NAZI BARBARITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25179, 17 April 1945, Page 5

NAZI BARBARITY

1 CONCENTRATION CAMP GRIM SCENE REVEALED MURDER AND PRIVATION (Reed. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 16 Some of the appalling evidences of German brutality to prisoners in the Buchenwald concentration camp, on a small hill about four miles outside Weimer, in Central Germany, were described by Edgar A. Mowrer, of the Columbia Broadcasting System, in a broadcast from Germany yesterday through the 8.8.C. "This concentration camp is one of the largest in Germany—and it was built to last," said Mr Mowrer. As he approached the Camp men and boys in rags behind the wire reached out their hands. One of these men Mr Mowrer actually knew but could not recognise him. He was shown round the camp by a prisoner who had been there ten years. Hundreds o 1 Children In one building, which had once stabled 80 horses, were# 1200 men. In another part of the camp were hundreds of children ("enemies of the State"), some only six years of age. Each child had his prison number taftooed on his arm. "In the hospital 200 men had died the day before I arrived at the camp," s; id Mr Mowrer. "My guide attributed •the cause of death in most cases to tuberculosis, starvation and fatigue. Many had no desire to live. My guide pulled back the blankets from one man's feet to show me how swollen they were. The man was dead. Most of the patients could not move." In the kitchen Mr Mowrer found that the ration for the prisoners was one small piece of brown bread with a minute piece of margarine arid a little stew every 24 hours. A chart on the wall indicated each ten men who died, so that the rations could be cut accordingly. 500 Bodies Found In a small Courtyard Mr Mowrer was shown a well which adjoined a stable or garage. It was filled with bodies. Some of the bodies, all but two of which were naked, had terrible bruises. Mr Mowrer counted the bodies and found that more than 500 men and boys lay there. Most of them had died of starvation. "Murder has been done at this camp," said Mr Mowrer. "God alone knows how many men and boys from all over Europe have died there during the past 12 years. I beg you to believe what I have said. 1 have reported what I saw and heard, hut only part of it. For most of it I have no words." Communist Reichstag deputies rescued from Buchenwald report that Ernest Thaelmann. the Communist leader, was not killed in an Allied air raid on Buchenwald Inst. August, as announced by the Nazis. Thaelmann was never interned in the camp. LINK WITH RUSSIANS GERMANS VIEW PROSPECT LONDON, April 15 Admitting that the Western Allies are very near to linking up with the Russians, the German news agency's military commentator said: "The German High Command is making the greatest efforts to prevent the enemy attaining this strategic goal, or at least to delay it as long as possible, but even when the Russians and Americans join hands, there will still be no question of Southern Germany being cut off from the north. The Americans who penetrated to the Chemnitz and Leipzig areas are too small numerically. "The actual military occupation of Western Germany, through which enemy armour has driven, will present Field-Marshal Montgomery and General Bradley with tasks of very considerable difficulty. "Until this is complete the linking-up of our Eastern and Western enemies would represent an impressive, but.not necessarily a decisive feat of arms." NEGRO SOLDIERS TO DIE (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, April 15 Two negro soldiers were sentenced to death by hanging and a third to life imprisonment by court-martial for the rape of two German women, reports the Associated Press. The husband of one of the women came to thank an American officer for the .verdict. The officer said: "We did It to maintain discipline, not to pleas© you."