movement. He claims the organized resistance was led by the Garde Civique. As evidence he provides German medical records which show a substantial number of German soldiers wounded by shotguns which were neither in use by the Germans nor by French nor Belgian rearguard units as well as records by the Belgian government. Keller's claims have led to an argument among historians which led to a conference being held in 2017. The conference was jointly organized by Sönke Neitzel, Oliver Janz, and Peter Hoeres and focused on the German behaviour in Belgium during the opening stages of the First World War. During the conference the following historians were able to present their arguments: Ulrich Keller (Santa Barbara) John Horne (Dublin) and Alan Kramer (Dublin) Alexander Watson (London) Oswald Überegger (Bozen) Peter Lieb (Potsdam) Axel Tixhon (Namur) Larissa Wegner (Freiburg) In sum, the conference demonstrated the need for additional research, particularly on the Belgian role in 1914 and the key question how widespread the irregular resistance had been. The evidence provided by Keller hints at a more than merely sporadic resistance by irregular Belgian fighters. Legacy At a commemoration ceremony on May 6, 2001, in the Belgian town of Dinant, attended by Belgium's defense minister Andre Flahaut, World War II veterans, and the ambassadors of Germany, France and Britain, state secretary of the German Ministry of Defence, Walter Kolbow, officially apologized for a massacre of 674 civilians that took place on August 23, 1914, in the aftermath of the Battle of Dinant: Mr Kolbow placed a wreath and bowed before a monument to the victims bearing the inscription: To the 674 Dinantais martyrs, innocent victims of German barbarism. See also Destruction of Kalisz (1914) Herero and Namaqua genocide (1904–1907) – an earlier atrocity in German South West Africa (now Namibia) Leipzig War Crimes Trials Manifesto of the Ninety-Three a proclamation endorsed by 93 prominent German intellectuals in 1914 in support of German military actions. References Further reading Books Ulrich Keller, Schuldfragen. Belgischer Untergrundkrieg und deutsche Vergeltung im August 1914. Mit einem Vorwort von Gerd Krumeich, Schöningh: Paderborn 2017, Gunter Spraul: Der Franktireurkrieg 1914. Untersuchungen zum Verfall einer Wissenschaft und zum Umgang mit nationalen Mythen. Frank & Timme 2016, . Journals Gullace, Nicoletta F. "Allied Propaganda and World War I: Interwar Legacies, Media Studies, and the Politics of War Guilt" History Compass (Sept 2011) 9#9 pp 686–700 sees the Bryce report as