The cases of violation, sometimes under threat of death, are numerous
and clearly proved. We referred here to comparatively few out of the
many that have been placed in the appendix, because the circumstances
are in most instances much the same. They were often accompanied with
cruelty, and the slaughter of women after violation is more than once
credibly attested.
It is quite possible that in some cases where the body of a Belgian or a
French woman is reported as lying on the roadside pierced with bayonet
wounds or hanging naked from a tree, or else as lying gashed and
mutilated in a cottage kitchen or bedroom, the woman in question gave
some provocation. She may by act or word have irritated her assailant
and in certain instances evidence has been supplied both as to the
provocation offered and as to the retribution inflicted.
(1) "Just before we got to Melen," says a witness who had
fallen into the hands of the Germans on Aug. 5, "I saw a woman
with a child in her arms standing on the side of the road on
our left-hand side watching the soldiers go by. Her name was
G., aged about 63, and a neighbor of mine.
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