Part 2

The dead were buried in a cemetery formed out of a part of the Camp. The Germans sent in a certain number of coffins every day into which the bodies of the dead were put and carried out by their comrades through a gate in the barbed wire. There was not sufficient room for burial of so many and the coffins were piled one upon another, but the Committee do not think there was any special danger in the arrangement. What the prisoners found hardest to bear in this matter were the jeers with which the coffins were frequently greeted by the inhabitants of Wittenberg, who stood outside the wire and were permitted to insult their dead.

_Dearth of Medical Apparatus._

During the first two months the typhus was hæmorrhagic typhus; it was of a milder type later on.

There were between 250 and 300 English cases and there were 60 deaths amongst them. The deaths amongst the French and the Russians were, of course, much greater in number. The medical officers and the nursing orderlies suffered the most severely; the mortality among them was high.

The cases of post-typhus gangrene were very numerous, largely the result, in all probability, of the inadequate heating of the wards at night, and, as above stated, of insufficient covering.

It was in the earlier days often necessary to discharge the patients from hospital before they were fit to be removed. Some were hardly able to walk, but it was essential to make room for fresh patients, whose need was greater.

In many cases these men had to go back to their barrack room and lie on the bare floor, as no fresh beds or mattresses were provided for a long time, and the mattresses taken by them into the hospital had to be destroyed owing to the state in which they were.

Captain Vidal says that the conditions were thoroughly realised by the German authorities without any effort being made by them to bring about an improvement. Representations, usually through the French and Russian doctors, owing to the marked hostility which was always manifested towards the English by the Camp authorities, were again and again addressed to the senior medical officer, but usually without result.

After the middle of April, however, beds and clothing were, as above appears, gradually obtained for the hospital, and as the weather became warmer the cases rapidly decreased in number. With the decrease in the patients, the supplies became adequate, so that now every patient in the Wittenberg Hospital, whatever be his ailment, has a bed and proper hospital clothing.

The last English typhus case occurred in the middle of May; the last Russian case in July.

By the end of July all cases were convalescent except those suffering from post-typhus gangrene.

During the epidemic an adequate steriliser for clothes was built outside the Camp by the Germans, but the work was not pressed, and it was not ready for use until a fortnight after the last case of typhus occurred amongst the British. Its presence there now will, however, probably prevent any recurrence of the epidemic.

In May also several new hospital bungalows were built behind the wire entanglements which were then moved back so as to surround them.

Each of these bungalows has three stoves, and in them beds are provided with wood-shaving mattresses, sheets, blankets and pillows.

Unfortunately the epidemic was over before these bungalows became available.

_Responsibility of the German Authorities._

As is obvious from this report, the conditions of the Camp were such that it was not possible for the American Ambassador or his staff to visit it until after many months. It was, however, visited by Mr. Lithgow-Osborne on the 29th of October, and by Mr. Gerard himself and Mr. Russell on the 8th of November, and their reports are on record.

All accounts before the Committee testify to the great further improvements in the Camp and its management effected by the Germans as a result of these visits.

The Committee fully recognise that at the beginning of the war when the sudden and it may have been unexpected rush of Russian prisoners overwhelmed the authorities, every allowance must be made for defects of all kinds in prison camps, many of them hastily improvised. They have accordingly looked in every direction to see whether any justification or excuse can be suggested for the treatment to which these Wittenberg prisoners were subjected during the period of their visitation. They can find none.

Outside the Camp the Committee can discover no indication of any scarcity either of food or of medical or surgical appliances which could account for the failure of the German authorities to supply their sick prisoners with a sufficiency of both.

At the Kronprinz Hospital and at the Elbarfin Hospital as early as February the supply of medical requisites was adequate. As has been stated, the medical officers in the Camp were throughout the epidemic amply provided with food at an extremely moderate price and apparently without difficulty. After the outbreak had spent itself and the German guards had returned to the Camp, Major Priestley and Captain Vidal were on several occasions allowed to visit the town of Wittenberg under escort, and even during that period they found displayed there abundant supplies of every requisite.

Yet for months the plague-stricken Camp was starved of the barest necessaries of existence and of the simplest drugs, and was not even provided with surgical dressings for the patients’ wounds.

