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
The expected happened. The representative entered Barrack 6. He climbed
the rickety staircase leading to the loft with difficulty to dive into
the "Black Hole." He condemned it in unmeasured terms. Apparently he
realised how neatly he had been hoodwinked, he became furious, and in
tones which brooked no argument or discussion, ordered the instant
removal of the prisoners to more congenial surroundings. The officials
were beside themselves with rage at the turn which events had taken, but
they hesitated to give offence. They were profuse in lame excuses and
pleaded that the accommodation in this loft was only temporary. The
German interpretation of the word "temporary" may be gathered from the
fact that this particular loft had been occupied for nearly six months.
But the representative gained the day. The loft was forthwith vacated
and subsequently, when certain improvements had been carried out, was
used only as a schoolroom.
About March, 1915, as previously narrated, we commenced to experience a
severe shortage of bread. We were not receiving sufficient of the staff
of life to keep us alive. The representative drove into the camp one day
to investigate some other matter. When he had departed upon his mission,
accompanied by the inevitable entourage, some of us gathered around his
motor-car which was covered with dust. While one or two were chatting
with the chauffeur one of the party slipped a letter, pointing out our
dire straits and describing how famished we were, beneath the
ambassador's seat, and in such a manner as to compel his attention upon
re-entering the automobile. Another prisoner, with his finger, scrawled
in the dust upon the rear of the tonneau, "We want bread!" while other
notices were chalked up in commanding positions, so as to arrest instant
attention, "For God's sake, give us bread!"
When the German guards spotted the flaming appeal upon the rear of the
car they fussed up in indignant rage. One advanced to obliterate the
damning words, but the chauffeur whipped round the car. He caught sight
of the mute request, and intercepting the officious sentry remarked:--
"You mustn't touch this car! It's the property of the United States
Government!"
The guard pulled himself up sharply, glaring fiercely and evidently
contemplating defiance of the warning. The chauffeur was a white man. He
eyed us quizzically for a moment or two. Realising from our faces that
we were not playing a joke, but ventilating a serious grievance, he
stood between the officious sentry and the vehicle until the
representative returned. The Embassy car drove out of the camp with the
letters still staring out in a gaunt appeal from the thick dust.
Evidently the chauffeur drew the representative's attention to our cry,
while it is only reasonable to suppose that the emissary from the
Embassy discovered the letter which we had secreted beneath his seat,
because an improvement in the allowance of bread immediately ensued.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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