World War I: The Bryce Report

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Voltaire once said “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities” (‘Questions sur les miracles’, 1765). In August 1914, Germany invaded neutral Belgium. The German armies killed over 6,500 civilians both in Belgium and northern France. These alleged ‘German atrocities’ soon became one of the defining propaganda conflicts of World War I, as evident through the 1915 ‘Report of the Committee on alleged German outrages’ otherwise known as ‘The Bryce Report’ (‘Report of the Committee on alleged German outrages’, 1915) ‘The Bryce Report’ proved the atrocities in Belgium were committed under German militarism through various statements and stories. As a result of the various depositions within the report, stereotypes …show more content…

Another aspect of the creation of the ‘Bestial Hun’, although was not as focused and publicized on, was the destruction of property committed by German soldiers. In ‘The Bryce Report’ there is an overwhelming mass of the deliberate destruction of private property by German soldiers. “The destruction in most cases was effected by fire, and the German troops, had been provided beforehand with appliances for rapidly setting fire to houses...Besides burning houses, the Germans frequently smashed furniture and pictures: they also broke in doors and windows,...they also on numerous occasions threw corpses into wells, or left them in the bodies of persons murdered by drowning.” (‘The Bryce Report, 1915, page 43). Though the destruction of towns as well as public and private property only served as backdrop for the real atrocities committed, such as against women and children, they did contribute to the creation of the ‘Bestial Hun’, that emerged as a result of ‘The Bryce Report’, as they highlighted the beast like nature of German militaristic actions, such as “throwing small inflammable bombs and small pellets made of inflatable material, into civilians homes (‘The Bryce Report’, 1915, page 43). These occasions and actions of destruction of property, similar to the atrocities committed against individuals, furthered enforced the stereotype of the bestial nature of the German

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