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GRUESOME HARVEST
A British contractor employing German slaves for skilled
work is reported to have remarked:
"When you see how well they do things and how awful our
own Ministry of Works-we call the Ministry the O.C., short
for organized chaos-messes things up, it makes you wonder how
we ever won the war." 'L
Among other projects, the prisoners were forced to build
in Kensington Gardens a British victory celebration camp to
house 24,000 empire troops who marched in the Empire's Vic-
tory Day parade. One foreman remarked: "I guess the Jerries
are preparing to celebrate their own downfall. It does seem
as though that is laying it on a bit thick." 20
The British Government nets over $250,000,000 annually
from its slaves. The Government, which frankly calls itself
the "owner" of the prisoners, hires the men out to any em-
ployer needing men, charging the going rates of pay for such
work-usually $15 to $20 per week. It pays the slaves from
10 cents to 20 cents a day, depending on the character of the
work required, plus such "amenities" as slaves customarily re-
ceived in the former days of slavery in the form of clothing,
food, and shelter. 21 The prisoners are never paid in cash, but
are given credits, either in the form of vouchers for camp post
exchange items or credits against the time when they will be
liberated. In March 1946, 140,000 prisoners were working
on farms, for which the Government collected $14 a week per
prisoner, 24,000 on housing and bomb damage clearance, 22,-
000 on railroads, mostly as section hands, the balance at odd
iobs, such as digging weeds out of the Thames River or serv-
ing as menials for GI brides awaiting shipment to America. 22
According to revelations by members of the British House
of Commons, about 130,000 former German officers and men
were held during the winter of 1945-46 in British camps in
Belgium under conditions British officers have described as
"not much better than Belsen." "The prisoners lived through
the winter in tents and slept on the bare ground under one
blanket each. They say they are underfed and beaten and
kicked by the guards. Many have no underclothes or boots." 22
In the summer of 1946 an increasing number of prisoners
were escaping from British slave camps with British civilian
aid. Accounts of the chases by military police are reminiscent