"LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.
GERMAN BRUTALITY TO
PRISONERS
KULTI'R IN CAMPS
(F2OM on OWN correspondent
LONDON, May £3
The correspondent of 'The Times" nt Amsterdam has .stepped into the broach at nn opportuno moment to provido some shocking facts about the treatment of British prisoners of war by tho Germans. The French agreement to exchange prisoners having been coneluded, without tho British Government being aware of the negotiations, thero is now a strong agitation in favour of a similar agreement between Great Britain and Germany.
Salt and coal mines are among the worst places in which prisoners are forced to labour. One man was reduced j to u complete wrcck after working in the Kaliwerk Prinz Auelbcrt, and after 1 two months Jtis health broke down, and ho reported sick. He refused to go down into the mine until ho had been •-examined, and a German Feldwebel made hini stand at the edge,of the cage, placed a German soldier with .fixed bayj onet behind him. and told him that tho | bayonet would be run through him if he persisted in refusing. | When pricked by the bayonet the 1 prisoner descended and did his * eight hours' work. He was subsequently punished with 1-i days in cells, with a diet of bread find water soup, doing his daily oight liour3' shift. Eventually ho broke down completely, rind he was seen by a visiting German civilian doctor. He v.as then sent to Soltau. The change in his appearance was such that an old friend there failed to recognise him. A Coldstreamer who was forced to .vork in a sine-smelting factory was so broken down under his treatment that he was completely yellow, his back was bont, and he was very thin. A witness who reports this case swears that his death in hospital two weeks later was due to this brutal treatment.
"AT ATTENTION" ALL DAY. Another case relates to tho notorious 10th Army (Joins, under General von Hanisch, about which so many complaints have been made. Somo noncommissioned officers were sent from various camps to liohmte, about 29 miles from Osnabruck, where they were required to work, and subjected to most severu pnnishment for refusing. They wero made to stand for seven or eight hours a day at attention, and their parcels were withheld by tho Commandant, Lieutenant von Muller. "The noncommissioned officers got into ' touch with T>utch representatives, nnd the Commandant told them that if a Dutch representative decided iu their favour ho would punish thorn with eight hours' standing at attention. The Dutch representative came down, and standing at attention wob abolished. Instead, howeVer, the prisoners had to parade all day long to show various articles of equipment from 9 a.m. till about 4 p.m. On© day they were made to parade outside in the rain with their bedding, and left there until it was thoroughly saturated. They were reduced to such a stato of starvation that they eventually couscnted to work out«.ido the camp nnd dig ground for cultivation, but nothing wa3 planted. "While they woro doing this work they received their parcels. Later, they were put to cut heather, the daily task being one metre by 20. This was afterwards increased to ono metro by GO, and they then refused to work. Sentries forced them on to a heath, and they woro mado to stand at attention from 1 till 4 or 5 p.m., aJid when tho Commandant came out himself from 1 till 0 p.m. They were forced to do this during tho bitter weather of last February, m -which month tho Commandant rode out on his ' white liorso- and ordered them to complete their task. They refused, and he then turned his horse about, retiring somo fifty yards, and then charged right through tho middle of the party, who were standing in a column. Tho prisoners scattered on his approach, and only one roan was knocked down. Part of the work on this moor consisted in carrying heather from heaps where it was stacked to waggons, and as tho moor was then about Gin deep in snow and water, the prisoners' boots became filled, and after this they were compelled to stand at attention. The latrines at this camp were very bad, tho neglect causing an almost intolerable stench.
In. b camp called Merseburg, during 1914 and 1915, there were a number of prisoners, men of tho Old Army. Many of them had been very seriously wounded, and were unfit to work. The Germans continually attempted to make these men work. Whentho men wero left without an officer the Germans lost no time in sending them to work on a neighbouring farm. The ' work was hard, and continued through a 13-hour day, beginning at 6 a.m. They then insisted that the men should begin at 4 o'clock in tho morning, instead of 6. Tho men refused, and the sentries tried to compel them to turn out.
