Evening star., 1922-04-02
THOUSANDS DEAD
| IN ODESSA DUMPS
One Phase of the Bitter Story
/ of Famine in Russia
Revealed.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
ODESSA, March Five hundred to
1.eeo bodies are each week buried in
Odessa's newest cemetery. They are
carried out in pushcarts by friends or
on their shoulders in cofins, if the
dead's relatives still have money and
anection enough. or are transported
in motor trucks. If carried in trucks.
the bodies are piled high like SO
many broken packages. men. women
and children all together. and all un-
covered. barring a few rags.
At the cemetery the bodies are
dumped near trench and cast
therein. Sometimes there is no trench
It In yet to be dug. This statement
OF fact is not given in criticism. The
wonder is that the bodies are buried
At all, and many would not be but
Tor the free Sunday labor of the COM
munists, donated as party discipline.
Regulation Reduced Half.
To say that the last phase of the
oitter story of famine in Russia is
told In this cemetery would be COM
monplace. Nobody can tell the story
nor Hugo could have done it. Those
living or visiting here only now and
Then at odd moments realize what
happening.
Odessa. though constantly renewed
oy Jews fearing pogroms in the
country, is about one-half its pre-
war population of 100000 to 100000;
tnat conditions are as bad as on the
Volga, worse than in Constantinople,
or worse than Vienna at it's worst:
to say that the life of the people is
daily sapped by fear, famine. ner-
vousness. madness. hopelessness.
doesn't mean much. Probably one
understand.
why not go out to our cemetery
and look at the mountain OF un-
buried dead. If you wish to know
what is happening to u.s." said
woman to the correspondent.
The way ran some miles to the
northeast of the city's center. through
the Moldavanka suburb. shattered by
the explosion Of 1918 in the military
warehouses. All along the streets and
the road were block after block of
stone buildings knocked down. Be-
yond the wrecked and unused ware
house and factory district lay the
burial place on the edge of the steppe.
This Is our third and newest ceme-
terry" said the guide. The others
were filled long ago"
Eishty Bodies In TreAeh.
There were no bodies above ground.
At the extremity of the graveyard
a muddy trench. Called to. he came,
wading through mud and snow.
Eighty bodies have been cast here
and I am covering them" he said.
Then: Il am hungry. I have not been
paid for a long time. There are five
Of US. None of us have been paid"
This seemed to be the end Of the
story. Going back, a Russian priest
stood at the gate. sowned in faded
something he said. getting into the
automobile. He directed the machine
down a macadam road leading past
the cemetery to the open country. He
brought the machine within few
ed across the road 1t carried some
ffty-six bodies. limp and naked, arms
and hands and heads rising here and
there, massed like sardines in q can.
The driver explained that he had
just come from the railroad station
where the bodies had been assembled
for him. He pointed to others lying in
the mud across the ditch that drained
the road. These l brought yesterday.
Only part have been buried" he
said.
The priest took the car a little fur
ther down the road. Here was an
other truck. unloading. Il got the
bodies at the typhus hospital and
the madhouse." said one of the men.
Sometimes he got his loads from the
streets, at house doorways; often
babies put there by parents too poor
- bury them.
No Count Kept Of Burials.
How many people were being
buried? No one could say exactly. A
count had once been kept of those
executed. Each had been buried with
Identity cards tied to the hands. But
now there were too many and every
one was tired.
On the way back to the city the
priest was set doYn at his gate. He
said he needed pair of shoes, but
refused money offered. He smiled a
vague farewell.
On the way back to the city, groups
of people were met carrying their
dead. with no sign of mourning. They
might as well have been going to
, market. No one pays much attention
TO the dead here. People are too alb
sorbed in trying to live.
America! You from America? Why,
you come from Paradise" exclaimed
an old imperial army officer who has
long acted as If mad to save him.
self. He touched the correspondents
coat, kissing the sleeves, then asked:
1T is true" Gods truth-that there