European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 28, 1964, Darmstadt, Hesse                              November 1964 the stars and stripes Page 3 forced by Congo rebels to Parade naked in Street nuns Story beaten until we screamed9 editors note follow ing is the personal Story of a 49yearold sister Anne Maria Merkens of the who was swept up in the Congo terror when the rebels seized Power in the wild Northeast of the by sister Annemaria Merkens Brussels in the past two i wished the the Congo had killed they forced me to Parade naked in the and i and my sister nuns were beaten till we screamed while congolese youths jeered and yelled at looking i dont hold it against the not even against the they just didst know any for All that i suffered 1 am keen to get Back to the i first went to the Congo in they made me the Mother Superior of a Mission Hospital at about 300 Miles North West of there we were Happy taking care of con Golese orphans and sick we also ran a school for Congo Lese the first real hint of trouble came last 19 when a group of some wearing Leopard descended on the Mission and accused us of transmitting messages to the they took away our transistor set and some supplies of textbooks and clothing for the for several Days they harried so terrifying Nur Hospital put cols that even the very sick ones fled from their Beds and left for a couple of weeks it was comparatively Back came the they killed our stole our chickens and raided our Rice they promised to come Back and pay the Bill but they never one night they came Back and abducted All our Chil Dren Between 7 and they took them off with them and spent the night singing and sleeping with always when the Simbas came it was obvious they were drunk and there was a kind of drug they Burnt in a sniffing the fumes it at this stage we were not 111 treated they con tented Thim selves with insulting we were for hidden to speak French and had in talk in Lin Coln the Insul dialect when they were the Sambas dropped their insulting manner Only when they wanted to have their wounds patched we treated several of the real ordeal began when they swooped on the Mission at the beginning of november and arrested another nun and we were taken off in a car driven by a congolese rebel who boasted he had just under gone a Pagan initiation it involved inflicting some sort of wound on his forehead because that was swollen up in the Middle missionary turned to help Carlson editors note a 31 year old protestant missionary who was in the Congo Only six Charles Chuck is one of the survivors of the Stanleyville massacre by rebel he was an arms length away from american missionary Paul Carlson when Carlson was gunned by Charles Davis Leopold Ville a the Young officer who arrested us 4 told us that As americans we would be Stanleyville was i bedlam when we drove in from the mis Sion to army Camp we saw africans shot Down around As far As dying was my wife and i were not we were Only concerned that the children would be left we wanted to be taken us a we recalled an old testament those who arc with us Are More than those who Are against they took us to the Airport next and put me in with the staff from the american the rebels did everything they could to humiliate us took our clothes they threw sewage on i was arrested the first time on 4 which was my wife released the first time by Olen a on which is almost the Date of our i hardly remember my own but i always remembered those i was together with Muriel and Stephen age 4 and Beth age when i got out the first my wife took it she gave me the lust weeks were filled with hardest to Bear was the constant Carlson find become a Symbol of their Hole America Campaign in those lust Hli arrest started As a simple my or rest was a mis take also and Olga  it by releasing the complaint against Carlson was made by a to ranking official who just would not Back it was a mistake and those who made it could not or would not Back he told me the night before he died that he was ready if the lord had to take i asked him where he thought up until then he had done everything possible to protect but the Simbas icons became frightened is the gunfire approached we were Silling in the Street about four r is some 290 of i know a lot thought of death and Many were too fright ened to i was i Wax even More a fruit when they turned the guns on that mass of people and them suffering and Carlson and i ran together toward tin nearest we made our Way behind one and headed toward a people ahead of us scrambled up a Wall onto the porch and broke open a door to get Carlson helped push me up onto the 1 turned to help him up and he was just starting to come Over when a Samba cume up behind him und emptied a Rifle into his Buck und Ive thought a lot about Only one of us could have climbed onto that i made and i wonder about my responsibilities because of i figure