BUTCHERY BY NAZIS

Southland Times, Issue 24576, 27 October 1941, Page 5

BUTCHERY BY NAZIS

EXECUTIONS AS REPRISAL BITTER REACTION j (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 25. i All the horrors associated with the j Nazi concentration camp murders were reproduced at Nantes at dawn on Wednesday, says The Daily Mail’s French frontier correspondent in revealing details of the manner in which the first 50 hostages were executed for the death of LieutenantColonel Dr Karl Holtz, the German district commander. Those condemned were marched out under a heavy guard, formed up in a | double line and were made to dig a i long, deep trench as a communal grave for themselves. Neither a priest nor j a chaplain was allowed to tend comfort jto the condemned in the last hour. I They were even forbidden to write I farewell messages to their families. i Some of the hostages protested to the I last and refused to leave their cells, but the German police drove the protesters to the wall with rifle butts and truncheons. When the two ranks had been formed an officer barked an order and 10 men were marched to the wall. Another order was given. A volley followed and the 10 men fell. By tens the butchery was repeated until even the nerves of the firing squad were affected. The cruelty persisted after death—the relations were forbidden to place flowers on the grave. The correspondent added that the French reacted angrily, bitterly and defiantly. Dawn the next day revealed the names of the martyred added to those on the town’s war memorial. Three large wreaths of red, white and blue were placed alongside. It was six hours before the Germans removed them. FACTORIES IDLE No workers went down into the coalpits in Northern France on Thursday, all the textile and iron and steel factories were idle and the Renault and Citroen employees struck. Never has France been so aroused. Vichy newspapers said that the rumours that Marshal Petain wanted to hand himself over as a hostage to prevent the execution of further hostages in Nantes and Bordeaux were neither confirmed nor denied by Government circles. It was revealed from Vichy that a fine of 10,000,000 francs on Bordeaux was collected today. The Petain Cabinet has approved of severe measures for the suppression of attacks against German soldiers, says a Vichy Government message. The Government is appealing to Germany to halt the reprisals. Admiral Jean Darlan reported that Marshal Petain s efforts “to end the reprisals” resulted in the Reich Chancellor granting a reprieve. The Germans in Paris announced that three more Frenchmen had been executed for illegal possession of arms. EXECUTIONS NEAR BELGRADE The Budapest correspondent of the British United Press reports that firing squads executed eight people, including three women, at a town near Belgrade for the possession of arms. Eight men and seven women were executed at Zagreb for sabotage and also for distributing communist literature. The Istanbul correspondent of The Times says that the Bulgarian Government is expelling practically the entire Greek population of Thrace. Greek properties are being confiscated and distributed among the Bulgarian settlers who are replacing them.

FRENCH URGED TO WAIT LONDON, October 24. General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, in a broadcast to the French people, said: “Do not kill more Nazis—yet.” He said that for the time being it was only too easy for the enemy to retaliate, and he ended with these words: “When it is possible to attack from the outside and from the inside you will receive appropriate orders. Until then—patience, preparation, resolution.” ____