It
was not until after several days that it was decided to take him to the
infirmary where his arm was amputated; he died the next day. Although
his father and brothers were interned with him, they were not allowed to
see him again, alive or dead."
M. Tschoffen, public prosecutor at Dinant, the high official who writes
these lines, finishes his deposition with these words: "They had no
reason whatever for our arrest, and I do not see any reason that they
could have for setting us at liberty. One fine day they told us that we
were going to leave."
Here is another illustration: Before the 28th February, 1915, more than
10,000 persons, old men, women, and children, who had been deported from
France to Germany, had been repatriated by way of Switzerland. All those
who received them on their return were "alarmed at their ragged
condition and weakness," which was so great that the French Commission
of Enquiry received special instructions to question these victims. They
took the evidence of over 300 witnesses in 28 different localities. To
do justice to their case one ought to quote the whole report--children
brutally torn away from their mothers, poor wretches crowded for days
together in carriages so tightly packed that they had to stand up, cases
of madness occurring among these half-stifled crowds, howling with
hunger. But we must confine our quotations to a few items of "Kultur."
"While the men of Combres set out for Germany, the women and children
were shut up in the village church.
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