"On the 4th of August," says one witness, "at Herve," (a village
not far from the frontier,) "I saw at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon,
near the station, five Uhlans; these were the first German troops I had
seen. They were followed by a German officer and some soldiers in a
motor car. The men in the car called out to a couple of young fellows
who were standing about thirty yards away. The young men, being afraid,
ran off and then the Germans fired and killed one of them named D." The
murder of this innocent fugitive civilian was a prelude to the burning
and pillage of Herve and of other villages in the neighborhood, to the
indiscriminate shooting of civilians of both sexes, and to the organized
military execution of batches of selected males. Thus at Herve some
fifty men escaping from the burning houses were seized, taken outside
the town and shot. At Melen, a hamlet west of Herve, forty men were
shot. In one household alone the father and mother (names given) were
shot, the daughter died after being repeatedly outraged, and the son was
wounded. Nor were children exempt. "About Aug. 4," says one witness,
"near Vottem, we were pursuing some Uhlans.
Pages:
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419