New Britain herald., 1916-11-11
GERMAN ABUSE OF
FRENCH PRISONERS
Described in Books Published for
Distribution in Other Lands


Paris, Oct 26.-The case of the
y heench government against Germany
IN regard to the alleged mistreatment
OF French prisoners of war is set out
in detail in a volume of 100 pages
which has just been issued and which
will be distributed abroad. The book
sums up reports of the Spanish en-
bassy in Berlin, of delegates from the
visited German prison camps, of doc
tors and nurses who were interned in
these camps, and the testimony given
under oath by crippled soldiers who
, have returned to France. The vol
ume includes photographs received
from private sources and sketches
from German illustrated papers.
1.-THE French government contends
that the following accusations have
been proved. Theft from French
prisoners; killing of wounded prison
ers; execution without Formally of
civilians arrested on the preteXt of
shipping; transportation of prisoners
in foul cattle cars with healthy, sick
and wounded crowded together indis-
criminately, without rood or medicine;
Insults and violence to prisoners by
German soldiers on their arrival in
Germany; attacks on French prison.
ers by women at Erfurt with knives,
sickles and scythes, tolerated by the
escort; splitting upon and whipping Of
prisoners by civilians and kicking
of prisoners by young German re-
q
great ravages in nearly all prison
camps by tuberculosis developed by
neglect of most elementary hygienic
precautions; spread of tyhpus among
British and French prisoners by mix
ing them with infected Russians; gen.
eraI prevalence of rheumatism in all
prison camps as result Of dampness;
enforced labor of prisoners of war on
military work, such as trench digging,
manufacture of arms and munitions;
insufficient food, shelter and clothing.
Without Shelter in Winter.
Photographs of German camps are
offered to show the prisoners in mid
winter with only tents or dugouts for
y shelter. 1t is charged that during
&he first winter in Germany large
numbers of prisoners were obliged to
dig themselves into the ground for
shelter or to construct mud huts, and
Rthe Spanish AMBASSADOR is quoted in
$support of this accusation. 1t is ad-
nitted that some improvement in
these conditions have been made in
certain camps
In regard to the question of nour-
ishm ent French surgeons and nurses
who have returned to France after
no i01c of Mt Jit in
port that the insufficiency of food,
coupled with other privations, has re-
suited in the spread of tuberculosis
and with diseases such as erysipelas,
scarletina and gastritis. The latter
sicknesses are reported to be very
frequent in the camps of informed
civilians and among children.
Much Illness in Germany.
Crippled soldiers returning to
France from the camps of Langen-
salza, Cassel- and Will
lenberg, report that Russian prison.
ers, carrying typhus contagion, were
scattered through these camps, start
! ing an epidemic. They accuse the
German doctors of brutality to nurses
as we'll as neglect of typhus patients
j Men who died of the disease during
the night were said to have been left
lying among the other prisoners until
z morning.
During the painful epoch of the
epidemic" the Spanish ambassador is
quoted as reporting, 'everything was
LACKING, including beds and medicine"
At Willenberg, according to the
! sworn testimOn of the returned SOL
4 diers, the German authorities aban-
Il doned the typhus stricken camp to it's
Il own resources, which were nil All
communication was cut off from the
exterior. A narrow gauge railroad
! was used to shove into the camp the
j prisoners rations and collins. Two
& thousand French soldiers are said to
have died of typhus at Cassel.
q The section Of the book which deals
with the enforced labor Of the pris-
oners of war charges that 1900
French prisoners were forced to work
4 in the Krupp works at Essen. Sew
4 eTal thousand, it is also asserted, were
j. sent to CORTLAND province in Russia
where they were employed in build
ing strategic railroads. In some mu-
milton factories Frenchmen were COM
PEELED to work, it is alleged, from 4
o'clock in the morning until o'clock
I in the evening.