HUMAN ABATTOIR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 152, 29 June 1945, Page 5

HUMAN ABATTOIR

GERMAN EXECUTIONS

Czech Patriots Beheaded In View Of Spectators N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 10.30 a.m. LONDON, June 28. Between the lofty black-draped walls of an execution chamber constructed like a theatre, with spectators' seats and seats for German officials on the dais, the Germans beheaded 1078 Czech patriots, including 250 women, at Pangrac Prison, in Prague, says Reuters Prague correspondent.-The chamber, which is 15 yards square, was built in April, 1943.

When a prisoner in an adjoining Court heard the verdict against him a black cloth was drawn aside and he was taken straight into the place of execution. TThere, if a Jew, he was hanged on one row of hooks or, if a Czech, he was beheaded in view of the auditorium. The hooks holding the bodies of Jews were pushed on runners along a girder to an adjoining room, where rough coffins were piled up. This up-to-date human abattoir, was white-tiled with grating under the guillotine and hoses for washing away the blood. A hand-basin was provided for the use of the executioner.

Upwards of 30 persons were put to death in a single hour. The operation of the guillotine could be heard outside the walls. The correspondent adds that the killings at Pangrac Prison represented only'a small part of the total German murders in Prague.