INHUMAN TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 124, 21 February 1944, Page 4

INHUMAN TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

Disclosures At Trial

(Received February 20, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, February’ 19.

The admission of shocking treatment of internees in the Colomb Bechar concentration camp, in Algeria, electrified the Court at the resumed hearing of the purge trial, says the Algiers correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph.” Accused related incidents of prisoners so undernourished and starving that they ate grass, frogs and snakes, of epileptics writhing round in fits and being bludgeoned, .and of prisoners being forced to drink large quantities of salt As the narrative of appalling conditions proceeded, such loud murmurs of indignation rose in the Court that the judge had to exert his authority to maintain order. The prisoners on several occasions blamed each other for acts of violence. Tension sometimes ran so high that guards with fixed bayonets had to prevent a clash.

The trial of 11 men for torturing and murdering prisoners in a Vichy concentration camp at Colomb-Bechar, opened on Thursday. A former camp commandant, Lieutenant Santucci, is among the accused, who include six Frenchmen, two termans, one Italian, one Russian, and one Algerian. „