Current History, A Monthly Magazine

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On the 8th of September at Sablonnieres, where there were scenes of
general pillage, M. Delaitre, who had left his house during the battle
to take refuge under a culvert, was discovered in his hiding place by
a German soldier, who fired at him five times; he died the same day.

[Illustration: GENERAL CASTELNAU

One of the Most Conspicuous of the French Commanders.]

[Illustration: GENERAL DUBAIL

Commanding the French Forces Operating Around Verdun.

(_Photo_ (C) _International News Service._)]

At the same place, M. Jules Griffaut, 66 years of age, was herding his
cows peacefully in a field, when a detachment of the enemy passed 150
meters from him. A soldier who was alone in the rear of the column
took aim at him, and shot him in the face. It is proper to add that a
German officer took the trouble to have the wounded man attended to by
a German army doctor, and that Griffaut recovered fairly soon.

At Rebais, on the 4th of September, at 11 in the evening, the Germans,
after pillaging the jeweler's shop of M. Pantereau and loading the
goods which they had taken on to a cart, set fire to the house. They
also burned three private houses in the Rue de l'Etang by throwing
lighted straw into them.

In this little town serious acts of violence were committed. M.
Auguste Griffaut, 79 years of age, was treated with horrible
brutality. They repeatedly struck him on the head with their fists. A
revolver shot grazed his head. His watch and his purse, containing 800
francs, were stolen from his person.

On the same day, some German soldiers grossly ill-treated Mme. X., a
wine-shop keeper, aged 29, on the pretense that she was hiding English
soldiers. They undressed her and kept her in the middle of them
completely naked for one and a half hours; then they tied her to her
counter, giving her to understand that they were going to shoot her.
They were, however, called out just then, and went away, leaving their
victim in charge of an Alsatian soldier, who untied her and restored
her to liberty.

Again, on the 4th of September, other soldiers attempted to rape Mme.
Z., 34 years of age, after having sacked her grocery shop. Angered by
her resistance, they tried to hang her, but she cut the rope with a
knife which was open in her pocket. She was then beaten mercilessly
until the arrival of an officer, who was fetched by a witness of the
scene.

At St. Denis-les-Rebais, on the 7th of September, a Uhlan obliged Mme.
X. to undress, threatening her with his rifle; then he threw her on a
mattress and raped her while her mother-in-law, powerless to
intervene, endeavored to keep her grandson, 8 years old, from this
revolting sight.

On the same day, at the hamlet of Marais, in the Commune of
Jouv-sur-Morin, the three daughters of Mme. X., aged respectively 18,
15, and 13, were with their sick mother when two German soldiers
entered, seized the eldest, dragged her into the next room and raped
her in succession; while one committed his crime, the other watched
the door and with his weapons kept back the half-maddened mother.

Frightful scenes occurred at the Chateau de ---- in the neighborhood
of La Ferte-Gaucher. There lived there an old gentleman, M. X., with
his servant, Mlle. Y., 54 years old. On Sept. 5 several Germans, among
whom was a non-commissioned officer, were in occupation of this
property. After they had been supplied with food, the non-commissioned
officer proposed to a refugee, a Mme. Z., that she should sleep with
him; she refused. M. X., to save her from the designs of which she was
the object, sent her to his farm, which was in the neighborhood. The
German ran there to fetch her, dragged her back to the chateau and led
her to the attic; then, having completely undressed her, he tried to
violate her. At this moment M. X., wishing to protect her, fired
revolver shots on the staircase and was immediately shot.

The non-commissioned officer then made Mme. X. come out of the attic,
obliged her to step over the corpse of the old man, and led her to a
closet, where he again made two unsuccessful attempts upon her.
Leaving her at last, he threw himself upon Mlle. Y., having first
handed Mme. Z. over to two soldiers, who, after having violated her,
one once and the other twice, in the dead man's room, made her pass
the night in a barn near them, where one of them twice more had sexual
connection with her.

As for Mlle. Y., she was obliged, by threats of being shot, to strip
herself completely naked and lie on a mattress with the
non-commissioned officer, who kept her there until morning.

We have also taken note of the fact that, as appears from declarations
made by a municipal councilor of Rebais, two English cavalrymen who
were surprised and wounded in this commune were finished off with
gunshots by the Germans when they were dismounted and when one of them
had thrown up his hands, showing thus that he was unarmed.

