The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-18
Scenes From the Hell of Europe
By HENRI BARBUSSE.

ONE could not undertake with any pretense of COM
~ pleteness, the narration of the maryrdom under
by the prisoners Bulgaria of Roumania of Jugo
Slavia
In Roumania there is special prison for political
prisoners 1t is the central prison of Dofana 1t
sists entirely of dungeons The beds screwed to
the walls. During the day they raised up and the
prisoners compelled to stand up The food is vile
and the inmates" suffer from hunger. The prison
possesses special section, Section NJ called the tor
ture-section. Hundreds thousands of workers and
peasants are tormented there. The inmates of this
section chained hand and foot and submitted
three times week to the black fast" (dry bread and
water)
Shut up in veritable sacks stone called "guerlos
constructed out Of single block of fortified concrete,
the prisoners await death which will berate them from
the vermin and from suffering They are unable to
stir and must sleep standing 1t is vertical coffin
For the least inraction error for example, failure
to salute they lock them in classmates where they
obliged to remain seated the cement and in water,
hands and feet chained Those who beseech for human
treatment noted down; they condemn them to
two five years Of prison and they make them travel
from jail to Jail. They do not remain longer than
week in each prison and always shut up In dun
geons, chained hand and foot, without linen, rags;
thus they make a round Of all Roumania.
At Doftana, there is Section H" where they put
the 'undiscplined" prisoners There the dungeons
three meters by one meter (about nine and half by
four and half feettransl), without air, without beds
without tables chairs without sanitary installations
No water for washing oneself, linen for months
The food is uncean, and yet insufficient! (Thirty kOs
of soup for two hundred prisoners) They give them
unpeeled potatoes which they put into bucket: they
boil them then they add salt up to the top of
the bucket (water which makes the body swell up and
causes nephritus) The prisoners drink out Of the
same bowl, the tubercular and syphitc. They
put such manacles them that the
very obvious thinning their wrists They continually
apply the cudgel to them Beaten the soles of the
feet, the prisoners unable to walk when they
back to their cells their comrades forbidden
to support them
One cannot endure this regime for than sew
eral months. When leaves there, one leaves it
hebetated epeptc, but usually dies there. In
six months, out of sixythree prisoners put in Section
H, only twelve remained alive. During the spring of
1929 there thrtyeight deaths at Doftana thirty
six Of which were from Section H.
When the prisoners are ILL., they let them die As
example, Ivanuz, tubercuar, at Jlava. To be sure,
there is DOCTOR but he touches prisoner He
contents himself with demanding jugs of wine from
relatives for transferring the sick person the sani
tarium. have seen poor woman without any re-
from whom the doctor had demanded 10000 lei
have her husband transported to the hospital she
unable to do it. ~
According to the regulations, should not remain
at Doftana more than six months. There some who
have been there for five years for pacst" or syndi-
calist propaganda"
NJ 'Tchernatz directorgeneral Of prisons has in
stuted compulsory labor for prisoners order
profit from it. They work under the cudgel Soldiers
with bayonets ten centimeters (about four inches
transl) from their bodies, keep them from drinking
from relieving themselves long the work is
finished. .q ~ - -. ....->...,. ,.- ,...s.s ~.
Naturally, the prisoners try to commit suicide But
outside Of the hunger strike 1t is dfcuIt for them