HUMAN SCARECROWS

Evening Star, Issue 25634, 7 November 1945, Page 5

HUMAN SCARECROWS

GERMAN PRISONERS FROM RUSSIA NOW INMATES OF BRITISH GAMP LONDON, November 6. There is not a single man who could bo classed as fit among the 200,000 treated at the British-run camp at Staalen, on the outskirts of Berlin, for German prisoners of war from Russia, which has been operating for the last two and a-half months, says Reuter's Berlin correspondent. " Many are men who were taken prisoner at Stalingrad They were nothing but scarecrows, and it is impossible to distinguish one from another. Their uniforms are uniformly ragged, their hair uniformly shaggy, and their skin uniformly yellow. Some can walk, some hobble, 'some can do little more than crawl." The camp doctor said: " The death rate is fairly low considering the state they were in when we got them, and the fact that we handle 2,000 a day. Our big problem is shelter. They are going to die like flies in cold weather." The prisoners spend an average of three days at Staalen. There are no blankets, and the men sleep on bare ground. One of the few huts serves as a hospital. It is heated, but there are only a few beds. Most of the patients lie on 'the floor with one blanket apiece. German_ doctors and nurses do what is possible to help them. Building materials are not available for huts.