BELSEN CANNIBALISM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 258, 29 September 1945, Page 5

BELSEN CANNIBALISM

EVIDENCE BY DOCTOR NO DISPOSAL OF BODIES iN.Z. Press Association. —Copyright.) (Rec. 12.25 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 28. The deplorable hospital conditions in Belsen where operations

, where performed in filthy huts on crude wooden benches were described today by Dr. >■ Fritz Leo at the resumed trial of S.S. guards at Luneberg. Leo, who acted as doctor for the inmates, said he saw 200 to 300 cases of cannibalism. Witness noticed bodies with ears, cheeks, muscles, and parts of the arms and back cut off; he saw people with pieces of human flesh in their pockets or in cooking utensils. At least three or tour patients a week suffered from bullet wounds. There were at least 600 cases of acute tuberculosis, but no fac ilites for their treatment. Typhus spread because there was no water supply. Because of a lack of latrines the camp became one vast sewer.

People died at such a rate, that the crematorium was unable to cope with the position and high piles of bodies wore burned on huge bonfires until the Forestry Administration prohibited the use of wood for the purpose, after which the bodies lay

where they were. A Polish Jewess, Lydia Sonsazajn, gave evidence that Kramer caught several Russian girls who attempted to steal- bread. He made them kneel in the rain for 24 hours without foodSome died as a result. Weingartner set dogs on to women to make them run up a steep hill on the way to work. Hoessler was in charge of a party of six girls, four of whom were hanged for possessing wire-cutters and for stealing powder with which they planned to blow up the gas-chamber and crematorium at Auschwitz. Router's correspondent at Luneberg says the appetites of the men and women accused of the Belsen atrocities seem to be increasing despite the fact that their lives are at stake. Many, after 15 days in the dock, are asking for second and third helpings of the stew served to them outside the Courtroom each day. The accused do not leave the Court building from the time they are brought from the civil prison to the end of the day's proceedings.