A shocking case of the murder of a baby by a
drunken soldier at Malines is thus recorded by one eyewitness and
confirmed by another:
"One day when the Germans were not actually bombarding the
town I left my house to go to my mother's house in High
Street. My husband was with me. I saw eight German soldiers,
and they were drunk. They were singing and making a lot of
noise and dancing about. As the German soldiers came along the
street I saw a small child, whether boy or girl I could not
see, come out of a house. The child was about two years of
age. The child came into the middle of the street so as to be
in the way of the soldiers. The soldiers were walking in twos.
The first line of two passed the child. One of the second
line, the man on the left, stepped aside and drove his bayonet
with both hands into the child's stomach, lifting the child
into the air on his bayonet and carrying it away on his
bayonet, he and his comrades still singing. The child screamed
when the soldier struck it with his bayonet but not
afterward."
These, no doubt, were for the most part the acts of drunken soldiers,
but an incident has been recorded which discloses the fact that even
sober and highly placed officers were not always disposed to place a
high value on child life.
Pages:
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516