[11] To whom did it belong, and where was it?  Telephones exist in every district of Meurthe-et-Moselle.  Besides, our army installed field telephones which were not all destroyed at the time of their retreat.  It is a most foolish pretext, yet where can one find a more stupid one than this?  A German official communique, in order to prove that the general rising of the people had been organized for a long time, declares, “that depots of arms were installed, where each rifle bore the name of the man for whom it was intended.”  It is absolutely clear that this applies to arms taken from civilians by order of the local authorities in Belgium and France, and deposited at the Town Hall, every weapon bearing the name of its owner.  Would they have taken that for an arsenal?  No, stupid as they may be, they are not so foolish as that.  They feign stupidity simply because they know very well that the conscience of the civilized world is beginning to be moved.

OUTRAGES ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN

We might write a long and heartbreaking chapter on this pitiful subject, but let the following suffice.  The Report of the French Commission of Enquiry concludes with these words, “Outrages upon women and young girls have been common to an unheard-of extent.”  No doubt the bulk of these crimes will never come to light, for it needs a concatenation of special circumstances for such acts to be committed in public.  Unfortunately and only too often these circumstances have existed, e.g., at Beton-Bazoches and Sancy-les-Provins, a young girl, and at St. Denis-les-Rebaix, a mother-in-law and a little boy of eight years old, and at Coulommiers a husband and two children, were witnesses to outrages committed on the mother of the family.  Sometimes the attacks were individual and sometimes committed by bodies of men, e.g., at Melen-Labouxhe, Margaret W. was violated by twenty German soldiers, and then shot by the side of her father and mother.  They did not even respect nuns.[12]

They did not even spare grandmothers (Louppy-le-Chateau,
Vitry-en-Perthois ...).

Nor did they respect children....  At Cirey, a witness (a University professor), whose statements one of us took down a few days after the tragedy, cried to a Bavarian officer, “Have you no children in Germany?” All the officer said in reply was, “My mother never bore swine like you.”

Now and then they let themselves loose on a whole family; at Louppy, the mother and her two young girls aged thirteen and eight, respectively, were simultaneous victims of their savagery.

The outrages sometimes lasted till death.  At Nimy, the martyrdom of little Irma G. lasted six hours till death delivered her from her sufferings.  When her father tried to rescue her he was shot, and her mother was seriously wounded.  Indeed, it was certain destruction to any frenzied parent who tried to defend his child.  A clergyman of Dixmude says, “The burgomaster of Handzaeme was shot for trying to protect his daughter.”  And how many other cases have occurred!  We have not the heart to continue the list.