The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-01-03
FORCED TO DIG THEIR GRAVES.
The Horrors Visited Upon a Help
less People by Austrians.


ondon.-Compelled to dig their
| own graves, drowned, burned alive.
hanged, or shot down with machine
guns. the Serbians of Herzegovina,
Bosnia, Istria and Dalmatia were the
victims of Austro-Hungarian atroci-
ties, supassing the human imagina-
ton, recently declared pr. Tresic
Pavicic, Slav member of the Austro-
Hungarian Chamber of Deputies.
Narratives of Serbians made prison
ers were related in detail before the
Austrian Parliament by the Slav
deputy.
According to DR.. Pavicic, these out
RACES were practiced upon the civil
ian>population, old men, women and
children, when orders were given by
Gen. Potiorek, described as the auto
crat of Bosnia, to remove the Ser
bians from the frontier districts.
| Dig Their Own Graves.
The inhabitants of the village Of
Svic, 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 chill
dren 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 interned, said the Slav deputy,
was to hang them, but instead the
whole Serbo- Montenegrin frontier
had been transformed into desert.
Eighty-two persons, he said, were
hanged without trial at Zubac, 103 at
Trebinjo, seventy-one at Foca and
800 at Tuzla. He gave the names
of victims and the dates and Iocali-
ties of the outrages.
Of those who were not executed.
he declared, the very young and the
aged died of destitution. 1t was the
vigorous, competent and courageous
who were arrested, falsely accused,
condemned, tortured and executed.
The deputy was informed, he said,
that 5000 persons had been arrested
in Dalmatia, Istria 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 says
one hurled himself from train un-.
der the wheels of another which was
passing. Thousands of Serbians, he
declared, were taken for internment
to; Mostar, Herzegovina, to Doboj,
Bosnia. and to Arad, Hungary.
Upon these unfortunates their jail
ers inflicted peculiar punishments ac-
cording to the narratives of two sur
vivors related by DR.. Ravicic. One
of the jailers at Mostar was charac-
terized in the speech as "ferocious
beast" who beat his prisoners with
a hooked baton of iron which he
called "Krownprinz. A, priest nam.
ed ITCHY afterward died at Arad,
Hungary, as the result of the tortures
the jailer inflicted.
If those gathered at Mostar sur
vived they were transferred later to
Arad, where thousands of living
skeletons were congregated from Bos-
MIA and Herzegovina" said the dep.
uty. Famished, naked, half dead
from the blows of rifles and bayonet
thrusts they were driven to the case
ments of the Arad fortress. In it's
subterranean corridors they died In
masses from typhus. =.
LAS the days became colder" said
Dr. Pavicic, "they took clothing from
the dead to clothe the naked. The
number of deaths at Arad is estimat
ed at between 5000 and 1000.
AT Doboj things were worse.
Along with Serbians and Montene-
grin prisoners came crowds of civil,
ian old men, women and children
driven from home and forced to trav-
ell in open cattle trucks. Hunger was
found to be the simplest and cheap
est means of sending these people to
another world. Often the mother
would be dead when her little child
shook her to ask for bread. Trust
worthy figures show that hore than
5000 innocent victims met their
death in these places"
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