nose, separating the cartilage from the bone, and biting him. This torture lasted for a whole hour, and the victim, who afterwards succeeded in giving his guards the slip, was placed in hospital at Warsaw, where the doctors photographed his mutilated face.

Murders

In other places prisoners were shot. In an official note of the Russian Government, a German officer was mentioned by name as having formally given the order to hang all Cossacks who should be made prisoner. This was Major Modeiski, of the German cuirassiers. In confirmation of the fact, it was stated that in many places Cossack prisoners had been hanged, shot or killed by bayonet thrusts; at Radom, in the middle of October, an officer and four Cossacks; at Ratchki, a Cossack; at Monastijisk, four Cossacks; at Tapilovka, the Cossack Jidkof, who had been made prisoner at Souvalki, etc.

At Chabatz, sixty Serbian soldiers, who had been made prisoner, were massacred, and in the Belfort region a large number of French prisoners were undressed by the Germans, who exposed them naked to French bullets, and threw others into the canal, only to take them out again and throw them in once more.

At Namur, during the retreat, Parfonnery, an infantryman, was made prisoner with a group of soldiers. “Their hands were tied behind their backs, they were bound together four by four; they were compelled to march all day, being struck with the flat of the sword and the butt-end of the rifle, and finally were thrown into the cellars of the ChÂteau Saint-GÉrard.” Elsewhere another Belgian prisoner, who rebelled against this ill-treatment, had his neck twisted by his guards.

At Dixmude, Lieutenant Poncin (of the 12th Belgian Regiment of the Line) was shot after having been bound round the middle by a wire tied about ten times round his legs. On the 6th September a Belgian cavalryman, who had been made prisoner, was disarmed, then bound and had his bowels opened with bayonet thrusts. Near Sempst the Germans opened the bowels of two Belgian carabineers and pulled out their entrails; at Tamine the Germans tied a French officer to the trunk of a tree and harnessed horses to each of his legs. By forcing the horses to run, the wretched man was torn asunder. These latter facts are reported in M. Pierre Nothomb’s book. At Saenski (in the Souvalki area) a Cossack was burnt alive on the first of October. Other Russian prisoners also were condemned to die of hunger. In other places Cossacks were condemned to dig their graves and were shot.

German Admissions

In September 1914, when the Russians were forced to evacuate eastern Prussia before the advancing Germans, they had recourse to what was an indisputable right by making unusable such provisions as they could not carry away. In this way enormous quantities of bread were wet with petrol by orders from headquarters, so that the enemy could get no advantage from it. The Frankfurter Zeitung of the 8th October recorded this act as a crime which deserved punishment. Under the heading “A Just Punishment,” this paper had the hardihood to tell of the vengeance which the Germans enacted for it. The stores were at Insterbourg. The Russians, wrote the Frankfurter Zeitung, had reckoned without General Hindenburg’s sense of humour. When this general was informed of the matter, he said, “There is no accounting for tastes. The Russians have their tastes. This bread will do to feed Russian prisoners of war until these provisions are exhausted.” Let us not forget to notice the style of this article. This expression of the most cruel wrath, and of the keenest thirst for vengeance, is called “humour.” And in what journal? In one of the most influential and most moderate organs in Germany. There can be no more striking admission both of the acts of cruelty and of the barbaric passion which instigated them.

A perusal of the confession of these abominations, a confession, too, made in such terms, gives a better idea of the character and aims of this nation.

General Stenger, to whom we have already referred, the commander of the 38th Brigade, gave instructions for the massacre of the wounded in an order of the day which we reproduce verbatim, and which is so abominable that it is beyond criticism.

“From to-day, there will be no more prisoners made. All prisoners will be massacred. Even prisoners who have already been arranged in convoys will be massacred. Behind us no enemy will be left alive.

“Stoy, Lieutenant and Commander-in-Chief of the Company.

“Neubauer, Colonel in command of the Regiment.

“Stenger, General in command of the Brigade.”