A Captive at Carlsruhe and Other German Prison CampsLee, Joseph
History
A Captive at Carlsruhe and Other German Prison Camps
Lee, Joseph
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
There was a little chapel at Carlsruhe used alternately and
harmoniously by English Churchmen, Roman Catholics, and Nonconformists.
While we awaited service on this first morning of my arrival there
was a distribution of biscuits--briquettes of bread really--which
were received from their Government by the French officer and orderly
prisoners at the rate of seventy per man per week; a plentitude which
permitted of the orderlies trading them among the less-favoured British
officers at anything from fifty pfennig to a mark each.
[Illustration: THE CHAPEL AT CARLSRUHE.]
On the present occasion, when the baskets had been carried away, a
few crumbs and sweepings of the biscuits were left upon the floor,
while we stood around with our backs to the wall and our hands in our
pockets. Presently one prisoner put forth an apparently accidental
foot, which covered probably the largest of the pieces. Then, somewhat
shamefacedly, he stooped and picked it up. Upon which signal, with one
accord, and with as close a resemblance to a flock of city sparrows as
anything I ever saw, we swooped down upon the fragments. For my share I
succeeded in securing two pieces of quite half an inch square!
Those were indeed hungry days, when a man’s wealth was not to be
calculated by the amount standing to his credit at Messrs. Cox & Co.’s,
or even by the abundance of his blankets, but by the number of French
biscuits which he had succeeded in securing. Here of all places in the
world might one see a Brigadier-General crossing the square carefully
balancing a mess of pork and beans upon a plate, or nursing the
contents of a tin of sardines upon a saucer!
To be invited to tea by a friendly and more flourishing mess was
the greatest beatitude that could befall a man. In these cases of
ceremonious call the guest always carried his own crockery and cutlery.
[Illustration: COL. ALBERT TURANO, ARTIGLIERIA ITALIANO.]
One such pleasant refection, with Col. Albert Turano, Artiglieria
Italiano, lingers very pleasantly in my memory. In view of his rank
the Colonel occupied alone a small chamber in one of the huts. On the
wall was a crucifix, and a few reproductions of religious paintings and
decorations by the Danish artist, Joakim Skovgaard. A shelf of Italian
books, a deal table, two stools, and an iron bedstead, with above it
a plant, to be unnamed by me, but which looked as if it might develop
into a tree, in a flower-pot so tiny that it seemed as if it might have
done service as a thimble. The Colonel prepared the coffee with great
care, and served it with much courtliness. The entire contents of his
larder consisted of a few fragments of hard French biscuits. These we
steeped in the coffee, and of this quite delectable sop partook with
much contentment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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