The great German poet Gottfried Benn (1886-1956),who was a doctor by profession, served in the German army of occupation in Brussels during the first world war (until 1917 when he was discharged) and was present as official observer during the trial and execution of Edith Cavell in 1915. In 1927 he published an account of what he had seen, and translated into English by me in an anthology of Benn’s prose and verse published by Carcanet Press in 2013. He wrote that he had heard Miss Cavell confess that the organisation under her leadership “had collected,armed, and led across the Belgian-Dutch border approximately 300 enemy soldiers [Englishmen and Frenchmen] and Belgians capable of fighting. This trial was no court-martial extortion, and indeed the accused were supported by defence lawyers of their own choice,that is to say Belgian barristers. The facts could not be denied … How is the shooting of Miss Cavell to be judged? She had entered the war and the war had destroyed her.”The chaplain to whom she spoke her final words relayed them to Benn at the site: “She is happy to die for England and sends her salutations to her mother and brothers, who are in the field in the British army. Other women are making greater sacrifices: their husbands, or brothers,sons; she is giving only her own life – O my country, over there across the sea, and O my homeland,which she salutes.”
David Paisey
LondonContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com