The Washington times., 1917-04-20
GERMANS SHIP DEAD
TOOIL REFINERIES
Bodies Sent From Front to Fac
tory Where Fertilizers Are
Made From Fats.

LONDON, April 20.-That the Ger.
mans are systematically collecting
the corpses OF their dead and ship
ping them to rendering plants where
they are subjected TO q process for
recovering the oils and fats for use
as fertilizers seems incontestably
borne out by the latest Information.
When such stories were frst pub
lished they were generally disbe-
heved.
American consuls formerly in Ger
many who arrived here after their
recall said the Germans were distill-
Ing nitroglycerin from the corpses
and so obtaining the essentials OF ex-
plosives.
Boast OF Efficiency.
1t now develops that the German
censors are allowing the German pa
pers to print accounts Of and even to
boast about the efficiency, which
allows nothing to be wasted. The
Belgian newspaper LIndSpendence
Beige Of April 10 prints an account
OF the industry, in which It says:
I'VE have long known that the
Germans stripped their dead behind
the firing line. fastened them into
bundles or three or four bodies with
iron wire and then despatched these
bundles to the rear. Until recently
trains laden with the dead were sent
to town near Liege and a point
near Brussels. Much surprise was
caused by the fact that OF late this
traffic has proceeded in the direction
OF Gerolstein, and that on each
wagon was written d. A. ".
IyeTman aCfAnNa q Co.
the idea OF the formation of the
Deutsche Abfalls verwertungsgesel-
schaft, or German Offal Utilization
Company. Limited, a dividend earning
company with capital OF $240, 900.
The chief factory has been construct
ed 1000 yards from the railway con-
Meeting st. With, near the Belgian
frontier, with Gerolstein, ia the lonely
and little frequented Eifel district
southwest of Coblentz.
Guarded By Live Wires.
'"The factory deals especially with
the dead from the western front. II
the results are as good as the COM
pany hopes, another will be establish
ed on the eastern front. The factory is
Invisible from the railway and is
deep in the forest country. Electrical
ly charged wires surround It. The
works are. about 700 feet long, 110
feet broad &nd the railway runs COM
pletely around them.
"The trains arrive full OF bodies
which are unloaded by workers who
live at the works. The men wear
oilskin overalls and masks with mica
eyepieces 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 a long, narrow compartment,
where they pass through bath
which disInfects them. They 60
through a drying chamber and are
automatically carried to a great
cauldron into which they are drop
ped by an apparatus which detaches
them from the chain.
They remain six to eight hours IN
the cauldron. where they are treated
by steam, which breaks them UP while
they are slowly stirred by machinery.
The fats are broken into stearlne, a
form of tallow and oils, which require
to be redIstilled before they can be
used. Distillation is carried out by
boiling the oil with carbonate OF soda
and some part of the byproducts re-
sulting is used by the soap makers.
The refined oil is sent out In small
casks like those used for petroleum
and is yellowish brown.
Refuse Goes Into Sewer.
"The fumes are exhausted from the
buildings by electric fans and are
sucked through q great pipe to the
northeastern corner, where they are
condensed and the refuse resulting IS
discharged. into a sewer. There is Lo
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 chemist
with two assistants and seventy-eight
men. All the employees are soldiers
attached to the Eighth Army Corps.
There Is a sanatorium near the works
and undar no pretext Is any man per-
mitted to leave. They are guarded as
prisoners at this appalling work"
The London Times reproduced the