The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-22

WHO took any Interest IN Oranien-
" burg two months ago2 The little
picnic resort, lying close to Berlin,
was at most moderately well known
for its vegetarian settlement and the
equipment for practising defence
against gas attacks.
With the opening Of the concen-
tration camp the little town became
temporarily goal for the press Of
the world. Reporters made notes:
model arrangements-in comparison
with other prisons not bad-no ILL.,
treatment.
After such fIeeting Impressions it
will be well to investigate q little
more thoroughly. Let Us go then
past the young S. A. (Storm Troop
ers) people who, equipped with police
clOaks, rubber clubs, reVolYers and
rifles, are guarding the old aban-
doned factory, and let us not stop
long in the office, in which some Of
the adherents OF the new system
have made themselves thoroughly
comfortable.
From the office we go over q
flight of stairs, whose decay Is with
difficulty concealed by the most
painful neatness, into a great factory
yard, over which years ago trucks
rolled with goods, but which in re-
cent weeks has seen nothing but
police wagons Of the flying squads.
with S. A. and thoroughly flayed
prisoners. Here we come to the first
young men, who are expiating their
guilt in not being National-Socialists
by an imprisonment to which they
can see no end. Here they are ito
be again educated to become useful
members of human society,"" are
first really to learn to work" The
work is assigned to them by three
S. A. people, two of whom came
direct from school to the office of
the unemployed relief. This is the
first COB" that they have seen from
the inside.
THE work-we will can II that
is for both guards and guarded
about the most brainleSs that you
can imagine. Three young workers
are driving six of their former COM
radeS Of the unemployed office to
yank blades Of grass rapidly out OF
the ground. The six are crawling
around In completely tattered clothes,
pinching out from between the
stones the sprouting spring grass
digging out the roots, cleaning the
sand from all traces and pressing 1t
nice and neat back into the cracks
in the paving. There is no tool. Also
the grass, even II IL were left to grow
peacefully, would bother nobody.
Behind the factory building lot
Of water Is being squirted. A dozen
men are busy cleaning off the old
box It will be reckoned as their
personal fault II it does not shine
like marble palace. Every splinter
Of wood, every grain Of sand must be
removed. On the wall a Soviet star
has remained from former years;
away with 1t, even II the wall goes
to the devil Here also one Is Inn
pressed with the besstly brainleSsnesS
| Of q work that is not work, but
| merely BUSINESS, Just so that the
point Of useful work" can stand or
the daily plan.
1t gets much worse where ths
nearby wood is being rooted out. The
trees are already gone. The oc-
| cupants of the camp, under heavy
supervision, are proceeding with bare
/ fingers to dig out the giant blocks Of
roots. S. A. men drive on worker,
who might be their grandfathers
odd SOW" red swine" dirty bug
ger" the expressions are taken
from the vocabulary Of the imperia
army. Only they are more frequent
and even more vulgar.
The sand of the Mark is fine a,
dune sand. It keeps trucking back
| 1t runs through the ruined fingers Of
the men. The figures of those going
sick mount UP, The drive goes on
The abuse goes on endlessly.
The roots are dug out. Now tbs
| favored ones may arm themselves
with an axe-just think Of it-anc
chop up the hunks. But they watch
sharply after the axes.
Other prisoners must peel 20.
tatoes. Brown men watch over them
and with as much earnestness as Il
| the unfayorable balance of trade
could be set right by hair-thin po-
tato Feelings.
THE overwhelming thought Is no
the fact that here approximately
1900 innocent people are atoning fcl
sins they never committed, but that
crawling on the ground like animal!