A RED DAY IN BERLIN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 252, 18 July 1919, Page 15

A RED DAY IN BERLIN

GRIM ENACTMENT AT THE MOABIT HtISON 1 200 SPARTACISTS SHOT The Chicago "Daily News" recently received the. following message from Mr. Ben Hecht, its special corresponde'it in Berlin:—' A uoisv, good-natured crowd waited outside the sunflecked walls of Moabit Prison this afternoon. Men. women and children, had been waiting uinee rooming. They stood about in weii-dressed groups, talking and laughing..--The dav grew brighter, the sun shone more warmly, a hurdy-gurdy struck up a rollicking tune round the corner, and then the White Terror came. 'It marched in perfect step to the rollicking tune pf the hurdy-gurdy. It was clad in grey uniform, its-helmets shinins green, and tho barrels of tho rilles shinins grey._ The- noisy crowd became silent. The soidiers, marching towards the prison gate, began.firing their rifles into the air' and watching'carefully any movement in the crowd,. Machine-guns began to peep over the top of motor-lorries crammed with soldier. . But the trowd made no movement. Men, women and children rose, on tbeir toeis.to peer over tho heads of,the marching soldiers at "the creatures" who walked within the military line.. Handcuffed two.by two, these creatures moved with the soidiers. They wore men who had been captured in working-class quarters of tho .city, where the Government was still fighting a mob army of Spartacists, workers and marines. They were being.led now to ho executed under the law made by' General Noske that nil oitizens found armed or . suspected of fighting the Government should bo summarily killed. ' Pleadinn for Mercy. The White Terror approached the prison walls. A sound resembling men's voioes came from inside the soidiers' ranks. For a moment tho crowd was unable'to make out tho cause of -„he'noise, then realised that "the creatures" were pleading -for mercy. I caught a glimpse of. handcuff ed men being led 'nsido the •prison gates. 1 saw r. handful- uf disarmed,' handcuffed men in faded soldiers' uniforms. Yesterday these had been soldiers of tho Kaiser and fought shoulder to shoulder with the comrades now leading them to death inside the walls of Moabit. The bulk of the prisoners, however, were working men, men poorly -. dressed, and heavy featured.- Few looked like criminals. I counted four women, and noticed that six of the men were lame and dragged along beside upright comrades chained to their wrists. There were perhaps 200 in all, perhaps more. They, walked,like two-legged cattle between ranks of armed soldiers with motor lorries loaded with machine-guns, more soldiers clattering at the side. , : .220 Victims. . The regiment filed in through the open gate. For ten minutes silence lay in the sun-bathed street. The hurdy-gurdy had stopped, the crowd had thinned - out. Suddenly,-as I was turning to leave, I hard, the sputter of machine-guns. ■ They were shooting behind the walls of Moabit. The shooting continued. Above the 60und of the guns came the cries of men. I could not distinguish the words. The cries changed to howling. The machinoguns continued. I waited till the howling and sputtering were both over. it had grown dark in the street when through the gate of Moabit Prison came a lioutenant whom I recognised. "What happened?" .1 asked. White-faced, he turned to me and whispered: "Two hundred and twenty of thorn, all men, all Germans.- We stood them up. We-made them pass in front of the machine-guns. Did you hear them howling? They fell like dominoes, two by two." The lieutenant, ehaking all over, hurried on. , He was a young man,.fresh from the University of Berlin. I waited till the regiment marched out of the gates of Moabit, this time no "creatures" within their rank's. They started back towards Alexanderplatz. At the police headquarters dozens more were waiting to play the little game of dominoes in front of the machine-guns. "How long will the White Terror last?" I..asked General Luttwitz. "Until we stamp.out the murderers 'and disturbers of the peace," he answered.