  At this point we shall give our conclusions. We think it necessary to establish the degrees of responsibility for the above attested facts: and the reader will think it right for us to add some precise mention of the authors of the facts. The omission of such a chapter would have the effect of helping to keep our indignation in the air, and thus leaving for objects of the blame contained in it only some multitudes of persons, amongst whom our indictment would be diluted and dispersed. Not that we desire to take away from the German people as such the responsibility which attaches to them, but we desire to add some names thereto. The first responsible party whom we must mention is the German nation, and explicitly the German army judged by its private soldiers. It is upon the German private soldier, indisputably, that the shame of what we have just read recoils. It was the private soldiers who committed the greater part of the crimes which we have noticed: they were the principal authors of these crimes. But it must be added that the leaders consistently encouraged them. In several instances they acted on explicit instructions from officers, and even from generals. The Responsibility of the LeadersAt the beginning of this book we noted the fatal teachings of the most famous military writers of If, then, we wish to sum up in a word the system practised by German officers, during the course of a war which is still in progress, we may describe it as the system of terrorising the enemy on the plea of military necessity. German officers showed themselves liberal in their estimate of the urgency, extent, and oftener still of the bare existence of such necessity. Therein we find the source of so many cowardly cruelties and crimes. “War! it is war,” they say. As the French Commission of Inquiry observes, for all their exactions, even for all their crimes, there was no redress; and if any unfortunate dared to beg an officer to deign to intervene and spare his life, or protect his property, he received no other reply, if he was not met with threats, than this invariable formula, accompanied by a smile and ascribing to the inevitable disasters of war the most cruel atrocities. The German officer, therefore, has made himself responsible for the cruelties that have been committed: (1) either by ordering them or suggesting them to his subalterns or his men; (2) or by himself performing them: (3) or, finally, by tolerating them when they were committed under his eyes, or by not punishing the guilty when he was informed about their crime. By acting in one of these three ways the German officer has justified the English writer who uttered the following judgment of the conduct of the Germans in 1870: “The world at least is indebted to the The Names of the OfficersWe shall mention here the names of the officers in question. But we must, above all, begin with the princes in whose name so many outrages have been committed. 1. The Emperor William II. In a speech addressed to his troops, on the eve of the battle of the Vistula, the Emperor William himself uttered these words, which form as it were the savage programme of all the atrocities that have been committed: “Woe to the conquered. The conqueror knows no mercy.” 2. The Emperor Franz Joseph. In an Imperial order, which includes instructions to the Austrian soldiers in the war against the Serbs, the Emperor Franz Joseph depicts the latter as “moved by a savage hatred against the Austrians. They deserve,” (he said) “no consideration either of humanity or of chivalry.” By the terms of this order all francs-tireurs who were captured were to be put to death. 3. Prince Eitel-Frederic, son of the Emperor of Germany. The Prince stayed for eight days in a chÂteau near LiÈge. The owner was present. Under the eyes of his hosts the Prince had all the dresses packed up which he found in the chests of the mistress of the house and her daughters. 4. The Duke of Brunswick. The Prince took part in the pillage of the same chÂteau, near LiÈge. 5. Marshal von Hindenburg, commander-in-chief of the Imperial troops in East Prussia. This marshal ordered that the bread found in this province, which had been soaked with petrol, should serve as food for Russian prisoners. 6. Marshal von der Goltz, military governor of Belgium. In a notice signed by him and posted up on the 5th October, 1914, at Brussels, the marshal decreed the penalty of death against the inhabitants, whether guilty or not, in places near which the telegraph wires had been cut or the railway destroyed. 7. General von BÜlow, commander-in-chief of the Second German army. This general ordered the first bombardment of Reims: on the 22nd August, after the sack of Ardennes, he had the following notice posted up: “It was with my consent that the general-in-chief had the whole locality burnt and that about a hundred persons were shot.” On the 25th August, at Namur, another proclamation from his hand read as follows: “Belgian and French soldiers must be given up as prisoners of war before four o’clock, before the prison. Citizens who do not obey will be sentenced to forced labour for life in Germany. A strict inspection of houses will begin at four o’clock. Every soldier found will be immediately shot. Arms, powder, dynamite, must be given up at four o’clock. The penalty for default will be a 8. The Austrian General Horschstein, commander of the 6th army corps operating against the Serbians. He is the author of the following order, issued on the 14th August at Rouma: “Seeing the hostile attitude of the inhabitants of Klenak and Chabatz, we must, in all Serbian localities which have either been occupied or will be occupied, take hostages who will be kept close to our troops. In cases where the inhabitants commit any offence, or make any attack, or are guilty of any treachery, the hostages will immediately be put to death and the locality ravaged by fire. The headquarters staff alone has the right to fire any locality situate in our territory. This order will be published by the civil authorities.” 