Treatment of prisoners in the notorious Vught concentration camp in Holland gives full scope to the “pathological ingenuity” of the Nazis, according to an account by a reliable informant reported to the Office of War Information from official Netherlands sources in London.
Describing the punishment meted out to internees, among whom are Netherlands Jews and 2,500 other Dutch citizens who had tangled with occupation authorities, the account said that beatings, withholding of food, attacks by dogs, and sadistic tricks are undergone by prisoners “at the whim of the commander.”
“The Nazi genius for cruelty is demonstrated in the unusual forms of punishment they design,” he continued, “one of the favorite methods of punishment at Vught being the withholding of food. Recently an entire block of 300 prisoners was told to fetch its daily ration of hot food, bring it outside, assume squad formation, put the food on the ground and then squat down before it. The prisoners were kept squatting on the ground for 20 minutes without being allowed to touch the food and then were ordered to return the now cold food to the kitchen. Another favorite Nazi punishment,” according to the informal’s account, “is to set dogs upon prisoners who do not work hard enough or fail to show what their guards consider proper enthusiasm in the execution of pointless tasks. Many of the prisoners, particularly the Dutch Jews, carry the scars of several dog bites.”
He related that “prisoners who cannot swim are thrown into a pool and dragged out again only when they are on the verge of drowning,” while “other prisoners are made to climb one of two trees standing close together in the prison yard, then forced to leap over the other tree and drop to the ground. Since most of the victims, after a short while in the concentration camp no longer possess the agility to execute such acrobatics, they fall to the ground breaking legs or arms. The number of broken limbs at Vught is very great indeed,” he concluded.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