MARNE.

In the Department of the Marne, as everywhere else, the German troops
gave themselves up to general pillage, which was carried out always
under similar conditions and with the complicity of their leaders. The
Communes of Heiltz-le-Maurupt; Suippes, Marfaux, Fromentieres, and
Esternay suffered especially in this way. Everything which the invader
could carry off from the houses was placed on motor lorries and
vehicles. At Suippes, in particular, they carried off in this way a
quantity of different objects, among these sewing machines and toys.

A great many villages, as well as important country towns, were burned
without any reason whatever. Without doubt these crimes were committed
by order, as German detachments arrived in the neighborhood with their
torches, their grenades, and their usual outfit for arson.

At Lepine, a laborer named Caque, in whose house two German cyclists
were billeted, asked the latter if the grenades which he saw in their
possession were destined for his house. They answered: "No, Lepine is
finished with." At that moment nine houses in the village were burned
out.

At Marfaux nineteen private houses were burned.

At le Gault-la-Foret seven or eight houses were burned. Of the Commune
of Glannes practically nothing remains. At Somme-Tourbe the entire
village has been destroyed, with the exception of the Mairie, the
church, and two private buildings.

At Auve nearly the whole town has been destroyed. At Etrepy
sixty-three families out of seventy are homeless. At Huiron all the
houses, with the exception of five, have been burned. At
Sermaize-les-Bains only about forty houses out of 900 remain. At
Bignicourt-sur-Saultz thirty houses out of thirty-three are in ruins.

At Suippes, the big market town which has been practically burned out,
German soldiers carrying straw and cans of petrol have been seen in
the streets. While the Mayor's house was burning, six sentinels with
fixed bayonets were under orders to forbid any one to approach and to
prevent any help being given.

All this destruction by arson, which only represents a small
proportion of the acts of the same kind in the Department of
Seine-et-Marne, was accomplished without the least tendency to
rebellion or the smallest act of resistance being recorded against the
inhabitants of the localities which are today more or less completely
destroyed. In some villages the Germans, before setting fire to them,
made one of their soldiers fire a shot from his rifle so as to be able
to pretend afterward that the civilian population had attacked them,
an allegation which is all the more absurd since at the time when the
enemy arrived the only inhabitants left were old men, sick persons, or
people absolutely without any means of aggression.

Numerous crimes against the person have also been committed. In the
majority of the communes hostages have been taken away; many of them
have not returned. At Sermaize-les-Bains, the Germans carried off
about 150 people, some of whom were decked out with helmets and coats
and compelled, thus equipped, to mount guard over the bridges.

At Bignicourt-sur-Saulx thirty men and forty-five women and children
were obliged to leave with a detachment. One of the men--a certain
Emile Pierre--has not returned nor sent any news of himself. At
Corfelix, M. Jacquet, who was carried off on the 7th of September with
eleven of his fellow-citizens, was found five hundred meters from the
village with a bullet in his head.

At Champuis the cure, his maid-servant, and four other inhabitants,
who were taken away the same day as the hostages of Corfelix, had not
returned at the time of our visit to the place.

At the same place an old man of 70, named Jacquemin, was tied down in
his bed by an officer and left in this state without food for three
days. He died a little time after.

At Vert-la-Gravelle a farm-hand was killed. He was struck on the head
with a bottle and his chest was run through with a lance.

The garde champetre Brulefer of le Gault-la-Foret was murdered at
Maclaunay, where he had been taken by the Germans. His body was found
with his head shattered and a wound on his chest.

At Champguyon, a commune which has been fired, a certain Verdier was
killed in his father-in-law's house. The latter was not present at the
execution, but he heard a shot and next day an officer said to him,
"Son shot. He is under the ruins." In spite of the search made the
body has not been found among them. It must have been consumed in the
fire.

At Sermaize, the roadmaker Brocard was placed among a number of
hostages. Just at the moment when he was being arrested with his son,
his wife and his daughter-in-law in a state of panic rushed to throw
themselves into the Saulx. The old man was able to free himself for a
moment and ran in all haste after them and made several attempts to
save them, but the Germans dragged him away pitilessly, leaving the
two wretched women struggling in the river. When Brocard and his son
were restored to liberty, four days afterward, and found the bodies,
they discovered that their wives had both received bullet wounds in
the head.

