Charge Soviets Starving Prisoners in Labor Camps

A Labor MP and a London University nutritionist charged today that the Soviet Union was “slowly starving to death” Jews and other prisoners in their “strict regime” forced labor camps. Greville Janner and Dr. Arnold Bender were referring to the 1,200-calorie-per-day diet in the camps which they likened to the diet provided in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Dr. Bender said the purpose was the same, to weaken the mental and physical health of the inmates and so destroy their will to live. A sample of Soviet labor camp fare was displayed on the sidewalk outside the Soviet Embassy here. According to Dr.Bender, it represented “beyond doubt a deliberate attempt to undermine the health and strength of the prisoners.” He said that” anyone on this diet would suffer abominably after a few weeks, would lose weight steadily and lose vitality.” Janner said that no civilized country would submit prisoners to anything like it. “Having commuted the death sentences after the outcry following the first Leningrad trial, the Russians are now condemning them (the Jewish prisoners) to slow death by starvation,” he said.

The diet on display consisted of the following: Breakfast–14 ounces of black bread (a full day’s ration) one cup of hot water, no sugar allowed; one ounce of herring. Lunch–two-thirds cup of soup (cooked cabbage and a medium sized sliced potato), no fat allowed. Dinner–three and a half to five ounces of potato (no fats); one cup of raw cabbage and tomato vinaigrette.