European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 19, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Some of the civilians from eight German villages near Saar lantern who set up a Cave Community pm by Saul Levitt yank staff correspondent with the 90th Germany away a rooster but there is nothing like morning showing a woman comes a faint Silhouette in front of the something Small and with a Small Childs voice brushes by your everywhere it is and the darkness is broken Only by sputtering of Light from Carbide through this underground half shapes walk unobtrusively and swing wide of you like bats As you we Are below ground in a big Cave inside of Liesburg Mountain on the West Bank of the Saar eight Miles Northwest of about German civilians live there Are reports of other underground one of them said to hold the Cave dwellers at this place near Saar lantern went Down into the Earth from eight Little villages that fit with comfortable age old smugness into the Saarland they Are people who did not choose to Retreat with the German army across the River eastward and farther into a platoon under William on routine spotted a column of smoke that seemed to Rise out of the Hillside and so found the you take a deep breath and then plunge into the it is a darkness filled with sounds of the dampness Rolls like there is mud and you remember London Sud in London there Are still people sleeping along the platforms of the As they Call the in 1940 it was smelly and dirty on the but there was at and moreover it was a place that was familiar and made by human but the darkness of the Saar lantern Cave is gradually your eyes become adjusted to the and As you move into the you come to some areas that Are better lighter it is like coming into a theater after the curtain has risen Here is a Kitchen with a pot a Small girl tugging at her mothers in an other Corner an old woman lies in and you Are told she will still be there when it is mid afternoon by the clock old people in the Cave stay Abed All the time because there is nothing else for them to the effect at first is of great animals All mixed then you find the terrifying order of a Community below the there is a Central Lane of mud that might be considered main and there Are other lanes of mud that might be called Side and on each Side of your exploring Light there Are floors or this is Franz von papers it belongs to the onetime Chancellor of the third Reich and ambassador to still Busy behind the scenes in he used to live in grand coun try gentleman style at Walle Fanger on the Saar River about eight Miles Long ago this dark underground Cave with its seepage from the River was found suitable for mushroom human labor developed the natural Tunnel so that today it is a mile and a half Why the people wanted to live underground is not completely they of get Ting away from the shells and and per haps they Felt that evacuating eastward would Only mean More bombs and shells and More but a Catholic priest who went Down with the people explained that they were seeking More than Protection from shells they were trying to hide from the Hitler Germany they and others like them had helped they came with everything they flee ing the flood that threatened they came As if they were entering Noah and they brought with them All their Domestic beasts 68 11 horses and 40 they brought their their their old they brought a baby two Days old and a woman there was Little organization to this mass movement the local Volks Sturm Home guard tried to prevent it by placing dynamite in front of the Cave but the priest wrote to von Papen and he allowed the Cave dwellers to stay and forbade the sealing up of the then the Volk Saturn tried to terror ize the people by telling them the americans would kill and the people half believed when the first american soldiers entered the the younger women trembled and shrank against the Walls and the old women took to their Beds and pulled the covers Over their when they saw that the americans did not Hurt they overcame their meanwhile a bitter Pillbox Battle rages in the town of Zilligen across the shells Arch Over this the people of the Cave like to crowd to the entranceway to look the women bring their babies to the Entrance and Rock carriages All Day they look Down at the ancient villages where they used to they wheedle and plead with the 90th division maps who have anally arranged for some relaxation of rules in the letting people out for tasks like emptying Slop pails and gathering these germans almost the Way the French asked us All the Way through France when will we be Able to go Back to our towns the maps explain that they must stay until the front moves John Macdonald of the Ridgewood Sec Tion of whose Mother is a Little speech to the Cave dwellers plenty of people have been left cold and hungry in France and other countries for More than just a few As soon As we move youll be Able to go Back to your for you it will be just a Short but the German army made it cold and hungry for lots of people and for a longer time than All Day Long the people crowd to the Entrance to look grabbing a piece of Daylight to re member when they go at night they re cede into the cows Moo at evening for their milking and in the morning roosters but Down below the Cave is always in the same kids play and people sleep through the 24hour pad 7