Evening journal., 1919-01-15
GERMANS FORCED
TO ESTEEM YANKS
Soldier Tells of His Life
While Prisoner at
Rastatt Baden
Y. M. c. A. WAS GREAT
HELP TO THEM

PARIS. Jan. iiT-"America needed NJ
propaganda in Germany during the
war. The American prisoners were
propagandists enough. They won and
acid the esteem OF their guards and all
o. the German people with whom They
came In contaot."
That was Tie statement OF Wayne j
Colahan. 63d Company, 9Th Marines
whose home Is at No. 2i7 Harvard
street 5. L. Minneapolis, 10 a delega-
lion OF Y. VI. c. A. workers who mel
The u-lsoners at the Swiss border. They
were released from .Rastatt prison
Baden. Germany. COlahan was cap
tured In Belleau Wood on June g.
1--WE hate you buLoannOt despisc yau
was the way one German guard ex-
pressed II TO me" continued Colahan
"The American prisoners throughout
we'e treated better than those d
other countries. One reason was tha'
we had a y. NJ G. A. cabinet in eacn
prison which kept US Informed OF our
rights. kept us interested and secured
FOR us many concessions. For instance
once we were allowed 10 rent the big
gest theatre in Rastatt and put on a
local talent show.
Virtually all the American prison
ers except officers, non-coms and sick
and wounded were put out 10 work on
KOmmandO-that is on farms and IN
factories. At first our men were eager
10 work out. for the Germans nearly
starved us, and we hoped TO get better
food on the farms. But even the farm
crs had very little 20 eat. After the Red
Gross rations began arriving we prison
ers were II uch better fed than the ma
lority Of the people around us.
Through the y. VI. G. A. we secured
a library. books for study classes. foot
balls. baseballs and all sorts or athletic
equipment. checkers and similar indoor
games and Instruments for a 20 piece
band. and piece orchestra and bugle
corps. We had our own newspaper,
the Barbed WirelesI The band kept
things lively Every night we had a
concert in one OF the 'blocks" as we
called the prison barracks.
'eThe band played at football ami
haseball games. and we had roofing
squads like those at college games at
home The rivalry between the blocks
was intense, particularly between
Block I and Block A. Thanksgiving
nay ave had football game and lot
Of fun.
"The Germans were pretty hard on
MS at first. particularly when we were
behind the lines They were ready
enough 20 abuse or mistreat us II
given an excuse. but while our fel-
lows stood up for their rights We did
not court trouble and they had little
excuse for it. There were occasions
when they beat Americans over the
backs with sabres and forced them to
work double headers all day Saturday,
but when IL became evident that Ger
many would lose they were much bet
Ter 10 US and did their best 20 get
friendly with us They circulated a
German propaganda newspaper called
america i'm Europe. among US, but our
T. NJ C. A. cabinet advised us not 30
read it. and IL did not help any. II
'ln the prison camp on or kOmmands,
our men always commanded the re
,pect 70 the German people. even when
they called us American hounds
when the armistice was signed the
Germans relaxed discipline utterly and
,ye were free 10 20 on a spree i'm the
ueighboring town, but we didn't In
stead. we established our own military
police and maintained order. a thing
which greatly impressed the Germans" ."