Evening star., 1945-04-21
|hazis Spray Acetone
|0n 12O Prisoners and
Burn Them Alive
BY HAL BOYLE.

AssoCiAteo FIeSS WET Correspondent
THEKLA, Germany, April 20 tDe-
layed) The charred bodies Of 220
political prisoners who were sprayed
with flaming acetone and burned
and shot to death just before Amer
ican troops captured this Leipzig
suburb still were sprawled today in
poStures of agony.
Some lay. in the ruins Of the
concentration camp barracks. Others
were caught on the sharp spikes
Of barbed wire inclosing the camp.
OF 324 Polish, Russian, Czech,
Yugoslav, French and Italian politi-
cal prisoners In the camp only about
80 survived. A Czech barber who
managed to short circuit the cleo
trically charged barbed wire en-
closure led them to safety.
This atrocity took place in Plant
No. 3 Of the Erla works, which made
Messerschmitt airplane parts. The
camp, in the middle of the factory
buildings, was a division of the
notorious Buchenwald murder fac
tory" near Weimar.
Lured From Hiding With Soup.
From here the Germans were
marching prisoners by the hun
dreds to points farther east until
last Saturday. When guards learned
the United States 9th Armored Divi-
sion had swung around east OF Leip-
zig they decided to destroy the last
324 left on their hands.
"All were scheduled to be killed
that night-Tuesday." said the
Czech barber, Carl Tykal. But for
some reason the guards decided to
wait until the next day. During the
night 80 men managed to climb
over the fence. Most of them hid
in holes and corners of the factory
ITO get them out of hiding the
guards went around the next day
carrying big steaming cans of po-
tato soup and shouting that all who
came out would be fed. Most o1
those hiding were so hungry they
fell for this trap.
There were almost 300 men in thu
barracks. The guards saw that sour
was served to all, and then while
they were eating quickly hung blan-
kets up outside the windows. Other
SIS men ran into two doors. threw
cans of inflammable acetone over
the prisoners. and then set the
building on fire.
Blazed Like Tinder Box.
ut went up like a tinder box. ]
could hear my friends screaming
and praying as the flames scared
them and they tried to run through
the doors and climb through the
windows.
The SIS guards and one Gestapo
man we're ready. They fired into
both doors and every window"
I walked over to the ruins of this
40 by $50 foot building and saw the
charred skeletons, more than Is at
each door. They had burned into a
mingled mass of bones. One skele-
ton head lifted above the others
and its blind eyepits stared sight
lessly under the warm spring sun.
Two miles away young German
mothers were trundling babies
peacefully along American-patrolled
streets.
Bodies Resting on Spikes.
The barber continued:
$50 many prisoners managed to
run out Of the building with their
clothes flaming that the guards be-
gan to throw in hand grenades.
Some prisoners managed to crawl
out on hands and knees and burned
to death blindly on rolls of wire"
I walked over and found four
crisped, burned bodies resting on
sharp spikes which had no power
to hurt fame blinded men roasted
to death.
One man had bitten his finger in
half in his agony. Another, whose
suf1erings were erased by a bullet
through his head, had stuffed the
end of burning cloth into his
Blood from his head wound had
run down and put out the flames.