Montana labor news., 1945-04-26
SOFT TREATMENT OF
NAZI PRISONERS
RESENTED OVERSEAS

a
RESENTED OVERSEAS
WITH THE 4IH ARMoRED DTVT-
SION EAST OF THE RHINE IN BA-
VARIA- (FP) Every foot the Ameri-
can army advances into Germany means
JOY for more of the foreign workers
forced to labor as virtual slaves for the
Na1 machine.
Germany's conquest by the Allies
spells freedom for them, at least In
the streets of this Bavarian village I
talked at length with some OF the veter-
ans among the slave battalions rounded
up by the Nazis in the days when they
we're the invaders, not the invaded
These pale, thin men were French and
Belgian prisoners of war, captured in
the spring of 1910, almost five years ago
During those five years they have been
through a hell of exploitation and dis
elimination that makes one wonder how
they survived, even with impaired health.
Nazi slave labor practices have been
reported before, but this story needs to
be studied by every American worker TO
understand how the Hitler gang ran
their war machine on the blood, sweat
and tears of subiugated peoples
1t is also referred respectfully to the
attention of the officers of the provost
nlarshars section of the American Army,
who make and administer policy on the
conditions under which German war
prisoners live and work in the U S. 1t
should help them to understand why
there is widespread opinion among the
French people and -as I have found
among GIs at the front, that German
POWs under American authority are be-
ing coddled. pampered ana allowed to-
get BY with easy living in way That
cannot be justified by Interpretation Of
The international rules in The Geneva
convention
These Belgian and French workers
were mere as prisoners of war, no less
than the German POWs are in the U. S.
The same Geneva conventions applied
to them. for the Nazi government mas
never openly renounced that agreement.
Yet look at what the German army au-
thorties imposed on these men, who
were treated far better than were the
forced workers imported from Poland
and from the USSR.
Labor for l6 hours a day on farms,
irom 6 a. m. to 10 p. m. with perhaps
is or 20 minutes off to grab midday
meal. Labor every day in the week,
with one day off every fourth week.
In other words, a day of rest every 28th
day. Factory and mine work under
conditions far worse than for farm la
Dor Every one of more than a dozen
prisoners 1 interviewed together agreed
that they preferred working on the
farms, even under the toughest peasant
boss, to what they went through in in
dustrial jobs
Lookup every night right after return
from work in a barbed wire stockade
from which they We're released next
morning only in time to be hauled to
labor No entertainment, no recreation,
no decent human contacts so far as their
official guards were concerned. Vicious
treatment from the S S troops quar-
tered in the town and representing the
Naz elite in the army.
TrT, r,frttta11rr 4,r.4, s.rfeto,A frf1rt.
of purchasing power Starvation feed
ing-with a typical midday meal COM
prising soup with three Or four pota-
toes in a quart of hot water and hunk
of black bread Most workers got only
8% ounces of black bread daily. Those
who did heavy work got a bonus of an
additional ounces Of black bread
didn't have the courage to ask them
what they thought of the food served
German prisoners of war in typical U.
s. camps-plenty of fruits, vegetables,
butter, eggs, milk, meat-in fact just as
good as the U S troops get, and that is
the best.
The daily regime of toll sounded bitter
enough but learned from them that
their captors had regular punishments
for those who had infringed on the
regulations or were held to be laying
down on the job There was the re-
gime of solitary confinement for days
with bread and water-cod water only
Then there was the punishment bat
talon which was sent to do the heaviest
possible work on rockpiles and in quar-
ries with brutal guards ready to beat
them. Yes, corporal punishment was
used on these POWs, Geneva conven-
tions or not.
The extent Of exploitation of prisoner
and slave labor in NaA Germany be-
comes apparent when you find, in a
little town like this and in its imme- ,
diate environs, the better part of 1000
such workers. French, Belgians, Italians,
PO;es, Russians and even hundreds of
Mohammedan Indians, captured while
fighting in the British army at NASSAU
Matruh in 1912