The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1944-12-01
Inside the Axis

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of different colors to distinguish
among various groups
"a blue circle" the paper said, was
used for the 'anti-sociaP group, red
marked the political unreliable, while
those not belonging to either CLASH
fication bore a green circle
w.
CRIPPLES FOR THE FRONT
Under orders issued by Gen. Will
helm Keitel, head of the supreme COM
mand of the German army, men with
deformities and chronic ailments are
now being assigned to- military labor
service and wounded men are being
returned to the front post-haste in an
attempt to utilize every bit of avail
able German manpower
Last December the chief of the
Wehrmacht medical service, DR.. Hand
loser, set up three classifications for
conscriptees gift for combat duty"
"fit for limited combat duty" and gift
for labor duty" Declaring that the
"fuehrer demands that every able
bodied man shall do combat duty as
soon and as long as his condition al
lows" DIR. Handloser ordered his med
ical officers ito dispense with scruples
that may have been justified in differ
ent circumstances and so to allocate
all men without false leniency."
This order was Immediately fol-
lowed upon Dec. Is by a decree issued
by Keitel, who clarified Handloser's
proclamation by declaring that many
soldiers will be sent to the fighting
front who under the old classifications
would have been rejected as unfit
and sent back" Keitel explained the
new classifications as follows:
a. Soldiers with defects listed in
Tables A and B would be sent to the
front without question. Those defects
include obesity, skin complaints,
slightly subnormal intelligence, slight
ly faulty hearing or sight.
b. Soldiers with defects listed in
Table L would be sent to the front
ION the largest possible SCALE" These
defects include excessive obesity,
chronic skin diseases, diabetes,
slight eeble-mindleness, serious
faults of speech, deformities of the
spine and ribs, kidney diseases, vari-
cose veins, bow-legs, knock-knees, one
leg shorter than the other. Keitel
declared that the worst cases could
be classified as sfit for limited COM
bat duty"
Oil xrr,t l4fo i,+n in,
Table U would generally be classified
as "fit for labor service" with the
worst cases in this group rejected
completely. The defects in Table U,
all of a serious nature, include bad
skin diseases, incurable growths, dis
eases of the blood and chronic govt,
feeble-mindedness deaf
ness and dumbness, deformities that
hamper normal movements.
The Keitel decree abolished the old
"fit for garrison duty
in the field" and gift for garrison duty
in the homeland Furthermore, it
declared that "all soldiers in military
for service again are expected to ap-
ply of their own accord for discharge
from their hospital"
After this decree, the German high
command issued another order, which
provided that soldiers classified as
''fit for limited combat duty were to
be re-examined and classified as "fit
for combat duty" under the strictest
standards for remaining in the old
category.
PICTURE OF VIENNA
Recent neutral press dispatches
have pictured Vienna as crowded,
iittery and disease ridden city, over
run by refugees, fearful of the Soviet
advance and plagued by epidemic.
"The authorities in Vienna have
been forced to take all possible meas
Tres to check flood of epidemic dis
cases." the Stockholm Tidningen re-
ported "All epidemic hospitals and
barracks are already crowded, and
people suffering from these diseases
AN on longer be kept isolated from
he others. The worst rabies epidem-
C in the memory of man exists in
Vienna"
The Tidningen reported that, on
op of bombed-out refugees that had
previously arrived from Germany,
lew wave of refugees was streaming
rom Hungary and the Balkans. 1t
aid that fertilization workers were
,eing vaccinated against typhus and
and added that nazi officials
we're sending their families back to
Germany.
Meanwhile, the Swiss newspaper
reported that the Soviet
.dvance in Hungary had increased
he tempo of fortification construc-
ion in Vienna.
Every child realizes and fears that
Jenna might become a theater of
var" the Zurich newspaper said,
and, even worse, might disappear
rom the face of the earth"
Viennese are chatting at the crowded ,
onditions brought about by the in
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