Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-12-26
AuSTRO-HUNGA-
RAN ATROCITIES
AGAINST sERv|ANs

London, Nov. 27.-{CorrespondencN
Compelled to dig their own grave,
drowned, burned alive, hanged. or sho,
down with machine guns, the Serbian,
OF Herzegovina, Bosnia, Isteria and
Dalnatia were The victims Of Aust,o.
Hungarian atrocities, SURPRISING tia
human imagination. recently declared
DIR. Tresic Pavicic. Slav member Of
the Austro- Hungarian Chamber o.
IDENTITIES. Narratives of Serbians mada
prisoners in Austrian jails and
fortresses were related in detail befors
the Austrian Parliament by the Slav
! deputy.
According to DR.. Pavicic, these out.
,, RACES were practiced upon the civilian
population, old men, women and chill.
dren. when orders We're given by Gen.
eral Potiorek, described as the auto
| GRAFT of Bosnia, ito remove all tina
Serbians from the frontier districts
The inhabitants of the village Of
Svice, young and old. were all led away
| and on arrival at Mount Rudo were
| compelled to dig their own graves and
| to lie down each in his own. MANY
women, the deputy said, lay down in
their graves with children in their
arms and the soldiers then shot them
one after another, the living putting
earth over the dead until their own
turn came.
The ordinary method of executing
these civilians who should have been
informed, said the Slav deputy. was 10
hang them, but instead the whols
Serbo- Montenegro frontier had been
transformed into a desert. Eighty
two persons, he said, were hanged
without trial at Zubac, 1913 at Trebinjo
II at Foca and 800 at Tuzla. He gave
the names Of victims and the dates
and localities Of the outrages.
OF those who We're not executed, he
declared. the very young and the aged
died of restitution. 1t was the vigOr-
Gus, competent and courageous who
were arrested, falsely accused, con.
6emned, tortured and executed The
deputy was informed he said that 5000
persons had been arrested in Dial.
malta, Isteria and Carniola. DR..
.Pavicic was one of those arrested.
herded with brigands. insulted by
/ Hungarian soldiers and beaten with
rifle butts. Many Of his fellow pris-
oners lost their reason and he saw one
hurl himself from a train under the
wheels of another which was passing.
Thousands of Serbians. he declared,
were taken for internment to Mostar.
20 nnh Ito o,I 70
Arad, Hungary.
i Upon these unfortunates their jail
ers inflicted peculiar punishment ac-
cording to the narratives Of two sur
vivors related by DR.. Pavicic. One Of
these jailers at Mostar was Charac.
terized in the speech as "ferocOus
beast" who beat his prisoners with
hooked baton Of iron which he called
"Kromprinz." A priest named ITCHY
afterward died at Arad, Hungary, as
the result of the tortures this jailer
inflicted.
If those gathered at Mostar survived,
they were transformed later to Arad
where thousands Of living skeletons
were congregated from Bosnia and
Herzegovina" said the deputy Fam
ished. naked. half dead from the blows
of rifles and bayonet thrusts they
were driven to the easements Of the
Arad fortress. In it's subterranean
corridors they died in masses from
typhus.
AS the days became colder sad
DR.. Pavicic, they took clothing from
1 the dead to clothe the naked. Ths
number of deaths at Arad is estimated
at between 5000 and 1000"
At Doboj things were worse. Along
with Serbian and Montenegrin pris.
onerS came crowds of civilian old men,
women and children driven from home
and forced to travel in open cattle
trucks. Hunger was found to be the
simplest and cheapest means of send
ing these people to another world
Otter the mother would be dead when
her little child shook her to ask for
bread. Trustworthy figures show that
moro than 5000 innocent victims met
their death in these places