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

MASSACRES OF CIVILIANS 39

tember 10th, to conquer and to devastate the country; they were however not to kill off the civil population, but to take them prisoners. In spite of this order several outrages were committed. On September 14th, 1914, a Serbian peasant who was guiding the Austrians was shot by Commandant Stanzer, and his soldiers, who fired five times at the man. Another instance :An Austrian soldier, one Doshan, a Croat, boasted of having killed a woman, two old men, and a child, and invited his comrades to go with him to have a look at his victims.

No. 54, of the 78th Regt., taken prisoner at Tzrni Vrh (Gutchevo) had heard that the ‘high command” had given the order to spare nothing.

First-Lieutenant Feutek of the 2nd company on active service, said in Osiek, the garrison town of the 78th, that they must show the Serbs what Austrians could do. They must spare nothing, and kill everything.

No. 55, of the 78th Regt. 15th Company, related that First-Lieutenant Bernhard sald that every living thing they met must be killed. The two witnesses, Nos. 54 and 55 were first in Ratcha (Slavonia), where Major Bilina or Belina gave his men permission to sack and loot all they found during the campaign. And, in fact, everything was sacked. During the course of the fighting their company was reduced from 3850 to 100 or 120 men.

No. 56, Corporal of the 28th Landwehr Regt., deposes that in Shabatz the Austrians killed over 60 civilians beside the church. They had previously