6 August, 1914

[Patrick @ IFF]

On 6 August 1914, at a small village northeast of Liège (Belgium) called “Vottem”, Belgian and German soldiers were wounded and killed during a skirmish. 22 Belgians and 11 Germans were found dead.

The local priest, Abbé Crèvecoeur, decided to bury them at the local churchyard in 2 mass graves. Before this, pictures were taken for identification purposes. With the help of villagers and maybe a policeman, the local photographer took pictures of the deceased Belgian and German soldiers. The bodies were placed on a chair, the assistants held the soldiers by their hair. Most of them smoked, probably to chase to stench.

With the help of these pictures, the local priest contacted the families. In 1916 he was able to identify all Belgian soldiers and he reburied them in a new grave.

In 1920, Belgian justice confirmed the identification process. In 1923 all Belgian soldiers were reburied at a Belgian military cemetery near Liège or at their home towns or villages. The German soldiers were reburied during the war in Liège.

At the end of August 1914, the German army investigated numerous incidents in the Liège area where Belgian locals were accused of having killed German soldiers. At Vottem, the pictures (certainly those of the German bodies) and testimonies prevented execution of the local population. The pictures of the German soldiers were handed over the officer investigating the local “incident”.

After the war, the 22 glass plates were lost. They turned up at a local flee market. Last year, a Dutch couple bought them and presented them to the In Flanders Fields Museum. At first, it was thought the glass plates were proofs of German atrocities against Belgians but this proofed to be false.

As no names were inscribed, the identification process had to be repeated (once again) and is still in progress.

The pictures are currently on display at the In Flanders Fields Museum until 3 October 2004.

A Belgian artist made a video art work and is performed at the Museum in combination with a commissioned Requiem.

These pictures, although very shocking, are unique documents as pictures of this kind taken in these unusual circumstances, haven’t been seen before. They confront us more than any other document with the horror of war…

[andigger]

Trois Verge, Lux.....

Is there any info about the opening events of the war in Luxembourg?

Andy