WOMEN BEATEN DAILY

Chronicle (Levin), 11 December 1946, Page 5

WOMEN BEATEN DAILY

Press A.ssn

Treatment In Concentration Camp trial qf female staff

Bv Telearavh

-Covvriahi

Received Wednesday, H.45 a.m. HAMBURG, Dec. 10. Eugenie von Skene, one of the sixteen accused in tlie trial of the staff of Ravensbruck women's concentration camp, slumped in the dock and fainted when the hearing resumed today. Skene claims that she married a British Army officer, who has not been traced. Counsel said Skene received drugs each morning to . keep her fit to attend the court. The president summoned a doctor, a German official, who examined Skene and pronounced her fit. Skene broke down sobbing 'and protesting. It was then discovercd that the doctor was only a first aid man. The court directed that Skene be examined by a British doctor. Neeitje Epker, a Dutch midwife, told the court that the Germans sent her to the camp for advisory parents to name their baby girl after Queen Wilheimina. She worked in the tailor's shop, where the accused guard, Gustav Binder, beat the prisoners daily when they iailed to reach the work target. "Binder was not happ yuntil she had seen blood." Binder often made the women in the shop strip on the excuse that she wanted to see if they were hiding pieces of cloth to supplement their ragged clothes. Witness said that she was kept for six weeks in a pitch dark underground punishment cell, and had no food for the first five davs. She was then given one slice oi bread daily. The cell was so cold that her feet froze. She thought the cell was artificially cooled. Epker said that she saw one of the accused, Vera Salvequart, on top of a heap of dead women, kicking out theif teeth. Salvequart, who was in a whito fur coat sitting in the court, threw back her liead and laughed al Epker's accusation.