9. General Heeringen, commander of the German army of Champagne. He continued the bombardment of Reims, and was the cause of the destruction of the cathedral. 10. General Klauss, was the cause of the butcheries at Gerbeviller and Traimbois. 11. General Forbender, the author of the monstrous and inhuman proclamation by which LunÉville found itself mulcted in taxes. 12 and 13. General Durach and the Prince of Wittenstein, commanders of the Wurtemburg troops and Uhlans during the burning of Clermont in Argonne. 14. The Baden General Fabricius. He emptied the cellars of Baccarat. 15. General de Seydewitz. He was present, and did not interfere to prevent it, at the pillage of ChÂlons-sur-Marne, ordered by one of his subalterns. 16. General Heindrich, commander of the German troops at Lille, who, by exorbitant requisitions, reduced the population of this town to starvation, and made away with the appeal for help which the mayor of Lille, on his own advice, had addressed to the President of the Swiss Republic. 17. General Stenger, commander of a brigade in France, who issued the well-known order of the day giving instructions to kill the wounded and to execute prisoners of war. 18. Lieutenant-general Nisher. He demanded of the little town of Wavre the exorbitant war-contribution of 3,000,000 francs, which General BÜlow had imposed. “The town of Wavre will be burnt and destroyed if payment is not made in good time, without respect of persons—the innocent will suffer with the guilty.” 19. General Sixtus of Arnim, commander of the 4th German army corps, who mulcted the town of Brussels and the province of Brabant in the monstrous contribution of 500,000,000 francs. 20. General von Bissing, commander of the 7th German army corps, who, in a proclamation to his troops in Belgium, told them that when “civilians take upon them to fire on us, the innocent must suffer with the guilty”; that “the German authorities have on several occasions in their instructions to the troops said that human life must not be spared in repressing such acts”; that “it is doubtless regrettable that houses, flourishing villages, and even whole towns should be destroyed, but this must not cause us to be carried away by feelings of misplaced pity. All that is not worth the life of a single German soldier.” 21. General de Doehm, commander of the 9th German army corps. When an American journalist 22. Baron Merbach, who, with Prince Eitel and the Duke of Brunswick, took part in looting a chÂteau near LiÈge. 23. The Duke of Gronau. After the chÂteau of Villers, Notre Dame, in Belgium, had been occupied by his headquarters he himself caused the following to be taken and sent to Germany: 146 sets of cutlery, 236 silver-gilt spoons, 3 gold watches, 9 savings-bank deposit books, 1500 bottles of wine, 62 hens, 32 ducks, evening clothes, works of art, and a quantity of baby linen. 24 and 25. Count Zichy and Baron Sardas, who presided over the pillage from the estate, chÂteau, and farm of M. Budny, in South Prussia, of property to the value of 100,000 roubles. 26. Colonel Goeppel, Professor at the Academy of War in Berlin, who compelled the Lille “Croix” to pay a sum of 150,000 francs for calling the German army “a flood of Teutons.” 27. Colonel Zollern, commandant of the Imperial Army at Tchenstokhova in Poland, which he ordered to be pillaged and destroyed, in proof of which we have the text of the following proclamation made on 28. Lieutenant-colonel Preuster, commandant at Kalich, in Poland, who ordered the massacres and destruction of the town. 29. Colonel Hannapel, commander of the 8th Bavarian regiment, who gave the order to burn down the village of NomÉny. 30. Modeiski, major of the German cuirassiers, who gave explicit instructions to hang all the Cossacks who were taken prisoners. 31. The Hanoverian Lieutenant von Halden, who was found carrying dum-dum bullets. 32. Captain Curtins, commander of the 3rd company of the 112th German infantry regiment, who gave the order to make no more wounded prisoners. 33. Commandant de Schaffenberg. A French lieutenant whom he found lying wounded on the field of battle in Louvain was robbed by him of 250 francs in gold. The commandant threatened the wounded man with his revolver. The French officer’s orderly, who was lying wounded at his side, was also robbed. 34. Major von Mehring, commandant at Valenciennes, who declared in a proclamation: “I have destroyed the whole town. The ancient town of Vichies, a place of 5000 inhabitants, no longer exists. The houses, town hall, and church have been annihilated.” 35. Major de Honved, in command of the 22nd Hungarian regiment, operating against the Russians. Addressing the recruits, he said: “When you have penetrated into Russia, grant no quarter and no mercy to old men, women, and children even if unborn.” 36. Lieutenant-colonel Blegen, who ordered the massacres and sack of Dinant. 37. Major Botzwitz, who ordered his troops to kill the wounded and murder prisoners of war. 38. Major Manteuffel, who ordered the destruction of Louvain and the horrible atrocities committed in it. 39. Major Sommerfeld, who ordered the destruction of Termonde (in Belgium). 40. Major MÜller, who ordered the destruction of ChÂlons-sur-Marne. 41 and 42. Baron von Waldersee and Major Ledebur, who broke open the writing-desks and jewel-cases of the chÂteau of Beaumont. 43. Major von BÜlow, who ordered the massacres and destruction of Aerschot. 