The Wilmington morning star., 1945-04-24
German Atrocities

American correspondents IN I n GeTuldH
theater Of war, and particularly those OF the
New York Times, are doing a great service
nv their revelations of German atrocities.
When the dust and rumble Of guns Of the
former World war settled and died Gown
there was a strong predisposition to believe
the atrocity stories told in American and Brit
ish newspapers exaggerations, spread during
the battle to stimulate activity on the home
front and increase Liberty bond sales. The
new generation of Americans that grew up
between that war and this one could not
believe that members OF any race, soldiers
of any nation, could practice the barbarities
the Germans were accused of even in de-
feat. Yet, what is being brought to light by
correspondents concerning the treatment by
Germans of prisoners in concentration camps
lends confirmation to accounts OF abuses IN
World War /, and stirs us now to deter
mination that nevers again shall this people,
war.
Much that is coming from the correspon-
dents pens is too horrible to repeat. To pre-
sent fair picture of what happened at Buch-
enwald before American troops arrive we are
quoting at some length from a dispatch to
the New York Times by Harold Denny:
The horrors Of Buchenwald concentration
camp continues even though advancing Amer
heels OF the fleeing SIS guards and technically
liberated its 10000 remaining inmates.
''These wretched remnants of prison pop
vlation that numbered $4,000 in March are
free in the sense that their German masters
no longer are here to bully and torture them
and that those who are not too i'll can walk
freely about their prison camp or even down
to nearby Weimar. But they are prisoners
ones are still literally starving to death.
To-day when 1 stepped into one of its
overcrowded barracks an inmate casually
opened the door of closet and disclosed a
score Of half-naked corpses piled helter-skel-
ter Last nights CROP he said almost un-
concernedly. They were from that one bar
racks alone.
''And in the courtyard of the camps grisly
murdered during the period Of Hitler's new
order were at least forty others stacked
like cordwood-they were too hideous to count
who also had been gathered in the past day
or two and were waiting for trucks to take
them off for burial
THE strongest of the survivors wandered
about with buckets and pitchers in search of
water to assuage their burning thirst. The
last spiteful gesture Of the SIS guards before
they fled was to wreck the camps water sys-
tenn and empty the reservoirs.
American Army trucks, diverted from the
urgent business Of war, were rushing up what
water they could, but it was not enough
And by today they had not been able to sup
ply any food at all.
To-day they each got bowl of soup that
seemed to be only bread and hot water with
possibly chemical traces of vegetables and
meat. The prisoners looked up from voting
it and called it good
The other prisoners were pushing hand.
cart on which were several canisters of mill
for the sickest prisoners The International
Red Cross is trying to remedy the condi.
tons, and as I approached the camp today
passed several OF its ambulances leaving
the place. Some Of the camps sick have
been removed to barracks elsewhere and are
being cared for by doctors who themselves
were prisoners.
But thus far the Red Cross has been un-
able to do much. With water insufficient even
for drinking, even a hint of the present hy-
gienic conditions would be unprintable An in.
describable stencil of filth and death hangs
over the camp
How many thousands of human beings had
been slaughtered there before relief arrived
is not known and probably will never be
known. But what existed there when Ameri-
cans came up is enough to convince anyone
that only by stern suppression can this "su.
per-race'' be prevented from practicing even
worse tortures if permitted to wage another
war.
1t is claimed that there are good Germans,
many thousands of them, and doubtless some
are as shocked at these and other known
atrocities as we are. But it cannot be over
looked that the bulk of the German armed
forces, including the SIS, which was respon-
sible for the horrors of Buchenwald, were
Aro -,