TERROR IN NORWAY

Grey River Argus, 20 March 1942, Page 8

TERROR IN NORWAY

Torture bv Gestaoo SWEDISH PRESS REPORTS. LONDON. March 17. Confirmation of the German atrocities in Norway is contained in a copy of a Swedish newspaper which has reached London. The newspaper published two pages of eye-witnes-ses’ accounts of Gestapo horrors perpetrated in Norwegian Prisons. All indicate the most-brutal treatment of prisoners whose answers under examination did not satisfy their persecutors. The prisoners were beaten until unconscious. Even women were not spared. One woman tells how she was put in a dark cupboard, where she was only just able to stand. The place grew hotter and hotter, and she lost consciousness. When she recovered, he was ordered to undress. She. refused. The Germans then pulled the clothes off her, and she was beaten across the back and kicked on the legs, till she again lost consciousness. The woman was later released, and fled from Norway. Another prisoner tells how he saw a man brutally pushed into a room where there were six Gestapo members. When he answered a question, they said he lied. He was then forced to sit on a stool. He was beaten until he fainted and tell to the floor, where a Gestapo member jumped on his stomach. and another beat the soles of his feet. They then put iron needles in the fire till white-hot, and forced them under his nails. Another witness saw a prisoner, after a beating, led to a'bath, where his clothes had to be ripped off because they stuck to his flesh. Another prisoner said i that the hair of women in the next cell turned white. After a month of imprisonment, some prisoners attempted to commit suicide. These are only a few of the incidents narrated in the Swedish paper. Revelations of German atrocities In Norway, which resulted in the banning of 17 Swedish newspapers which published them, form one of the grimmest chapters of German brutality. Eye-'witnesses or victims who escaped to Sweden says the “Daily Mail,” vouched for the authenticity of the revelations. These were based on statements sworn before a judge in-Stockholm, and which are now in the possession of the Norwegian Government in London, and also on a pamphlet published in Stockholm giving a circumstantial account of atrocities. A leading provincial Swedish journal, the “Eskilstuna Kuriren,” defied the authorities and attacked the Minister for Justice - for . closing down the 17 newspapers. The “Eskilstuna Kuriren” stated: “Norway and its fighting people are suffering martyrs and must not be abandoned. Rather may the Minister for Justice, who is acting against the conscience of his people, be sacrificed." Protests have been made in the Swedish Parliament' about the closing of the newspapers. The Minister for Justice has been asked for an explanation. ~ x „ The “Svenska Morgenblater writes that 7 incredible tortures are carried out by the Germans on Norwegians detected in acts of sabotage or anti-Quisling activities, and even for lesser reasons. All churches in Norway haveformed a Christian front to oppose Nazi repression of religious activlties. At Trondheim recently worshippers were forbidden to enter the cathedral, so after this the churches combined to hire the town’s largest cinema’ for a joint service each Sun,-' day. The food position is deteriorating in Norway and the meat ration has been cut to soz of meat a week, with 31b of bread and flour a week. Stockholm reports say that two tra’inloads of Germans troops who were going on leave were turned back.