GERMAN ATROCITIES IN NORMANDY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 239, 6 July 1944, Page 5

GERMAN ATROCITIES IN NORMANDY

Civilians Burnt In Houses (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.). (Received July 5, 8 p.m.) LONDON, July 5. “The Germans, after two years ofi exaggerated correctness toward, the population of Normandy, are now, in a .mood of vindictive humiliation, committing atrocities against civilians,” states the “Daily Express” correspondent ,at Bayeux. He gives details of a visit to a school at Bayeux which has been transformed into a hospital where cases are being treated. ’ “I saw a priest administering the last rites to a child aged eight,” he said. “A German soldier saw her with her parents in a ditch near Tilly. They stood up and shouted that they were French citizens, but the German fired, mortally wounding the little girl. A 60-year-old woman in the same ward was badly wounded.. She and her husband were sheltering in a ditch. A German soldier killed the man and left the wife for dead. “Seven women in the dormitory who lived outside Tilly said they saw. Germans locking people in houses, pouring petrol over the woodwork and setting fire to them. The women added that they came out into a road where they met a German officer named Schubert. He took them to the Hotel Faucon and locked them in. He came back later. When they appealed to him for release as they were old and cold, ‘l’ll warm you up,’ said Schubert. .He fetched cans of petrol with which he set fire to the hotel, which was burning fiercely when a passing German soldier released the imprisoned women, who were suffering from shock and burns. “All these refugees said the Germans were pillaging their homes and smashing what was left. A farmer said, the Germans put his 10 cows and 62 pigs into a barn, which they burnt down. The Germans are also leaving booby-traps iu French gardens.’’ .