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THE GRTTYKBURG TIMMS Tii’SDAY, JAN1, 1918.*-tGERMAN PRISON:CAMP AS SEENBY AN AMERICANConnecticut Man Arrives HomeurInto Swedenon Fertilizer Boat.*WAS HELD IN WE PRISONSLost 80 Pounds in Seven Month* Be* fore Aid CameGuard* Worse OffThan Prisoner* and Glad to GetScrap* from Food the Y. M. C. A. Sent.Non- York.What Is n Gorman prison cnmp like, from tlio prisoner's viewpoint?Whnt sort of food, treatment, com forts (if any) do the men receive who arc captured by *h» Germans?will) its four sharks— I don’t know,j hut 1 was .told there were .lt;),non prisoners.Jn, j. ..“'I hen tiler-’ was another barbedwire foneo, higher and thicker, on the outside of a roadway which ran around j the eh;ire e: nip. Every 200 feet urn mil ihis burner was a sentry box and a sentry. Jnside of each smaller inelnsure there were two armed guards, marching back and forth.Nationalities Separated.Ihe nationalities were all sepnrnt-ed. 'I’lte Ereneb prisoners were keptby themselves. They seemed to tret the worst treatment. The Russian*were by themselves and we Americanswere kept with the English. Nobodygot whnt you'd call good treatment.For breakfast every morning we gotr piece of bread an inch and a halfthick and about four inches square and! one lineup of what they called coffee: but I’d call good water spoiled. I don'tknow what they made It out of, but itI was rotten, bitter stuff and not evenvery hot.*“For dinner and supper we had the same thing every day—turnip soup,with mighty few turnips in it. Wcnever had anything else. No meat, no potatoes, no bread, even, except at breakfast. You could take the turnip ‘Up or starve. It was just aboutMMIenough to keep you alive. Some of the How do the captives stand German follows got so weak they'd have to beThere they’dprison conditions?iAmericans nre more than ever vlI carried to the hospital.i ever vl- p.f nourishing food for j tally Interested In these questions. j)Ut .1S soon ,)„,v Wii few day*,were a littletefurned. For the offense of trying to\senpe he was given 19 days in the “black hole. with only a piece of bread a day to eat. Also a big German guard “took a couple of crack* at ids face*“The Spanish ambassador came to -ee us Americans on June 1 and pro ised to send us books and clothing, but I never saw any of them. They did begin to put it few potatoes lute the turnip soup, and occasionally they put about five pounds of meat into the soup supply for *J(K) men.Another Getaway Chance.In October I made up my mind fi take another chance on a getaway. Th« ships we were loading were plying be tween Limbeck and Swedish ports, and I thought I might hide on one of these They carried mostly suit fertilizer tlt; Sweden, though sometimes some coaland coke, and they brought back pig iron and ore. I nefcr saw them brinj in any foodstuffs. Sometimes the Ger man ships would go out carryingbarbed wire and iron rods for the trenches on the Russian front. They went to Riga, I believe.There was one bout, the Undine,which traveled beuvecn Luebeck anda Swedish port named Norrkoping regularly. I got acquainted with a Swede on board her, and he told me one other fellow had made his getaway to Norrkoping by concealing himself inthe hold.My scheme was this:« •ago in a trench raid In Frnnee.since some of General Pershing’s sob; stronger they'd be chucked out of thefilers were made prisoners a few days ll0spitnl. Tlmie v*; n’t much of whatI you’ll call real suffering at Duel manThrough the narrative of an Amer- J nn(| thelean adventurer who less than a month ago escaped from a GermanOguards were decent enough but it wn-n’t much of a life.prison and who had had experience with two other confinement camps, the New York World !- able to give answers to the questions.Captured by Moewe.Tim narrator i* Wlllet lt;\ Smith ofSouth Norwalk. Gonn.. who reached this country on November fi from Swe-Jden, to which land he escaped from uebeeV. Germany, h concealing him* !self In the hold of a vessel and ex- tisting six days without food or water.Smith had been a prisoner, first aboard tlm German raider Moewe, then in camp at Duebnon. then at Brandenburg and flnnlly at Liiebeck. for seven months and one day. He fled on October 11.Sent to Brandenburg.On April 3 Smith and his fellowcaptives of the Moewe were sent from Duelman to the notorious camp atBrandenburg, which Is on the Ilnvei ! river, between Berlin and Magdeburg Again they had an all-night trip with-! out food and crowded into uarrow wooden benches in the worst sort of cars.