GROSS CRUELTY
"BLACK HOLE" OF LILLE
PRISONERS FOULLY TREATED
REVOLTING DETAILS OF CAP-
TIVITY.
(DHirn ntst assocmjmb.—coptnoit.)
(Received December 10, 1.15 p.m.)
LONDON, 9th December
Some war prisoners give horrifying details of the "Black Hole of liUe." It was a huge underground cavern where 270 men were confined for five weeks in an unspeakable state of neglect, famine, and disease. They had no clothing or covering jexcept that in which they had left the battlefield, and they; were only allowed in the upper air for ten minutes daily. I . j :
Twenty of the men yen taken to hospital' suffering from dysentery, and the vermin had Jo be scraped off their clothing with knives. The place was not cleaned during the five weeks, and, the food was so foul as to he uneatable.
The men practically went mad. They used to lie on the ground, kilting vermin and singing hymns. The men used to fight to reach a latticed window ten feet above the floor, in order to get air. They wore compelled to bathe their wounds with coffee.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19181210.2.102.1
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 140, 10 December 1918, Page 8
Word Count
178GROSS CRUELTY Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 140, 10 December 1918, Page 8
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Evening Post. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in