Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, June 1918: A Monthly Magazine of the New York TimesVarious
History
Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, June 1918: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Some prisoners never reach a camp in Germany for six months, meanwhile
receiving no parcels of food. Their condition on arrival at camp, broken
down and starving, is pitiable.
The evidence doesn't tend to show that American prisoners are receiving
any preferential treatment. It is reported that the first American
prisoners taken were hawked about the country, presumably to show them
off to the populace. At Giessen, where, it would seem, American
prisoners were kept on two separate occasions, they were prohibited any
intercourse, even by sign language, with other prisoners and were not
allowed to receive parcels or gifts from them.
British prisoners at Giessen asked if they could give parcels to
Americans, and finally received permission to do so the following day.
But the next day the American prisoners were moved away early in the
morning.
British prisoners were able to detect Americans who had been captured
any length of time by their appearance and by the state of their
clothes. Until parcels for them arrived from Berne their state was
deplorable.
A British noncommissioned officer recently obtained the signatures of
the first ten Americans captured and talked with them. These men signed
the scrap of paper in the hope that some news of them would reach the
outside world. They were in poor physical health and somewhat
despondent.
A few recent examples from a large amount of sworn evidence follow:
In February, 1918, 4,000 men were sent from a Westphalian camp to within
thirty kilometers behind the front. Their guards ran away to escape the
British shrapnel fire.
The state of prisoners coming from the big Somme battle in the first
week of the present month was deplorable. Their wounds had not been
dressed in many cases for more than ten days. Owing to the lack of
dressing, British comrades bandaged their wounds with old towels and
shirts.
It was formally announced by the German authorities in Camp Bonn on
April 13 last that two British soldiers, R. and B., had been shot near
Minden for not stopping talking when ordered to do so.
In November, 1917, men were brought into the hospital at M. continually,
having been wounded by shrapnel from behind the lines. Wounded men lay
for three or four weeks unattended and grossly neglected.
Much of the sworn evidence is so repugnant that it could not be
published. There has been talk of reprisals on American prisoners, and
even foreigners born in America are included in these threatened
reprisals.
Total Destruction of Rheims
By G. H. Perris
_With the French Armies, April 20, 1918_
The great fire at Rheims has nearly burned itself out. Having thrown in
a week 50,000 explosive and an unknown number of incendiary and gas
shells, the German gunners ceased as suddenly and inexplicably as they
had begun, and when I entered the city this morning the silence of death
brooded over it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account