How Austria-Hungary Waged War in Serbia: Personal Investigations of a Neutral

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Page 4 - I conducted my inquiry with every necessary precaution. I did not limit myself to interrogating hundreds of Austrian prisoners and hundreds of eye-witnesses; I went to the spot, sometimes with shells bursting around me, to inform myself of everything that it was possible to investigate. I opened graves ; I examined the dead and wounded; I visited bombarded towns; I went into houses and I carried on there a scientific inquiry, using the most scrupulous methods ; in short, I did my utmost to investigate...
Page 46 - Faecal matter was found on the tables, in the crockery, on the floor, etc." (p. 43) ; which also was a favorite practice of German officers and men in Belgium and France — an unthinkable bestiality of which there is endless proof. Concluding his Report, Professor Reiss says : "What I have already written, as well as the statements of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers which I have published, show the systematic preparation for the massacres by officers of superior rank. The following extracts taken...
Page 35 - ... the victims, and fired a volley at them. All of them fell down into the pit, and other soldiers immediately covered them with earth, without ascertaining whether they were dead or only wounded. It is certain that many of them were not mortally wounded, and some perhaps were not wounded at all, but were dragged into the grave by the others. They were buried alive. While this execution was going on, a second group of prisoners was brought up, among whom were many women, and when the first party...
Page 13 - ... organized by the invading army. He declares that the Austro-Hungarian soldiers had with them little tin pots. They painted with the contents of these pots the houses which they wished to set on fire and then set a light to them with matches. Similar information was given to me in other places. III. Massacres of prisoners and wounded soldiers. — The Austro-Hungarian army have frequently massacred Serbian soldiers who have been made prisoners. This statement is proved by the evidence of Austrian...
Page 16 - AustroHungarian prisoners. — AX, of the 26th Regiment, deposes as follows : He was ordered, and the order was read to the regiment, to kill and burn everybody and everything met with in the course of the campaign and to destroy everything Serbian. Commandant Stanzer and Captain Irketitch gave orders to attack the Serbian population. Before the second invasion orders were given at Yanja on September loth to conquer and destroy the country. The civilian population were to be taken prisoners. A peasant...
Page 8 - ... Einschusspatronen, and their replies led me to put the following facts on record: 1. Cartridges with explosive bullets were used in regiments Nos. 16, 26, 27 (Hungarian), 28, 78, 96 and 100. 2. They were only distributed to the troops towards the middle of December, that is to say after the defeat on the Jadar and Tzer. 3. The soldiers had no knowledge of them before the war: "They were always shut up in time of peace and their use is reserved exclusively for war," said the witness, number 27,...
Page 18 - ... Lieutenant-Colonel Krebs, of the last named regiment. First Lieutenant Stibitch, of the 2nd regiment, made observations on the subject to Krebs and asked him the cause of this barbarous execution. Krebs replied that they were comitadjis, and that besides it had nothing to do with him. GX, of the 28th Regiment of Infantry, deposes that during the first invasion the Austrian troops killed all the inhabitants and the wounded. Lieutenant lekete captured 23 peasants and brought them before his captain....
Page 17 - Officers. EX, of the 6th Regiment of Infantry. The Hungarian Captain Bosnai gave orders, before crossing the frontier, that everything living should be killed from children of five to the oldest men. When the frontier had been crossed and the troops arrived at the first Serbian village, the Captain gave orders that two houses should be burned and every one killed, even the children in the cradle.
Page 9 - ... marksmen and non-commissioned officers received from five to thirty of these cartridges. When this use of explosive bullets against the Serbians was denounced, the Austrians at first denied the fact but later they confessed that they used special cartridges to get the range. The Einschusspatroncn were intended to allow of the observation of the range by smoke during the day and fire by night, smoke and fire being produced by the explosion of the mixture of powder and aluminium contained in the...
Page 42 - ... their ears or noses cut off, their eyes put out, their breasts cut off [a favorite practice of the Germans in Belgium and France], their skin cut in strips or the flesh torn from the bone; lastly, a little girl of three months was thrown to the pigs" (p. 38). Wherever the Austro-Hungarian troops went, "furniture, wardrobes and linen which could not be carried away, were destroyed. Pictures and upholstered furniture are smashed, carpets cut to pieces, crockery broken. The walls are splashed with...

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