ALLEGED GERMAN OUTRAGES

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In the evening when they had been drinking the drunken soldiers
would fire rifles in the streets. Then they went to search through the
whole hospital to see whether the servants had fired upon them. We
have often had ta hide in the cellars.
BELGIAN REFUGEE
When the Germans arrived, I, together with the dean and two c 3
under pastors, hid in the garden of a convent. The convent was used
as a Red Cross ambulance, and I was called to hear the confessions
of several wounded Belgian soldiers. The German soldiers searched
the convent, and one of them said, " The priests are here. We saw
them. If we find them you may be sure we will burn your convent."
On the night of the 19th-20th August the Germans set fire to Aerschot.
I remained in my hiding place until the Saturday night (22nd August).
On that day the German troops left Aerschot, and others arrived,
and from the new soldiers I got a passport on Sunday (23rd August).
The passport was stamped by the German general and bore the name
of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Infantry, who was acting as
military governor.
The pastor of Aerschot was accused of having shot at the Germans
from the tower of his church. This was untrue.. The Belgian soldiers,
however, had previously fired at the Germans from the tower during
an engagement.
I understand that the priest of Gelrode was brought to the church
of Aerschot and was made to stand outside the church for two hours
with his hands above his head, and on his toes, and that the people
who were imprisoned in the church were compelled to make water
on the priest. He was afterwards shot, and his body was thrown into
the river at Aerschot. His body was afterwards taken from the river
in a decomposed state,
BELGIAN REFUGEE.
The bombardment of Aerschot began at 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday.
I left home at 6 a.m. with my father and mother (who live at the next
house), and with my wife and all my children we went to the village
of Gelrode, half an hour—2J kilometres—from my house. We all
remained in the street of that village, which is a kind of valley, until
3 p.m. We could hear the guns all that time. Then we all returned
home and saw the first Germans we had seen. The cannon stopped
firing about 11 a.m. We all went back to my house. At 7 p.m. the
guns from the mountains began to bombard Aerschot again, and then
we all left home. We could not go back to Gelrode because of the
Germans, so we went to the other side of the town, the south side, to
the Thienschepoort, and just outside we saw a public-house and went
in there. Many other people went there as well. I do not know the
name of the public-house. It was kept by D ... We all stayed
there until the next morning at 5 a.m. There were altogether about
30 men, women and children in the public-house—about 10 grown
men. Two came from Hoog Straat, Aerschot. I do not know
the name of any other man who was there. % The landlord, D . . .,
was there. I had known the landlord at school at the Catholic
Schools, Teuvenschepoort, on the west side of Aerschot. His wife
was there too. At 5 a.m. thirty or forty Germans entered the
house and told us to hold up our hands and searched our pockets.
There was someone in command who gave orders, but not an officer
in a high position. When the first German came to the public-house
I was in the public room. We had been all together sitting on the
chairs all night. The door of that room opened straight into the street.
The door had been shut but not locked all night. The Germans
came as many as possible, and opened the front door. There was
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