At Montmirail a scene of real savagery was enacted. On the 5th of
September a non-commissioned officer flung himself almost naked on the
widow Naude, on whom he was billeted, and carried her into his room.
This woman's father, Francois Fontaine, rushed up on hearing his
daughter's cry. At once fifteen or twenty Germans broke through the
door of the house, pushed the old man into the street, and shot him
without mercy. Little Juliette Naude opened the window at this moment
and was struck in the stomach by a bullet, which went through her
body. The poor child died after twenty-four hours of most dreadful
suffering.

On the 6th of September at Champguyon, Mme. Louvet was present at the
martyrdom of her husband. She saw him in the hands of ten or fifteen
soldiers, who were beating him to death before his own house, and ran
up and kissed him through the bars of the gate. She was brutally
pushed back and fell, while the murderers dragged along the unhappy
man covered with blood, begging them to spare his life and protesting
that he had done nothing to be treated thus. He was finished off at
the end of the village. When his wife found his body it was horribly
disfigured. His head was beaten in, one of his eyes hung from the
socket, and one of his wrists was broken.

At Esternay, on the 6th of September, toward 3 in the afternoon,
thirty-five or forty Germans were leading away M. Lauranceau, when he
made a sharp movement as if to free himself. He was immediately shot
down.

In the same town the following facts have been laid before us:

During the night, between Sunday, the 6th of September, and Monday,
the 7th, the soldiers who were scattered among the houses pillaging,
discovered the widow Bouche, her two daughters, and Mmes. Lhomme and
Mace, who had taken refuge under the cellar staircase. They ordered
the two young girls to undress, then, as their mother tried to
intervene, one of the soldiers, bringing his rifle to his shoulder,
fired in the direction of the group of women. The bullet, after having
struck Mme. Lhomme near the left elbow, broke the right arm of Mlle.
Marcelle Bouche at the armpit. During the following day the young girl
died as a result of her wound. According to the declarations made by
witnesses, the wound was horrible to behold.

Further, our inquiry in the Department of the Marne established other
crimes of which women were the victims.

On the 3rd of September, at Suippes, Mme. X., 72 years of age, was
seized by a German soldier, who pushed the barrel of his revolver
under her chin and brutally flung her on her bed. Her son-in-law
rushed up at the noise, fortunately for her, at the moment when the
rape was about to be consummated.

At the same place and time little ----, 11 years old, was for three
hours the prey of a licentious soldier, who, having found her with her
sick grandmother, dragged her to a deserted house and stopped her
mouth with a handkerchief to prevent her crying out.

On the 7th of September, at Vitry-en-Perthois, Mme. X., aged 45, and
Mme. Z., aged 89, were both raped; the latter died a fortnight later.

At Jussecourt-Minecourt, on the 8th of September, toward 9 in the
evening, Mlle. X. was violated by four soldiers, who broke in the door
of her room with the help of a billhook. All four flung themselves on
this young girl, who was 21 years old, and ravished her in succession.

As the bombardment of open towns constitutes without doubt a violation
of international law, we thought it necessary to go to Rheims, which
was for eighty days bombarded by the Germans. We received a sworn
statement from the Mayor, from which we learned that about 300 of the
civilian population had already been killed; we saw that in different
parts of the town numerous buildings had been destroyed, and we took
note of the enormous and irreparable damage which had been inflicted
on the cathedral. The bombardment has continued since the 7th of
October, the day of our visit; the number of the victims, therefore,
must now be very considerable. Every one knows how the unhappy town
has suffered, and that the attitude of the municipality has been above
all praise.

While we were working at the Hotel de Ville, six shells were fired in
the direction of this building. The fifth fell only a short distance
from the principal front, and the sixth burst fifteen or twenty meters
from the bureau.

Next day we went to the Chateau of Baye and witnessed the traces of
the sack which this building has suffered. On the first floor a door
which leads into a room next to a gallery, where the owner had
collected valuable works of art, has been broken in; four glass
cabinets have been broken and another has been opened. According to
the declarations of the caretaker who, in the absence of her masters,
was unable to acquaint us of the full extent of the damage, the
principal objects stolen were jewels of Russian origin and gold
medals. We noticed that the mounts covered with black velvet, which
must have been taken out of the cases, were stripped of a part of the
jewels which had previously been affixed to them.

Baron de Baye's room was in the greatest disorder. Numerous objects
were strewn on the floor from the drawers which remained open. A
writing table had been broken open. A Louis XVI. commode and a bureau
a cylindre of the same period had been ransacked.

