Evening star., 1917-10-27
GIRLS TORN FROM
HOME BY GERMANS
Young French Woman Tells
How They Are Carried
Away by Soldiers.
TREATMENT is INCREDIBLE
BY PAUL SCOTT MOwRER.
Especial Correspondence of The Even
ing Star and Chicago Daily News.)

BY PAUL SCOTT MOwRER.
| Especial Correspondence Of The Even
Ing Star and Chicago Daily News.)
WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES, Sep
tember 2s.-1t is one thing to read
vague stories Of German atrocities-
young girls dragged from their homes
and compelled to work in the fields and
to associate with German soldiers un-
der conditions Of frightful promiscuity.
Persons living far from the war may
be excused for doubling the authen-
ticity of mere reports. But 1t is an
other thing to have before ones eyes
the actual sworn statement of young
French girl who, after being carried
away from her home and forced by
the Germans to work for them. finally,
on the Intervention of the Pope and
the King Of Spain, has been repatriated
through Switzerland. 1 cannot give
her name because her parents are still
living in the invaded districts and the
enemy might wreak vengeance on them
for the girls statement But ! can
give this statement, simple and direct,
word for word, just as 1t has been
taken down by the French military au-
thorities. Americans who still have
illusions about the Germans would do
well to mediate this testimony:
Girls Called for by Germans.
II lived" declares Mile. x, with
my mother and my two sisters at
Beautor, near La Fere. On October
IL, 1915, the German authorities an
nounced that all the young girls and
the women without children should
present themselves next day at S am.
before the town hall. I went. German
gendarmes classified US, separated US
into groups and sorted US over.
They chose haphazard twenty young
girls and women without telling us what
for. When the choice had been made
amid the tears of all. they instructed
those chosen to present themselves the
following day at 10 am. with their bag
gage, and they were sent away without
their parents being able to save Them
or even to learn where they were going
Three young girls from La Fere who had
been designated refused to go; they had
to their homes to get them; they were
taken away next morning. and were
treated thenceforth as recalcitrants.
Replaced by Other Girls.
The mother of one of them. Nine.
Fine. Rue de la Republique. La Fere
seeing that her nineteen-year-old daugh-
gendarme: after having been roughly
handled she was given fifteen days i'm
prisonment and her daughter was taken
Just the same. From October 15 on, the
parents Of these girls kept begging their
return. On December the kommandan-
tur of La Fere, directed at that time by
Bauermefster. decided they could come
back If others replaced them.
New trials. new anguish, On Decem-
Der I the local mayors were ordered to
furnish an exact list of young girls and
of women without children. without dis
tinction of rank, honor or even of con-
duct
From Beautor eight young girls were
picked out by the Germans, fifty from
La Fere. twenty-five from Achery. fifteen
from Deui1let and the other communes
which had not been drawn upon for
young girls in October.
Sent to Various Villages.
II was designated to go with one OF
my sisters. My mother. who had fallen |
very i'll. begged that one Of us be left |
to her and I was kept on the list, with |
orders to be at the station ready to go !
that night. So more than $50 Of us
were gathered by the kommandantur /;
In the court of hotel. the roll was
called and next day at noon we were
ing whittier. We travelled to Saint
Erme. Here we arrived very cold
at pm. Soldiers We're waiting for
us. They sorted us by communes and
sieux. Amenancourt-le-Pe Neuf-
chatel. Lamalmaison. I was hoisted
into an army wagon with my baggage.
along with four girls from Danizy and
three from Beautor and in the middle
Of the night, without knowing where
we were. we reached Provisieux. a
hamlet OF efghty-f1ve inha bitants.
Placed in Abandoned Shed.
There we were taken to an aban-
doned shed in which soldiers had been
sleeping-a barren shelter We were
given neither food nor fire. We passed
the night thus and next day tried to
install ourselves in this miserable
place. Two days later we received
an order to begin work and from De-
had to work for the Germans. ordered
about by soldiers. at mems work
carting manure, sorting potatoes.
obliging us to collect the mattresses of
the civil population and to empty and
refill the soldiers straw pallets.
I'VE suffered from cold. and partfcu-
larly from hunger. We were forbidden
to touch the potato silos. but some
more humane soldiers let us have po-
tatoes from time to time. The worst
was not being allowed to correspond
with our families. My mother. like the
others. begged the kommandantur for
news of us, petitions were drawn up.
but never. from December. 1916. to
March, 1917. did either she or I re-
ceire any word.
nR.-J Vr.4,. ~