Norwich bulletin., 1916-03-07
Stories of the War
The Klein Muenchen Prison Camp

ne NlSin muehCnen FFlSOn Sanlp
 The Klein -Muenchen prison camp in Austria is a huge establishment. It covers an area of about five square housing 50,000 men without crowdinE So far about SO,O00 Russians and sev- eral thousand Italians have been quartered there, since the establish ment of the camp in January, 1915. At present there are in camp BOA Russian officers and about 17,000 men, the re- mainder having been detailed to do work on Austrian farms.
 The barracks are large wooden structures, covered on the outside with thick tar paper. painted white. Above the pine-bOard floor, wO stories of platforms, eight platforms for each building, provide the space upon which the straw pallets of the men are spread out at night. Sixty men are so accommodated. To the rear of the barracks is the dining room, in which the prisoners gather for social purposes when fatigue" or work is over.
 The barracks described are intended for the ordinary Russian, the peasant, who, as a rule is wholly illiterate. and with whom the intelligent does not | want to associate. The experience has | been so that the two classes do not mix well, and rather than have con Stant strife between the prisoners, the Austrian government decided to sep arate them.
 | For the "Intelligenz Klasse," a diff | ferent sort of barracks has been built It resembles the common barracks but | instead of having eight sleeping plat | forms, it has two floors, upon which a sort of wooden fieId-bed has been placed. This arrangement wastes a great deal of space. Only fifty fin | telligents" can be housed in building of the usual size.
 | eve try to satisfy. SO far as we can. the wishes of he prisoners" said Gen. | Notes. "1n our own army we do not know such distinctions. We have of ficers and privates, and no other class. But with the Russians it seems to be different. The intelligents' are us ually people of some refinement to whom the constant association with the untutOred peasant would undoudt- edly be of great hardship. One has to bear in mind that men in prison camps must associate with one another more closely than anywhere else. It is not our business to either reform Rus sia's social structure. nor to make the enforced stay in our prison camps more irksome than confinement nat
 urally is. So we went to the additional trouble and expense of building the
 barracks. for the "intelligents."
 An officer connected with the fin ancial administration was of the opin-
 ion that so far the Austrian govern l
 than 33,000,000 crowns for the Klein | Muenchen camp, and that the keeping
 of Russian prisoners had entailed ar
 expenditure of approximately 1,100,-
 000,000 crowns, and in Austria-Hung-
 ary there are today 50 other prisoT i camps.
 The recurency of diseases is said tC
 be connected with the failure of many
 of the prisoners to do the best fol themselves hygienically. Though re l TTiN c n rT~iSnr1nT-l showed m
 case of cholera, five cases developed
 about two weeks ago. One of the mel
 died; four are on the road to recoV
 cry. Typhus and typhoid also appea : occasionally, and tuberculosis is ever present, because many of the pris
 oners were afflicted with the disease il
 a dormant state before they wer ) drafted into the Russian army. Or
 January 12, Camp Klein Muenchel had 34 patients Of this class.
 Very often Russians are brought il
 whose wounds, received in actions pri
 or to the one in which they were cap
 tured need attention. On the day ol | which The Associated Press core = spondent visited the camp close to hundred of such cases had either beel
 disposed of by operations or wer = under observation Usually, the trOubi 2 is due to a bullet or small fragmn . of shell in the patients body, whicl
 some Russian surgeon apparentl
 thought best to leave undisturbed.
 Of 80,000 men who have been in tn camp, 560 have died. Most of the lat Il ter came to the camp sick or infected They are buried in a pine grove
 Graves are marked with black, wood
 en cross, bearing a number. Tn n cross is later replaced by a headstOn s cast of concrete. This headStOne = given the number formerly carried b
 the cross In the mortuary chapt
 erected on the cemetery Q book kept in which by means of this mum Der the name of the dead prisoner ma = be found.
 = The cemetery at this camp, show " incidentally, to what extent eImit
 may cease once a man has been take
 prisoner. For ornamental purpose o there has just been completed a sma V structure 300 feet away from tn Il runs an arcade supported on its ope # side on arches and closed in on tn IF other side by a wall. On this wa - will be placel tablets bearing tn
 names of the Russians who have die
 in the camp. The bronze tablets com l. commemorating thus the fate of thes 3, untortunates are now being cast. I'll l. dedicatory inscription on each table It will be: Here died for his father $ land and lies buried -" then wi
 come the names.
 The food of the Russian prisoner . consists of a soup and bread in tt S morning, soup and a meat dish y noon, and another soup and bread { 'e night. Three times a week a sort d pudding is added to the noon mea 10 bread a day.
 h No tea or coffee are issued, but tf :. prisoners may buy these at a price
 two hellers, or about one-third Amel ie fcan cent quart. Tobacco is obtain
 able in the same way.