Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-05-04
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
d d."ss,an peasants selling their
candles and loaves of black bread.
German officers beating the wotn-
en- children and old men in the
captured Russian provinces and
STARVING them to death. Hundreds
of young sirls-some only 10 years
oid.kidnaped from their homes at
nlsht by soldiers and sent in
droves to farms and railroad
camps, seldom to return.
lhes are some pictures OF German
conquest painted in emotionless tones
by a slender. tired faced little Rus
Ia 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
OF Grodno, between Poland and Russia,
Tor two weeks before they captured it
in the summer of 1915. The girl is still
slightly deaf from the effects of the
u~nceasing "a of the big guns.
Every night Zeppelins floated over
the city dropping bombs on munition
trains, public buildings and private
homes. One day 10 airplanes appeared
over Bialystok and dropped $50 bombs,
killing many defenseless inhabitants.
Workers Beaten to Death.
When the Russians finally were
fNrfNa1 tn ra<.01} f10N, Il, ,,0 I'D ~ni1rroH
stations. destroyed railroads, bridges
mo public buildings. To build these
again the Germans are using the ten
der hands of thousands of m
young girls. children and old men.
When the victims do not work fast
enough the masters beat them-some-
times to death, I'M says.
m old man who offended was
dashed to a redhot o 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 lamps
or to the farms, where they die of ex-
posure and i'll treatment.
One Of the few-very few-who re-
turned. told Fannie just before she
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 roads.
Feared to Sleep at Home.
When the soldiers were canvassing
her part of the city for girls, Fannie
slept away from home every night for
two weeks. For nine long weeks, while
her passport was sent to Hindenburg
trembled in suspense. When it finally
| came, she was placed in a sort OF a
box car with a lot of other fugitives
and shipped like stock to Holland.
whence she sailed for America.
Many poor fathers n mothers, she
said. old even the furniture out of
their homes and their own clothing to
buy passports for their daughters. to
no avail
Hardships Make Her Wreck.
Effects of the bombardment. expert
ences like these and a two-years' daily
diet of one-half pound each OF pota-
undermined Fannie's health.
Hell memory at times fails her and
she often bursts into tears for no APP
parent reason, and h starts in ter
| ror at the slightest sound.
Before the war, Fannie's father vas
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
do any hard work--her hands are soft
| and Slender like a Child'S.