my responsibility to Christian ministry doubled with his i entered the House and hid in a closet with eight i didst think of myself then but prayed for my wife who was being held eight Kilometres the closet Hud Glass windows and we Hud to Crouch beneath them when a Simba he fired several shots and we Learned later he had hit some people in other a Small girl was pushed in among us and we covered her body with we were there Only six or seven everyone was fright we gave ourselves to the but we have human frail at lust we heard an Amer ican voice i know they Are in he opened the it was one of the other two Bel Gian paratroopers were with my wife arrived in soon after i on the fourth refugee we were marched i going is out of when they the hotel and Down the Street tuesday morn he said it looked like the rebels wanted to use us As a human shield Between them and though the advancing it really looked colonel Joseph Pepe did want a human shield of flesh Between the two lies in a Philadel phia Hospital after being struck Down by a Scooter on while i Jung unconscious she Wai robbed of by two nurse Carole Branden Berger checks the condition of mus photo i dont hold a says their victim Philadelphia a i dont seek but those boys should be punished so they wont do it to someone said Ella from a Hospital bed As she told of being robbed while she was hit by a motor Scooter As she crossed a Street and suffered a broken Arm and leg and other As she Lay helpless on the bleed ing from two teenagers darted out of a crowd of spec tutors and stole her con Taining about no one tried to prevent the lying in Temple University Hospital where steel pins and plates hold the broken Bones to Gether As they slowly miss Sowolski said she bears no grudge against the youths who robbed she said evenly ill never get my Money and i dont hold a grudge against but if anything like that they should be punished so they wont do it its like everything theres too much crime commit Ted All and then when somebody kills they have it in the papers How Many times they were arrested before und then let with her left Arm she reached for an overhead bar and lifted she has been in the hos Pital for five How much longer Shell be she Doest All the doctors Tell me is that it just takes she into a Large Many of the Nimbus curried this there followed a Long trip through the Bush toward a trip lusting More than a As we went through Village after the inhabitants seemed to get progressively angrier at they would swarm thump on the car and Rock they thought we were Ameri cans and screamed accusingly at Yankees the last part of the journey we were taken under escort in a motorized Canoe along the Congo on arriving Simbas welcomed us with a bar rage of insult and made us jump Irlo the River up to our we were herded in a House that had been Tukan Over by the Umbas to serve As a there we were told to take off our clot hot for an All our possessions were rosaries and All these things were thrown in a Heap in the Middle of the Street and we were now you have your magic you have no More they gave us Buck our clothes then and locked us up in the which already contained 16 other 23 priests and three flew into rage the next the Ter ror reached its the Sim bus heard in planes Over thought they were Ameri can und flew into a we were just sitting Down to breakfast when in rushed a Sim by with a sweep of his brushed the Tuble clean of nil food and shouting accusations that we and summoned the americana luring the the Simbas at i lucked the they Ham mered them mercilessly with i Slicks and Rifle Butts until nearly everyone was covered with blood i and then we were marched outside land told la strip off All our i completely we were ordered to sit then i the rebels pitched into i ferocious blows ferocious blows from rifles and clubs rained repeatedly on hour Bare we screamed i and cried but they kept All i the time congolese youths danced i and yelled insults at us from the of the with blood flowing in the the Samba commander ordered his men to i was bleeding from a big Gash on the head and was covered with the Sambas hustled us Back in Ido the still racked with pain and we were All nut in a Small room and told to sit herded in then the 21 priests and the three civilians were herded in with far 24 hours we stayed that locked in the kept without food and watched by a sentry peering through a Small window we were still completely the priests had Only scraps of next Day we were released from the room but subjected to a constant barrage of again and attain they promised to kill us or eat us alive or throw us in the River in we will have a Good meal with they it was then i wished i was Al ready a few Days later we were taken from the prison and transported to Stanleyville where we staved with other prisoners in the hotel pcs chutes until Rescue reached us 24 with the arrival of the belgian