ATROCIOUS CRIME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 January 1943, Page 3

ATROCIOUS CRIME

OF GESTAPO TERRORISTS YOUNG BOYS AND GIRLS AMONG VICTIMS. CAUCASIAN HORSEMEN TAKING VENGEANCE. (By Telegraph—Pi-ess Association—Copyright) LONDON, January 25. Thousands of Caucasian horsemen, bred in the tradition of the vendetta, are pursuing the Germans, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Moscow correspondent. They have plenty to avenge. Following Gestapo terrorism, Herr Himmler’s minions did their utmost to obliterate the evidence of their crimes in Stavropol, and drenched their head-

quarters with petrol, setting fire to the building. The Russians blanketed the flames and found evidence of German beastliness in neatly-stacked piles of clothing of boys and girls aged 12 to 14, executed as a reprisal because their fathers were guerillas. Other heaps consisted of Cossack cloaks which women identified as belonging to their sons, fathers and husbands. The Gestapo cellars contained inscriptions, otten written in the blood of Russians about to die after torture. Typical were these: ‘“During the occupation of Stavropol, 15,000 to 20,000 persons were annihilated. Avenge.” Another nail-scratched inscription read: "Peter Boganoff, shot on January 18. Tell his wife and children.”