One of many documents published by the Ruhr Red Army, which was largely led by Council Communists, in which it refutes claims of committing atrocities, accuses the Reichswehr of inhumane treatment of prisoners, and calls for public support in their revolutionary struggle against oppressive forces in the Ruhr region. This and all the upcoming documents are available in Gabriel Kuhn's "All Power to the Councils!".
TO EVERYONE!
We hereby declare that the Red Army has not committed any atrocities! It is the Reichswehr troops who have treated their Red Army hostages and prisoners inhumanely. Hostages were forced to stand with spread legs above machine guns, shielding the shooters. Prisoners were put in heaps of straw and burned alive. Others were hung upside down, their bodies opened, and their intestines removed. Before that, they had been brutally mistreated and beaten with rifle butts. This is how the Reichswehr troops have acted against their own people.
We inform the public about these acts committed by the Reichswehr troops (who are in reality nothing but criminals) with feelings of disgust, disdain, and unspeakable horror. However, it is not our intention to engage in acts of revenge or retaliation affecting innocent men.
We guarantee everyone justice and protection by the Red Army, as long as he is loyal and surrenders his arms. The Red Army will not avenge the injustices it has suffered or punish anyone. We only fight for our ideal, which ought to be everyone's ideal: free people on free land.
No atrocities, no revenge, no punishment; only love for humanity and justice!
The Red Army
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