Their Crimes

Compiled in the shadow of World War I by Prefect Léon Mirman, this document stands as one of the earliest and most meticulous records of German atrocities against civilians in occupied Belgium and Northern France. Through eyewitness testimonies, military reports, and findings from commissions of inquiry, the authors build an irrefutable case: villages burned, civilians executed without trial, women and children subjected to systematic violence, and property seized in organized campaigns of terror. What distinguishes this volume from mere polemic is its insistence on documentation over rhetoric. Each account names names, records dates, cites witnesses. The effect is devastating in its precision. These are not propaganda broadsides but legal briefs for history, assembled in hope of eventual acknowledgment and reparations. A century later, the book remains essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the full human cost of occupation, the fragility of civilian immunity in modern warfare, and the duty of testimony in the face of atrocity.