ESCAPE FROM GERMANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 December 1943, Page 4

ESCAPE FROM GERMANY

adventures of four young POLES “LIQUIDATION” OF WARSAW JEWS LONDON, October 29. Four young Poles, who escaped from Germany, recently arrived in Sweden. They had been deported from Poland to Germany for forced labour in the middle of last August. They claim that Polish underground forces number nearly 300.000 men, the majority of whom are peasants, who normally work during the day and fight at night, sabotaging railway, industrial or agricultural plants. Before his deportation one of the men had been a soldier of the underground forres and had taken part in fifteen actions undertaken with a view to seizing, or destroying,., agricultural products confiscated by Germans. The increasing strength of the resistance is forcing the Germans to maintain very strong garrisons in Poland. One of these Poles had worked in the country near Radom and he saw with his own eyes mass shooting of young Poles imprisoned in camps. It is possible to save individuals by giving Germans enormous bribes. Another of the Poles had been seized during a street manhunt in Warsaw, after which all the arrested men and women over fourteen were deported to the Reich. He said that Berlin presented the appearance of a real slave market. German farmers and industrial foremen examined - the muscles of the Poles in order to choose the strongest individuals. Polish workers in Germany are treated very badly. One of the four escapees witnessed the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto. The Germans had appealed to Jews to volunteer for labour, promising them food in return. Many Jews believed the promises made to them, especially as hunger was decimating the Jewish . population despite help given, by Poles who brought them food, but all who reported for work were murdered. The informant stressed how heroically the Jews resisted the Germans, using arms provided by the Polish underground movement.