The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-22
That Visit to a Nazii
Concentration Camp
By c. P. ULRICH

they are pursuing an activity that for
sheer brainlessness surpasses the
glueing of paper bags in prison or
the profession Of stamping relief
cards.
1t is q little depressing at the be-
ginning Of exercise, but only for the
first haf-hour. Physical training is
looked on with favor. The exhausted,
wretchedly nouriShed body cannot en-
dure military drill for hours on end.
There is g hail OF curses, q rain Of
blows. ....
The food Is Ru too scanty. In the
morning brown soup with greasy
sandwiches. At noon brown soup with
potatoes and peas, beans, etc. In the
evening greasy sandwiches With
brown soup. How many Of the pris-
oners can stand that long2
The intellectual nourishment Is Just
as Scanty, but more highly seasoned.
Aside from the daily reading of the
V0lkische Beobachter "a Fascist daily
paper, there are address and 'Iec-
lures for enlightenment" For ex-
ample, the troop leader calls the
group together and suarls. People
last night another barn was burned
to the ground at BirkenWerder. That
is the best proof that we are acting
in the interest Of the whole people
by shutting you up here, to make hui
man beings Of you again. Your COM
rades out there viii come to 1t too.
Then this epidemic Of FIRE bugs will
finally stop"
The number Of cases OF burning
barns Is less than in the last twenty
years. But the troop leader Is quite
serious about his enlightenment,
When this part Of the days duty is
over, the prisoners go into what here
are called the bedrooms. A few cen
timetres Of rotten straw lie on the
cold cement floor. Even in the eve
ming, when the prisoners are shut into
the recently-aired rooms, it stinks
as If herd Of beasts from the pri-
maeval forest had spent the night
here. 1t is impossible to describe the
air that results from the presence
here Of fifty or more people, whose
unwaShed clothes and sweaty bodies
eXude their fumes here. And vet
the hour that follows is the only one
in which the resident Of the concen-
trstion camp has some freedom. Then
he Is allowed, when he has enioyed
the YOlkische Beobaehter. 10 gossip
for short time, and and has even
few minutes unmatched Till he
falls asleep.
THIRTY to thirty-flve thousand
people i've in German" concep-
tration camps. People whose political
education snpasses that Of their
guards several hundred per cent
Gradually the laboriously cultivated
enmity OF the Browns against the
beasts" which they are watching.
crunbles away. Little conversations
begin. Little privileges become Gus
tomary. In spite of that, there is
still plenty OF whistling of clubs and
sticks. In such life, cut OFF from
true reports about the realities Of
Hitlerism, it Is not a simple matter
TO hold your head high. And yet the
school Of Humanity and Labor" for
such prisoners as do not leave, it
prematurely as invalids or corpses, is
school Of higher training for the
officials Of that army which some
day in the ot-too-distant future
will really bring in humanity and
work.
From Murder In Camp Hohen-
stein and Other Stories" Cross
current Of the Hitler Regime, By
Johannes r. Becher, G. P. Ulrich,
Peter Conrad, A. S. Giles and Hans
Scheer. Published by international
Publishers, 5s1 Fourth Ave. New
York, n. Y.