Bryce Report

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The Bryce Report or The Bryce Report on Alleged German Outrages of the British War Propaganda Bureau (WPB) described atrocities committed by the German army in neutral Belgium during the First World War .

It was published by the Committee on Alleged German Outrages ( Committee on Alleged German Atrocities), which was initiated in December 1914 by the Asquith government for moral and propaganda reasons. James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce , was installed as chairman ; the members were historians and lawyers . Historical investigations found no evidence for the authenticity of the allegations, so that it is now assigned to propaganda . It contains 500 affidavits from refugees and excerpts from 37 German soldiers' diaries and had the street price of a penny .

The committee published the report, translated into 30 languages , on May 12, 1915, five days after the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine . The interrogators of the witnesses expressly state that they were not manipulated and that suspicious statements were not recorded. Almost all of the statements gathered in different places and at different times contain similar allegations.

The committee members were besides Bryce the lawyers Sir Frederick Pollock , Sir Edward Clarke , Sir Alfred Hopkinson and Sir Kenelm E. Digby , the historian HAL Fisher and the economist Harold Cox .

report

The report states that:

  • (1) Deliberate and systematically organized massacres of civilians took place in many parts of Belgium , accompanied by many isolated murders and other acts of violence
  • (2) As a result of the course of the war, civilians , usually innocent , men and women, were murdered in large numbers, women were raped and children were murdered
  • (3) looting , house burnings and the willful destruction of property by officers of the German army was directed and encouraged; that preparations for systematic arson were already taking place at the beginning of the war; that the burn down and destruction often took place where no military necessity could be asserted and was in fact part of a system of general terror
  • (4) The rules and customs of war were often broken, particularly through the use of civilians, including women and children, as shields for troops in front who were exposed to fire, to a lesser extent through the killing of wounded and prisoners and frequent abuse of the Red Cross and the White Flag .

One of the main consequences of the committee was the violation of international martial law . This was shown in some cases that were described as planned and deliberate: German officers and soldiers raped 20 Belgian girls in the market square of Liege , gave hand grenades to children to play with, bayoneted babies, crucified captured soldiers, cut out civilians' eyes, and raped and sexually tortured women, cut off children's hands and murdered men.

Soldiers followed instructions on how to use civilians as human shields , burn down houses, and destroy property. The report concludes that population abuse had reached heights never seen before in wars of civilized nations. He mentions that the Germans never officially denied that non-war veterans were killed in large numbers. The authors of the report point out that the most serious evidence is the diaries of German soldiers. It was also essential to establish that the German actions were deliberate and systematic. A week after the publication, the German authorities responded with a white paper on brutalities committed by Belgians to German soldiers.

credibility

Bryce, Ambassador to the United States from 1907–1913 and well-known historian, gave the report a high degree of authenticity through his chairmanship . The report was currently working in the US, with WPB's Charles Masterman writing to Bryce: “Your report has overwhelmed America. As you may know, even the most skeptical declared themselves converted because you signed it. ”To protect victims, names had been removed from the official document and the committee stated that all sources would be published after World War I, which the Publication's credibility increased.

consequences

Various people later questioned the report. In addition to "burned" and "undetectable" documents, it was criticized that the committee did not question the witnesses itself, but received the material from lawyers. Committee member Harold Knox offered to sign only after the committee agreed to interview these attorneys. The impact of the report was immense, especially in neutral countries.

literature

  • James Bryce: The Bryce Report on Alleged German Outrages. (May 12, 1915).
  • John Horne, Alan Kramer: German "Atrocities" and Franco-German Opinion, 1914. The New Evidence of German Soldiers' Diaries. In: The journal of modern history 66, 1994, ZDB -ID 1493188-6 , pp. 1-33.
  • John Horne, Alan Kramer: German Atrocities, 1914. A History of Denial . Yale University Press, New Haven et al. 2001, ISBN 0-300-08975-9 .
  • Harold D. Lasswell : Propaganda Technique in the World War. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., London 1927.
  • Jeff Lipkes: Rehearsals. The German Army in Belgium, August 1914. Leuven University Press, Leuven 2007, ISBN 978-3-515-09159-6 .
  • Keith G. Robbins: Lord Bryce and the First World War. In: The Historical Journal 10, 1967, 2, ISSN  0018-246X , pp. 255-278.
  • Michael L. Sanders: Wellington House and British Propaganda During the First World War. In: The Historical Journal 18, March 1975, 1, ISSN  0018-246X , pp. 119-146.
  • James D. Squires: British Propaganda At Home and in the United States From 1914 to 1917. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1935.
  • Michael S. Sweeney: Harvey O'Higgins and "The Daily German Lie". In: American Journalism 23, 2006, ISSN  0882-1127 , pp. 9-28.
  • Trevor Wilson: Lord Bryce's Investigation into Alleged German Atrocities in Belgium, 1914-15. In: Journal of Contemporary History 14, 1979, ISSN  0022-0094 , pp. 369-383.
  • Raymond Weeks: French Proof of German Atrocities. In: The Outlook. A weekly review of politics, art, literature and finance , March 10, 1915, pp. 571-574.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Bryce Report
  2. ^ A b Trevor Wilson: Lord Bryce's Investigation into Alleged German Atrocities in Belgium, 1914-15.
  3. ↑ Compulsory secrecy under the Defense of the Realm Act
  4. Alleged German 'war crimes' , nationalarchives.gov.uk