A CONCENTRATION CAMP

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21118, 20 March 1934, Page 9

A CONCENTRATION CAMP

♦ GERMAN DESCRIBES HIS IMPRISONMENT " BELABOURED WITH RUBBER TRUNCHEONS " (IXIICD ITIKss ASSOUAHON—RY r.l.Ecn'.lC TKLtuU.U li—COi'V ill Jill'.) (Received March 19, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON. March 10. Conditions in a concentration camp at Oranicnburg, near Berlin, from which he recently escaped, were described in London by Gerhard t Soger, formerly secretary to the Gcunaii Peace Society, and a Socialist member of the Reichstag until his arrest last year, owing to his political opinions. The first thing Soger heard on arrival in London was that his wife and baby had been arrested as hostages because of his book dealing with his experiences, circulation of which is forbidden in German}'. Ho stated that there were lotk) prisoners at Oranicnburg and thai conditions were frankly inhuman. The food was bad and there were no prison rules, all being Jell to the tender mercies of the guard.-. who, on returning to Ihe camp drunk and in a quarrelsome mood, treated the prisoners so ferociously that half the inmates were victims of brutality. "Like many others," said Soger, "I was belaboured with rubber truncheons until the blood flowed." •Soger, who deluded revolting punishments in the camp, is publishing an English hoof; on his experiences, "in order that the world may loom ) something of the freedom Germans J enjoy to-day." j

PRISONERS OF THE STATE

'•I'OMMI'M.-'TS W lI'ED O! I" LONDON. March 0. Smce llerr HitK-r assumed power. says (he Berlin eorrespnndeiil of tiv.' •'Manchester Guardian." Ifn.UOi) people arc admit:ed t<> have pa.-sod through concentration camps. m which there are still about 0000 people, including 20U women. The (inures tire- tho.-c of the 20-ycar-old Diels, chief of the secret political police, who added that the communists are no longer a political problem. "They have Iwn wiped out." lie explained. Diels admitted that clergymen had been taken to concentra! s" camps, but said there was none in them now. lie claimed that the camps had performed men' serv:c by rendering ha-mloss ail li"-!:ii elements. Prisoners, lie said, merely up activities inimical to the state to secure release.

IFLOW OF GOLD froj j GERMANY ! IMPORT TUADK TIIIIEVIENED (Receive d ?dsrch I! 1 , i l.ku p.:...; LONDON. March '.'.'. The British United I'm..- c-,i respondent in Berlin says that e:-:c:t ■ mcr.t is rcsultimt from [, a ;.: nounci'ineiit that Germany litis 1"..' C 0.000.000 worth of c, .Id since tin New Year. This is m'crpn.'ed n homo-grown raw matt rials w:i shortly be substituted lor Hi— Materials of foreign origin which Go many is unable to import own.:; '• the exhaustion of foreign currency. A similar substitute system enabled Germany to carry on durim the war. and it can be applied t< tobacco and textiles. The alternative to the substitute system is tic. depreciation of the marl;, in ordei to stimulate cxpmts from Germany or to complete the moratorium on Germany's toroimi debts, whicn now stand at £ 750.00 D.OOO. THE SECRET POLICE ESTABLISHMENT AS OFFICIAL j BODY LONDON. March ill. The Berlin correspondent of the ••Observer" reports thai. General Goering has issued a decree givim; the secret police an official andpermanent character, instead of lino tinning, as hitherto, as a Nasi hotly for stamping out social d ■mocrncy and communism. CAMPAIGN AGAINST .JEWS NO ADMITTANCE TO SUMK TOW \S (Received March I!i, 7.5 p.m. > BERLIN*. March 10. The- campaign ac.nmsf the .Jews was well launched in Nuremberg, where jjanners at the euyances 'o small towns announced that im admittance would h t erar.Nd lo .h >... .--. GERMANY IN THE AIR J.NCOI KACEMENT OF IDINC (Rec( ived March 10, 7 p.m.) BERLIN. March 1:1. Handbills' distribute! ilii'ouglioul the country pomt. out that while the Versailles Treaty forbade Germane military aireralt. 'la- u-e oi state' monty for the furtherance if aerial sports is not forbidden. ",Ic:i j and women ait- urged to join m j this form of living. i