Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-04-22
American Woman Hid
In 1yphus Hospital 10
Dodge Death March
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star war CORRESPONDENT.


know her hair was white until W,
asked what its former color was
because she hadn't looked in {
mirror since June, 1913, when sh,
was taken by the Gestapo from {
Brittany chateau, charged with
hiding American airmen. Then he
hair was coal black.
The wife of a De Gaulle staff Off.
Ger in labor camp near here, sh,
escaped being marched eastward
by the Germans with $500 othel
women prisoners when the Amer.
leans approached the city by hid.
ing in a bed in typhus hospita
among the victims of the dreac
disease
Three days later, she heard out.
side the barbed wire:
This damned lousy bicycle" TIL.
most blessed words ever spoken, fol-
she knew only an American coule
say them
A few minutes later she was tell.
ing her story to Pvt. Eddie Miller
New York City, who gave her ar
American dollar bill which she nov
wears pinned over her heart.
Mems Camp Burned.
At noon Wednesday the countess
and other women prisoners left be-
hind saw great blaze from the
male slave camp a few hundred
yards from the women's pen. SIS
soldiers staged an appropriate cele.
bration of Hitler's birthday wher
they locked $50 men prisoners ir
barracks behind barbed wire, blackec
out the windows, then set the build.
ing afire. They picked off with
rifles most of those who managed
to get out of the flames.
A few crawled, terribly burned
over toward the womens barrack s
where they were dragged inside and
hidden The countess says this fate
was undoubtedly planned for the
sick women left behind but the
scared guards fled too soon to put
1t into execution. The charred bodies
were found by American soldiers
just before the release of the women.
The countess told for the first
time the terrible story of Brook of
Ravens End" an prison camp north
of Berlin where 10000 women were
held until few weeks ago. There
women political prisoners were
starved, covered with lice, stripped
naked before male guards, kicked
and beaten by women guards. who
were prisoners on such charges as
prostitution and black marketeering,
and who volunteered as DULLES for
preferred treatment.
Saved Escaped Airmen.
The countess. who had lived in
Brittany since her marriage II years
ago, now admits proudly that she
shielded lot of escaped airmen,
with 10 in the chateau attic at one
time. She was arrested by the Ges-
tapo and taken to Rennes for ques-
tioning. There she was beaten and
kicked and put in solitary confine-
ment in rat-inveSted dungeon for
IS days.
Il had always been in deadly fear
Of rats since I was a little girl. My
husband never could believe I was
still alive after living with them for
a month, said the countess.
Then with about a thousand other
women prisoners she was placed in
a boxcar-40 to the garland taken
to the concentration camp of Raw
ensbruch, north of Berlin.
1t was lovely spot surrounded
by pine trees on the shore of a beau
tiful lake." the countess continued.
When we marched from the train
we thought our troubles were over
as the vista opened before us. But
once inside the gates we were made
to stand at attention for "a hours
in bitter cold, beaten with leather
thongs BY guards when We moved
from the line. I will take the pic
ture with me to my dying day of
white-haired 77-year-old Nine. de la
Prede, an old-time Partisan aristo-
crat, who acted as if she were still
in her drawing room. But she
suffered so much from the cold that
the guards finally allowed other
women to form a circle around her
to shield her from the wind.
Women Stripped.
Then we were taken inside and
stripped before the guards We
Stpod for hnI1rc raLoJ ,,o+;1 Wiz
got prison clothes. This was the
start of months of hell. The camp
consisted of big concrete buildings.
Each was intended to house 600.
The hunks were in tiers of four, one
bunk for each woman. But We
found about 1000 crowded into each
building and slept five to a bunk.
We were awakened each morning
at o'clock and stood at attention
for hours until the roll was called.
Then We got cup of coffee. In
the afternoon came slice of bread
and bowl of Watery soup. There
was no room to move about all day
AT Ravensbruch I literally lived
each day, lying under a table
Women died off rapidly. The camp
supposedly was in charge of the SIS
Women's Corps. We used to see
them at drill with snappy uniforms
and caps with skull and crossbones
insignia. But the guards were really
volunteer prostitutes who worked us
in the sandpits outside the camp.
One day was called out with a
lot of others for removal. We were
taken in boxcars through Berlin to
near here where they put us to work
in the second largest munitions
plant in Germany, making panzer-
fausts.
THE factory people were very
good to us but the SIS guards very
cruel. But we could keep clean and
each had a bed. The panzerfaust
was new weapon and the Ger
mans printed thousands of booklets
of instructions for troops on its
use. At the last minute serious
error was found and I and several
others were kept busy for the past
two weeks, correcting them with a
pen while freight cars waited to
carry the books to the front.