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CRIMES IN
POLAND
Ghastly Nazi
Deeds
"The Age" Special Correspondent.
LONDON, Aug. 14.
The Russian speed in crossing
the western Bug and taking the
Germans by surprise is the prob-
able reason why the Nazis were
forced to leave a factory of death
outside Lublin abounding in evi-
dence of their ghastly crimes,
says the "Daily Telegraph's" cor-
respondent in Moscow.
In Lublin the Russians captured
the German police chief, Major
Kurt Zak, and his wife, who had
recently arrived from Berlin. Zak
was questioned, but swore he had
no knowledge of anything. As
he was escorted under guard
through the streets crowds tried
to mob him.
Correspondents report that Zak
is like all German officials cap-
tured by the Russians in Poland.
They invariably swear they have
never been in Russia. They are
obviously afraid of being brought
to book for actions during the
Russian occupation.
Russian prisoners liberated
when the Lublin fortress was
taken declared that British and
American prisoners were also in-
carcerated there at one time by
the Germans. No details can be
obtained regarding their fate,
but it is said that while sharing
the prison the Russians and the
Allies shared every scrap of food
and were very united, despite
language difficulties.
Every day trains brought
thousand from all parts of
Europe into the village of Mai-
dan, near Lublin, where behind
a steel gate topped with barbed
wire, stood hundreds of barracks
with a huge central building hav-
ing a large factory chimney— the
world's largest crematorium,
where more than 500,000 men,
women and children were mas-
sacred.
In groups of 100 people were
brought there to be burned. They
were first taken to stripping
chambers, and then removed to a
gas chamber capable of holding
250 people. For 15 minutes chlo-
rine gas was pumped into this
chamber. Then the executioners
entered and removed the victims
— some still stirring feebly as
their bodies were placed on a
platform before, being carted to a
furnace.
Everything was organised with
diabolical efficiency. Charred
bodies and ashes were moved to
an adjoining department, where
they were pulverised and tinned
for shipment to German for use
as fertiliser.
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