The prisoners had nothing to eat but a few biscuits
each, and they were not allowed to get out for water and none was given.
On a wagon the words "Civilians who shot at the soldiers at Louvain"
were written. Some were marched through Cologne afterward for the people
to see. Ropes were put about the necks of some and they were told they
would be hanged. An order then came that they were to be shot instead of
hanged. A firing squad was prepared and five or six prisoners were put
up, but were not shot. After being kept a week at Cologne some of these
prisoners were taken back--this time only thirty or forty in a
truck--and allowed to go free on arriving at Limburg. Several witnesses
who were taken in other trains to Cologne describe their experiences in
detail. Some of the trucks were abominably filthy. Prisoners were not
allowed to leave to obey the calls of nature; one man who quitted the
truck for the purpose was killed by a bayonet. Describing what happened
to another body of prisoners, a witness says that they were made to
cross Station Street, where the houses were burning, and taken to the
station, placed in horse trucks, crowded together, men, women, and
children, in each wagon.
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