New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, No. 1, July 1918Various
History
New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, No. 1, July 1918
Various
World War, 1914-1918
During the day it was so dark that they could not see each other's
faces. In the morning they were told that, if they wanted to wash,
they might go to the pump from which they also got their drinking
water. This pump stood in the middle of a manure heap, and could only
be reached by wading knee deep through the liquid pool surrounding the
manure heap. The quality of the drinking water can be rather imagined
than described. The treatment was most rough; the only argument a guard
ever used was the butt end of his rifle--if not the bayonet. Not many
words were wasted on the "Schweine - Engländer," (Swine - English.)
One day some high officials came to inspect Illmau, and after they
had seen the above-ground portion, the Englishmen, who were shut up
in their cellar, could hear them asking if no one was shut up in the
cellars, as by rights they ought to inspect the cellars, too. But the
guard officer assured them on his solemn word of honor that the cellars
were empty. And those who were there did not dare to call out--they
knew what their punishment would be--"stringing up" at least. This is
an old punishment, where the wrists are fettered behind the back, a
cord attached and passed through a ring in the wall over the prisoner's
head. This cord is then pulled tight, till the man is forced right on
to his toes. He is then kept so for about an hour, or till he faints.
This was often done at Illmau.
After the Englishmen had been in their wet cellar for a week, and
were nearly all ill with the terrible cold, they were told they could
go into an upstairs room. These rooms were occupied by Serbs and
Poles, nearly all very ill with consumption and very dirty. Each man
received a blanket of a kind of checked pattern. When these blankets
were hung up in the yard to air it was impossible to recognize their
pattern--they were all a crawling mass. The room into which the
Englishmen were put was so full that when they lay down at night they
were almost one on the top of the other. The consumptives were always
expectorating, and "sanitary arrangements" were unknown.
Drosendorf was a camp where, especially during the first months,
prisoners endured the greatest hardships. They slept in sheds, in
stables, sometimes on wet straw, sometimes without, and were treated
as brutally as in other camps. "Here were also some women," says the
correspondent, "and a lady I knew personally. When the latter was
brought there with other prisoners, male and female, after walking for
miles, they were shut into a large room--men and women together. There
the 'sanitary arrangements' consisted of a large pail put down in the
middle of the room. This lady was kept in this room with the men for
some days, and not allowed to leave it." In this camp at present there
are principally Russians, and rarely a day passes that a death does not
occur from starvation. Here, as also in the large camp of Katzenau, the
rations are as follows:
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