IN THE LION’S DEN

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22992, 8 September 1944, Page 4

IN THE LION’S DEN

Antwerp Collaborators LONDON. Sept. 6. When the British liberated Antwerp, patriots who had actively supported the liberators put collaborators and German prisoners in the lion house at the zoological gardens, says a correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agencv at Antwerp. It was a fantastic sight to see the captives sitting behind the steel bars of the cages. Twenty women who were accused of having aided the Germans were in one cage, some crying, and some glaring defiantly at the guards. Sixty-five male collaborators, most of them accused of having worked for the Gestapo, occupied another cage. Two of the group allegedly caused the shooting of 150 Belgian patriots by the Germans. German prisoners were housed in other cages around the lion house. Hatred and Exultation Belgium is at present gripped in a passion of hatred and exultation, says the correspondent of the "Daily Express” with the British forces. There are unbelievable scenes as the Belgians , rush through their cities seeking i revenge. They spit on German prisoners, taunt them in cages and lorries. They cut down collaborationists in the street and then turn hysterically to cheer British tanks. It is ouite different at Brussels and Antwerp from what occurred in France, where the over-riding feeling was simply one of thankfulness to see the Germans go. but in Belgium the mob is out on the streets smashing and burning shops and restaurants which the Germans frequented. There is no pity left for the Germans after four years' occupation. Belgian women laugh at German wounded dying by the wayside, and as they laugh they run across to the Tommies holding out wine and cigarettes. Some Germans in mortal fear protest to the crowds: “We are not S.S. Troops. W> did not hurt you.” ' Others sit dejectedly in groups await- ! ing for the moment when, they I believe, thev will be