Rehearsals: The German Army in Belgium, August 1914

11. Leuven: Exodus

CHAPTER 11 Leuven: Exodus INTRODUCTION For most of Leuven’s residents, the suffering inflicted on them after they were expelled from the city exceeded what they had endured during the first forty-eight hours of the sack. Much depended on where one went. Most families were directed to the station, where hundreds of individuals had been taken by force before the 27th . But others received no instructions except to leave town at once. The great majority of those who did proceed to the station were quickly made the captives of German forces and were treated with appalling savagery. At various times they were joined by large bodies of prisoners from the neighboring villages and towns, sometimes the men only. There were the usual diversions: sham battles with the French, fake executions, beatings, occasional shootings and stabbings, and, as always, an endless stream of insults and threats. But before pleasure came business. The “francs-tireurs” were repeatedly searched. What valuables and money they had managed to bring with them were at once taken. The worst tortures were hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. The hostages were seldom given food or water, and were sometimes deliberately deprived of sleep. Many refugees slept in fields and pastures, others in barns and livestock enclosures. Still others were packed into churches, and occasionally barracks and schools. The sheer ordeal of trekking miles in the rain, inadequately dressed in slippers and chemises, quickly took its toll, particularly among the elderly and infirm. Ultimately some four to five thousand were shoved into filthy cattle-cars and shipped east, to be exhibited at Köln or interned at Munsterlager. (The prison-camp was near Munster in Hannover, not the more famous Münster in Westphalia .) The physical deprivations, on top of the psychological abuse – most refugees were repeatedly told that their execution was imminent, a highly credible threat – drove a number of men and women insane. The shock caused by the violation of all conventions regarding hygiene and modesty undoubtedly contributed to breakdowns as well. Tens of thousands of innocent people, perhaps over 60,000, were on 472 CHAPTER 11 the move in central Brabant, or en route to Germany, on the 27th , 28th , and 29th . •• The best choice was to remain in Leuven. Ironically, most of those who stayed – the physicians and staff of St. Thomas Hospital – did so not out of concern for their own safety, but to continue to care for the wounded and sick. However, other civilians, particularly from among the two hundred or so refugees who had sought shelter in the Leo XIII Seminary, decided either that the Germans were bluffing or that they could survive the barrage in basements and other buildings. The much-respected director of the hospital, Mgr. Simon Deploige, urged residents to remain. Among those who stayed was a professor of civil engineering, A. C. G. van Hecke, and some friends. They improvised a bomb shelter in a covered manure pit in the professor’s garden near the Tiensepoort. They drained the pit and placed the children in it. The adults sheltered in a stable at the base of the garden. After an anxious twenty-four hours – during which they heard artillery pieces wheeled out to Tiensevest, unlimbered, and then removed – the families escaped to Brussels.¹ •• Of the Leuveners who left, the most fortunate were those who headed south along the Naamsesteenweg or the Geldenaaksebaan to Heverlee, where the Duke of Arenberg, a German subject, owned extensive property . The Germans had orders to respect his holdings. Refugees in Heverlee were generally unmolested, and were among the first able to return to their looted and gutted homes. If you were not a priest, the road southwest, to Tervuren and on to Brussels, was the next best choice. (The Brusselsesteenweg, the direct route to the capital, was blocked by troops.) Most of those who headed due southeast, to Tienen, also had reason to consider themselves lucky. As in the provinces of Liège and Namur earlier in the month, the further one was from the fighting, the better the prospects. Where German forces were not anxious about Belgian troop movements, the surveillance was looser, the “retributions” less frequent, and freedom came sooner. The fate of those who were driven northwest – for no one chose vol- Leuven: Exodus 473 untarily to flee in the direction of the fighting – was considerably more dire. The deprivations were more severe, the threats more specific, the...