100 DEATHS A DAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20918, 19 October 1942, Page 3

100 DEATHS A DAY

NAZI PRISON CAMP MANY BURIED ALIVE ATROCIOUS CONDITIONS (9 a.m.L MOSCOW, Oct‘. 18. The deaths of Russian prisoners-of-war and peasants in the Roslavl prison camp from the Middle of October to December, 1941, totalled 8500, an averagg of more than 100 a day. During the remainder of the winter, a daily average of 400 to 600 frequently semi*conscious prisoners were thrown on 30 or 40 death carts which were daily used to remove the dead from the camp. They were buried with the others. The prisoners were deprived of all “superfluous” clothes, including greatcoats, sweaters; and felt boots, without which frost-bite is inevitable. The food consists of three-quarters of a pint of soup made from black flour mixed with water twice a day and a few ounces of bread once every four or five days. The prison barracks contain no beds. . The earth floors were water-logged and covered in ice in the winter. There was no heating or sanitary equipment. When cold, hunger, and dirt fail to achieve utter misery and degradation, German guards resort to torture, beatings, and shootings. Prisoners are frequently employed to drag sledges in place of horses. If they stumble they are either shot or bayonetted.