The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1919-01-23
We Had Our Choice Of Standing 10
and Dying, or Falling Down and Be.
ing Killed.

We Had Our Choice of STANDING Uo
and Dying, or Falling Down and Be-
ing Killed.
ever saw them run, except when the
Foreign Legion was on their heels
ut DiXmude.
when they got up to the dogs, they
would fret talk to them and then kick
them, and after that, they would rest
their rifles on the wire and yell
"Zurrck !" at us. We all enjoyed this
innocent pnstime very much, and we
were glad they had the dogs.
There were some things the Huns
Cid that you just could not explain.
For instance, one of the Russians
walked out Of the kuche, as we were
passing and we heard oang! and
the Rus sian keelcd over and went
west. n w, we had not done anything
and the other Russians said he had
behaved himself, worked hard and had
never Ind any trouble. They lust
killed him, and that is all there was to
1t. 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
sentries would yell, "Nicht krank |"
and give us the rifle butt. We had
our choice Of standing up and dying
or failing down and being killed, and
1t 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 tust
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.
1t had not been unusual for some of
the men to tell the Germans to shoot
them too, and 1t seems as though 1t
was always man who wanted to live
who did get 1t and went west.
However. all of us nearly got killed
| when we reached Wittcnberg. When
the train stopped there, we saw big
wagonload of sliced bread on the sta
| tion platform and we all stared Mt II.
We stood it ms long rs we could, and
then we made rush for it. But when
we got nearer. we saw that there were
| four sentreS 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
|
| 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 big hunk of bread and
eat IT. What we did not say to them
was very little indeed. We were GER
| tainly wild IL any men ever were.
Ihen some Of us said we were GO
lag to get some Of that bread If we
went west for 1t. So we started
fight. and while they were attending to
some Of us, the others grabbed and hid
all the bread thev could. They rousted
us back into the cars and we were
just starting to divide up the bread
when they caught us with 1t and took
IT away. We were wilder than ever
then, but we could not do anything.
| II 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 I
have ever seen, and the coal bunkcrs
on the YnrrOwdale seemed like a pal
ace compared to the compartments,
because we could Mt least movearound
In the ship, while in the trnin 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
1t seemed to get colder and colder, we
did not mind 1t so much. At about
eleven that morning, we arrived at
place called Minden and saw a prison
camp there--just stockade near the
tracks with the boys out in the open.
We waved to them, and they waved
back and gaya-a cheer.Qh Or two. We