sexual violence as a weapon of war in Belgium

[fritz]

Hi Glen,

 

some information you will find here

www.spiegel.de/spiegel/spiegelspecial/d-30300037.html

Fritz

[yperman]

On ‎28‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 21:44, clk said:

 

 

 Unauthorized looting, plundering, malicious or wanton damage or destruction of foreign objects 

 

Well that bit went when the German army deliberately burnt a priceless  Belgian medieval library - my point being that  what written orders state  and what was actually done in the field are not necessarily the same thing.

[AOK4]

27 minutes ago, yperman said:

Well that bit went when the German army deliberately burnt a priceless  Belgian medieval library - my point being that  what written orders state  and what was actually done in the field are not necessarily the same thing.

 

They did not deliberaty set fire on the Leuven library! Things got really messy in leuven when plenty of German troops arrived in the city causing a huge chaos and then then shooting started (by whom cannot be established any more). Fact is that Germans started shooting on other German units in the confusion and some buildings went up in flames. All this caused quite some German losses and it was definitely not planned nor wanted by the Germans.

 

BTW: the original books from the old library of Leuven are still around (in Paris) as they were plundered by the French (after the French Revolution IIRC). However, the new collection, started under Dutch rule from 1815 onwards was largely lost. (just to put things straight, as there's a lot of propaganda surrounding what happened in Leuven)