44. Major Dreckmann. In a proclamation under date 6th September (Guvegnee, Belgium): “The life of hostages depends on whether the inhabitants remain peaceful under all circumstances”; and that, if the first hostages are not replaced in forty-eight hours by others, the hostage runs the risk of death, and whoever does not obey the command “Lift your arms!” is punishable with the penalty of death. 45. Commandant Chrenzer, of the 26th Austro-Hungarian regiment, operating against the Serbians, who himself massacred prisoners and peasants who were brought to him. 46. Commandant Reimond, of the 13th Austro-Hungarian corps, operating against the Serbians, who authorised the massacre of twenty-four peasants, the most part of them old folk of both sexes. 47 and 48. The commandants of the 11th and 4th detachments operating against the Serbians, who ordered their soldiers to annihilate everything Serbian. 49 and 50. Commandant Zerfert, of the 25th regiment, and Captain Zfail, of the 37th Austrian regiment, who caused houses in Serbia to be fired. 51 and 52. Captain Kozda, of the 79th regiment, and Captain Vouitch, of the 21st Austrian regiment, who treated every Serbian soldier on the third conscript list as a franc-tireur and had him shot. 53. Captain Zirgow, who authorised the pillage of Albert in France. 54. The German officer, Walter Bloem, who was entrusted with the task of making an inquiry in Belgium (see the Cologne Gazette of the 10th February, 1915), and who confessed without any sense of shame that all that had happened was part of a system, the principle of which was that “the whole community to which a culprit belonged must pay the penalty, and that the innocent must suffer in their stead, not because a crime has been committed, but in order that a crime may not be committed again.” 55. Lieutenant Bertich, 29th Austro-Hungarian regiment operating against the Serbs, who killed at Lasnitza seven innocent peasants. 56. Lieutenant Eberlein, who, in the MÜnchener Neueste Nachrichten told the story of the monstrous treachery to which he resorted to get into Saint DiÉ—viz. using civilians as a screen for his troops. The above are German generals and officers whose names are known to us. There are many others. But the impossibility of naming them all does not prevent us from holding up to the execration of the civilised world, by printing their names here, those whom the reports supplied to us have mentioned. In addition to the two emperors, there are two Is “German militarism” alone responsible? We say the German people, for it would be a mistake not to recognise as the authors of these crimes merely the army which performed them, the officers who tolerated them, approved them or ordered them—in a word, only the German military element known as “militarism.” For this militarism is in very truth the offspring of the whole nation, as well as of causes which have nothing military about them—to wit, the teaching in the universities, which has been shaping it for a hundred years. The cult of force which to the German is the cult of brutal force imposed without mercy, goes down to the very roots of his thought. This must not be confounded with the spirit of violence to which, at all ages of the world, barbarian conquerors have given way. This cult proceeds from the fact that Germany considers herself the only nation worthy of the name, as the people par excellence upon whom, by law of nature, devolves the management of the modern world, around which it is the historic and philosophic duty of Europe to rally until absorbed in it, and until the civilised world is only one vast Germany in fact. When the German declares that force is superior to right, he does not mean force in itself, any force whatever, but his own force, which is right. Such are the notions taught by the members of the German cabinet, by its professors, by the universities To this there is only need to add one point, that this perverted refinement of thought, this sophism, grows and is developed among a nation which is brutal and barbarous among all others, so that the inclinations of flesh and blood are in it ready to respond to the suggestions of a corrupt philosophy. In Germany the sophist unchains the beast: the man of letters lets slip the barbarian, or, as was forcibly said by Hugo, an old admirer of Germany, when he had become enlightened by the sinister glare of the events of 1870, the pedant is the ally of the trooper. The fusion of these two elements, the intimate union of German thought and of its military counterpart, welding together the whole of the classes intermediate between them: in a word, that is to say, the whole of Germany—all this must not be forgotten in any just appraisement of the foregoing events. So we see that in fact all Germany approves the actions of which we have just told the story, and the German intellectuals have taken the course of identifying themselves with them in their well-known but shameful “appeal to the civilised world.” ConclusionThe theoretic responsibility for German cruelties, therefore, falls upon the military writers of Germany directly; but fundamentally, and probing more deeply, upon her professors, historians, and philosophers. Then come the heads of the army, who were the first to carry out these teachings. But the verdict of mankind condemns the whole of Germany; for all her citizens, from the highest to lowest, appear in the eyes of the world, which was at first amazed and then indignant, as identifying themselves with the work of devastation, murder, pillage, and cowardice by which, in the judgment of history, the war that Germany launched upon the world will be noted. We, at least, who are neutral of nationality and impartial in judgment, lump them all together, in the feeling of contempt and of disgust which they have roused in our indignant breast, and in the stern but just judgment which our reason, bitterly disappointed as it has been, has meted out to them. THE END Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, |
|
