S. Excuse me, colonel, I have told the truth, and if you will take the
pains to walk into the rear yard you will see the corpses.
The colonel went and convinced himself of the correctness of my statement.
He returned in the greatest anger, addressed some officer in Russian, gave
some orders and went along the front to hear Schehl's report confirmed by
several other prisoners. The officer who had received orders returned,
accompanied by six Uhlans, each of the latter with hazelnut sticks. Now the
jailors were called and had to deliver everything which they had taken from
their prisoners; unfortunately, Schehl's clarinette was not among the
articles that were returned. And now Schehl witnessed the most severe
punishment executed on the jailors. They had to remove their coats and were
whipped with such cannibal cruelty that bloody pieces of flesh were torn
off their backs, and some had to be carried from the place. They deserved
severe punishment, for they had sold all the food which during six days had
been delivered to them for 800 men.
The surviving prisoners were now treated well, the colonel took Schehl with
him to do service in his castle.
The case of Karl Schehl is a typical one.
Holzhausen has collected a great many similar ones from family papers,
which never before had been published. All the writers of these papers
speak, exactly like Schehl, in plain, truthful language, and the best
proof of their veracity is that all, independent of each other, tell the
same story of savage cruelty and of robbery.
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