Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1915-07-02
STORY OF TORTURE BIZ
GERMAN DESERTER
Saws He Fled To United States
To Escape Brutalities OF
Army Training.

lIO41 SAC S1tJ llACs yOAHS
German, Edward Soherr, who
admits that he is a deserter from
the German Army. Heis nal
tive of Cuxhayen. Scherr has |
written of his experiences as a ]
soldier--experiences that he de
clared often caused him to wen-|
der what the Germans are doing
to the enemies who fall into their
hands. In his story of his own
service in the German Army.
which he captioned Memoirs of
a Deserter from the German
Army" Scherr tells why he
sought an asylum in the United
States.
The censorship of news ard
information has been so strict
and the news actually furnished
has been so meagre, he says,
that the world at large is in
terested to learn any and all the
details that have created the hu-
man machine known as the Ger
man Army.
In the Fall of the year 1902
joined the Tenth Company Of
the Hanseatic Regiment in Stade,
Province of Hanover. l joined
voluntarily, knowing l would
have to serve later at time less
convenient to me. ! was young,
enthusiastic, and full of patriot
ism. What friends had told me
about the dark side of soldiers
life / did not believe. To nv
sorrow, l found only too soon
that the treatment of a rifleman
is far below that of a dog. II
Cannot understand how in our
age men submit to anything sol
degrading and slavish. The en-
tire socalled outer service is
nothing but an animal training
the inner service is full of CHI
canes and indebtedness by the
Corporals and their immediate
subordinates.
While being instructed by
Lieutenant Won Schwaueufleigel
several of my comrades had to lie
down on the floor face down for
the better part of an hour for
punishment, because they could
not answer a question correctly. ',
First Lieutenant Won Schoenfeld :,
boxed my ears because / did not
mold my rifle to his liking when
aiming at target. It is beyond
my Imagination how a man can
stand for this sort of treatment,
and to make the matter worse,
had absolutely no redress and
had to bear such maltreatment
without flinching, and at the
same time stand at attention.
Corporal Strohmeier often
thought it necessary to kick me {
or throw boots at me. This NC ,
BILE gentleman made it particu- (
larly hot for me by turning COM
rades of his rank against me, 2
and it is just those Corporals I
that have the power to turn life I
into hell for the common soldier. I
Sergeant Muller Intentionally
threw a rifle against my shoulder
during a drill so that | was dis +
abled for a week, and when / in t
formed the Sergeant that l had {
to report sick on account of his t
brutality, he became highly ex- /
cited. He called the whole Sec S
ton Of recruits and ordered those
who had seen him throw the
rifle at me to step forward. Fear
ing the revenge of the Sergeant, d,
not one of them responded, al .
though they all agreed with me
that no man should tolerate such q
brutal treatment. Sergeant Null :
Ter then said to me. You NAV
report sick. but do not say that ,
hurt you. Perhaps / would be :
punished, but what / would do
to you later would make yonr
parents glad. At that time l
was SO intimidated that l gave a
the doctor another reason for nv v
swollen shoulder. 1t
During goose step exercises l ?
was kicked constantly by the
snb-Corporal, (Gegserber.) Fin
ally risked complaint, which
vas without results. A second Il
] begged to be transferred to u
another battalion brought me
three days in the guard-house. 5
! cannot say how l suffered DUR
Ing these three days, locked up
like = dog, innocent of any
wrong. while the brutes that had
caused my trouble went free and I
eonfi nned to kick their poor VIC