Evening star., 1944-03-16
Terrors Of He'll Train
Told by Repatriates
Back on Gripsho|m
By the Associated Press.

JERSEY CITY, N. j., Mar. 49,
After the privations of life in Nazi
internment camps and the terrors
OF a hell train" on which they left
Germany, 374 left the exchange liner
Gripsholm today in a slow trickle.
Among the repatriates were some
who told Mel Most, Associated Press
staff member at Vichy and himself
a Gripsholm passenger, of seeing
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. French m n
shot dead by NaZiS near the Com
piegne internment camp; of seeing
Augsburg blazing inferno after an
Allied bombing. and of being sealed
In heatless cars in an awful hell
train" en- route to Lisbon, Portugal.
Woman Passenger Dies.
One passenger on that train was
Mrs. Jannette kaufman, 68, of Chi
cago, who suffered a stroke during
the trip and died aboard the Grips
holm March 7, the day after she
sailed.
Others told of being refused
drinking water and being kept with
out food for "a hours.
Mr.. Most said pride and fear of
ruin are two of the most powerful
factors which keep the Germans
fighting.
Germans are becoming war weary,
and they all tell you they hope it
will all be over soon," he added in a
National Broadcasting Co. program
S. Pinckney Tuck, United States
charge d'affaires at Vichy and the
highest ranking diplomat in the
American party, declared that after
Is months of detention we are now
able to appreciate the full value of
the word freedom"
Among the official party was
Douglas G. Macarthur I'd, nephew
of the general and a secretary Of
the embassy at Vichy, who said.
tits simply swell to get home
adding that he would go immedi-
ately to Washington to join his
family, whom he had not seen in
six years.
The official repatriates said they
had been satisfactorily treated dur
ing their detention. although kept
under close surveillance, and had
received an adequate amount of
food except that it was mostly po-
tatoes at every meal.
Prisoner Packages Boon.
A. Eric Taft of Washington was
among the American Red Cross
personnel. Mr.. Taft, who was in
termed at Baden-Baden after serv-
ing as special representative of the
Red Cross at Marseille, said he had
worked several years in organizing
the Red Cross prisoner package
service.
IT used to sample the various
products that we considered putting
in them," he said. II never ex-
pected that some day I would be at
the receiving end OF a prisoners
package"
Mr.. Taft said that at some prison
camps where the diet was made
quate the prisoner packages have
proved godsend.
Basil F. MacGowan of Lynch
burg, Va, who had been vice consul
at Nice. France, exclaimed, 1--WE are
alive" as he left the ship with his
pretty Russian wife, Olga.
He explained that their physi-
cal treatment during internment
wasn't bad, but the mental torture
was terrible"
Food Called Horrible"
viviane and Colette Crumlich of
Dundalk, Md, sisters, who were
studying in France at the outbreak
Of hostilities, said they endured
months of dreadful and horrible
food" before they were repatriated.
There was no bread, no butter,
no sugar, no meat, and the children
got only skim milk" one of them
said, recalling the rigors of life in
the Vittel internment camp in
Northeastern France.
"The food was awful" Viviane
said. There was never enough of
IL. Every DAY we got parSnlpS ana
old carrots and potatoes that were
not fit for pigs. Once a week we
got tiny bit of sugar in glass and
a very minute piece of butter and
an old piece of mouldy cheese. On
Friday we got small piece of ter
rible boiled meat. Thank goodness
for the Red Cross packages. I don't
know what we would have done
without them"
The sisters were met by their IA
ther, Henry E. Crumlich of Miami,
Fla, former director of the Miami
Hotel Association. Their mother
had remained in France and was
remarked to Frenchman, they
said.
At the camp, they said, a univer-
sity had been set up so they could
continue their studies and once a
year French professor was per-
mitted to visit the camp to give
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