European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 23, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Poles and russians and freed from German slave fake the first step Here on the Way to their by de Cunningham yank staff correspondent Vasily the russian Liaison asked a Gray haired russian woman sitting on the lower half of a i double Decker bunk to Tell us How the germans had uprooted her and her family from their Home and sent them off to forced labor in the she hesitated a then started speaking slowly in when she Bugachic turned to a former High school teacher from Holland who was acting As my and translated her remarks into in translated them for me into her name is Fedorova and she is the widow of a russian Soldier killed in said the germans came to her Village near Rah eve in december 1942 and ordered All Able bodied women and children sent to Germany for forced she says she was luckier than most parents of her Village because she managed to keep her children with they were sent to a German army Camp near the Ogdensburg which is a nazi fuehrer training she was to Cook for the and her now and now to work in an army Kitchen her son who was Only 10 at that was sent to a nearby farm to work in a but the germans let him come to see his Mother and Sisters on some week they worked there for two years and two it was hard work and Long but they were not beaten As some of the others on february the americans captured the town and liberated her and her and Sergei joined them a few hours then they were sent by Here was meant the displaced persons the official name of a Camp operated by the first army where hundreds of hit lers freed by advancing Ameri can Are clothed and Given med ical treatment in their first Stop on the Road Back the located in classrooms and dormitories of what was formerly a Convent school for belgian is the forerunner of Many More such refugee stations which will be established As we move farther into they will sort out millions of Allied nationals who were torn from their homelands and pressed into slavery by the this particular Center is a practical demonstration of Allied its guard detail is composed of 11 several of them red army soldiers who were captured and enslaved by germans and freed by the guards Wear regular i uniforms but with identifying red stripes sewed on the sides of their trousers and red stars pinned on their Field the medical staff includes belgian and dutch assisted by belgian nurses and French Mola who Are the French equivalent of our Molas also assist the army personnel of the Camps administrative they have been with this first army dec detachment since soon after Day in polish and French officers Are on the Camp Liaison staff to look after their respective the bulk of the refugees coming through this station Are dutch and the presence of their countrymen in staff positions at the Camp has aided immeasurably in restoring Confidence and initiative to the this is the aim of the dec command Peter Ball of he has found in numerous cases that rehabilitation is necessary before the so Long denied humane treat part 16 ment by their can fully realize that there Are such things As kindness and Charity left in the As another method of restoring their who was an Adver Tising promotion Man for Vogue Magazine in civilian plays on the refugees patriotism and encourages them to stage shows and Folk dances in their own native this goes far toward building up their dutch and belgian Dps Are cleared and on their Way Home within two or three russians and poles stay longer because they must wait for travel parties to be formed for shipment to other there they join larger groups for movement to Egypt and the their route so the Center has handled Only one american his father was his Mother German he had lived in Cologne but claimed american when asked where he wanted to be he chose he was shipped to a Camp for German although now in Allied the former slave labourers still eat German army civil affairs regulations require that displaced persons be supplied with captured foodstuffs when rather than with our army a the warehouse Here is filled with Swastika stamped bags of flour and other German food captured by the american likewise troops advancing into Germany collect stray cattle whose owners have fled and Slaughter them for use at the dec Here and at two Camps in Ger Many which handle German in even stoves used for cooking at this Center Are part of captured wehrmacht Field the Case histories of recently freed nazi slaves Are an Index of the treatment and privations inflicted on once conquered countries of Europe by hitlers master for there is who was taken from her Home in Gerardi an italian inmate of the displaced persons reads and works in the Camp Southeastern Poland just before Christmas of 1942 when she was barely 20 years along with five other polish girls from the same she was assigned to work for a German Farmer near although not mistreat they were told they were an inferior race As unfit to associate socially with Ger on those Stephania was never permitted to go to a theater or restaurant or even to Church during her two years of then there is Josef a sergeant in the polish army when the War started in this is his told in German and translated for me by the former dutch school teacher we fought at Warsaw when the germans after that we continued to even though we had to Retreat we fought until August 1040rwhen i was a funded and captured at Lublin after a year in a pm i was Dis charged ib1my Home because of my which would not four Days after i got Home there was a Blu sonntag blood when polish patriots killed several German and the germans slaughtered Many poles in re because i had been in the polish the Gestapo came and took me from my bed and put me in prison every morning for 14 Days they beat me with a rubber Hose because they said i had spoken polish in Defiance of their order that no pole in my town was to speak his own then they released me in March when my wounds had the germans came again and ordered me to Ger Many As a i was dressed in civilian clothes with a purple p in a yellow Circle sewed on my Chest to show i was i worked re pairing roads that Allied planes had bombed in Frankfurt and in May 1944 i was sent to there the Gestapo treated us better and gave us the uniform of the Todt fortification construction organization to but the German command von the mad colonel of warned the polish and russian workers that we would be shot if we tried to when the americans Cut off Malo in von Aulock told us the americans would shoot us and he gave us rifles to defend Pill Miron a red army Soldier who had been captured by the stands guard in the one of the belgians who passed through the first army refugee Camp was Joseph 73 years