All, in narrating their
experiences, do not omit any detail, all give dates and localities which
they had retained exactly from those fearful days which had left the most
vivid impressions. There is much repetition in these narrations, for all
had experienced the same.
All tell that the Cossacks were the first to rob the prisoners. These
irregular soldiers received no pay and considered it their right to
compensate themselves for the hardships of the campaign by means of
robbery.
Besides the tales collected by Holzhausen I can refer to many other
writers, Frenchmen, the Englishman Wilson, and even Russians among them,
but the material is so voluminous that I shall confine myself to select
only what concerned physicians who were taken prisoners.
The Bavarian Sanitary Corps, captured at Polotsk, after having been
mercilessly robbed by Cossacks, was brought before a Russian General,
who did not even take notice of them. It was only after Russian
physicians interfered in their behalf that they obtained a hearing of
their grievances.
Prisoners tell touching stories how they were saved by German physicians,
in most instances from typhus. In almost all larger Russian cities there
were German physicians, and this was a blessing to many of the prisoners.
Holzhausen gives the names of several of the sick and the names of the
physicians who spared no pains in attending to the sufferers.
In the course of time and with the change of circumstances the lot of the
prisoners in general was ameliorated, and in many instances their life
became comfortable.
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