" A
commissioned officer on being asked at Louvain by a witness--a highly
educated man--about the horrible acts committed by the soldiers, said he
"was merely executing orders," and that he himself would be shot if he
did not execute them. Others gave less credible excuses, one stating
that the inhabitants of Louvain had burned the city themselves because
they did not wish to supply food and quarters for the German Army. It
was to the discipline rather than the want of discipline in the army
that these outrages, which we are obliged to describe as systematic,
were due, and the special official notices posted on certain houses that
they were not to be destroyed show the fate which had been decreed for
the others which were not so marked.
We are driven to the conclusion that the harrying of the villages in the
district, the burning of a large part of Louvain, the massacres there,
the marching out of the prisoners, and the transport to Cologne, (all
done without inquiry as to whether the particular persons seized or
killed had committed any wrongful act,) were due to a calculated policy
carried out scientifically and deliberately, not merely with the
sanction but under the direction of higher military authorities, and
were not due to any provocation or resistance by the civilian
population.
Pages:
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478