TERRIBLE TREATMENT

Evening Star, Issue 24329, 19 October 1942, Page 4

TERRIBLE TREATMENT

RUSSIAN PRISONERS OF WAR „ MOSCOW, October 17. The deaths of Russian war prisoners and peasants in the Roslavl ■ prison camp from the middle of October to December, 1941, totalled 8,500, an average of more than 100 a day. During the remainder of the winter the daily average was between 400 and 600. Frequently semi-conscious prisoners are thrown on 30 or 40 death carts, which are used every day to remove the dead from the camp. They are buried with the others. . , The prisoners are deprived of all “ superfluous” clothes, including overcoats, sweaters, and felt boots, without which frost-bite is inevitable. The food consists of three-quarters of a (tint of soup made from black flour mixed with water twice a day, and a fe,w ounces of bread once every four or five days. The prison barracks contain no beds, and the earth floors are waterlogged and covered with ice in winter. There is no heating or sanitary equipment. When cold, hunger, and dirt fail to achieve utter misery and degradation the German guards resort to torture, heatings, and shootings. The prisoners are frequently employed to drag sledges in place of horses, and if they stumble they are either shot or bayoneted.