FACTORY FOREMEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1943, Page 3

FACTORY FOREMEN

MURDERED BY THE NAZIS IN HOLLAND IN ORDER TO SUPPRESS STRIKES. GREAT SLAVE RAIDS PLANNED. LONDON, June 15. The Germans shot three foremen at the Philips Works, in Eindhoven and publicly exhibited the corpses, when the workers laid down their tools during May strikes in Holland, following on the reimprisonment of the former Dutch Army. According to reports reaching London, the Germans simultaneously took as hostages 60 employees of the Dutch Unilever concern and threatened them with death unless work was resumed immediately. Not all the hostages were released when the strike ended. The German compulsory labour mobilisation in Holland resulted in only fifty men reporting for service, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” diplomatic correspondent, quoting a Dutch underground source. The Germans, by removing the ban on public gatherings and reopening cinemas, cafes and sports grounds, are tempting the Dutch to gather in large numbers, with the object of carrying out large scale raids and bringing in as many workpeople as possible. BROADCAST WARNING. The following warning to the people of Holland was given by Radio Orange tonight: “The head of the German police in the Netherlands, the notorious Routers, is planning to hold shortly new razzias (slave raids) on the largest scale throughout the country. As far as we know, it is his intention to begin on the day after tomorrow. Thursday, with a mass check-up of identity cards and other papers of identification, on the streets and in houses. He is also planning the organisation of special slave drive weeks to gather in those people who so far have evaded registration by disappearing. It is not difficult to guess what the Germans hope to achieve by this. They have made the most extensive preparations and mobilised all the forces they can command in order to make these razzias as effective as possible. We are convinced that all good Netherlanders will help each other as much as possible in order to cause the German plans to fail.” MARTYRED ALSATIANS. A Zurich message says ten Alsatians were executed principally for aiding the escape of French war prisoners and for posting up caricatures.