Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-04-08

NEW YORK. April 8.-Soviet
slave camps are sometimes
thought to be reserved for the
enemies OF communism. but the
prisoner complement of vorkuta
read more like a who's Who"
of the Communist world.
The former first secretary of
the Communist Party Of Estonia,
Sixth in Series
who had labored to turn his
country over to the Russians. was
handing out food in Mine No. 90.
There were a number of former
deputy ministers Of East Ger
. many and the satellite countries
and regional leaders of the Com
munist Party of Russia itself.
In my Camp No. 8 was impris-
oned Soviet diplomat. Gurey-
vich, who had been recalled from
Paris shortly after World War II
and arrested as he got off the
plane in Moscow. We also had a
colleague of Trotsky's who had
been in Soviet prisons for 10
years: a former professor at the
University of Leningrad; and
Dmitri Bespalo. an, active men,
Der of the Young Communist
League from the University OF
Kiev who had been arrested for
agitation"
One of our brigadiers (the
prisoner In charge of Is mem
was a man named Politayev, a
former commisar and politruk,
or political officer, in the Red
army. Like dozens of other for
mer high Red army officers, he
was sentenced to Is years Just
because he had allowed himself
to be captured by the Nazis.
There were many disillusioned
East Germans who once thought
Communism was a good idea,
and even two Spanish Commu-
nists who had helped expedite
war materials from Odessa to
the Spanish Loyalists during
SPANS Civil War. They stayed
on in Russia after Franco won
and were arrested by the MVD.
Virtual League of Nations
Most of the Communists were
OF course disillusioned with what
they consider the Kremlin's per-
version of Marxism, but a few
of the Red Army men, for ex-
ample. have remained loyal to
the regime. They had the best
Jobs in camp and some acted.
as MVD informers.
Not every one at Vorkuta was
q former Red. We were a poly
glot army Of slave laborers from
every walk of life and almost
every country in the world. In
my camp there were Poles who
had served with the Allies in
General Anders' Army during
World War II, and hundreds
OF Lithuanians. Latvians, and
Estonians who had resisted the
forced deportation of millions
of their people. Hundreds Of
thousands of Russians, they told
us, have been moved into the
small Baltic countries.
There were 10 Greeks who had
been taken prisoner by the
Communists during their Civil.
War and, hundreds of Ukrain-,
ians who fought for indepen-
dence in the "Bandera" Army
against both the Nazis and
the Communists during World
War II.
Hundreds of Germans
There were hundreds of Ger
mans, both Communist and
Nazis, and some ex-SS troopers.
We had representation from
France in one prisoner named
Rene Ferret, an Englishman
named Chapman Tin Camp No.
10) and Eve Robinson, an Eng
lish woman.
We had prisoners from Iraq,
Italy, Mongolia, China, Czecho-
sloyakia, and later, two North
Koreans accused of disloyalty
to their regime.
One of my barracks mates
was a young Hungarian student,
Janus Forkash. He had been
arrested for allegedly spreading
Colorado bugs" and causing a
bad potato crop in Hungary.
Another fellow slave laborer, a
Latvian named Gustas, had
been a student at the Univer-
sity OF Riga. He often visited
Moscow with various sports
groups and he told me that a
good part Of the Russian Olym-
pic teams are made up of ath-
letes from the occupied Baltic
countries.
Other Americans
I was the only American
prisoner in Camp No. 3. After
I was there a while, though, I
heard about other Americans
IN Vorkuta-Cox. Towers, Pvt.
Marchuk and Pvt. Verdine, and
a Roy Under, who claims to
have been an officer in the
American Air Force in West
Berlin. Under has since been
released and the last I heard
he was working as a free"
laborer in the city of Vorkuta.
Pvt. William Verdine of Starks,
La, since released, suffered Sc
WASHINGTON g. SILVER SPRING
r. ~