The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-12-08
FORTY THOUSAND
ARE SENT TO TURKEY
French Investigator Reports 52,951 Ser
bian Prisoners Are Known to Have
Persisted Children IN Wretched
Plight in Internment Camps.


crs OF war and dcported civilians which
was prepared by a French Journalist at
Zurich. Switzerland. Forty thousand
old men, women and children have been
dcported biz the Bulgars from Serbia
to Turkey Scrbians, interned and PMS
oners of war are treated with appalling
barharitv in Germany, Austria Hungary
and Bulgaria The Serbian race, ne
cording to this report, is mcnaeed ~ /
the measures practiced against it by It. I
enemies.
1T is not easy to arrive Al the 'N- |
net number of Serbian prisoners Of war |
and deportcd civilians in enemy 'om
tries. According to the returns pub
Iishcd in the Frankfurter Zeitung II
Nav III, 1917. says the report, there
were at the end OF last year l53,e3a
Serbian soldiers prisoners OF war, s9S
+ OF whom were officers. This number
1 was distributed as follows: 25,o22
rank and file In Germany, 96,$63 men
and 700 officers in Austria Hungary
and 1912 men and ~ officers IN Bul-
paria. To this number We must add
\ .6u7 prisoners belonging to the Mon
|. tenegrin army, as also being Of Serbian
nationality OF these, 5,56t men and
81 officers were in Austria Hungary
and II private, in Bulgaria.
At the beginning Of 1916. 754 Ser
bau prisoners were taken 10 the pris
| oner> camp in Saltau (Ilmoyer1.
They were in the last stage OF cXhaus
=. it.9fy
selves along. \ prisoner who could
speak Germap makes the following re-
port:
We are diving OF hunger During
our passage through Serbia the peas
ant women often came ana brought
1 al, bread. cheese and bacon: but the
Y Magyar soldiers who formed our es-
,, cort kept il all for themselves. In Soy
n eral Austrian towns we were mobbed.
People spat in our face, and struck
is over the head with sticks. About
q 80 of my comrades were seriously IN
iurcd i'm this way. For three months,
in Bohemia. we were employed in field
n work and the construction of railway
A lines Tho food was horrible; souI
\ which made YOU sick, q few potatoes
n and a piece OF had bread, in such IN
SIX weeks 80 OF my comrades had dice
h of hunger. There were terrible punish
q mont, Tor those who failed 10 accom-
\ plish their allotted task; tloggmgs
a cells, with only one piece Of bread II
four DAYS, or punishment like the fol
\ lowing: The prisoner was suspcndct
4 from "a tree by his feet and kept il
4 this position until death appeared i'm
n In, n ont
4 were more summary \ soldier VIII
1 picked M and ate raw potato wa
Z shot on the spot This happened i
several cases Besides this, 10 OF IN
4 comrades were taken back in bod
I to Serbia, under tie pretcxt that the
were to indicate the spots where on
! guns were buried We have ncye
4 heard of them since
There were about 1000 Serbs i
4 the prisoners camp in konigsber
\ lSaxouyl They were mere skin an
bone, and they were clothed in rag
I They were housed in field by then
selves, divided from those Of the pri
oners OF other allied nations BY "A hig
barbcd wire fence. No one was a
lowed to communicate with them. IT
food they were given was disgrac fl
Coffee, clear soup without amy ta,t
and a piece Of bread That was a
Al first the French and British pri
. onerS contrivcd 10 convey bread an
%. Jam. tobacco, and undertaking
Il: them. But the commandment Of Il
II: camp forbade them to give anvthil
*: to their unhappy comrades. None Il
Is: less, the allied soldiers. touched by Il
III: extreme misery OF the Serbs, continu
L: to pass little food to them BIZ Mig
X: and by stealth. The military autho
X: ties sentenced every guilty, Britt
Il: or French soldier to a fortnight III I
Is: cells The Serbs were treated cv,
II: worse than the Russians Their G.,
IA: man guards fought with them a
HI: struck them with the butts Of the
IA: rifles. There was one punishment ST
I:: ciallv reserved for them They we
I:: loaded with sacks filled with sand
I:: pebbles and forced to run around t
III: barracks, or they were compelled to
If: down and rise again alternately IN
I:: they broke down under the load, St
l:: eral hundred prisoners died of hung
Iii and exhaustion i'll that camp.
III In Austria Hungary the Scrbi
--~ rayage the Serbian camps Instead
-, camps III Braunau and Josephstadt,
ASbach and Groedig in Bohemia, a
Nauthauscn, near Salzberg, &C. Even
whore the same suffering and the san
tyranny as III Germany. But the "a
Of the Serbian prisoners in Nauthaus
was the most terrible of all. Worn G
by fatigue, hunger and cold, prisont
succumbed every day. BY the mon
Of May, 1917, more than : 900 Of til,
had died
In 1916, spotted typhus began
ravage the Serbian camps. Instead
rendering assistance to the prisone
the military authorities caused the b
racks to be closed, and not until
week had passed was a regimcntal 81