Evening star., 1933-09-10
CHRISTIAN GROUP FACES
TORTURE in NAZ CAMPS
Mowrer Describes Beatings Reported
Inflicted on Political Prisoners.
Estimates $4,000 Confined.

and tortured. The life Of the third
class. the unconvertible, is made so un-
bearable that they sometimes prefer
suicide-a procedure which Nazi guards
generally encourage.
Under the convertible heading, the
Nazis understand those persons who
can be brought to accept NaZi rule pas
sively and, when possible to accept Nazi
doctrines
The unconvertibles obviously have not
the slightest intention Of ceaSing their
struggle against the present rulers of
Germany. Therefore, the choice Of
fered them is of suicide or of having
their spirits broken by torture or perIna-
nent imprisonment.
The care of prisoners Is divided be-
tween the regular police. generally of a
decent sort, and Nazi brown shirts, who
vary from high-spirited patriots to per-
verted sadists. The latter tend inevi-
tably to extend their influence at the
expense Of the former.
Intense Drill Scheduled.
The routine of the prisoners is about
like that of prisoners anywhere. with a
strong military coloring They rise
early. they are mustered, they work,
they eat, they do their own chores and
cooking. They are subjected to intense
periods of military drill. They wear
convicts uniforms. Reading is some
times allowed. But educational work
is chiefly done at arrival or during the
night-exclusively by storm troops.
Here one must limit oneself to what
is actually reported. This correspondent
has spoken at length with prisoners re-
lased from Dachau, Durrgoy and
fI,o 1o<S
Communists were initiated into camp
life in the following manner:
Stripped of their shoes, they were
pursued by brown shirts armed with
whips around gravel-strewn court
yard until they collapsed, the process
taking five, six and nine hours, re-
spectively.
After the first half hour, their feet
began to bleed and, at the end, they
were like raw meat with bones poking
through At Dachau fat, old men were
compelled to climb high fences and
bend their knees a hundred times and
perform other impossible things. They
we're beaten and derided when they
failed.
Prisoners Insulted Constantly.
All prisoners are subject to constant
insult and taught to answer when ad-
dressed with foul epithets and made to
sing NaZi songs and speak vulgarily of
their own beliefs and comrades.
Communists are encouraged to mis-
treat Socialists In one camp recently
they nearly murdered the former
Reichstag President Dr. Paul Loebe.
But the best educational work begins
after all have retired for the night:
Suddenly a light appears in the dark
barrack-like cells. The storm troopers
are looking for their evening victims.
Three, four, five are taken from their
hunks and brought to torture rooms,
where distance will prevent their shrieks
from reaching their companions.
One by one, they are stripped naked
laid face down on table and beaten.
Five Nazis hold the legs, arms and head
of victims, while two NaZis beat the
bare back alternately with heavy sticks,
like a workman driving pile.
Inconsistencies may come after so
or after $50 strokes. But after pail
of water is thrown on the head Of the
victims to revive them the beating con-
tinues until the second unconscious
period.
Quit Short of Death.
A physician now performs injection
of a heart tonic, the sufferer revives
again and can stand few more strokes
before sinking into a coma, in which
further blows would only drive him
to death.
Such scenes, often made perversely
piquant by the addition of other in
describable details, form part of the
concentration camp routine for un-
convertibles The high-spirited among
them, therefore. often prefer suicide by
hanging themselves with ropes which
the jailers just at this point obligingly
leave in their cells
Or they occasionally go mad and
assault an armed guard. who is COM
PEELED to shoot them. Or. like young
Rudolf Mosse, nephew of Rudolf Mosse
former owner of the world famous Ber-
liner Tageblatt, they take their lives
on their way to the camps.
Such is the life in store for recall
citrant Christians.
(Copyright 1881