MORE RUSSIAN WOMEN FOUND

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 280, 23 August 1944, Page 6

MORE RUSSIAN WOMEN FOUND

Worked For Germans In France (Received August 22, 9.10 p.rn.) LONDON, August 22. The story of 220 Russian women working in France for the Germans was told by “The Tinies” correspondent iu Normandy, who found them nt. Saint Mara, near Domfront. They were part of 2000 whom the Germans arrested in the Leningrad. Kalinin and other regions, sent to Latvia and Estonia and finally brought to France four months ago, Most of the women had been arrested for helping to maintain communications between partisans and the Red Army. Many of the women were themselves partisans. Those at Saint Mara were employed repairing damage done to railways by R.A.F. bombs. The “mother of the cemp” was aged 7-1. The youngest were aged 14 and 15. The women were handsome, heavily tanned from long hours in the open air, well built and carried themselves with dignity, despite the odd- assortment of clothing. Eleven babies were born in the camp. The Germans were always threatening to fake them from their mothers. This caused much anxiety. The babies wore aged two weeks to throe months. Their mothers were forced to work to the last moment before they were horn and had to return to work after a fortnight. The women said the work was very heavy latterly, with the increasing number of raids. They were sometimes working for 15 hours and would be called out in the middle of the night when the R.A.F. was over. The foreman of the camp was described as a brute, who often beat women with a stick which he always carried. Another of his punishments was confinement in a dark underground cellar with little bread and water for eight days. Yet their spirit remained magnificent. The majority of the younger women implored their _ American liberators to allow them to join in the fight against the enemy. No doubt arrangements will be made soon for their return home.