In this tale of horrors hideous forms of mutilation occur with some frequency in the depositions, two of which may be connected in some instances with a perverted form of sexual instinct.

A third form of mutilation, the cutting of one or both hands, is frequently said to have taken place.  In some cases where this form of mutilation is alleged to have occurred it may be the consequence of a cavalry charge up a village street, hacking and slashing at everything in the way; in others the victim may possibly have held a weapon; in others the motive may have been the theft of rings.

We find many well-established cases of the slaughter (often accompanied by mutilation) of whole families, including not infrequently that of quite small children.  In two cases it seems to be clear that preparations were made to burn a family alive.  These crimes were committed over a period of many weeks and simultaneously in many places, and the authorities must have known, or ought to have known, that cruelties of this character were being perpetrated; nor can any one doubt that they could have been stopped by swift and decisive action on the part of the heads of the German Army.

The use of women and even children as a screen for the protection of the German troops is referred to in a later part of this report.  From the number of troops concerned, it must have been commanded or acquiesced in by officers, and in some cases the presence and connivance of officers is proved.

The cases of violation, sometimes under threat of death, are numerous and clearly proved.  We referred here to comparatively few out of the many that have been placed in the appendix, because the circumstances are in most instances much the same.  They were often accompanied with cruelty, and the slaughter of women after violation is more than once credibly attested.

It is quite possible that in some cases where the body of a Belgian or a French woman is reported as lying on the roadside pierced with bayonet wounds or hanging naked from a tree, or else as lying gashed and mutilated in a cottage kitchen or bedroom, the woman in question gave some provocation.  She may by act or word have irritated her assailant and in certain instances evidence has been supplied both as to the provocation offered and as to the retribution inflicted.

(1) “Just before we got to Melen,” says a witness who had fallen into the hands of the Germans on Aug. 5, “I saw a woman with a child in her arms standing on the side of the road on our left-hand side watching the soldiers go by.  Her name was G., aged about 63, and a neighbor of mine.  The officer asked the woman for some water in good French.  She went inside her son’s cottage to get some and brought it immediately he had stopped.  The officer went into the cottage garden and drank the water.  The woman then said, when she saw the prisoners, ‘Instead of giving you water you deserve to be shot.’  The officer shouted to us, ‘March.’  We went on, and immediately I saw the officer draw his revolver and shoot the woman and child.  One shot killed both.”

     Two old men and one old woman refused to bake bread for the
     Germans.  They were butchered.