The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1917-05-24
A HORRIBLE GERMAN STORY.
PAPER Claims Germans Use Bodies of
Dead Soldiers to Produce Oil and
Food for Pigs.

| Food for Pigs.
Here is story of the European
war, which seems almost too horrible
to believe Alex Ironside of Leon
has handed us a copy OF The People $
journal, of April 21, 1917, publisher
at Aberdeen, Scotland, in which we
find the following account OF the dis
position the Germans are making OF
their dead soldiers Mr.. lronside re-
ceives this paper regularly each
week:
The Germans are using the bodies
of their dead to produce food for
pigs, oil, and manure.
OF. all the horrors which the Huns
have perpetrated since the beginning
of the war none has been so>terribly
repulsive and almost unbelievable
as this one. Yet it is an indisput-
able fact that the enemy not only
speaks openly of it, almost glorying
in it, and heralding it as another
proof of the efficiency of German or
ganization, which allows nothing to
go to waste.
When long ago rumors Of this
wholesale official body-snatchlng
were spread by travellers from Ger
discounted them as too awful to be
true. Now. however, Herr Karl
Rosner, German himself, special
correspondent of the Berlin "Lokal-
anzeiger," publishes definite ad-
mission concerning the use Germany
makes of the dead bodies of her own
soldiers Describing the battlefield
north of Rheims, he writes:-
There we is pasi dull s1f smell in the air. as il
lime were being burnt. We are pass
ing the great Corpse Exploitation
Establishment (Kadaververwertun
anstalt) of this army group. The fat
that is won here is turned into lubri-
eating oils, and everything else is
ground down in the bone mill into
powder, which is used for mixing
with pigs food and as manure
Herr Rosner adds complacently-
The theory on which our army
works is that nothing must be allow
ed to go unused
This statement corroborates a re-
markable description OF this new
Hun Industry which appeared IN
La 2elgique,' Of Layden CHollanoj.
For long it has been known, say
this paper, that the Germans stripped
their dead behind the firing line,
fastened them in bundles OF three or
four bodies with iron wires, and
then dispatched these grislN bundles
to Seraing, near Liege, and point
nortl: Of Brussels, wnere there were
refuse consumers. Lately, however,
much surprise has been caused
amongst local observers by the fact
this traffic has proceeded to another
destination and has been labelled
ID. A. v. G." These initials, it trans
Dires. represent in German the Ger
man Offal Conversion Company" a
Limited Liability Company with a
capital of G25O,00O ($l,500,O00)
which turns the dead into dividends.
The chief factory has been construct
ed near Gerolstein, in the lonely
Eifel district, southwest of C6blentZ.
This factory deals specially with the
dead from the west front. IF the
results are as good as the company
hopes" the newspaper declared. an
other will be esta blished to deal with
the corpse on the east front
There is laboratory, and in
charge of the works is chief chem
ist with two assistants and IS men:
All the employees are soldiers, and
are attached to the Sth Army Corps.
There is sanatorium by the works,
and under no preteXt is any man per-
mtted to leave them. They are
guarded as prisoners at their appal-
ling work
The trains arrive full of bare bod
les. which are unloaded by the work
ers, who live at the works. The men
mica eye-pieces. They are equipped
with long hooked poles, and push the
bundles of bodies to an endless
chain, which picks them up with big
hooks attached at intervals OF feet.
The bodies are transported on this
endless cha in into long, narrow
compartment, where they pass
through bath which disinfects
them.
They then go through drying
chamber, and finally are automati-
callv carried into q digester or great
caldron, into which they are dropped
by an apparatus which detaches
them from the chain. In the digest
er they remain from six to eight
hours. and are treated by steam.
which breaks them up, while they
are slowly stirred by machinery.
From this treatment results sever
al products. The fats are broken up
into stearin, form of tallow and
oils, which requires to be redfstilled
before they can be used. The process
of distillation is carried out bv boil
ing the oil with carbonate of soda,
and some part of the by-products re-
sulting from this is used by German
soap makers. The oil distillery and
ner of the works. The refined oil is
sent out in small casks like those
used for petroleum, and is OF a yel-
lOwish-brovn colour.
A short time ago one Of the Ame"i
can consuls on leaving Germany
stated that the Germans were dis
tilling glycerine for nitroglyce"ine
from the bodies of their dead and
were thus obtaining some part Of
their explosives.
Repairing Opera House.
Monday morning the city council