They were kept at the station during the night,
and the following day left for Cologne. For two days and a half they
were without food, and then they received a loaf of bread among ten
persons, and some water. The prisoners were afterward taken back to
Belgium. They were, in all, eight days in the train, crowded and almost
without food. Two of the men went mad. The women and children were
separated from the men at Brussels. The men were taken to a suburb and
then to the villages of Herent, Vilvorde, and Sempst, and afterward set
at liberty.
This taking of the inhabitants, including some of the influential
citizens, in groups and marching them to various places, and in
particular the sending of them to Malines and the dispatch of great
numbers to Cologne, must evidently have been done under the direction of
the higher military authorities. The ill-treatment of the prisoners was
under the eyes and often by the direction or with the sanction of
officers, and officers themselves took part in it.
The object of taking many hundreds of prisoners to Cologne and back into
Belgium is at first sight difficult to understand.
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