PRISON ESCAPEES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21580, 6 December 1944, Page 3

PRISON ESCAPEES

GERMANY’S PROBLEM 50,000 MEN AT LARGE 19 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 5. Fully 50,000 Allied war prisoners and foreign workers are at large in Southern Germany, state reports reaching Zurich from Berlin. The escapees arc living the life of outlaws in the Black Forest. The Germans believe that underground organisations in Germany are assisting tiie escapees, most of whom are trying to reach the Swiss frontier or the Allied lines on the Western Front. The Daily Express Zurich corressays that Himmler has sent strong S.S. detachments to the Baden province on the Rhine, opposite Alsace-Lorraine, to round up the fugitives. The Germans are searching all travellers within a 12-mile radius of the Swiss border. Those who cannot prove their identity are shot, adds the correspondent,