they caused to leave their houses. In the evening,
pretending that a superior German officer had been killed on the Grand
Place by the son of the Burgomaster, or, according to another version of
the story, that a conspiracy had been hatched against the superior
commandant by the Burgomaster and his family, the Germans took every man
who was inside of Aerschot; they led them, fifty at a time, some
distance from the town, grouped them in lines of four men, and, making
them run ahead of them, shot them and killed them afterward with their
bayonets. More than forty men were found thus massacred.

They gave up the town to be pillaged, taking from private residences all
they could take, breaking furniture, and forcing safes. The following
day they lined up, three by three, the villagers whom they had arrested
the day before, taking one man out of each line. These they led to a
distance of about 100 meters from the town, taking with them the
Burgomaster of the town, Mr. Tielmans, and his son, aged 151/2 years, and
his brother, and shot them.

Later on they forced the remaining villagers to dig holes to bury their
victims.

For three whole days they continued to pillage and set fire to
everything in sight.

About 150 inhabitants of Aerschot are supposed to have been thus
massacred.

The largest part of the city is totally destroyed. Five times the
Germans tried to set fire to the large church, the interior of which has
been sacked. The records of the town have been carried away.

The ambulance attendants, although wearing the Red Cross badge, were not
respected. One of them reports that German troops fired upon him while
he was collecting his wounded, and that they continued to fire even
though he displayed his Red Cross armband. Moreover, during the entire
day of the 19th, while he was engaged in hospital service, he was
threatened and ill-used. A German officer, among others, took him by the
head, thrusting against his forehead the butt of a revolver. A
collector, wearing the insignia of the Red Cross, was killed in the Rue
de l'Hospital on the evening of Aug. 19 by Germans.

Deny Any Civilian Attack.

From all the testimony taken it appears that the civil population of
Aerschot has in no wise participated in the hostilities, that no shot
was fired by them; that all the witnesses agree in pointing out the
improbability of the German version, according to which the
Burgomaster's son, a youth of 151/2 years, and of e