Show citizen of U S reds prisoner physical wreck tells of years of horror spent in russ camps fights for health CHICAGO louis I 1 42 Is ii making a valiant fight in an american zone hospital in germany to recover his health so he can return to chicago and try to forget the years of horror he spent in nazi concentration camps and in russian labor battalions gelgand and came to chicago from germany in 1928 and was naturalized in 1933 he worked tor for international harvester company and latter for We western electric company in hawthorne when his mother died in effenheim uffenheim heim germany in 1938 went there to settle her estate taken by russians while in effenheim uffenheim heim he married his childhood sweetheart and was waa ready to return to america when the tha war broke out Wel gand who refused infused to become a german citizen was thrown into a concentration camp when the russians invaded germany he was taken prisoner and was sent to the ural mountains in russia to work in a labor battalion wellands Wel Wei gands bro other fred a des plaines IU ill cafe owner sought vainly for eight years to contact him then this spring he received a letter from his brother written from the american zone in C cam am her berg e nassau germany yesterday wrote 1 I reached home with a transport of sick men we left in the ural mountains on january 22 and reached frankfurt oder the first german town on february 18 only those human beings who have lived through it themselves can imagine the tortures of bod body y and soul I 1 suffered during the war at the hands of the nazis and afterward as a prisoner of war wrote that the russians took him to Li birla miles northeast of where he was worked hard and poorly fed pigs better fed our fathers pigs used to eat better food than we had while prisoners 11 wrote girote when men we were so weak we could no longer walk they put us in a different camp and fed us a little better until we were strong enough to start anew 1 I became partly blind I 1 had received only grain products and no fresh vegetables or anything else for two years for months at a time we had no fats always corn rye or wheat cooked in water and from 4 to 6 ounces of bread depending on the amount of work we had been able to do the monotonous food caused the most serious body disturbances my feet and calves are now thick with water my knees are thicker than the upper part of my legs said he was nothing but skin and bones and that he looked much the same as the pictures of persons in famine areas which appeared in newspapers to get up the stairs I 1 have to use both hands he wrote it if 1 I reached home again it was only because of my belief in god and my iron will to see my family upon receipt of the letter fred contacted the united states tate state department he was advised that his bis brother had been notified to contact the american consul in frankfurt where arrangements would be made to issue him a passport tor for his return to this co country gy |