CAUGHT BY GESTAPO.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 119, 18 April 1940, Page 8

CAUGHT BY GESTAPO.

ORDEAL OF REFUGEES. LONDON, March 27. How the dreaded German Gestapo flung Polish refugee women on to an ice-bound island in the Baltic was told in London to-day. The wife of a former wealthy Polish doctor said : “We had to flee for our lives after the Nazi invasion of Lodz, and found refuge in Lwow—in South-eastern Poland. Then the Russians came, and again we had to flee, taking with us what we could of our jewellery and money. We were persecuted everywhere. ‘Down with the Jews’ was the cry- “ About 200 of us eventually reached Kaunus, in Lithuania, and boarded a ship bound for Stockholm. We thought freedom was in reach, but in the middle of the Baltic our ship was stopped by a Nazi patrol vessel. “Gestapo men came aboard. Our men were questioned, and anyone who did not please them was kicked or beaten, especially if they were Jews. All the men —about 80 —were taken off the ship, and the Nazis, gloating over their capture, did not forget to remind them of tjie punishments they would receive in the concentration camps. “We women were allowed to remain on board, but they escorted the ship to Ruegen. It was such a bleak islano, covered with ice, and many of us were poorly clad. We had to fend for ourselves and the German people were very anxious to get rid of us. Food was scarce. Fortunately, we got visas for Sweden and in a few days sailed for Stockholm.”