| Show FORCED TO WORK t IN KRUPP PLANT deported men and prisoners are driven into slavery by german authorities HAKE STARTLING disclosure hollander tells how deported bel glans and french prisoners of war are compelled to work in munitions factory in essen by W J L KIEHL correspondent ot the chicago news the hague II olland A cr who until four dis ago was em aloyed at krupps works in essen germany males the startling disclosure that lome hollanders anre working at essen in the and war material factories host of these men get there through the machii nations of what this escaped ciol lander calls cohen of who eem to act aa agents tor supplying germany with greatly needed labor eighty or ninety men a day generally find their way across the border by means of their agents lured by the prospect of very high wages and good food what they find in reality and how next to impossible it is made tor them to return to their own country is thus told in the hollander s words no return pass given when this firm ot agents secured my services they did not mention war work he said I 1 was given to under stand that field labor and trade work was required also I 1 was promise J that I 1 could return any saturday to holland to stay through sunday the promised wages were high and food was said to be plentiful I 1 accepted my pass was ready in a few moments but I 1 did not know that the signatures and aises vises required for my return to holland had been omitted as they al ways are in the passes given by these agents no doubt because they enow perfectly well that after a week in germany no single hollander would ever think ot returning there after his w eek end in holland soon after my entrance upon german soil at elten where I 1 found several compatriots like myself we were met by an agent from an ar belts bu reau who secured our services for at krupps by telling us that food was good there and wages very high he eald that in other branches of labor food was but indifferent and the wages nothing like krupps so we men went to essen how good the food was there you can judge of by the fact that my weight mas reduced by 24 pounds while there tor breakfast we received two slices of bread without an butter or fat whatever lor dinner potato soup that left us hungry an hour after eating then in the evening again two slice of anad like t breakfast if the hollander felt too or feeble to work the gergins simply took away his bed from under him to make liim get up oh yes there Is a doctor but he always diagnoses the same you can work if you don t work you won t eat arbeiter arb eiten as we used to put it the laborers are housed by the COO together in barracks which are but warmed and imperfectly cleaned typhus claims many victims in the barracks where I 1 was housed I 1 found tour men lying dead of typhus beside my crib one morning after a few days of this sort of thing it Is not to be wondered at that many holland ers try in every way to get baal to their country although the aises vises on their passes are lacking if they are captured they are thrown into prison tor a fortnight oa bread and water it they survive they are then dratted back to krupp s and set to work again production Is pushed to the utmost numbers of sol adlere are employed as a change from the front and these men are so afraid 0 being again sent to the front that they would rather work themselves vei to death at krupps where deported belgians work deported and I 1 rench pals onera 0 war also work at krupps discipline li strictly enforced and any utterances of antl german iles are at once punished 1 I got the impression abst flung itsell like mad alno ork as its last card tut raw nii terdal ts getting scarce specially cop per in essen all copper faucets and the like had alreada been cepl iced bv iron and tin the general fidei in gei amny Is that the ir cin be prolonged it the utmost for another halt year so chiy are employing their forces for n supreme effort lvery evening at kanpp s 1 made I 1 reported all lights are then tulsi lf done so tl at wi should not know when flyers really came to bombard the factories iso one Is allowed to talk of the damage done by allied bombs and the newspapers are enjoined to keep silence on these matters still I 1 can say that some damage has been done although I 1 can not how much nor exactly where on the other hand stories likely to stimulate the of the people are eagerly such as thuie of enormous dubni irenes of dreadnought dread naught type of guns that can shoot 90 kilometers that are iboa to be used again the allied armies |
