THE EXECUTION OF BELGIAN CIVILIANS BY THE GERMAN SOLDIERS BY FIRING SQUAD.
Drawing depicting German soldiers executing Belgian civilians, August 1914. Today 109 years ago, on August 25, 1914, the German Army began ravaging the Belgian city of Leuven, including its renowned university library. . On August 23, 1914, the Germans had carried out a particularly severe massacre in the Belgian town of Dinant, executing some 674 Belgian civilians by order of the local German commander. . On August 25, the Belgian Army delivered a sudden counter-attack, forcing the Germans to fall back to the city of Leuven. The retreat was disorganized and in the confusion which followed, the Germans claimed they had been assaulted by Belgian civilian free shooters from rooftops, which was illegal in war as per the 1907 Hague Convention. . At 8 PM, on August 25, 1914, a shooting reportedly broke out in the streets of Leuven between Belgian free shooters and German soldiers. In order to set an example, the Germans began breaking into civilian homes and ravaged Leuven over the course