Jeff Lipkes

Rehearsals is the first book to provide a detailed narrative history of the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 as it affected civilians. Based on extensive eyewitness testimony, the book chronicles events in and around the towns of Liège, Aarschot, Andenne, Tamines, Dinant, and Leuven, where the worst of the German depredations occurred. Without any legitimate pretext, German soldiers killed nearly 6,000 non-combatants, including women and children (the equivalent of about 230,000 Americans today), and burned some 25,000 homes and other buildings.

Down to the present, accounts of the killing, looting, and arson have been dismissed as "atrocity propaganda," particularly in the U.K. and U.S. Rehearsals examines the "revisionist" campaign that was able to discredit voluminous and compelling testimony about German war crimes.

Recently, the case has been made that the violence, which crescendoed between August 19th and 26th, was the result of a spontaneous outbreak of German paranoia about francs-tireurs (civilian sharpshooters). Rehearsals offers compelling evidence that the executions were in fact part of a deliberate campaign of terrorism ordered by military authorities.