Prisoner-of-war escapes; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
S. was arrested in Berlin on the morning following our arrival in
prison, and lodged in a cell next to Wallace’s before we went into the
yard for our exercise that afternoon. If I am not mistaken, a telephone
conversation, during which he had made an appointment with a “friend,”
had been listened to. Instead of a friend, a detective met S.
He got the same punishment as we did. At the time of his escape a
criminal action had been pending against him. A month after our
solitary confinement had come to an end, he was taken to the court
one morning by a policeman. A few hours later the policeman turned up
alone, considerably the worse for drink, and shedding bitter tears. His
charge had decamped through the rear window of a café where he had been
treating his escort. We never saw him again. He was still at liberty in
June, 1917, and apparently in Holland.
G. was never captured. For several months rumors reached us that he
had been seen here or there in Germany. I have not heard that he has
arrived in England.
The German with the English name went to see his mother one day, two
months after his disappearance from prison. The police were watching
her flat in Berlin, hoping for just that event. Their prey got a term
of solitary confinement in our prison, and was then drafted back into
the army.
The sixth man, the German stockbroker, followed S. by a few days only.
He was kept in prison for a week, and then definitely set at liberty.
On the evening of our second day in cells, we were warned not to go to
bed, as our examination was to take place at nine o’clock. A quarter
before the hour, S., Wallace, and I were taken down to the ground floor
and thoughtfully locked into one cell, so that we were able to make the
final arrangements for a consistent and uncontradictory account. This
we did after a thorough inspection of the place which convinced us that
no trap had been laid for us, and that we could talk freely until we
should hear the key in the lock.
The following morning we were told of the comment of Herr
Kriegsgerichtsrat Wolf of the Kommandantur, who conducted the
examination, upon our respective stories: “Those Englishmen have told
me a pack of lies!”
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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