The diary of Barthel, when still in Germany on Aug. 10, shows that he
believed that the Oberburgomaster of Liege had murdered a Surgeon
General. The fact is that no violence was inflicted on the inhabitants
at Liege until the 19th, and no one who studies these pages can have any
doubt that Liege would immediately have been given over to murder and
destruction if any such incident had occurred.
Letters written to their homes which have been found on the bodies of
dead Germans bear witness, in a way that now sounds pathetic, to the
kindness with which they were received by the civil population. Their
evident surprise at this reception was due to the stories which had been
dinned into their ears of soldiers with their eyes gouged out,
treacherous murders, and poisoned food--stories which may have been
encouraged by the higher military authorities in order to impress the
mind of the troops, as well as for the sake of justifying the measures
which they took to terrify the civil population. If there is any truth
in such stories, no attempt has been made to establish it. For instance,
the Chancellor of the German Empire, in a communication made to the
press on Sept.
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