LABOUR CAMP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1937, Page 9

LABOUR CAMP.

HITLER'S 'NEW WOMEN' ENGLISH GIRL'S STORY. HOW TO WIN HUSBAND. (Special.—By Air Mall.) LONDON, May 12. Elizabeth Fairholme, twenty-four-ycar-old English girl, has come back to London after eight weeks in one of the German labour camps, where Hitler's new women are being produced. There she was given the Nazi outlook on womanhood—says Hildc Marchant in the "Daily Express." "The importance of having four or more children. "The right way to attract a husband. "The sacrifice of individuality for the State, and "A disregard for Christianity because Jesus Christ was a Jew." Balanced against an orgy of propaganda is the fact that Miss Fairholme is fitter than she has ever been. The first Englishwoman to be allowed inside a camp, she fulfilled the strict disciplinary schedule which these women accept voluntarily. There are already 300-of these camps. Hitler has announced that in five years this period of domestic training will be compulsory to every German woman, just as military training is to their men. Rising at 4.30, washing in 6now water, walking 10 miles, physical jerks, and hard domestic labour, they regard as their contribution to the improvement of the race—and ultimately their large families. Rich and Poor. Miss Fairholme said: "I was keen to see the camps; quite apart from propaganda. I wrote directly to the Fuhrer because no one could give me any assurance of getting into camp from this end. I was asked for health certificates and details of my ancestors.

'■They were pure Aryan—l was accepted." With a rucksack and pair of skis she went to Hilkerode, a tiny village in the Hartz Mountains of Northern Germany. She said: "The camp wa* a converted house with long dormitories, bare, clean rooms, large kitchens. • "We slept on straw, with brown blankets; pillows were not allowed because it would be better for the carriage. The girls in camp were young —between 17 and 18 ye.ars old. They came from all classes, some rich girls, titled girls, and some extremely poor peasants. "Food is poor. An allowance of 8d a day is made for each girl, and the diet is black bread, cabbage, potatoes and flour soup. "Kvery morning at seven we climbed out into deep snow for the ceremony of hoisting the owastika flag. This was their only fervour. Thft-e were no Sunday prayers or mention of Sabbath observance.

" Back-Breaking." "The work is hard. Laundry, for instance —white uniform blouses were worn only once, stockings changed daily, linen three times a week, apart from a huge pile of towels and sheets used up by forty people. That was done by two people. "It was a back-breaking job —I know, for I stood for hours over the ironing board. These girls, however, have their vision of new Germany for ever before them, and never wince."' Xo make-up is allowed, and the women do not want it. They wash their faces in such sharp, cold water that it hurts, then oil their skin and achieve a bold fresh face which is to attract young Nazi men. At a party to celebrate the killing of a pig, when some youths from a neighbouring labour camp were invited, we were given instructions on deportment, and just what would or would not

attract the opposite sex. We were firmly instructed to be feminine and attractive, but not to ogle and flirt. '•Those who deserved praise afterwards were praised, and others corrected. Ailsa was told she had sat like a stuck pig. her eyes glued on food, and made no attempt to entertain the gentleman in her charge. Ingle, on the other hand, had ogled her Storm Thooper like asick cow." While Miss Fairholme was in Germany more of these camps were established, girls passing out after six months' training complete with a whole scries of Xazi songs, instructed in home-making, ready to marry, physically developed under ideal conditions, and worshipping the Fuhrer.■