BURIED BEFORE DEATH

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 247, 20 October 1942, Page 6

BURIED BEFORE DEATH

INHUMANITY TOWARDS RUSSIANS.

P.A. Cable.

MOSCOW, * Oct. 17.

The deaths of Russian war prisoners and peasants in Roslavl prison camp (west Russia) last year, from the middle of October to December, totalled 8500, an average of more than 100 a day. During the remainder of the winter the daily average was 400 and 600. Frequently semiconscious prisoners were thrown on to the 30 or 40 death-carts which were used each day to remove the dead frgm the camp, and they were buried with the others. The prisoners were deprived of all "superfluous" clothes, includihg overcoats, sweaters, and felt boots, without which frostbite was inevitable. Their food consists of threequarters of a pint of soup (made from black flour mixed with water) twice daily, and a few ounces of bread once every four or flve days. The prison barracks contain no beds. The earth floors are water - logged and -are covered with ice in the winter. There is no heating and no 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, and if they stumble they are either shot or bayoneted. V