_Habitual cruelty of the German Staff._

The Committee are therefore compelled to look elsewhere for an explanation of the criminal neglect of which, as it seems to them, the German authorities were guilty. And they find it in the history of the administration of the Wittenberg Camp from the very commencement. Incredible as it may seem, the action of the officers and guards in precipitately deserting the Camp and thenceforth controlling its caged inmates with loaded rifles from the outside, was only in keeping with the methods and conduct of these men throughout.

The cruelty of the administration at Wittenberg Camp from the very commencement has become notorious. Savage dogs were habitually employed to terrorise the prisoners; flogging with a rubber whip was frequent; men were struck with little or no provocation and were tied to posts with their arms above their heads for hours. Captain Lauder reports that many of these men went so far as to look upon the typhus, with all its horrors, as a godsend; they preferred it to the presence of the German guards.

And the callousness during the outbreak even of so prominent an officer as Dr. Aschenbach is illustrated by an incident related by Captain Lauder. Shortly after their arrival at the Camp, Major Fry, with Captain Lauder, was begging Dr. Aschenbach, standing outside the entanglements, for some medical requisite urgently required. One of his staff with Dr. Aschenbach was apparently favourably inclined towards the request, but it was curtly refused by Dr. Aschenbach, who turned away with the words “Schweine Engländer.”

To the Committee an incident like that, with all that it implies, speaks volumes.

The effects of such methods as have been described were manifest even on October 29th, 1915, when, as has been stated, Mr. Lithgow-Osborne visited the Camp. In his report of that visit, after remarking that the authorities of the Camp regard their prisoners as criminals whom fear alone keeps obedient, Mr. Osborne proceeds:—

“In no other Camp have I found signs of fear on the part of the prisoners that what they might say to me would result in suffering to them afterwards”;

and Mr. Gerard, speaking of his visit on the 8th of November, says:—

“The impression gained after careful examination of the Camp and long conversations with the prisoners was even more unfavourable than I had been led to expect.”

The Committee accordingly are forced to the conclusion that the terrible sufferings and privations of the afflicted prisoners during the period under review are directly chargeable to the deliberate cruelty and neglect of the German officials whose elementary duty it was, in the words of the Geneva Convention, to respect and take care of these men, wounded and sick as they were, without distinction of nationality, but who acted as if neither that Convention nor even the ordinary instincts of humanity had any place in their scheme of things.

The Commandant during the whole time was General von Dassel. The Committee believe that he has now been removed from a position which he always was unfitted to occupy. Dr. Aschenbach, however, remains medical officer, and while the Committee recognise that the material conditions at the Camp are now not unsatisfactory, that improvement is the result of constant pressure which ought never to have been necessary, and no confidence can be felt that so long as Dr. Aschenbach is there the prisoners will have the medical care to which they are entitled. It is a serious matter, as the Committee think, that the German authorities should still retain in such a position of responsibility, and it is outrageous that they should have decorated an officer capable of such neglect as that for which Dr. Aschenbach must one day answer.

_Gallantry of British Medical Officers and Volunteer Orderlies._

The Committee turn to a more agreeable topic when they draw attention, if they properly may, to the splendid work of the British Medical Staff and orderlies during the epidemic. Major Priestley’s work has already been referred to in this report: it was beyond all praise. Captain Vidal was, in the words of one of the prisoners, the idol of the Camp; and Major Priestley says of Captain Lauder that he cannot sufficiently express his admiration for his pluck and skill and for the unobtrusive way in which he did his duty. It was he who, at the beginning, bore the brunt of the outbreak.

The Committee have seen Captain Lauder as well as the other officers, and they feel sure that he fully deserves that high tribute.

And all these officers concur in praising the splendid bearing of the orderlies. They each of them volunteered for the work; they tended prisoners of all nationalities. They all of them, with full understanding, for they were all warned, risked their lives without a thought, and many of them died at their post. The Committee hope to be able in due course to supply His Majesty’s Government with a full list of these heroic souls.

The Committee feel that every one of these officers and men as truly offered his life for the sake of others as any soldier on the battlefield, and they venture to hope that the devoted service of such of them as survive will be duly remembered at the proper time.

(Signed) ROBERT YOUNGER, _Chairman_.

(_On behalf of the Government Committee on the Treatment by the Enemy of British Prisoners of War._)

_6th April, 1916._

LONDON: JAS. TRUSCOTT & SON, LTD.

Transcriber’s Notes

pg 11 Changed: Normally there was only one matress To: Normally there was only one mattress

pg 16 Changed: thre was practically no soap in the Camp To: there was practically no soap in the Camp