Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-04-10
BRITISH GOVERNMENT LEARNS
OF UNC|V|LIzED TREATMENT
BY GERMAN PRISON GUARDS
Report Is Information from Reparioted English Pris
Wttenburg Detention Camp During Typhus Epi
Year-Men "Gaun of Peculiar Gray Paor and
VermnOus"

In one compound, he found so hid
den cases of typhus during the first
month.
The food ration for each patient was
half petit pain" (rolD and half
cup of milk per day. The only soup OBJ
tainable came from the camp kitchen
and as it was brought in open wooden
tubs it was full of dust and dirt.
I'm TRUTH" says the committees re-
port. 1.-The ration was not a ration at
all 1t was a pretense. 1t was not even
possible to give the patients warm wa
ter with their milk"
-Four British doctors were invested
and three died. 1t was then that Ma
jor Priestly and Capt. Vidal went to
the hospital to join Capt Lauder, who
was down with typhus. Major Priestly
says that the patients, alive with YER
min, lay so close to one another on
the floor that he had to stand straddle-
leg across them to examine them
There were other conditions that are
indescriba BILE. There was difficulty in
obtaining sufficient drugs and dressings
for a long time and extreme bed sores
We're common. In several cases, the
Tues VI Tie NUOlt lSel DSCdIIle gan
grenous. The washing of patients was
out of the question until supply of
soap was obtained from England.
This shortage Of necessaries was
not due to lack Of supplies say the doc
tors, for on visit to the town they
saw an abundant supply of every re-
quisite.
DR.. Aschenbach, who was in charge of
the hospital and who, the committee I'M
derstands, received the Iron Cross for
combating the epidemic,o My paid one
visit to the camp, according to the report,
and that after some order was evolved.
Sixty Deaths Among British
Sixty deaths occurred among the Brit
sh and the victims were buried outside
the camp.
What the prisoners found hardest to
bear in the matter of burial" says the
report, were the ieers with which cof-
fins were frequently greeted by the in
habitants of Wittenberg, who stood out
side the wires and were permitted to in
suit the dead"
After the middle Of April the conditions
commenced to improve and with the ar
rival of warm weather the cases rapidly
decreased, and by the middle of May all
the British were convalesoent
Adequate provision was made to deal
with any future outbreaks, improvements
being effected, according to the commit
tee. as a result of the visitors of Am
bassador Gerard and members of his
staff
The committee condemned the reten-
ton of DR.. Aschenbach as head of the
camp and as evidence of his attitude cite
an incident. When one of his staff sup
ported the request of Capt Lauder for
medical requisition he CURLY refused the
request with the words: "Schweine Eng
lander"
The report continues: "The cruelty of
the administration of the Wttenburg
camp became notorious. Savage dogs
were habitually employed to terrorize the
prisoners; floggings with a rubber whip
were frequent. Men were struck with lir-
tie or no provocation and tied to posts
with hands above their heads for hours.
Capt. Lauder reports that many of thes-
men went so far as to look upon the
typhus with all it's horrors as a Goo
send" They preferred it to the presence
of German guards