HORRORS IN POLAND

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21192, 15 August 1940, Page 11

HORRORS IN POLAND

INCREDIBLE BARBARITIES NAZI-SOVIET RUTHLESSNESS So tightly has the Nazi censorship clamped down since the occupation of Poland that few stories of the horrors that have descended on this once proud people have reached the outside world. There have been sketchy tales of unbelievable sadism, wholesale massacres, starvation and sordid murders. There is no more frightful indictment of any people than that contained in the calm words of two accounts in the current issue of the authoritative Nineteenth Century showing the character of the German and Russian occupation of Poland. The first is by an Englishwoman who was an eye-witness of the scenes described and who has now reached England. The second is based on letters written by reputable persons and smuggled out of the occupied territories, while some of the details are supplied by persons who were able to escape from these territories. The editor of the magazine states that all the details have been carefully checked. The revelations are of such a nature as to be almost unprintable and indicate a perversion of mind incredible in a people vaunting of “ culture.” The following quotations from a letter recently received from Warsaw are given:—“ With us every month is worse and- more difficult. It is impossible to describe the barbarity, cruelty and negation of all principles of ethics and culture in the midst of which we have to live. The programme of the Germans is short and clear—to ‘ evacuate ’ all Polish population from western to central Poland, as they want the former for their colonisation by Germans from other countries; to exterminate the intellectual class, leaving only peasants, workmen and craftsmen, who will work for the Reich. Race Obsession “We often observe strange, curious facts, a behaviour which makes us think that we are under the domination of people who are not normal, who suffer from a peculiar form of race obsession. How else could one explain the following:—Three Jews were crossing a street quietly. From the other side crossed a young German soldier. Suddenly, with no visible reason, he insulted them, began to beat them, to spit and to shout with a fury which made him half mad.” There is famine in hundreds of homes in Warsaw, and even more among the homeless. Since February it is increasing every day. One sees hundreds of children seated in the snow, weeping because they are hungry. Only black, heavy bread is obtainable at a comparatively low prices; it saves from death, but not from disease. And there are many who have not money even for that. Milk, butter, eggs, meat, fruits and sugar are luxuries unknown since many months to the average population. Potatoes are obtainable in small quantities. Russian Barbarism

The methods used in the part of Poland under Soviet domination are like those of the Germans—barbarous and ruthless. There is one difference, however. There is less individual sadistic cruelty, although little respect is shown for human life, either for that of their own people, or of the enemy. The deportation to Russia, not only of individuals, but of whole villages, is carried out with the same cruelty as by the Germans. The village is surrounded by soldiers, generally during the night, and all inhabitants are taken to the nearest station. No exception is made of the old, the weak or the ill, nor even of women

with newly-born infants. These die by the dozens during the terrible journey and their corpses are thrown out through the little windows of the cattle wagons. In some districts one could follow the route of these deportation trains by the hundreds of frozen corpses along the railway line.