Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XX. War sufferers
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detachments of ladies who were admitted into enemy
countries and allowed to inspect the cells and the
hospitals of the prisoners of war—except the worst
ones of course. There were on the German side some
infernal regions which were never opened to Virgil or to
Dante, still less to Beatrice. These were the reprisals
camps, and especially the “kommandos” of “voluntary”
workmen, that is to say, the camps of prisoners working
under the stick of German corporals at military works
at the front, often under the fire of their compatriots
and allies. These regions of unutterable misery and
of gnashing of teeth, which constituted a flagrant
infringement of the elementary precepts of the Geneva
Convention, were never opened to the charitable curiosity
of the Russian sisters.
We remember with pleasure the times when these
detachments of ladies of the Russian Red Cross passed
through Stockholm on their way to and from Germany
and Austria. Their energy was beyond all praise; they
were very guarded and cautious in their accounts, and
yet one perceived behind all they said the deep
impression made on them by all they had seen and the boundless
compassion they felt for the poor officers, the unfortunate
Russian soldatiks (the little soldiers) that they had just
visited, and whose sufferings they saw, and still more
guessed at. By comparing their accounts, one gathered
that the conditions of Russian prisoners in Austria and
Hungary were infinitely preferable to those of our
prisoners in Germany.
Far less guarded and moderate was the conversation
of the sisters and of the medical staff of the detachments
of the Russian Red Cross who had been captured in
Germany and repatriated by virtue of the Geneva
Convention, but only after whole months of strenuous
negotiations. These doctors and sisters were very
outspoken when they told of all they had undergone
and seen during their enforced stay in Germany. For
the love of humanity one must hope that their accounts
were exaggerated.
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