NAZI BRUTALITY

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 November 1939, Page 7

NAZI BRUTALITY

CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE BRITISH BARRISTERS’ LETTER [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LdNDON, November 1. Six eminent barristers, including Sir George Bonner, Mr. Tristram Beresford, K.C., Mr. Trevor Hunter, K.C., Sir Charles Odgers, and Mr. John H. Thorpe, K.C., who determined in the Home Office tribunals the status of 3600 Jewish refugees from Germany, have written to “The Times” corroborating the White Paper statements on Nazi brutality.

The barristers ,state that their 'investigations have brought to light so much corroboration of the evidence of gross ill-treatment that they “think it right to make public some of the facts proved to our satisfaction. We have only accepted allegations which are corroborated, and, in our opinion, proved. Witnesses told their stories with .obvious reluctance, being afraid, in the event of identification, of reprisals against their relatives still in Germany. Before leaving the concentration camp, each man was warned against ever saying what he had suffered or seen, or was told ‘we have our spies everywhere.’ We feel that the most-lasting injuries’ to these unfortunate people are intangible, and will be measured for the rest of their live-s in shattered nerves and broken physique. One professional man, when advised to- try to forget what be had suffered, replied, ‘I can never do that.. I dream so often about the concentration camp.’ A distressing feature of a number of cases is the inevitable breaking up and parting of families.” ARREST AND DEATH. Further extracts from the letter are as follow: “We heard of cases where the arrest of a father was followed in a few days by the notification that he was ill in prison, or was in a concentration camp, the locality not being specified. A report followed later that he had died. In due course, a box purporting to contain his remains was brought to his house, with a demand for 500 marks —the expense of! cremation.

“Accounts -of the journeys by rail to prison or concentration camp are almost unbelievable. On one specific journey, of which there- is- abundant evidence, three men in one waggon were shot, and their bodies thrown out of a window, because they complained of the heat. On this journey, we are satisfied that at least seven men were murdered. On arrival at the concentration camp, young and old had to run between ranks of Black Guards, who beat them on the shoulders with sticks, or prodded them with bayonets. Meanwhile, they were blinded and bewildered by a searchlight directed in their faces. We were told of old men falling down, and being kicked while on the ground. Striking was common, and was uncontrolled. One man was told by a guard to strike, with a spade, a friend of his, formerly a Judge. In his judicial capacity, the latter had sentenced two Nazis to death, for a criminal offence. The witness refused to do it. He was immediately bayoneted in the arm. Soon after, the Judge died in camp. A doctor who worked for six months in a concentration, camp put the mortality rate for this period at 10 per cent. Of these, 15 per cent, died from injuries, and the remainder mostly from pneumonia or diphtheria. It was impossible to provide proper treatment for the latter. SEVERE PUNISHMENTS. The letter describes the varieties of punishments inflicted for trivial offences. One was to make a prisoner stand with his chin well forward, and play a jet of water continuously on his face. Every time the victim, from discomfort or exhaustion, lowered his chin, a sentry struck him violently. Others were made to crawl naked over broken granite. Sometimes th® inmates of a hut would be left without light or fire for weeks at a time. On another occasion, they were compelled to stand out of doors in night dress, through a January night.

■ The letter states that “the men from whom we heard these accounts represent every class —doctors, lawyers, Rabbis, merchants, skilled mechanics, clerks, etc. There are few of the labouring class. The majority are well educated, and obviously of considerable ability—many sneak and understand English.”