MERCILESS RULE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24085, 2 October 1941, Page 9

MERCILESS RULE

NAZIS IN EUROPE WIPING OUT SLOVENES CRUSHING THE CZECHS (Recti. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 1 The persecution and agony of the subject peoples of Europe, where Hitler's executioners are doing their utmost to exterminate all individuals, and even nations, whom they cannot Germanise, are revealed in more ghastly detail ;n the latest messages reaching London. Thousands of arrests are being made in ('/.echo-Slovakia, where the break-up of the puppet Government and the complete dismemberment of the protectorate are foreseen. Torturing o! Priests But for sheer hrutalisation nothing heats the unrelenting, merciless persecution of the Slovene population of Yugoslavia. Dr. Krek, deputy-Premier, has disclosed the terrible plight of the Slovenes —a nation of 1.500.000 which was part of the Yugoslav kingdom. Tfitler. knowing he could not Germanise the Slovenes, decided to exterminate them. His gauleiters decreed that all churches should be closed. The Gestapo arrested the clergy. Aged priests were forced to stand in supplication before pictures of Hitler, while the Gestapo spat in their faces and beat them with fists. The Gestapo organised shooting exercises "for fun." Priests had io face a wall while Gestapo men kept shooting over their heads. All religious ceremonies have been forbidden, including baptisms and weddings. Intellectuals have been robbed of their belongings and sent to concentration camps, and their women and children have been packed into cattle trucks and transported to Serbia. Girls Sent to Germany The Germans arranged for the deportation of 283,000 Slovenes, and by the end of July they had sent away 60.000 people, who were allowed to take only their clothes and tinder one pound in money. The Gestapo men travelled from village to village, selecting men and boys for forced labour in Germany, also girls aged from 15 to 25, who were sent to Germany "for free military use.'' Aged people and children were sent south. There was no food on the trains, and nothing for them at their destinations^ The scenes when the Gestapo mad® "collecting" expeditions were appalling, and. the wailing of the victims at the railway stations was heart-breaking. The brutality of the parting, especially of young girls from their homes, was beyond description. They were dragged away like cattle, without a chance of saying farewell to their families. "Murdering a Nation" Hitler has also destroyed the economic structure of Slovenia, dissolving 1600 co-operative savings and credit organisations and confiscating, their property. The Germans have also forbidden, under pain of death, the publication of books, periodicals and newspapers. All books have been taken from the public libraries and publicly burned. All Slovene notices and street signs have been obliterated by the Germans, who have even defaced Slovene inscriptions on tombstones and destroyed public monuments. Thus is Hitler murdering a highlycivilised nation in the Europe of tho twentieth century. Czech circles in London are of the opinion that the arrest of General Elias, Premier of Bohemia and Moravia, and three members of his Cabinet, may foreshadow the complete break-up of the protectorate. The Germans have , long planned to dissolve the regime entirely and incorporate all of Czechoslovakia in neighbouring territories, leaving the centre of Bohemia, including Prague, as a German province without special rights. Arrested Ministers The arrests of the Ministers may now serve as an excuse to carry out the plan. Certainly they suggest that the Germans have completely lost faith in their collaborators. The arrested Ministers were Krejci, deputy-Premier, Jezek, Minister of the Interior, and Havelka, who was expelled from the Hacha administration six months ago. Jezek wasl regarded as completely subservient to the Germans. Havelka was an appeaser who is believed to have inspired Hacha's policy. He drafted the Czech antiSemitic laws. Krejci was an eminent Judge and Professor of Law at Prague University. A Stockholm report says Elias is accused of having made contact k with certain Polish and French circles for the purpose of secret collaboration. Italians Shell Villages According to Czech circles in London the arrests in Prague are only part of the brutalities throughout the protectorate. Many thousands of Czechs are being arrested and are facing concentration camp or death. The fury of the new Protector, Heydrich, seems to be mainly directed against the 70,000 legionaries who fought on the Allied side in the last war, and who have since gained positions of some, importance in Czeeho-Slovakia. It is officially stated in Berlin that a iurther 58 Czechs were executed in Prague yesterday. The news agency reports that Italian warships shelled villages on the Adriatic c-oast in an attempt to quell risings, in Montenegro.

SEAMAN'S SACRIFICE

A GALLANT 'GENTLEMAN LONDON, Sept. 30 A member of the crew o.f the torpedoed American-owned steamer Pink Star swam up to the only lifeboat and saw that it was full. He waved goodbye and swam away again. He was James Cassidy, of New Brunswick, and the story of his gallantry was related by the master of the ship, Captain Mackenzie, who landed yesterday with 24 survivors at a British port. "Cassidy's act was the finest thing I have over seen," he said. "We did not seo him again." Newspapers describe Cassidy as a "Gallant Gentleman," his action recalling Captain Gates' gesture during Scott's last expedition in the Antarctic.