ATROCITIES IN ITALY
EVIDENCE OF GERMAN DEEDS (P.A.) AUCKLAND, April 6. “Nobody can tell me that the stories of German atrocities are propaganda,” said Mr R. M. Brasted, general secretary of the New Zealand Y.M.C.A. Mr Brasted has just returned from a comprehensive tour of his association s centres with the New Zealand forces overseas and he spent some time in Italy. Mr Brasted said he saw in the catacombs of Rome coffins containing the bodies of 350 hostages shot by the Germans in cold blood. In 10 coffins that remained open he had gazed upon the heads of those who had been shot and had had their heads hacked off. In some cases there had been mutilation to prevent identification. The story behind this was that a bomb was thrown in a street in Rome and 30 German soldiers were killed. The Germans surrounded a couple of blocks and took every man or boy that appeared and shot them on the principle of exacting 10 lives for every German killed.
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Southland Times, Issue 25641, 7 April 1945, Page 4
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171ATROCITIES IN ITALY Southland Times, Issue 25641, 7 April 1945, Page 4
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