DELIBERATE MURDER. One of tho men received a brutal blow in the face, and all but two then gave in. One had beon badly wounded, having had the fingers of dno hand shot away, and the wound had not healed. Tno sentries drovo these two men with kicks and blows of tho clubbed rifle out to work. At last tho man with tho wounded hand stopped and held it up to show the sentries that ho was unfit for work. One of them, in a passion, put his riflo up and shot the man through the chcst. He fell without speaking, and was thrown down the stairs by the two sentries.' The other soldier was then threatened by one of tho sentries with a loaded rifle, and was at last kicked out of the building. Tho body of the murdered man lay where it had been thrown. Later it was carried to a dirty washhouse, placed on a bare stone floor, and left there. A German officer, coming to eeo , it, was shown by tho sentry a small cut on his hand. The inference was that the murder was punishment for an attack. Tho officer shook hands with the sentry, and went away, after telling the other-men that they must work from 4 in the morning till 7 in the evening: The next day some of them were made to dig 9 grave in a corner* of tho cemetery, which had been used as a rubbish heap. That night the body, still in clothiag saturated with blood, was placed in a rough coffin, and the next day it was buried in the presence of a crowd of jeering Germans, who talked, pointed, and every "how and then burst into loud roars of laughter. This revolting tale is fully authenticated by the sworn statements of eye-wit-nesses. BEATEN TO DEATH. At Schneidemuhl (Prussia) the prisoners had no huts in their laager, and had to make themselves as comfortablo as they could in holes which they themselves scooped out of the ground. At bread parade one morning an order was given t>y the German sentry to * one of ihe men which he did not understand, j The sentry rushed at hinj and struck 1 him. The soldier left the parade, and j tried to hide in one of the holes. The German adjutant, with several other j officers, evidently determined to make an example of him. He was captured and stripped to the waist. A barrel was fetched, and he was strapped across it. Six German soldiers were then supplied with thick wooden staves which liad b<*en us9d for holding the barbedwire placed rornd the camp. For ten minutes these six German soldiers beat the soldier over the head, baro back, and body. At tho end of that time ho was practically unconscious, and had to be carried away. He was then tied to
a post, and left in a fainting condition. While ho was there a German officer came up to look at him, struck him with his sword, spat at him, and called him "an English swine." From all this he never recovered. For a_ month ho was able to get about, but his head and face remained swollen "from the treatment «he had received. Three _ weeks later he was dead. None of his companions was allowed to sco bis body or attend his funeral. At the same camp the German adjutant was one day inspecting €he prisoners drawn up for "counting parade He suddenly stopped in front of one man, drew his sword, said "English swine," and thrust his sword into the prisoner's left side. It went deeply in, and the soldier had to be carried away by his companions. The camp was without medical attendance of any kind. The wound was bandaged as best it could be, and the other men looked after him for about a fortnight. Shortly afterwards the rest of the men were moved to another laager, and the wounded man was left behind. By this timo his legs were paralysed, and he was unable to move. Two months later they heard that he was dead, and again the Germans gave out that this victim, too, had died of typhus.
NEGLECTED WOUNDS. Langensalza Camp has a particularly bad record. During 1917, after the battle of Arras, one nigHt about 300 wounded British prisoners arrived, and were left on the floor of an empty barrack without blankets. It waa not till the next afternoon that the worst cases were singled out and taken to hospital. By 6 o'clock five of thesfe had died. .Next morniiiT more were selected for admission to hospital The others were left in the sun for throe hours, and there seven more men died. Of all tins party of wounded men over 50 died, and there is no doubt that with proper treatment a large proportion of these lives would have boon saved. In the hospital itself at this camp there was gross neglect during the summer of 1917. _ British prisoners were not allowed to visit their companions in the hospital. One man who asked several times to be allowed to act as an orderly, was threatened with six fnonths' special punishment if he should daro to make the request ag The funerals at this camp from the middle of July to the spring of 1918 were a gross scandal. Tho coffins had to be carried a distance of about 1200 yards amid the jeers of tho German soldiers looking on.
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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16260, 10 July 1918, Page 4
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1,737"LOVE YOUR ENEMIES. Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16260, 10 July 1918, Page 4
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