The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1919-07-11
AMERICAN WOMAN, BETRAYED
BY GERMAN SOLDIER HUSBAND

HN GEkMAN SULUAER hUSbAND
Sentenced ITO Be Shot, Her Life Was
Saved by Signing Of the Armistice.
The iron heel of William Hohen-
zOllern's boot sank deep into the
heart Of Margaret Cent? Thurman,
but she lives to tell the story. They
fed decayed horse meat to her for
three months, but she survived it.
Fellow prisoners fell to the right
and left of her under the lash of the
whipping post master, but she with
stood it. Insult uOpn insult was
heaped upon her, but she never
Wavered. She was sentenced to be
shot, but fortune smiled and she es-
capped. They tried to break her
courage, but like her murdered
friend, Edith Cavell, she would not
finch. She was an American woman.
Very few persons have experienced
the cruelties and barbarities this
little blonde haired woman went
through and lived. She sat in a
room at the Wolcott Hotel yesterday
and told how, betrayed and forsaken
by her husband, a German soldier,
she fell into the hands of American
hating Germans i'm Berlin in the early
part Of 1917. She remained prison
er until one month ago when she
was freed and started. back to her
home in Chicago. In relating her
experiences, she said
I'm 1909 i went to Berlin to fol-
low UP my work i'm art. There i met
and married Richard Thurman, a
German. In 1914 I came home to
visit my parents, Mr.. and Mrs. M. O.
Cent?, of West Point, Neb., and
shortly afterward I returned to
Europe.
"The war came, and i, being an
American. did what I could to aid
nv British and American friends.
For this I was much abused. The
conditions in my household were
strained, of course, and l tried to get
a divorce, but failed.
THE Germans allowed me to DO
war work, and through some bit OF
carelessness they gave me the work
of handling the English censorial
division in a German camp near Ber-
lin. This gave me an opportunity to
assist in getting British and Amerl-
can soldiers mail through to them.
Ordinary mail to these soldiers had
been dumped in great bags and burn
ed. I was able to he kind to the
Allies soldiers in many ways"
1t was in the latter part of 1917
that Mrs. Thurman got into COM
munication with a German agent who
promised for 5000 marks to get her
out Of Germany and to port from
which she might flee to America.
She and two other prisoners got as,
far as Hamburg, when the German
agent, his fee already collected, held
them up and turned them over to the
German authorities. Mrs. Thurman
was manacled and led back to the
camp, DoeberitZ, just outside OF Ber-
lin, charged with being traitor.
Here, beneath a great arc light,
she was made the object of vile abuse
on the part of German officers. Al
great circle of them was formed
about her, and she was led out, like
an animal, she said and made to face
the taunts and vile conduct OF her
tormentOrs.
She was held in the federal prison
for two months. This was not SO
bad. but then they placed her In q
woman's penitentiary with 300 OF the
yilest women in all Germany. She
was forced to sleep and eat with
child murderers, forced to eat turnip
soup three times a day, to crawl out
on hands and knees from her iron
cot to dress i'm the mornings, and to
endure the curses and threats of the
wardens without a word To speak
to ones cellmate meant the whipping
post. So she remained quiet.
The influenza appeared in that
pest house. Women died of it.
Others went crazy in fear Of it.
Their manacled wrists bled and tore
as they screamed for mercy and ask
ed for medical assistance: They
tried suicide, a half dozen around
her daily, and were beaten into in
sensibility when caught.
II pray God no other woman will
ever have to see what I have seen"
she Jajd. lit would drive some
women mad"
Time went on and finally there was
a court martial of the most mean
ingless sort. 1t ended with her sen
tence to be shot She was traitor
and must die And % she prepared
for the end Starvation continued
and women died by the half dozen
and were carried out and thrown into