BRITISH TYPHUS PATIENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16666, 11 April 1916, Page 5

BRITISH TYPHUS PATIENTS

HOW THEY WERE TREATED IN GERMANY.

WITTENBURG CAM! , INQUIRY. HORROR PILED UPON HORROR. THE ACME OF INHUMANITY. LONDON, April 9. No record of German inhumanity is more appalling than the report of the Government Committee, of which Mr Justice Younger was president, dealing with the typhus epidemic at Wittenburg camp early in 1915, among British and other prisoners of war. The report, which is issued by the Press Bureau, states that evidence had long been accumulating from returned prisoners, and it was considered so terrible that the committee awaited the return of Major Priestly, Captain Vidal, and Captain Lander, army medical officers, who fought and conquered the. epidemic, and their statements confirm the previous depositions. ' Wittenberg camp, 10 acres in area, held 16,000 prisoners during the winter of 1914, and the overcrowding was serious, also the winter was very severe, and the heating was obliging the men. to keep the windows shut, thus aggravating the overcrowding. The men were insufficiently clothed, their overcoats having been taken by the Germans, and their clothing was reduced to rags. Many had neither boots nor socks, and others wrapped their feet in straw. None were able to change their clothes,, as theTe were no means for washing clothes. The food was bad and insufficient, and the underfeeding was deplorable. Even the canteen, at which the prisoners formerly bought additional food, was closed when, the first case of typhus appeared, and only when the epidemic was nearly overcome diet they have enough food, because they were able to eat consignments from England. It was impossible for the Germans to allege that there was a general shortage of medical requisites in Germany, as the English doctors saw abundant supplies in Wittenberg town. Yet the plague-stricken camp wq.s -STARVED FOR MONTHS of the barest necessities of existence. The simplest drugs were not even provided, nor surgical dressings. Above all the British suffered, being the victims of special hostility. From the camp's beginning their treatment was outrageous. The Germans decorated Dr Aschembach in view of his neglect, which he must answer for one day. The report pays the warmest tributes to the work of the doctors and orderlies. All laboured unsparingly, fully conscious of the dangers; but they risked their , lives without thought. Many laid down their lives for their comrades as fully as on the battlefield. The committee lioped their devotion would be remembered at the proper time. The prisoners had not vitality sufficient to resist the disease. They were very verminous. One cupful of soft soap had to last 120 men many weeks. The epidemic broke out in December, 1914. The German STAFF OF GUARDS FLED and all supplies were thereafter pushed into the camp down a shu'te. The food was hauled in on rails. Only one hospital had to suffice for a hundred patients. The Germans on February 10 sent Majors Fry and Priestly and Captains Sutcliffe, Field, Vidal, and Lauder to the scene. They had been taken prisoner in defiance of-thoi'Geneva Convention. They found the men gaunt and strangely pallid, and the men received them with apathetic silence. The rooms were unlighted, and the men marched aimlessly up and dow • them. Some were already lying on the floor. The conditions for the four weeks from February 11 were . r F.U% : OP.;HORR'ORv;;;; ■//■;■;. ; There "was "not" a" mattress in the improvised hospital, and the men dreaded to go there. No fewer than 60 secret cases were discovered in one compound containing a thousand men. Infected mattresses had" to be employed even in the hospital. The patients had to be carried on the tables at which the prisoners afterwards fed, and the tables' could not be washed owing, to the absence of soap. The Germans refused to allow typhus patients to be separated from others. Men lay de- I lirious in their clothes on the bare floor, so closely packed that the doctors only moved about among them with difficulty. There were a thousand cases of typhus on March 7, with 50 fresh cases occurring daily. There was extreme difficulty in' getting drugs and. dressings, and when ; they were supplied they were hopelessly inadequate. MEN LOST THEIR TOES AND FEET from post-typhus gangrene, and many had to have their legs amputated 'from the same cause. One British soldier, now in England, lost both his legs. There was practically no hospital clothing, and as there was only one small disthe men had to wear their outer garments while their inner garments were being disinfected, and vice versa, because the blankets were not sufficient to keep them warm. Washing of the patients was out of the question until much later, when soap came from England. The dead were buried within the camp, and the cemetery was so small that the coffins were piled up. The hardest trial of all was , to heai the townspeople outside the wire entanglements jeering and insult- j ing the dead. Major Fry, Captain Sutcliffe, and Captain Field died of typhus, as did also many devoted English prisoners who volunteered to nurse theb comrades. Convalescents had to be discharged from hospital scarcely able to walk, and' they were, obliged to lie on the bare floor of the barracks. Out of 300 English cases 60 died. The report records THE MAGNDJICENT EFFORTS of the British doctors, which were ultimately successful in stamping out the 'epidemic. It mentions that Dr Aschembach the German medical officer, who fled at the first outbreak, only entered the camp once, and on that occasion he was completely protected, his precautions including a mask and gloves. Yet he has since been AWARDED THE IRON CROSS for his services in combating the disease. On one occasion he "refused Major Fry's entreaty for necessaries, calling the victims "English swine." t The committee state that they have tried to find justification for this treatment, but they can find none. It was only in keeping with the camp's history from the beginning that savage dogs were employed to terrorise the prisoners. Flogging with the whip was frequent. The responsibility is directly chargeable to the cruelty and neglect of the German officials. Some of the conditions described in the official report are most abhorrent. Major Priestly mentions that he attempted to brush some dust off a patient's clothes, but the dust proved to be a moving mass of vermin. Other incidents are even more appalling. The report shows that Major Priestly and others set to work, and by their admirable powers of organisation evolved ORDER OUT OF CHAOS. They collected the British patients in one bnngalow. resolved to get the bestfood, clothing, and bedding obtainable for the sick, and thus gradually overcame tha epidemic. The arrival of warmer weather in April greatly facilitated recovery. It was only then that the Germans be-, gan to assist. They erected a steriliser, but this work was not pressed forward. It was finished a fortnight after the last British case of typhus occurred. They also built a hospital bungalow, but the J epidemic was" over before it was completed.