The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1917-04-27
GERMANS
BARBAROUS.
EXTRACT OIL FROM BODIES OF DEAD
TR00PS-B0DIES BY The TRAIN
LOADS-FACTORY DEALS ONLY WITH
The DEAD.

ALL
London. April 2o.-The New York
Sun says: That the Germans are
Systematically collecting the corpses
of their dead and shipping them to
rendering plants where they are sub
jected to a process for recovering the
oil and fats for use as fertilizers
seems incontestably borne out by the
latest information.
When such stories were first pub
lished they were generally disbe-
| lieved. American consuIs formerly in
! Germany who arrived here after their
recall said the Germans were distil-
ling nitroglycerine from the corpses
and so obtaining the essentials of en-
plosives.
1t now develops that the German
censors are allowing the German
papers to print accounts of and even
to boast about the efficiency which
allows nothing to be wasted. The
Belgian newspapers independence
Beige of April 10 prints an account
Of the industry, in which it says:
I'VE have long known that the Ger
mans stripped their dead behind the
firing line, fastened them into bundles
of three and four bodies with iron
wire and then dispatched these bun
dies to the rear. Until recently trains
laden with the dead were sent to a
town near Liege and to a point near
Brussels. Much surprise was caused
by the fact that of late this traffic has
proceeded in the direction of Gerol-
stein, and that on each wagon was
written d. A v. G..
German science is responsible for
the idea of the formation of the
Deutsche Abfalls Verwertungsgese
Schaft, or German Offal Utilization
Company, Limited, dividend earn
ing company with a capital of $24O,-
900. The chief factory has been con-
structed 100 yards from the railway
connecting st. With, near the Belgian
frontier, with Gerolstein, in the lonely
and little frequented Eifel district
southwest of Coblentz
The factory deals especially with
the dead from the western front. If
the results are as good as the COM
pany hopes, another will be estab-
lished on the eastern front. The fac
tory is invisible from the railway and
IS deep in the forest country. Elec-
trically charged wires surround it. A
special double track leads to it. The
works are about 700 feet long, 10
feet broad and the railway runs COM
pletely around them
The trains arrive full of bodies
which are unloaded by workers who
i've at the works. The men wear
oilskin Overalls and masks with mica
eYepleceS and are equipped with long
hooked poles. They push the bundles
OF bodies to an endless chain which
picks them up by means of hooks at
intervals Of two feet The bodies are
transported on an endless chain into
long, narrow compartment where
they pass through a bath which dis
lnfects them. They go through a
drying chamber and are automati-
cally carried to a great cauldrOn into
which they are dropped by an appa-
ratus which detaches them from the
chain.
Ihey remain six to eight hours in
the cauldron, where they are treated
by steam, which breaks them up
while they are slowly stirred by ma
chlnery. The fats are broken into
stearine, a form of tallow and oils
which require to be re-distilled before
they can be used. DistiIIation is car
ried out by boiling the oil with car
Donate of soda and some part of the
byproducts resulting is used bv the
soap-makers. The refined oil is sent
out in small casks like those used
for petroleum and is yellowish brown,
The fumes are exhausted from the
buildings by electric fans and are
sucked through great pipe to the
northeastern corner, where they are
condensed and the refuse resulting is
discharged into sewer There is no
high chimney, as the boiler furnaces
are supplied with air by electric
fans.
There is a laboratory, and in
charge of the works is a chief chem
Isl, with TWO assistants and rs men.
All the employees are soldiers at
tached to the Eighth Army Corps.
Ihere is a sanatorium near the works,
and under no preteXt is any man
permitted to leave. They are guard
ed as prisoners at this appalling
work"
The London Times reproduced the
foregoing account Monday, but it was
so horrible that it seemed unbeliev-
able. The Times today presents evi-|
dcnce to prove it's truth, printing
photographs facsimiles of a news
article in the Berlin Lokalanzeiger Of
April 10 which referred to the corpse
exploitation establishment (kadaver-
VerWertungsanstalD. 1t says:
The fats here are turned into
lubricating oils and everything else
is ground down in the mill, the bones
into powder which is used for mixing
with pigs food and as manure. Moth
ing can be permitted to go to waste"
The case seems completely estab-
lished by American, Belgian, Dutch
and finally by German testimony. The
London and Paris newspapers all ac-
cept the story after careful investiga-
ton and print editorials on it.