The last survivor of the destruction of Louvain in WW1 | Channel 4 News

It was in Belgium where the Germans inflicted collective punishment on civilians 100 years ago. Channel 4 News correspondent Lindsey Hilsum speaks to the last known survivor of the sacking of Louvain.

[sniffmydead]

I started touring these towns in 1984 and the shrines to massacres are dotted around everywhere. Belgium had been committing atrocities in the Congo, thats for sure, as were all the other colonists, except it seems the Germans who preferred to build in Kiao Chao for example. The Germans however were a heavily militarized nation, and had 70 years of it bred into them, Belgium with a poor military budget, wasnt. To say that Belgian army was doing wrong in the Congo justifies massacres is wrong, just as massacring German factory workers for the sake of example would have been wrong. The majority of Belgians I have met are gentle human beings, great people.

[lmyrski]

Just for a little balance, some omitted facts: It should be noted that German investigations into what occurred at Leuven started in September 1914. Seven military Judges and eight other Court officials were charged with investigating what transpired with witness statements being gathered from all across German occupied territory. An internal report was published by the Prussian Bureau of Investigation on 15 January 1915. Seventy-three witness depositions confirmed that German forces were fired upon by civilians referred to as franc-tireurs. According to the witnesses some of these armed persons were shot while still resisting German troops performing house searches. Others still reportedly had their weapons in hand when they were taken prisoner. The witnesses confirmed that some of those seized in civilian clothing were not known to the locals who reported never having seen them in the town. There was material evidence too. For instance 300 rifles were found in church and Dr. Georg Berghausen who treated German wounded testified that some wounds were caused by civilian firearms not used by the opposing armies. see The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau (1979) ''Predecessors and Parallel Organizations'' (This work is an in depth discussion of military law supported by documentation in Allied and German archives, it discusses World War One investigations to provide context for World War II), Chapter 1, pp. 5-6., Alfred M. de Zayas, University of Nebraska Press. should be noted that evidence that the Cathedral was being used to direct artillery fire onto German positions appeared in both French and British newspapers. The Germans obtained and re-published these news items, which if truthfully written by allied papers, justified targeting the cathedral as a legitimate target. Again from Alfred de Zayas. Further, the shooting of hostages was not banned under international law until 1948, the British, French, Russians, and to a lesser extent the Americans had all used the tactic, although the Germans in Belgium took it to an extreme.

[Hwje]

Man imagine how it would feel to be a British soldier celebrating the christmas truce, and then learning that the Germans he played football with did this immediately afterwards.

[ConnMtenor]

So the next time someone feeds the line that The Great War was unnecessary, tell them this story because this is what Prussian militarism was all about.

[ifitsnotmusicwhatisit]

I met a few of a generation of men who went out to fight for Belgium, trying to justify the Congo doesnt give a permit to massacre peaceful people by an army of aggression. Love Belgium. Good peaceful people. Im sure a oot of them wouldnt justify what happemed in the Congo.

[gemini-tqjv]

Let us take a look into the chronicles ot one of the involved
german regiments. During the invasion of Leuven, the regiment has been taken
under fire, with 17 dead and 63 injured. Whether this version corresponds to
the truth, however, is in doubt. The german fear of Franckireure resultet of
the previous war, and so it was obvious that this was considered the cause.
The city was overcrowded by the germans and they had fear. It
is now considered more likely that unintentionally broke a shot somewhere and
triggered a chain reaction. In the regimental history it is described that
"the shots came preferentially from the houses with the Geneva
cross". There were the injured Germans inside. Ergo, the chroniclers of
that time lied, but not against better knowledge. (Roger Chickering: '' Das
deutsche Reich und der Erste Weltkrieg''; Publisher C.H.Beck, 2002, ISBN:
3-406-47592-2)(Peter Schöller: ''Der Fall Löwen und das Weissbuch. Eine
kritische Untersuchung der deutschen Dokumentation über die Vorgänge in Löwen
vom 25. bis zum 28. August 1914''; Köln & Graz, Verlag Böhlau, 1958) In
addition to the fear of free-marchers, mistrust of the Catholic clergy, who saw
the heads of the Belgian resistance, played a role in their further development.
Officers and soldiers expressed hatred on August 25 for the clergy who would
incite the people to resist. (lan Kramer: ''Löwen. '' In: Enzyklopädie Erster
Weltkrieg. Paderborn, 2009 p. 683.)
Does this justfy anything? Of course not and today we are
smarter an everyone sees it as a crime. Did the Germans been able to recognise it as an act with intent instead of defense as they did it in 1914?

[tonybarde]

Meanwhile it happened again in Bucha, Ukraine

[srenpetercortsen]

That's germans for you. They'll never change.

[strefs]

I can only imagine what state the German soldiers were in after committing these crimes. Undoubtedly it must've left a mark in their brains.

[martinpatrick]

The german army committed those crimes against the civilian population of Belgium because they felt a threat from snipers in the town's they occupied.

[sunspotst]

We're not going to hear when the French did the same crimes...

[TheFraterSaturni]

Leuven 1914 = Bucha 2022. Something like this.

[Suchti]

Compared to the Second World War this action was somewhat reasonable and could have happened because of human error