Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons: Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, RuhlebenTalbot, Frederick Arthur Ambrose
History
Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons: Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben
Talbot, Frederick Arthur Ambrose
World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons
These fishermen were watched very closely, were hunted and harassed at
every turn without mercy, and all things considered, experienced an
abnormally hard time. Up to the day of my release from Ruhleben on
December 6, 1915, but one of those old salts had been released, and had
been returned to his country. We were informed at Sennelager that the
authorities were determined, at all hazards, to keep these "diabolical
fiends" as they were termed, in durance vile, until the termination of
the war. However, one of them fell seriously ill after his transference
from Sennelager to Ruhleben. His condition became so serious as to bring
about his hurried exchange, the authorities dreading that he would die
while in their charge, and thus adversely affect the low death-rate
reputation of a German prison camp!
Our hair was growing long, owing to the absence of cutting facilities.
Mine had almost reached my shoulders, but I was extremely careful to
submit it to a thorough wash every morning because I shared the fear of
many of my companions that, owing to the congestion of the camp, we
should be overrun with vermin. Undoubtedly Major Bach also anticipated
such a state of affairs, because one morning he appeared upon parade
with a pair of clippers which he had unearthed from somewhere and curtly
commanded every man to submit to a hair-cut.
The position of official barber to the camp was assigned to an
Englishman named L----, who I think might be accurately described as our
official humorist. Armed with this weapon, and although absolutely
ignorant of the new calling thrust upon him, delighted to secure some
change to the monotonous round of toil, L---- entered upon his work
with commendable zest. But he construed the duty into a form of
amusement, and played sorry tricks with the heads which came into his
hands. Some he shaved so clean as to present the appearance of a
billiard ball, but others he evidently considered to be worthy of French
poodle treatment. He took a humorous delight in executing some of the
most fantastic and weird designs it is possible to imagine, much to the
discomfort and chagrin of his unwilling clients. Still his quaint
expression of craftmanship and artistry contributed somewhat to the
restricted hilarity and mirth of the camp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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