The Kingdom of serbia : report upon the atrocities committed by the Austro-Hungarian Army during the first invasion of Serbia

MASSACRES OF PRISONERS 29

This assertion is probably true. But it is a thing that happens everywhere and, without wishing to make excuses for the thieves, I see an extenuating circumstance in the fact that many of your mobilised men have, for the last two years, been prevented from earning anything, and therefore yield to the temptation of pocketing the few francs which they find on their prisoners.

From my enquiry then, it follows that there have been massacres of Serbian prisoners and wounded. I need not relate here in detail what happened at Yovanovatz, where a large number of soldiers of the second levy, belonging to the 18th and 14th Regt. (Timok Division), who had surrendered to the Austrians, were massacred by the enemy. You know the facts of the case, and the official reports are In your hands; you have, moreover, an ocular proof of the crime in the photographs which were taken on the spot, and which will always bear witness against this act which is contrary to all the laws of warfare.

You also have in your possession the photograph taken on the 11th/24th of August, 1914, by Captain J. Savitch, and showing a young Serbian private, the skin of whose lower jaw had been torn off by the Austrians.