THE SACK OF LOUVAIN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1314, 22 October 1914, Page 4

THE SACK OF LOUVAIN.

REFUGEES’ NARRATIVES. PEOPLE BURNT ALIVE. “Ah ! m’sieu, I will tell you, yes, ol the burning of Louvain,” said a woman who reached Folkestone after the sack of her city by the Germans. “We had pulled down some of the buildings so that the Germans should not mount guns on them when they came. I believe that was the reason. We were in a state of terror because we had heard of the cruelties of the Germans.'’ Every time the poor woman referred to the Germans, she paused to utter maledictions upon them. “Well,” she proceeded, “they came, and all we bad Im.iid about them was not so bad as we experienced. In the streets people were cruelly butchered, and then on all sides flames began to rise. We bad prepared for what we had regarded as the worst, but never had we anticipated that they would burn us in our homes. “People rushed about frantic to save their property. Pictures of relatives were snatched from the walls, clothing was seized, and the people were demented. “What was the excuse given ? Well, they said our people had shot at them, but that was absolutely untrue. The real reason was the pulling down of the buildings. My house was burning when I left it with my three children, and here I am with them sate in England, beautiful England. But what we have suffered ! We were part of a crowd which left the burning town, and kept walking without knowing where we were going. Miles and miles we trudged. I am told we walked over 70 miles before we came to a railway. I never regarded a railway as I did then, I wanted to bow do wn and kiss the rails. I fell exhausted, having carried my children in turn. Footsore, brokenhearted, after the first joy of sighting the railway, I felt iny head whirling, and I wondered whether it was all worth while. Then I thought of my deliverance, and thanked God. “What did Louvain look like ? Like what it was, a mass of flame devouring our homes, our property —to some, perhaps, our relatives. It was pitiful to behold. Most of w.e wocien were deprived

of our husbands. They bad either fallen or were fighting for their country. In the town everybody who offered any opposition was killed, and everyone found to be armed in any way was shot. Wives saw their husbands shot in the streets. “I saw the Burgomaster shot, and I saw another man dragged roughly away from his weeping wife and children and shot through the head. Well, we got a train and reached Boulogne, and now for the first time we feel really safe.” A Dutchman who escaped from Louvain says that when the German artillery began to demolish the houses and the German soldiers began looting everything, he and his little son hid in a cellar beneath a pile of pneumatic tyres. One woman took refuge in a pit, in which water was up to her waist. Such was the terrible plight of civilians in Louvain. Peeping out, they saw the neighbours had been driven to the roof of a burning building, where they perished. While still concealed in the cellar, the Dutchman and his son discovered, to their horror, that the house above them was iu flames. The situation was terrible, as the people who dared to leave their houses were shot like rabbits leaving burrows. They heard floor by floor, and then the roof, crash down above them. The situation was desperate. It was impossible to remain iu the cellar. Driven out by dire necessity, they fled. They were immediately stopped by military rifles at the “present.” “Do not fire; I am German.” said the Dutchman in German, seized with a sudden inspiration. This secured bis safe conduct to the railway station. The journey through the town was, said this refugee, “like walking through hell.” From burning houses he heard agonised cries of those i puishiug iu the conflagrations, j While he was waiting at the station, 50 people arrived there, 1 driven by troops, who asserted Lac/ found them hiding in houses from which shots had been fired. These people swore by all they held sacred they were innocent, but notwithstanding, all were shot. The Dutchman is of opinion that the first firing was not by civilians, but by the German outpost on German soldiers retreating to Louvain from Maliues.