The Land of Deepening Shadow: Germany-at-WarCurtin, D. Thomas (Daniel Thomas)
History
The Land of Deepening Shadow: Germany-at-War
Curtin, D. Thomas (Daniel Thomas)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Germany; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
The physical comfort of the prisoners is well looked after in the
neat and perfectly clean dormitories. The men were packed rather
closely, I thought, but not more than on board ship.
One became almost dazed in passing through these miles of huts,
arranged in blocks like the streets of an American town.
We visited the hospital, which was as good as many civilian
hospitals in other countries. There I heard the first complaint,
from a little red-headed Irishman, his voice wheezing with asthma,
whose grievance was not against the camp itself, but against a
medical order which had reversed, what he called his promise to be
sent to Switzerland. He raised his voice without any fear, as our
little group, accompanied by the Commandant and the interpreter,
went round, and I was allowed to speak to him freely. I am not a
medical man, but I should think his was a case for release. His
lungs were obviously in a bad state.
We were also accompanied by an English sergeant, one Saxton--a
magnificent type of the old Army, so many of whom are eating out
their days in Germany. He spoke freely and frankly about the
arrangements, and had no complaint to make except the food shortage
and the quality of the food.
The British section reminded one now and then of England.
Portraits of wives, children, and sweethearts were over the beds;
there was no lack of footballs, and the British and Belgians play
football practically every day after the daily work of reclaiming
the land, erecting new huts, making new roads, and looking after
the farms and market gardens has been accomplished.
An attempt has been made to raise certain kinds of live stock, such
as pigs, poultry, and Belgian hares--a large kind of rabbit. There
were a few pet dogs about--one had been trained by a Belgian to
perform tricks equal to any of those displayed at variety theatres.
Apparently there is no lack of amusement. I visited the
cinematograph theatre, and the operator asked, "What would you like
to see--something funny?" He showed us a rather familiar old film.
The reels are those that have been passed out of service of the
German moving picture shows. In the large theatre, which would
hold, I should think, seven hundred to a thousand people, there was
a good acrobatic act and the performing dog, to which I have
referred, with an orchestra of twenty-five instruments, almost all
prisoners, but a couple of German Landsturmers helped out. The
guarding of the prisoners is effected by plenty of barbed wire and
a comparatively small number of oldish Landsturmers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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