Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1917-05-03
Russians Under German Rule
Beaten to Death. Says
Girl Who Escaped
to America.
TAKEN FROM BEDS AT NIGHT
Daughters of Russians Sent to
Worse Than Death-Girls,
Women and Children
Build Bridges.

Minneapolis. Mimi, April 30
hussian peasants selling their
daughters to German soldiers for
candles n loaves of black bread.
German officers beating the wom-
en-, children M old men in the
captured Russian provinces and
Starving them to death. Hundreds
OF young Sirls--some only IS years
DID kldnaped from their homes at
night by soldiers and sent in
droVes to farms and railroad
camps, seldom to return.
These are some pictures of Germa
conquest painted in emotionless tones
by a slender, tired faced little Rus
sian Jewish girl. She is Fannie Cant
mann. 20 years old, just arrived in
Minneapolis after a weary flight OF
thousands of miles from her home in
Russia. She fled to escape the fate
which hundreds of girls, including
many of her childhood playmates. have
met at the hands of their German con-
querers. She has a sister and brother
here.
Her Taste Of War.
The Germans bombarded Fanny's
home town, Bialystok, in the province
or Grodno, between Poland and Russia,
for two weeks before they captured it
in the summer of 1915. The girl is still
slightly deaf from the effects OF the
u%nceasing roar of the big guns.
Every night Zeppelins floated yer
the city dropping bombs on munition
trains, public buildings and private
homes. One day 10 airplanes appeared
over Bialystok n dropped 100 bombs
killing many defenseless inhabitants.
Workers Beaten to Death.
When the Russians finally were
forced to retreat they burned railroad
stations, destroyed railroads, bridgea
and public buildings. To build these
again the Germans are using the ten
der hands Of thousands of women,
young girls, children and old men.
When the victims do not work fast
enough the masters beat them-some-
times to death, Fannie says.
One old man who offended was
dashed to a redhot stove and beaten to
death, she says.
Hunt Girls at Night.
The Germans spend their nights
securing the city for girls, many OF
whom they steal from their beds. These
girls are sent off to the railroad camps
or to the farms, where they die of ex-
posure and ill treatment.
One Of the few-very few-who re-
toIu III JaoI toAiO
came away that the girls on the farms
work from daylight until dark, sleep
in the fields with old rags and sacks
for covering, and are fed only black
bread and black coffee, without sugar
or milk. Many die of brutal treatment
after only a few weeks. Most of them
never are heard from again. Some are
used to break rocks for building rads.
Feared to Sleep at Home.
w. -,.-z no .,., RI
her part of the city for girls, Fannie
slept away from nome every night for
two weeks. For nine long weeks, while
her passport was sent to Hindenburs
for endorsement, Fannie waited and
trembled in suspense. When it finally
came, she was placed in a sort Of a
box car with a lot of other f~ugitives
and shipped like stock tt Holland,
whence she sailed for America.
Many poor fathers and mothers, she
said, sold even the furniture out of
their homes inc their own clothing to
buy passports for their daughters, to
no avail.
H%ardships Make Her Wreck.
Effects of the bombaTdment, expert
ences like these and a two-years' daily
diet Of one-half pound each of pota-
toes and black bread have completely
undermined Fannie's health.
Her memory at times fails her and
she often bursts into tears for no APP
parent reason, and she starts in ter
ror at the slightest sound.
Before the war, Fannie's father was
a wealthy tanner in Bialystok. Fannie
has more education than most Rus
sian girls-the equivalent Of an Amer
lean high school course.
She can speak in French, German,
Russian, Polish and Jewish, and can
play the piano. She has never had to
do any hard work-her hands are soft
and slender like a child's.