RUSSIAN PRISONERS IN GERMANY

Evening Star, Issue 15909, 15 September 1915, Page 8

RUSSIAN PRISONERS IN GERMANY

SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER. Tlie following is a translation of-a lettef from The Hague published recently in the. ' Russkia Viedomosti,' of Moscow : " Send us bread! For Heaven's sake, send bread—dry bread, rusks, biscuits, gingerbreads—any sort of bread! Don't send money. Send bread! Also, if possible, tobacco." This letter and many others like it have reached us from the Russian civilian prisoners in Germany, not merely from the poor, but even from people of fairly good means. All the escaped Russian soldiers who reach Holland make the same complaint—want of bread and want of nourishment. When we ask what made them run away the reply is always the same—"Hunger." One such fugitive told me: " I was taken prisoner in October, and since then I have never once ceased to feel hungry. One gets up in the morning, already hungry; one walks about all day, always hungry; and at night it is almost maddening. I tried everything. I tightened my bolt: I drank hot water; I drank cold water. Nothing was of any use. At last I decided to run away. If I had to die I preferred to die seeding freedom rather than be starved to death." Another man, a most sensible and energetic individual, belonged to a Siberian regiment, and he told me of the posit ; ve terror he experienced when he first saw his companions naked. He saw them clothed and thought they looked bad enough, but assured himself, " After ail, prison life is no joke." None tha less, when the day for the bath arrived he was overwhelmed with horror; they were all skeletons. " Their feet were thinner than my hands. I said to-myself: 'You have still a little money left. Risk your life and run away before yon come to this.'" Besides the insufficiency of food the unhappy prisoners have to suffer from dirt, overcrowding, and, in the winter months, from cold. The barracks in Friedrichsfeldt (near the Dutch frontier) are made of thin wooden planks, inefficiently nailed and badly fitted. In any case it would be difficult to warm such' a building, but coal was scarce and doled out in small quantities. In bad weather it was horribh) to remain in the barracks, for the height of the building was only about six feet; it was verv cold and yet so suffocating that it produced nausea- and giddines*. When spring began a number of the Russian captives at Friedrichsfeldt wero sent out to work. They were parcelled out for different tasks; the Poles went to a large Polish land-owner, others wero employed in the woods, others in fields or mines" for a small payment of one mark weekly. Work was, however, their chief relief, because the complete absence of occupation in the barracks bad been in itself a terrible source of suffering. The more educated prisoners have mado an attempt to relieve the deadly monotony at Friedrichsfeldt by organising a school. There are enormous difficulties to contend against,- one of the chief being the entire absence of text books. After long efforts to obtain a Russian grammar the teachers at length combined together and wrote out the whole. The same people have also organised popular lectures and arranged n. library, which consists of some two hundred volumes, and includes Gorki, Tehekoff, and Tolstoy. (A request is made for Russian books, especially text books, to be sent through the Comit-o Russe, The Hague, Holland.) During our interviews with the fugitive* we always tried to discover on what terms the. prisoners lived with each other, and we found that their relations were almost invariably excellent. Their relations were also good with prisoners of other nation* alities, with the English, among whom were colonials, with the Belgians, and the French. As for their relations with the German: officials and the German public almost all complained bitterly. The public behave very badly. Crowds come to stare at the prisoners; the children are brought from the schools; the majority of these visitors annoy and insult the unhappy captives behind the bars; - they abuse them violently, throw stones at them, etc. In these demonstrations adults of both sexes, as well as the children, regularly take part. . . . It is inevitable that feelings of bitter hatred and longing for revenge .should, fill the hearts of the jorisoners..