NAZI TREACHERY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6243, 17 June 1946, Page 3

NAZI TREACHERY

RUSSIAN RENEGADES PROPAGANDA SAVAGERY A story of German treachery as vicious as anything in Nazi annals lies behind the suicide at Dachau of ten Russians and the unwillingness of 261 others to be returned to .their homeland. Captured reports now in the hands of thief Russian and United States military authorities reveal that Russian prisoners of war who were formed into Wehrmacht divisions in 1942 under renegade White Russian General Vlassov were tused to perpetrate atrocities in Yugoslavia and Southern France for the express purpose of creating antiRussian hysteria in these regions. The Russians who committed suicide or resisted repatriation belonged to Wehrmacht units with such black records for atrocities that they could easily envisage the fate which awaited them on their return to their homeland. The charges against them lail into three categories each punishable by death: the first of serving the enemies of the Soviet Union, the second, murder, rape and pillage in contravention of all military laws, the third, lending themselves knowingly as puppets for anti-Soviet propaganda. The most notorious of the Wehrmacht’s Russian units was the First Cossack S.S, Division, which was Vlassov’s original organisational achievement. He recruited this division from the toughest inmates of German prisoner of war cages in 1942 by subjecting them to physical cruelty if they declined and promising rich loot if they accepted. This division was sent into Yugoslavia and terrorised the population for nearly three years. Their behaviour was bound by no known wles of warfares They murdered, raped and looted at will. Vlassov’s reports to the High Command show they shot out of hand more than a hundred thousand partisan supporters or suspected adherents of Marshal Tito.

It soon became apparent to Berlin that there was high propaganda value in having the Russians, even though in Wehrmacht uniforms, running amok among Yugoslav peasants. The systeni was rapidly extended. New Russian units were formed by press gang methods in prisoner of war cages and they were given uniforms with special insignia that would identify them easily as Russians. These new units were distributed in battalion strength throughout Southern France, presumably for training purposes. Under Vlassov’s direction they were given special indoctrination which transformed them into rowing bands of marauders. It was not difficult to play upon their ignorance and cupidity. The German propagandists gave the widest publicity to stories of Russian atrocities in France and used them as a basis for recruiting Frenchmen into special units destined for the Eastern Front. The propaganda line went like this: “Even Wehrmacht commanders cannot control these Russians. It is obvious what would happen if the Eastern hordes were allowed to pour into Europe.” The Soviet A rmy captured substantial numbers of renegade Cossacks in South Eastern Europe and probably executed them. The Americans captured several hundred and concentrated them at’ Dachau. Their unwillingness to be returned home arouses no surprise.