A German concentration camp in the Sudeten section of Czechoslovakia, where 500 Jewish women were confined under horrible conditions was described today by two escaped inmates of the camp who reached here recently.
They said that the camp, which was located in an abandoned textile mill at Weskirchen, housed 200 Jewish woman from Hungary and 300 from France and Holland. The prisoners were compelled to work from 4.30 in the morning until seven o’clock at night, with pauses for meals which consisted usually of a bowl of watery soup, accompanied by potatoes, or bread, or ersatz coffee.
Hygienic conditions were bad. The prisoners were given no soup, and once a week a little hot water for washing. They were clothed in thin dresses, wooden shoes and a flimsy coat, although they were forced to walk a long distance from their barracks to the workshops in freezing weather. As a result of this mistreatment all of the women were ill. They were treated so harshly that even several of the German women guards expressed their indignation.
The two arrivals said that similar camps for Jewish women exist in Saxony, Silesia and other parts of Germany.
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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.
