There, too, the German troops pillaged everything they could lay their
hands on during their passage.
Up to this writing the Commission of Inquiry has been unable to obtain
the testimony of inhabitants of Diest and Tirlemont, which towns were
occupied by the Germans on the 18th and 19th of August, 1914, and which
are cut off from communication.
However, the inhabitants of Schaffen, a town near Diest, have stated
that the same abominations were committed in their locality and in the
adjoining communities, Lummen and Molenstede. The whole region has been
laid waste. German troops, at an hour's distance from Diest, had begun
their work of destruction all along the highway from Diest to Beeringen.
Turning upon Diest they set fire to everything they could lay hands
on--farms, houses, furniture. Arriving at the village of Schaffen, the
Germans set fire to the town, massacring the few inhabitants who
remained behind, and whom they found in their houses or in the streets.
The witness gives the names and addresses of eighteen persons whom he
knows to have been massacred.
Among them are:
The wife of Francois Luyck, 45 years old, and her 12-year-old daughter,
who were discovered in a sewer and shot.
The daughter of Jean Ouyen, 9 years old, who was shot.
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