Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-12-18

We Had Our Choice Of Standing Up
and Dying, or Falling Down and Be.
ing Killed.
ever saw them run, except when the
Foreign Legion was on their heels
at Dixmude.
When they got up to the dogs, they
would first talk to them and then kick
them, and after that, they would rest
their rifles on the wire and yell
"Zuruck!" at US. We all enjoyed this
innocent pastime very much, and we
were glad they had the dogs.
There were some things the Huns
did that you just could not explain.
For instance, one of the Russians
walked out of the kuche, as we were
passing, and we heard a bang! and
the Russian keeled over and went
west. Now, we had not done anything
and the other Russians said he had
behaved himself, worked hard and had
never had any trouble. They just
killed him, and that is all there was to
it. But not one Of US could figure
out why.
After we had been at Neustrelitz
for three weeks, they drilled US out of
the camp to railway station, and
stood US in the snow for four hours
waiting for the train. We were ex-
hausted and began falling one by
one, and each time one of US fell, the
sentr1es would YELL 'Nicht krank"
and give us the rifle butt. We had
our choice of standing up and dying
or falling down and being killed, and
it was a fine choice to have to make.
The cars finally pulled in, and as
usual, the windows were smashed the
doors open, and the compartments just
packed with snow. When we saw this,
we knew we were going to get worse
treatment, even, than we had been
getting, and many of us wanted to die.
It had not been unusual for some of
the men to tell the Germans to shoot
them too, and it seems as though it
was always a man who wanted to live
who did get it and went west.
However, all Of US nearly got killed
when we reached Wittenberg. When
the train stopped there, we saw big
wagonload of sliced bread on the sta
ton platform and we all stared at it.
We stood it as long as we could, and
then we made a rush for it. But when
we got nearer, we saw that there were
four sentries guarding it and four
women issuing it out to the German
soldiers. They would not give US any,
Of course.
So we stood around and watched the
Huns eat 1t, while they and the women
laughed at us, and pretended that
they were starving and would groan
and rub their stomachs and say,
"Nichts zu essen" to each other, and
then grab a big hunk Of bread and
eat 1t. What we did not say to them
was very little indeed. We were GER
tainly wild If any men ever were.
Then some Of us said we were 60
Ing to get some Of that bread If we
went west for it. So we started
fight, and while they were attending to
some Of US, the others grabbed and hid
all the bread they could. They rousted
US back into the cars and we were
just starting to divide up the bread
when they caught us with it and took
it away. We were wilder than ever
then but we could not do anything.
1t got colder after we left Witten-
berg, and the snow blew into the cars
through the windows and doors until
we were afraid to sleep for fear of
freezing. 1t was the worst night
have ever seen, and the coal bunkers
on the Yarrowdale seemed like pal
ace compared to the compartments,
because we could at least move around
In the ship, while in the train we could
not move at all, and were packed so
close that we could not even stretch
our legs and arms. Some Of the men
did die, but not In my compartment:
though most Of US were frost-bitten
about the face.
We thought that night would never
end, but day came finally, and though
it seemed to get colder and colder, we
did not mind it so much. At about
eleven that morning, we arrived at q
place called Mlnden and saw a prison