The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-07-24
Further Nozi Degrodotions
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EGIIldpS IluU CA1Ou641 1AoS UCC1A ooAA about this angle of the Nazi pris- ons. Attempts have been made to establish the number of millions of victims. Little by little, more has been made known of the unspeak- able tortures which were regularly instituted in the camps. Parallel to these tortures there was also created the veritable system of degradation and abasement of man.
 Tens of thousanos of women con- centrated at Ravensbruck by the gestapo constituted their stock of human material which was to be employed with the least possible expense in all possible ways.
 They worked at the least possible expense because the daily cost of housing and feeding prisoners was calculated at 35 pfennigs each, and the labor which they were forced to do was evaluated at from three to 50 marks. (There are 100 pfen- nigS in mark.
 Nazi Beastiality
 The Nazis aimed at human deg radiation in all possible ways: They worked us at hard labor for 12- hour stretches, night or day, either digging in the fields or in the fac- tories.
 They made medical or surgical experiments on human bodies and gained human byproducts such as hair, metal from the teeth, fats from the flesh.
 The contingents of deportees were inexhaustible and there was no nec- essity to handle this human herd carefully. On the contrary, the useless" subjects were eliminated through miserable living conditions or more rapidly by transportation to gas chambers.
 It goes without saying that we enjoyed none of the rights com- monly accorded to prisoners: We were forbidden to pray, to have books, to gather together to sing in our own language.
 Punishment Uninhibited
 All personal objects were taken from us upon our entry into the camp. An SS feminine guard, policewoman, or even a "chief of the block" were permitted to pun iSh or to beat at will.
 Otter beatings resulted in serious injuries, or death.
 There was no possibility of ap- peal, no possibility of defense.
 Often, our work was directed by criminals or prostitutes, whose frigsltful habits were tolerated in the camp.
 These contacts, the exhausting labor, the fear of blows, the humil- iating conditions, the dirt and ver- min, the state of intense physio- logical misery, the jealousy among prisoners-called forth by varying methods of treatment-all constl- tuted a system destines to degrade and abase us.
 Resistance Useless
 We resisted with all our force in an effort to remain ourselves" but at various times, in spite of the con- tinual battle, wills became exhaust ed, perceptive faculties weakened, and intelligence dimmed.
 Those who still saw clearly some- times destroyed themselves when they perceived their bodies were scurvy.
 Stronger and stronger became the temptation to submit to the law of degradation in the camp, knowing meanwhile that the only saving at- titude was that of revolt.
 This, at leas., was how political French deportees understood their duty. They became known among their more docile comrades as un- disciplined and lazy. They accepted the fact that four or five of their country-woEnen died either of ex. haustion or In the gas chamber daily.
 We were supported in this battle against men and women of tho es by the vision of what Nazi domina- ton would have meant ln the case Of German victory.
 We understood, iE viewing around us end in ourselves the eeaseless ef. forts to destroy all human values, that we fought and that we suffered not only for the defense Of France but for the defense ef ail mankind.