Ka Puuhonua o na Hawaii, Volume IV, Number 22, 1 June 1917 — WORSE THAN BRUTES [ARTICLE]

WORSE THAN BRUTES

Germans Cook Dead Soldiers and Manufacture Them Into Soap, Margarine, Pig's Food and Manure. What Are They Doing to the Dead Bodies of Our Soldier Boys That Fall Into Their Hands

Out of the welter of the horrible at the world's battlefield has come within the past few weeks a report that capps the arch of frightfulness. It is a statement, credited to German and Belgian sources, that the dead of the battlefield are boiled down for the sake of the fat in the corpses, which is used for lubricating purposes, and for the food values of the non-fat portions of the bodies, which is fed to the pigs being grown for human consumption. The Weekly Times of London first published the report in England It has been denied by the Ger mans, but again reaffirmed in Eng land, with what is claimed to be substantial evidence. The Lancet states that the facts are "undeniable and confirmed from many sources.'' Lord Curzon, speaking at Derby, confirmed the fact of the corpse factories, adding, "No horror repels the Germans." The Bishop of Car lisle describes the practice as cannibalism, recalling the cannibalism of the Prussians during the Thirty Years War. The Italian newspapers call the practice the "last abomination." Stunned the Entente The horrible news has stunned the British and French people, and has produced a greater moral effect than all the previous German brutalities and crimes. It is feared here that the Germans are probably using the Allied dead for the same abominable purpose. It is suggested that aeroplanes should distribute the news in Turkey and the East, with the object

of effectively disillusioning Mahometans. It is stated that there is a regular service of corpse trains from the front to the interior of Ger many. They run only at dead of night, and the utmost secrecy is observed. 'l'he original publication of the Times published in its issue of April 20, is: From Berlin Paper We pass through Evergnicourt. There is a dull smell in the air, as if lime were being burnt. We are passing the great Corpse Exploitatīon Establishment (Kadaververwertungsanstalt) of this Army Group. The fat that is won here is turned into lubricating oils, and everything is ground down in the bones mill into a powder, which is used for mixing with pigs' food and as manure, "The above callous description of a German 'Corpse Exploitation Establishment' situated behind enemy's lines north of Reims, was furnished by Herr Karl Rosner, special correspondent of the Berlin Lokaianzeiger on the Western front, and is the first definite German admission concerning the way in which the Germans use dead bodies. "This statement corroborates a striking account of this new and horrible German industry which appeared in the Independance Belge for April 10, as extracted from La Belgigae, Leyden, in HolIand. "This version, omitting some of the most repulsive details, is as follows: Holland Description " 'We have known for long that the Germans stripped their dead behind the firing lines, fastened them into bundles of three or four bodies with iron wire, and then despatched these grisly bundles to the rear. Until recently the trains laden with the dead were sent to Seraing, near Liege, and a point north of Brussels, where were refuse consumers. Much surprise was caused by the fact that of late this traffic has proceeded in the direction of Gerolstein, and it was noted that on each wagon was written 'D. A. V. G." | " 'German science is responsible for the ghoulish idea of the information of the German Offal Utilization Company (Limited) [''D. A. V. G.," or Deutsche Abfall-Ver-wertungs Gesellschaft"] a dividend earning company with a capital of 250,00, the chief factory of which has been constructed 1000 yards from the railway connecting St. Vith, near the Belgian frontier,

with Gerolstein, in the lonely, little-frequented Eifel district, south west of Coblentz. The factory deals specially with the dead from the West front. If the results are as good as the company hopes, another will be to established to deal with corpse on the East front. Live Wire Protection " 'The factory is invisible from the railway. It is placed deep in the forest country, with a specially thick growth of trees about it. Live wires surround it. A special double track leads to it. The works are about 700 feet long and 110 feet broad, and the railway runs completely round them. In the north west corner of the works the discharge of the trains takes place. " 'The trains arrive full of bare bodies, which are unloaded by the workers who live at the works. The men wear oilskin overalls and masks with mica eyepieces. They are equipped with long hooked poles, and push the bundles of bodies to an endless chain, which picks them with big hooks attached at intervals of two feet. The bodies are transported on this end less chain into a long, narrow com partment, where they pass through a bath which disinfects them. They then go through a drying chamber, and finally are automatically carried into a digester or great cauldron, in which they are dropped by an apparatus which de taches them from the chain. In the digester they remain from six to eight hours, and are treated by steam, which breaks them up while they are slowly stirred by machinery.

Several Products " 'From this treatment, result several products. The fats are broken up into stearine, a form of tallow, an oils, which require to the redistilled before they can be used. The process of distillation is carried out by boiling the oil with casbonate of soda, and some part of the by-products resulting from this is used by German soap makers. The oil distillery and re finery lie in the southeastern corner of the works. The refined oils is sent out in small casks like those used for petroleum, and is of yellowish brown color. '' 'The fumes are exhausted from the buildings by electric fans, and are sucked through a great pipe to the northeastern corner when they are condensed and the refuse resulting is discharged into a sewer. There is no high chimney so the boiler furnaces are supplied with air by electric fans.

" 'There is a laboratory and in charge of the works is a chief chemists with two assistants and seventy-eight men. All the employees are soldiers and are attach ed to the Eighth Army Corps There is a sanatorium by the works, and under no pretext is any man permitted to leave them. There are guarded as prisoners at their appalling work. ' " Additional information regard ing the use of human corpses by the German government as raw material for the manufacture of fats, and cattle and poultry food comes in the following despatch from London under date of April 22. " 'Commenting on the German corpse factory the Maharajah of Bikanir states: " 'We may be certain that the German authorities are not more considerate to the remains of fall en foes than to their own fighters Therefore it is practically certain that the bodies of the British and French soldiers have been removed from the field of battle by the Germans and undergone like indignities, also that Indian warriors have been used in the same loathsome way. Nothing could exceed the sense of horror and detestation with which this latest crime of Ger many against mankind is regarded in every part of lndia" "As Indians only on one occassion yielded ground, it is unlikely that many, if any, met this fate. "The London Times, quotes: " 'L'Homme Enehaine' says that the existence of a German corpse factory is confirmed by the evidence of the American cousul. "A wounded Kent sergeant says that when at the front German prisoners jestingly referred to the corpse factories. One said, 'Even when we are dead our work is not done. We are wired together in batches, and boiled down in factories, making fat for munitions, feeding pigs and poultry.' "Prisoners called their margarine 'corpse fat,' suspecting its origin."