The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-04-22
LOWEST DEPTHS
Of THE WORLD
IN M|NSK
EContinued from Page -
ar filled with uniformed Soviet

pdr 1uled WIN uniformed 0oVAeG
officials.
In eight of the box.cars, holes
were cut beneath the roofs. The
holes had bars over them. Human
faces were pressed against the
bars in all the cars. They looked
like cattle being taken to
slaughter.
Soldiers of the GPU, with
rifles on their shoulders and a
pair of revolverS on their hips.
Jumped off the end-bridges OF
the box-cars and formed in line.
They took up a position on the
adjoining tracks. Their bayonets
were fixed. Their eyes were glued
TO the pitiful entrapped faces be-
hind the bars. Here hunger met
terror face to face. I said to a
guardG
ST am a foreigner. Can you
cell we who the people in the
bOx-cars are?"
The guard was immutable and
silent. One of the prisoners cried
put in Jewish:
"Ask not, figure it out for
yOurself."
Hunts For Her Son
a woman carrying half a LOAF
of black bread ran out of the
station, raced from car to car,
stood on her tiptoes, and tried
to look through the grated holes.
She dashed from one guard to
another, pleading, but getting no
answer. They stood like fixtures.
It appeared that the Woman's
son had been arrested a month
before, that he was political
prisoner, and that the mother
had been tipped off that ne
would be shipped into exile that
day. $780,.
She was watching every prison
train, hoping to find her son. to
give him the bread ration for his
long journey. But she did not see
her son. The guards would not
even tell her whether he was
among the prisoners.
The bell rang. The armed
soldiers jumped on board and the
train started. The mother re-
manned on the platform with the
bread in her hands. She wavered,
as if on the point OF collapse.
Then she broke out in a loud vail.
I cautioned her not to attract at
tention, as she had been seen
talking to me, a foreigner. She
shrieked:
"Let them take me! What do
L care? why did they take my
son away"
This defiance was not confined
to the desperate mother. The
whole city of Minsk was in the
same mood-the defiance OF
hunger.
Everybody was out hunting for
food. The Soviet offices were de"
moralized. Officials did not at
tend to their duties.
Emissaries from Moscow were
replacing the civil servants Of the
white Russian Soviet republic
with military officers. Rebellion
was in the air.
First Raised Heads
7 went out into the square FAC
ing the hotel where we had put
UP, and heard the details Of what
was going on in town, details OF
mutinies and strikes.
An armored lorry raced by.
Two young men and several
women were on board, surrounded
on all sides by armed soldiers OF
the GPU. could see the
prisoners faces among the bay
onets. Their heads were raised
high. They were the first people
with raised heads that I had
seen in Russia. There was a
CLEAN of fire in those faces: they
had dared to rebel!
On Soviet Street in Minsk is a
Torgsin store selling food sup
plies for American dollars only.
Another Torgsin store in Lenin
Street maintains an exchange.
Anyone laying his hands on some
gold or silver would take it to
the exchange and get an order
for provisions from the second
Torgsin store.
Once in a while a peasant
would show up with a couple of
old gold pieces. Sometimes a
Jewish family would turn in
silver spoon or a wedding ring.
The Torgsin exchange had a dis
play window. saw a set of gold
teeth, an upper bridge, in that
window. There was nothing else
on display, nothing but teeth. PEG
ple eager for something to eat sold
their teeth.
Leer At PaSsersby
I stood in front of the window
and looked at that set of teeth.
I wondered how the toothless
: hungry person that turned them
in felt when passing that window.
It seemed to me that the teeth
leered at the passersby.
There are about 10 factories in
and around Minsk, and every
where I went I saw the teeth OF
hungry people, protruding, eager
teeth. If these teeth were only OF
gold, they might turn them in and
get some food from the Soviet gov
eminent in return. After all one
can eat without teeth, but of what
use are teeth when there is moth
ing to eat?
The Torgsin display window was
to me symbol of all that I saw