Surrounded by about thirty
soldiers and a few officers, Major Manteuffel, Father Parijs, Mr.
Schmidt and Mgr. Coenraedts left in the direction of the station, and
the alderman, in French, and the priest, in Flemish, made proclamations
at the street corners.. . .
"Near the statue of Juste-Lipse, a Dr. Berghausen, a German surgeon, in
a highly excited condition, ran to meet the delegation. He shouted that
a German soldier had just been killed by a shot fired from the house of
Mr. David Fishbach. Addressing the soldiers, Dr. Berghausen said: 'The
blood of the entire population of Louvain is not worth a drop of the
blood of a German soldier!' Then one of the soldiers threw into the
interior of the house of Mr. Fishbach one of the pastils which the
German soldiers carried and immediately the house flared up. It
contained paintings of a high value. The old coachman, Joseph
Vandermosten, who had re-entered the house to try to save the life of
his master, did not return. His body was found the next day amidst the
ruins. . . .
"The Germans made the usual claim that the civil population had fired
upon them and that it was necessary to take these measures, i. e., burn
the churches, the library and other public monuments, burn and pillage
houses, driving out and murdering the inhabitants, sacking the city in
order to punish and to spread terror among the people, and General von
Luttwitz had told me that it was reported that the son of the
burgomaster had shot one of their generals.
Pages:
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126