The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1918-02-01
Deported Men and Prisoners Are
Driven Into Slavery by Ger
man Authorities.
MAKE STARTLING DISCLOSURE
HoIIander Tells How Deported Bel
sians and French Prisoners OF
War Are Compelled to Work
In Munitions Factory
In Essen.
Nv w. IL. KEEL.

or who until four days ago was en-
ployed at Krupp's munition WORKS III
Essen, Germany, makes the starving
disclosure that some 4,OOO Hoilanders
are working at Essen in the munition s.
and war material factories. Most OF
these men get there through the macm-
nations of what this escaped hoi-
lander calls "Seelenerkaufer"- Cohen
& Ossendegner Of Rotterdam, who {
seem to act as agents for supplying
| Germany with greatly needed labor.
Eighty or ninety men day generally
| find their way across the border py
| means of their agents, lured by tne
prospect of very high wages and goou
| food. What they find in reality ana
how next to impossible it is made for
them to return to their own country
is thus told in the Hollanders Worus'
Mo Return Pass Given.
"When this firm of agents secured
nv services they did not mention war
work" he said. II was given to under
, stand that field labor and trade WORK
was required. Also l was PROMISED
, that could return any Saturday 70
! Holland to stay through Sunday. The
J promised wages were high and food
was said to be plentiful. / accepted, |
D my pass was ready in few moments
Il but did not know that the signatures
and vises required for my return 10
h Holland had been omitted, as they ar
i ways are In the passes given BY these
!, AGENTS no doubt because they know
:. nerfectly well that after week IN
III Germany no single Hollander would
III ever think of returning there AFTER ms
r weekend in Holland.
"a "Soon after my entrance upon Ger
i man soil at Elten, where found sew
n eral compatriots like myself we were
ID met by an agent from an 'arDelts pu-
reau., who secured our services LOT
shellrnaking at Krupp's by telling us
y that food was good there and wages
very high. He said that in other
branches of labor food was but inull-
ferept and the wages nothing IKE
Krupp's, so we men Went TO hsseh'
How good the food was there you can
Judge Of by the fact that my weight
was reduced by "a pounds while there
"For breakfast we received TWO
slices of bread without any butter OF
fat whatever. For dinner potato soul
that left US hungry an hour aItei
eating. Then in the evening agar
two slices of bread like at breakfast
II the Hollander felt too i'll or feeble
TO work the Germans simply took ava!
his bed from under him TO make mn
get up. Oh, yes, there is doctor, nu
he always diagnoses the same. 'fo'
can work--if you don't work You won
aat,-snicht arbeiten-nicth essen, a
we used to put it. .
.sThe laborers are housed by the on
together in barracks, which are Du
insufficiently warmed and imperfect
cleaned. Typhus claims many victims
In the barracks where was house
found four men lying dead of typhu
beside my crib one morning. After
few days of this sort OF thing II is nc
TO be wondered at that many HOLLAND
ers try in every way to get back t
their country, although the vises o
their passes are lacking.
If they are captured they az
thrown into prison for fortnight o
bread and water. II they survive the
are then drafted back to Krupp's, an
set TO work again. Production
pushed to the utmost. Numbers OF 50
diers are employed as change fro
wa the front, and these men are so afral
s Of being again sent to the front thi
$ thew would rather work themselves
I death at Krupps.
M Where Deported BeIgians Work
Z "Deported Belgians and French pr
s$ oners of war also work at krupp
zs-Esi Discipline is strictly enforced, ana al
utterances of anti-German views a
PEI ut once punished.
ltner al got the impression that German
nave flung itself like mad into mumtl'
no' work as its last card. But raw m
Ior terial is getting scarce, especially co
nine per. In Essen all copper faucets al
many the like had already been replaced
y. 70 iron and tin. The general idea IN Ge
long many is that the war can be prolong'
only at the utmost for another half year,
hou they are employing their last fore
y 'n - for a supreme effort.
y 10 .'Every evening at Krupps alarms
.no made-'Flieger Gemeldet lairplan
,pie, reported. All lights are then ext
loyal l,e,,ea ub;s Il done so that +,
, ex- r-no,y whom avers real
ldier snou' :. nnmhard Tho Factories. No o
is allowed to talk of the damage do
by allied bombs, and the newspapt
are enjoined to keep silence on the
pular matters Still. can say that sol
npre- don,oee has been done. although c,
MRS. not say how much nor exactly whe
IN On the other hand, stories likely
9 po- stimulate the energy of the people
her eagerly promulgated, such as those
rency enormous submarines of dreadnaul
q AT type, of guns that can shoot W x
sne meters that are soon to be used agai
the allied armies"