Madera Tribune, Volume 60, Number 65, 18 June 1951 — Five Companions Dead German Soldier Buried Alive 6 Years, Lives [ARTICLE]

Five Companions Dead German Soldier Buried Alive 6 Years, Lives

WARSAW —(U.P.) —A 32-year-old German soldier who said he had been buried alive for six years in a Nazi supply depot was given a good chance by hospital authorities today to regain his health and eyesight. The six-foot German, who was not identified by authorities at Gdynia’s Akademia hospital, said he and five companions were trapped in an underground German army food and supply warehouse by retreating Nazi troops who dynamited the entrance early in 1945.

The soldier and one other survivor of the entombment stumbled bearded, blinded and blubbering from the bunker about a month ago when Polish workers cleared wreckage from the entrance to the depot at Babie Doly, near Gydnia. The second survivor dropped dead of shock on emerging into the daylight. The other said two of his companions committed suicide a few months after they were entombed by German troops who did not know the soldiers were in the depot. The trapped men were believed to have been looting. Two others of the trapped soldiers died of unknown causes, the survivor said. Air entered the tomb through an air vent undamaged by the explosion. Water trickled through cracks and the men had plenty of food. But they lived in darkness after their supply of candles was exhausted two years ago. The trapped men had no tools with which to dig their way out of the concrete bunker, the survivor said. He said they washed in Rhine wine and encased their dead in huge flour sacks. The bodies were almost perfectly mummified. HUGHES SPIKES RUMORS HOLLYWOOD —(U.P.)— Howard Hughes said today there is no truth to rumors that he plans to sell his controlling interest in RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.