The Kingdom of serbia : report upon the atrocities committed by the Austro-Hungarian Army during the first invasion of Serbia

134 AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ATROCITIES

the Parish Town Hall, four wounded Serbian soldiers had been burnt alive, and four others butchered. I proceeded to this house and there ascertained that in truth part of the house had been burnt, and that the floor of the undamaged part was covered with great pools of blood. I also verified the deposition of Vladimir Preizovitch, who stated that the Austrians had roasted in his bed a wounded Serbian whom witness had taken into his house. In the room which contains the iron bedstead, I observed that the floor underneath the bed showed traces of fire over an extent of 2 m. by 1 m. and that the wall was blackened and browned by flames. The deposition of Preizovitch was thus completely borne out by the evidence of facts.

Finally, near the station, I inspected the pit in which the priest Milan Y ovanovitch buried the 25 young men, old men, and women who had been shot.

In Leshnitza the Austrians executed 109 civilians between 8 and 80 years of age. The depositions of Savka Velimirovitch and Ivan Maletitch, as well as those of other eye-witnesses taken in conjunction with the results of my own personal investigations, have enabled me to reconstruct the scene of the butchery. The 109 victims were taken to a spot near the station, where a large pit had already been prepared, measuring 20 m. in length by 8 m. in width. The arms of the hostages were pinioned, and the whole group was surrounded by a coil of wire. Then the soldiers took up their position on the embankment of the railway at a distance of about 20 m. from the pit, and from there fired a

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