Evening star., 1945-04-07
Two Gaunt Soldiers
Tell Of Starvation
DIET in Sta|ag Z
By DON WHITEHEAD.

AT AN AMERICAN EVACUA-
TION HOSPITAL NEAR THE
RHINE. Mar. % DELAYED by Cen
sor) Two gaunt American soldiers
who almost died of starvation in a
German prison camp near Limbure
told today of brutal treatment in
Stalag 12-the first such camp for
Allied prisoners to be seized east OF
the Rhine.
They are safe now in this Rhine
Valley hospital and before long they
will be on their way home.
The tag at the foot of the bed oc-
cupied by Staff Sergt. Francis Holley
of Rome, N. Y, read: "Malnutrition
due to starvation. Dysentery.'
In February he was captured near
Hellerath in waist-deep snow as
he went forward with mortar OBJ
servatio squad from H Company
of the lst Divisions 18th Infantry
Regiment.
Treated Better at Front.
His captors at the front treated
him pretty well. Holley said, but it
was different the farther he went
back
1t took Just 20 days at Flamer-
scheid to make hospital case out
of Holley He was marched SO miles
to a hospital-a march which he
said killed one man. At the hospi-
tai Holley did get a special diet of
thick soup. jam and cheese.
After eight days he was released
from the hospital and sent to Linn
burg prison.
Maybe they couldn't help 1t be-
cause the hospital was overcroWded,' -
Holley said. They didn't have
enough medicine and if anybody
had bad leg it meant amputation.
Badly wounded men were lucky If
they got their bandages changed
every five days. They washed out
the bandages and used them over
and over again. They always were
wet"
At l am. two days before the
Americans entered Limburg the
guards walked up the prisoners and
loaded them into boxcars. Holley
slipped away in the fog and hid until
tanks of the United States 9Th
Armored Division rumbled into town
Attacked by United States Planes
In the bed next to Holley was
Sergt. D. Garwood of Troy, Ohio
who was captured last December
near Marche. He was with the
35th Regiment of the 84th Division
! GarWood was taken to the same
train with Holley. The prisoners
were loaded into cars which sat on
siding from Friday morning until
the next Monday and each day they
had only small square of bread
and little cheese.
American planes bombed and
strafed the train and the guards
fed, leaving the men locked inside
They broke out and identified them
selves as prisoners by forming a
large P-W. But IA were killed and
26 wounded in an air raid before
the planes went away
Garwood was captured and served
the same meager fare as that given
to Holley. He was marched to a
labor camp at Gerolstein. There
his job was digging bodies from
bomb wreckage or filling road
craters from 7:30 am. to $50 pm
daily. He said the prisoners were
treated brutally.
Five or Six Died Each Day.
HEiyo or civ man dio6 tl,oro oyor,,
day. Garwood said. "One of my
buddies was in a bad shape and
couldn't stand digging. He started
to sink to the ground, but we knew
if he fell he'd be clubbed by guard.
Another soldier and l tried to hold
him up and we all went down.
Then the guard kicked us and
kept us there four more hours. We
were cold and wet through when we
got back to the camp and had to
sleep without even blanket. One
of the men got frostbitten feet and
they were so swollen he had trouble
getting his shoes on. A guard got
mad because he was delaying the
working party and shot him through
the neck and eyes"
Garwood said the men were so
hungry they would fight for food
food which a sick man could hardly
eat. The guards sold small-sized
potatoes for 100 Belgian francs each
and cigarette brought $50 francs
A jeep picked Garwood up and
took him to a medical station after
the Americans arrived.
They were eating raisin bread"
Garwood said, land 1 never saw
anything more beautiful in my life"
More than 1000 prisoners from
Stalag II were taken back into Ger
-