The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1918-11-15
CHAPTER Xxx.
Kultur--the Real stuff.

Neustrelitz was mainly for Russian
prisoners, and there were neither Brit
ish nor French soldiers informed there
only sailors OF the merchant marine
such as the men l was with. The
Russians were given far worse treat
ment than any other prisoners. This
was for two reasons, as near as / could
make out. One was that the Russian
would stand most anything, whereas
the British and French could only be
goaded 10 a certain point, and beyond
that lay trouble. The other reason
was that the Russians sent German
prisoners TO Siberia, or at least, so the
Huns thought and Fritz hates the
cold. So. hating the Russians, and
realizing that they were used 10 be-
Ing under-dogs, Fritz picked on them
and bullied them In way that the
rest OF us would not have stood. We
would have rushed them and gone
west with bayonets first.
The barracks were made of spruce,
and were about ninety feet long and
twenty-five feet wide, and You can
take It from me that as carpenters,
whoever made them were fine farm
ers. There were cracks in them that
you could drive an automobile through.
When we were there, each barracks
had stove in the center, a good stove
and a big one, but at first 1t was OF
no use TO us, because the Germans
,vs,f "a f,aF.
But after shivering for while, we be-
gan ripping the boards out of the bar
racks, and taking the dividing boards
from the benches that we used for
beds.
Later, they gave each of us mat
tress filled with wood shavlngs, and a
blanket that was about as warm as a
pane of glass. The mattresses were
placed on the ground In the barracks,
which were very damp, and after three
or four days, the shayings would be-
gin to rot and the mattresses to smell.
In order to keep warm we slept as
close together as we could, which
caused our various diseases to spread
rapidly.
When we were receiving our rations,
the sentries would offer US an extra
ration II we would take q lash from
their belts. We were 90 hungry that
many and many a man would go up
and take swat in any part Of his
body from the heavy leather belts
with brass tongue and buckle. just to
get little more shadow" soap or
barley coffee or mud bread.
One morning the sentries picked out
ten men from our barracks, of which
was one, and drilled us over field
near the kuche, There was a large
tank in the field and we had to pump
water into II. II was very cold, ond
we were weak and sick, so we would
fall one after another, not caring
whether we ever got up or not. Fritz
would smash those who fell with his
rife butt. We asked for gloves, be-
cause our hands were freezing, but all
we got was "Nichts.' -
After we had been there for about
an hour and n half one of our men
became very sick, so that thought
he was going to die. and when he fell
over, l reported II to sentry. The
sentry came over, saw him lying In
the snow, yelled. "Schwein, NIGHT
krankr grabbed him by the shoulder
and pulled him all the way across the
field to the office OF the camp COM
mander. Then he was placed in the
guard house, where he remained for
two days. The next thing we knew,
the Russians had been ordered TO
make box, and were being marched
to the guard house to put him In 1t
and bury him.
Another thing at Neustreiitz, that
was pretty hard to stand, was the pref
~ habit the Huns had of coming up
to the barbed wire and teasing us as
though we were wild animals in n
cage. Sometimes there would be
crowds OF people lined along the wire
throwing things at us, and splitting,
and having n great time generally. 1t
was harder than ever when a family
party would arrive, with water and
mutter, and maybe grosvater and
grosmutter, and all the little Boche
kinder, because, as you probably
know, the Germans take food with
them whenever they go on a party,
no matter what kind. and they would
stand there and stare att us like the
boobs they were. eating all the time
and we so hungry that we could