The German Army penetrated into Louvain on Wednesday, Aug. 19, after
having set fire to the towns through which it had passed.
From the moment of their entrance into the City of Louvain the Germans
requisitioned lodgings and victuals for their troops. They entered every
private bank of the city and took over the bank balances. German
soldiers broke the doors of houses abandoned by their inhabitants,
pillaged them and indulged in orgies.
The German authorities took hostages--the Mayor of the city, Senator
Vander Kelm, the Vice Rector of the Catholic University, the Dean of the
city; magistrates and Aldermen were also detained. All arms, down to
fencing foils, had been handed over to the town administration and
deposited by the said authorities in the Church of St. Peter.
In a neighboring village, Corbeek-Loo, a young matron, 22 years old,
whose husband was in the army, was surprised on Wednesday, Aug. 19, with
several of her relatives, by a band of German soldiers. The persons who
accompanied her were locked in an abandoned house, while she was taken
into another house, where she was successively attacked by five
soldiers.
In the same village, on Thursday, Aug. 20, German soldiers were
searching a house where a young girl of 16 years lived with her parents.
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