‘ Here we had Prussian* for guardsand thev were wicked devils,” SmithEvery morn-mg the guard would get together an nrly working crew of 12 men at four | o’clock. He would take them on boardwhile it was dark, to get the hatches ready for the nth* rs. One morning when I wasn’t In this squad I hid myself in the hallway where they always lined up. The guard counted his 12 and then in the darkness I joined iheni. As we climbed aboard tin Undine he didn’t know ho had 13, in stead of 12. He was a bonehoadeoGerman anyhow.*«I hid myself in the fertilizer—ncombination of salt and sulphur. Whntit did to me was plenty. My feet nrestill full of holes and the nails are«»off my toes.For six daysthen (an unusuallywent on. “The ramp was the sntnr 1sort of e place a* Duelman, with lo»m Journey) Smith remained In theStnnmed up, hi-, testimony is this:j barbed wire Inner lnc|osur**s. and then j a roadway circling the whole camp and barred on the outside with wire.“At Duelman they would turn us out and count us only twice a day, but at Brandenburg they gave u the 'raus’ ahold. When the vessel docked nt Norrkoping and the hatch was opened he dashed down the gangplank to safety. The Swedish police gave himwater and food; American consulat*attaches clothed him and sent him to„. ..... i dozen times. Thev’d keep us standingThere Is no particular brutality. n0 ! hnrefootclubbing with guns or stabbing with bayonet* as long t?s prisoners remain orderly. But the food Is insufficient— In’ fell away from 210 to 130 pounds and long continued subsistence upo German prison fare nlonlt;- has mo«tgrievous effects upon the health.only the lbs! C*ro«s ,and Y. M. lt;’. A Rippjles are keeping the prisoners alive at some confinement places.Brandenburg, wimre about 70.000prisoners lt;f allied nations were kept, was the worst camp S ultli encountered. T ill- is In Prussia, not far from Berlin. Duelmen. in Westphalia, wasbad enough.was better. At Luebeck. which is notbut a nort whereinStockholm nnd then to (’hrlstlnnlft. the snow for hours until ! Norway, nnd there he boarded the liner;'Thei some major would come up nnd verify I Bwg^nsJord for home, the final count. By this time our shoes had worn out. and m**«t of us actually were barefoot.“The Prussians tutuled nnd shoved us around like cattle, although 1 mu*tsoy I didn't see any one struck orstabbed who didn’t have it coming to jhim.At Brandenburg we got the same lt;ob) food—turnip soup, with never a change. They made the strongest oft*litlin camp nut a port where prisoners are worked on the waterfront, condition* were not bad at nil. •Guards Worse Off.The German soldiers guarding theprisoners were far worse off there thanthe captives, Smith declares. Relief organizations keep tIt** prisoner* supplied with enough food and clothesto get along with, nnd the middle-aged guard*, half starving and in patchesii us work on farms outside the Inclo-f sure, clearing the ground for the spring... ..... . planting; but we got no ivetter foodalthough ihe treatment \ .. .than the rest.We nearly froze to death at Brandenburg. There were sntnl! stoves in the huts, but they didn’t begin to warmthem. The* blankets—you could see ! through them 1 We were all full of Insects and had to have* our clothes Ifumigated every two weeks, hnt In itcouple of days we'd be ys bad as ever.Gets Job on Docks.“I was nb 'iit ready to take a desperate chuno- for escape when on May I they asked for volunteers to goto work on the docks at Luebeck. They said they'd give us boots, better clot lies and a mark a day for wages.I thought anything wn* better than 1 Brandenburg, so I volunteered and wn*; takbn.“Tin* clothes thev gave us were black 1I Pel Not to Bear Weight.weigh I of the !od\ must neverhome on the heels. In walking.leg i* thrown forward from the ip l.nee a* tine In harmony. heel(niching tin* ground lir*t ; but the.ighi should he so quickly trnnserred to the ball of the foot thnt the lice I makes no noise, fine who walks uni dly Is always walking incorrectly . ml of course cannot be graceful.