This room must have been occupied by a person of very high rank, for
on the door there still remains a chalk inscription, "J.K. Hoheit." No
one could give us exact information as to the identity of this
"Highness"; however, a General who lodged in the house of M. Houllier,
Town Councilor, told his host that the Duke of Brunswick and the staff
of the Tenth Corps had occupied the chateau.

The same day we visited the Chateau of Beaumont, which is near
Montmirail, and belongs to the Comte de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville.
The wife of the caretaker declared that this house had been sacked by
the Germans in the absence of its owners during an occupation which
lasted from the 4th to the 6th of September. The invaders left it in
an indescribable state of disorder and filth. The writing tables,
bureaus, and safes had been broken open. The jewel boxes had been
taken from the drawers and emptied.

On the doors of the rooms we could read inscriptions in chalk, among
which we took note of the following: "Excellenz," "Major von Ledebur,"
"Graf Waldersee."

MEUSE.

The Department of the Meuse, a great part of which the German armies
still occupy, has suffered cruelly. Important communes there have been
destroyed by fires lighted willfully by the Germans in the absence of
any kind of military necessity, and without the population's having
given any provocation for such atrocities by their attitude. This is
the case particularly at Revigny, Sommeilles, Triaucourt, Bulainville,
Clermont-en-Argonne, and Villers-aux-Vents.

The Germans having completely sacked the houses of Revigny and carried
off their booty on vehicles, burned two-thirds of the town during
three consecutive days from the 6th to the 9th of September,
sprinkling the walls with petrol by means of hand pumps, and throwing
into the houses little bags full of compressed powder in tablets. We
have been furnished with specimens of these little bags and these
tablets, as well as with fuse sticks of inflammable matter which had
been left by the incendiaries.

The church, which was classed as a historical monument, and the Mairie
with all its archives, have been destroyed.

Many inhabitants, among whom were children, have been taken away as
hostages. They were, however, set at liberty next day, with the
exception of M. Wladimir Thomas.

Few localities in the Department of the Meuse have suffered as much as
the Commune of Sommeilles. It is nothing but a heap of ruins, having
been completely burned on the 6th of September by a regiment of German
infantry bearing the number fifty-one. The place was set on fire with
help of machinelike bicycle pumps with which many of the soldiers were
furnished.

This unhappy village was the scene of a terrible drama. At the
commencement of the fire Mme. X., whose husband is with the colors,
took refuge in the cellar of M. et Mme. Adnot, together with these
latter and their four children, aged respectively 11, 5, 4, and 1-1/2
years. A few days afterward the bodies of all these unfortunate people
were discovered in the middle of a pool of blood. Adnot had been shot,
Mme. X. had her breast and right arm cut off; the little girl of 11
had a foot severed, the little boy of 5 had his throat cut. The woman
X. and the little girl appeared to have been raped.

At Villers-aux-Vents, on the 8th of September, German officers invited
the inhabitants who had not yet fled to leave their dwellings, warning
them that the village was about to be burned, because, they alleged,
three French soldiers had dressed themselves in civilian clothes;
others gave the pretext that an installation of wireless telegraphy
had been found in a house. The threat was carried out so rigorously
that one house alone remains standing.

At Vaubecourt, where six dwelling houses were burned by the
Wuerttemburgers, fire was set to a barn with straw piled up by the
soldiers.

At Triaucourt the Germans gave themselves up to the worst excesses.
Angered doubtless by the remark which an officer had addressed to a
soldier, against whom a young girl of 19, Mlle. Helene Proces, had
made complaint on account of the indecent treatment to which she had
been subjected, they burned the village and made a systematic massacre
of the inhabitants. They began by setting fire to the house of an
inoffensive householder, M. Jules Gand, and by shooting this
unfortunate man just as he was leaving his house to escape the flames;
then they dispersed among the houses in the streets, firing their
rifles on every side. A young man of 17, Georges Lecourtier, who tried
to escape, was shot. M. Alfred Lallemand suffered the same fate; he
was pursued into the kitchen of his fellow-citizen, Tautelier, and
murdered there, while Tautelier received three bullets in his hand.

