Stands Among The World's Most Stands Among The ... - Index of

"They were like a lot of sheep in a fog, all piled one on top of the other. I think there were six
suffocated to death." - Archie Read, now a farmer in Scotland
THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE EASIEST TO CAPTURE
"The young Cossacks once again linked arms around the outskirts of the group and did their best to
protect them from the soldiers' raids. The women and children were obviously easier to capture and
could be loaded with less violence. Often the father of the family would see this happening.... he
would be momentarily blinded by the thought of his wife or child being taken to the Soviet Union
without him. Many Cossack men flung themselves from the mob to save a relative, and once they
were out it was easier to seize them." - The Last Secret. Lord Bethell
"The soldiers beat the Cossacks about the heads with clubs. Blood was drawn, and as the men lost
consciousness the soldiers picked them up and threw them into the trucks.... Some of them regained
consciousness and jumped out of the trucks, whereupon they were grabbed, beaten again and thrown
back in. Once a truck was full, the machine-gunners got on board and they were driven down to the
railway line t be thrown into the waiting goods wagons." - General Naumenko, The Great Betrayal
"People were rushing past my legs, scared out of their wits. Everything was mixed up; the singing,
the prayers, the groans and the screams, the cries of the wretched people the soldiers managed to grab,
the weeping children and the foul language of the soldiers. Everyone was beaten, even the priests,
who raised their crosses over their heads and continued to pray. I prayed to God to help me to get to
my feet. I managed to get up and ran with the crowd through the broken fence into another field
outside the camp. There, many people, led by priests, fell to their knees and continued to pray."
Zoe Polaneska
Not surprisingly, the nightmare turned many Cossacks to thoughts of suicide. Dmitri Frolov says; "I
got into the woods and saw several people there hanging from the trees.' This was confirmed by
several British soldiers, including Davies, and there can be no doubt that a number of Cossacks died
in this way."
DESPERATE MOTHERS KILL THEIR CHILDREN
"More terrible still were the suicides that took place on the bridge which spanned the River Drau.
After the fence broke, many Cossacks found themselves briefly in an unguarded area. 'The river
seemed our only salvation. One jump into the raging stream and all would be ended.' Many people
made for the bridge, most of them aiming to escape into the hills, but a few resolved to end their lives.
The soldiers too ran towards the bridge to stop people from crossing it, but many Cossacks had
crossed before an effective barrier could be formed. Zoe Polaneska was one of these. She remembers
tearing a piece of her skirt to try to bandage her legs, which were streaming with blood, and soldiers
firing machine-guns over the heads of the fleeing Cossacks to try to bring them to as halt. But they
poured across the bridge like ants and were quickly in among the trees. It was then that she saw with
her own eyes women and children jumping off the bridge into the water."
"What shocked the soldiers most of all was that the Cossacks were not only drowning themselves, but
138