* I***4-4lbeg supplies from their captive ene tnies.They’re sick ; the war. these f*Smith say*. “Tin 'Look at us, wit!or wear! The kaiser'* nogood ! He’s crazy. German* lag and licked nnd yet lx fighting!Smith, a railroad I rakennndisgusted witho” s at Luebeck, would often s»y; »1t enough to eatSome NK'i* *trade an*! a **hnlt;on■*!•’’ bv Inclinationearthly. stnrv-!keeps on ' uniforms whh n yellow strip- down the ipants :ind a yellow band fitted into the sleeve, with our number nnd the wordIKrlegsgefangenlnger’ (war prison) onike utthe lackness just now.byutiled from Newport News on Janunrv 'Tho\2* forLiverpool as foreman of r»tAmerican horse-w angler*. When his Khip. th** HritMi-nwncd steamer Esmeralda, was on h *r return voyage In March she was captured, robbed and sunk by the rnid*»r Moewe. nnd hercrew add*-*! to the prisoner* *#f that adventurous craft, who numbered at the»•did give us b* tter footgear, but you were Just a* likely as not to get on*’ boot and on** *h**e. and different size*. And when they half soled r. shoe they did it with the upper parr of »They luWhip' 1He will notyneglectede busylukintan old boot.leather nt all. ihe fame I »1 scarcely any\ a.s working onikinefin;In tin ir ofMoom *rnhling vnynp**«f*nd of the above 000.How th** prisoner- were shut below, with no chance for their live*, whenever the .Moewe sighted another vessel, lias I,, u told by other*, andSmith’s narrative of that not'd not b°repeated, ib* arrive*! with the restnt Kiel. Germany, on March 21, ami next day, with all lh** Moewe’* prisoners, w a * sent to Duelmen. Westphalia. a town about ten miles from the Holland border.Captors “O Leave.We were *ent down there in thirdclass lt;a: - ’’li .i “u p h in*L'Ufiril to I I'll tlt; li.*;! The gUlirUwere all rdddle-:*g' ■ G. nunn* i.lii)had been ?»t tie : »ut and who woreliome on fui' ii 't Tlov •*omphiinedbitterly bcc.ni w ■ do g' it I* aveall. Theytmd t«» do guard duly or work in a[';(«■ I• ir\ lt;■ I 1 a hi i H 1 p in *t-i*d aiI night, bin we lt;ll*b»'t got a scrapIlf flt; M »*1 till we hud breakfast at Duel*men in the morning.“Tin* chiiij) consisted »»f it lot of low. V\ ih-11 U-Ip; “1 shuck* w.th plain board door- Around the walls ran honks, one above another. Each bunk h. d a bag of straw for a mattress, ami two medium weight blanket*. There were four of tlie-e shacks In each in-elosure nt Duebnon. Each Inclosure In id about UHK) prisoners, and had a 12-foot bnrl ed wire fence around it. with the wire at the top bent iuvvard s.. yon couldn’t get over. How many Hi I Ili sU hiclosiitcs tin re were—eachwooilen shoes t * L*-**o my feet off themud.lie will obfgrThere b; *1 bmt r*Unge* am♦at Brandt i wnHi •pro!)|bi»S ofI Y. M. A. boxes bu* the.v hadn't nr-advertising hisit would have ilrived when I Iwitii other met*\t Lu*o’ckev orvthmuchbetter. Thev Ilioii-e on the Ilamhurg A: wasu 1 ig war« -ericau *piny,and made u* b)*i*l null unload ships.But her*sleep Inwo had twas luxurvmmer bunks to and decent blankets, nnd It compared to the otherplaces. V. o had the seine old hum coffee and turnip soup- but our guards got the name. Th* n In tie* summer webegan to receive some clothing fmm the International V, M. f\ A. and some food boxes from t! American RadHe wiillegitimofm k.Wh*I(1while and will• ''ross through lt;’op»*nhagen.It wasn't r ally u leave atori*What Y. M. C. A. Sent.Ev *rv week vv** g**t a b*)v that budIn it ft*i hisottit* some corned beef, i» if.. _ . 1 »..*'!ting ready.Hiveal loaf, snot T’idding, eoteiensed mlik, one-quarter pound of ten, a slice of bacon, a can of fruit. flt;» cigarette* nnd some tobacco. That saw us 11 trough. It was so good we f* H sorry for th*’poor guard* and would give ihetnscraps. They offered as high as r0murks for a pound of t \u. And th*’ bacon they would have given anythingfor.iu June. Smith made Id* first nt-f?o hud been work-can’t do busimin those gold..rone acr:s Hl*€son.tempt at escnf*e. ing In a shipyard distant from Limbeck ami monucrd tlt;* Imb* b!* guard at nightfall. He struck out overland, hut h - t»iis..n uniform revealed lilm amit v«» da vs latei he .vas captured atulI’hi.s hintightmore valuableseveral ye
Newspaper Details
Gettysburg Times
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, US
Tue, Jan 01, 1918
Page 4
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USA 23 Mar 2020
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