Fearing, not without reason, for their lives, Mlle. Proces, her
mother, her grandmother of 71, and her old aunt of 81, Mlle. Laure
Mennehand, tried with the help of a ladder to cross the trellis which
separates their garden from a neighboring property. The young girl
alone was able to reach the other side and to avoid death by hiding in
the cabbages. As for the other women, they were struck down by rifle
shots. The village cure collected the brains of Mlle. Mennehand on the
ground on which they were strewn, and had the bodies carried into
Proces's house. During the following night the Germans played the
piano near the bodies.

While the carnage raged, the fire rapidly spread and devoured
thirty-five houses. An old man of 70, Jean Lecourtier, and a child of
two months perished in the flames. M. Igier, who was trying to save
his cattle, was pursued for 300 meters by soldiers, who fired at him
ceaselessly. By a miracle this man had the good fortune not to be
wounded, but five bullets went through his trousers. When the cure,
Viller, expressed his indignation at the treatment inflicted upon his
parish to the Duke of Wuerttemburg, who was lodged in the village, the
latter replied: "What would you have? We have bad soldiers just as you
have."

In the same commune an attempt at rape was made which was unsuccessful
by reason of the obstinate and courageous resistance of the victim.
Three Germans made the attempt on Mme. D., 47 years old. Further, an
old woman of 75, Mme. Maupoix, was kicked so violently that she died a
few days afterward. While some of the soldiers were ill-treating her
others were ransacking her wardrobes.

The little town of Clermont-en-Argonne, on the slope of a picturesque
hill in the middle of a pleasant landscape, used to be visited every
year by numerous tourists. On the 4th of September, at night, the
121st and 122d Wuerttemburg Regiments entered the place, breaking down
the doors of the houses and giving themselves up to unrestrained
pillage, which continued during the whole of the next day. Toward
midday a soldier set fire to the dwelling of a clockmaker by
deliberately upsetting the contents of an oil lamp which he used for
making coffee. An inhabitant, M. Monternach, at once ran to fetch the
town fire engine, and asked an officer to lend him men to work it.
Brutally refused and threatened with a revolver, he renewed his
request to several other officers, with no greater success. Meanwhile
the Germans continued to burn the town, making use of sticks on the
top of which torches were fastened. While the houses blazed the
soldiers poured into the church, which stood by itself on the height,
and danced there to the sound of the organ. Then, before leaving, they
set fire to it with grenades as well as with vessels full of
inflammable liquid, containing wicks.

After the burning of Clermont, bodies of the Mayor of Vauquois, M.
Poinsignon, (which was completely carbonized,) and that of a young boy
of 11, who had been shot at point-blank range, were found.

When the fire was out pillage recommenced in the houses which the
flames had spared. Furniture carried off from the house of M.
Desforges and stuffs stolen from the shop of M. Nordmann, a draper,
were heaped together in motor cars. An army doctor (medicine-major)
took possession of all the medical appliances in the hospital, and an
officer of superior rank, after having put up a notice forbidding
pillage on the entrance door of the house of M. Lebondidier, had a
great part of the furniture of this house carried away on a carriage,
intending it, as he boasted without any shame, for the adornment of
his own villa.

At the time when this happened the town of Clermont-en-Argonne was
occupied by the Thirteenth Wuerttemburg Corps, under the command of
Gen. von Durach, and by a troop of Uhlans, commanded by Prince von
Wittenstein.

On the 7th of September half a score of German cavalrymen entered the
farm of Lamermont in the Commune of Lisle-en-Barrois, and, after
having milk given to them, went away apparently satisfied. After their
departure rifle shots were heard in the distance. A little later a
second troop, composed of about thirty men, presented themselves in
their turn, and accused the farm people of having killed a German
soldier. Immediately the farmer, Elly, and one of his guests, M.
Javelot, were seized and taken to a place near, where, in spite of
their protestations of innocence, they were mercilessly shot.

At Louppy-le-Chateau the Germans gave themselves over to immorality
and disgusting brutality during the night of the 8th and 9th in a
cellar where several women had taken refuge from the bombardment. All
these unhappy women were vilely ill-treated. Mlle. X., aged 71; Mme.
Y., aged 44, and her two daughters, one aged 13 and the other 8, and
Mme. Z. were violated.

Hostages have been taken away from many communes. At the beginning of
September, at Laimont, eight persons were obliged to follow the German
troops, and on the 27th of October none of them had returned. The cure
of Nubecourt, who was carried off on the 5th of September, has not yet
reappeared in his parish.

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