Memorial to Executed Citizens of Leffe

Around August 21, an entire German army corps advanced to Dinant to take the city. The commander is deeply convinced that the population will resist "encouraged by the clergy and the chauvinistic press" and orders very strict action.
When the first German scouts entered the city on the evening of August 21, they immediately started killing civilians and setting fires. They are quickly driven out by the French, but in the darkness the Germans cannot see who is shooting at them and they are convinced that they are mainly civilians.
Thousands of civilians then flee to the left bank of the Meuse where they seek protection from the French, but most Dinantes stay at home "in good faith that nothing has happened that could be regarded as a hostile act".
On August 23, all hell breaks loose. The Germans mount a major attack and it immediately becomes clear that they regard both the French and the inhabitants of Dinant as enemies. Immediately, large-scale killings take place in various neighborhoods. Hundreds of civilians and children are shot in cold blood, houses are set on fire.

In Leffe, many residents are dragged from their homes and locked up in the abbey church.
43 men are taken out and shot. In the cellars of a textile factory - where the workers are hiding with their families - 22 men are led out in the afternoon and shot.

There is a memorial along the Maas:
"Reminder
to the 68 Dinantes
executed here on 23-8-1914.
Innocent victims
of German barbarism" (Le Cercle les XXI Dinant)

Below this is a copper plate:
"The German Empire disgraced itself
through Dinant on the orders of the general command
to commit the most criminal crimes: 685 innocent
victims were shot dead.
These martyrs included 147 members of management and staff
from the Manufacture de Tissus.
Let us remember"

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck