Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 156, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1917 — Escaped Prisoner Tells of Brutality. [ARTICLE]

Escaped Prisoner Tells of Brutality.

A clipping from the St. Mary’s, Canada, Herald, which contains ian interview with a Canadian who was a prisoner in Germany for many months, has reached us. In the interview he tells of the treatment accorded prisoners by the German authorities, and we herewith print extracts from it, which, if true, will give an idea of the brutalities the Americans and aliens must suffer if they happen to be so unfortunate as to be taken prisoners: “Mr. Rossiter is 24 years old and an exchanged prisoner, having lost the use of his right hand. The Germans had to perform an operation on it and cut off the middle finger, also removed some bones from the wrist with a hammer and scissors and gave him no anaesthetic. He told of dreadful things—how the boys could never live without their parcels, how there was never a pain like the pain of hunger, how they (the Germans) call the prisoners swine, etc. Rossiter says the Germans take all their uniforms, boots and underwear and give them cotton stuff. He said the food the Germans gave them was always soup made of potato peelings and water, rotten cabbage and water, decayed fish and water and 2 ounces of their brown bread to last the day, made from rye flour and sawdust. They are given one blanket five feet long, a bag filled with leaves and only floor space for sleeping. But with it all, our boys are smiling all over Germany and keeping themselves in good physical trim, always watching for the chance of a vacation, which they call escaping. For trying this they serve fourteen days in a dark cell, but he says thye don’t mind for they’re never alone. There is always someone else there. At the beginning of the war they were shot but not now.”