I arriyed in Frankfurt am Main in late March 1944, it was known as a. I was there until March 1945and you had to work very

Transcription

1 \ arryed n Frankfurt am Man n late March 1944, t was known as a Stros~gefangns. was there untl March 1945and you had to work very hard ~o produce your quota, otherwse, no work no food. lost a consderable amount of weght n the perod. Late *arch 1945 we force marched to a ralway sdng n Frankfurt, our escort were prson warders and dogs. We were ordered nto a goods wagon whch was flled to capacty. Throughout our journey we had to reman stand1g, f you fell, you were crushed, Ths journey lasted four days and nghts \wth no lght, no ar, no food, and no water. We reached a town named Wurtzburg about 2 am and n the ralway sdngs we dsembarked. To get to the prson, beng dark, t was very dffcult to negotate the ralwayllnes. We were nformed that any prsoner that fell on the track would be shot. Qute a few shots were heard. We walked to the prson and were t1rced to kneel down untl dawn. Small groups of prsoners were taken nto large prson cells, naked. Our clothes had to be left outsde to be fumgat d. We were packed nsde and some sort of gas was let nto the cell wh~ch almost stfled us. The smell dd ease fortunately. We were gven w.ter to drnk and a very watery soup. Next dar we were escorted to open wagons whch were open to wnd and ran. ~ took us about three days to reach our next stop whch was Strasburr \ Page (

2 Retur~ed, Germ.ny. my sentence was reduced to twelve months, to be served n than~ed the court for ther consderaton. was then removed back to my prsoncell, ths was about ten mnutes away. The wfather was very mld for February, but there was a slght drzzle and by thetme reached the prson my clothes were somewhat damp. was then allowed to dry out n the boler room. Before leavng me my guard was m<l>st amused when shook hands wth hm. He was a 8tratsfeldwebel named kohn. Ths s ~umpng the gun somewhat, let us go to the commencement of ths offensye aganst the German Rech. We go ~ack to February 1944, thngs lke food n partcular were gettng very shprt, barterng was very promnent, that s f you had anythng to barter. the black marketers were havng a feld day. t was ltte n the day, was standng n the doorway of my father's cycle shop n bordage, 8t Peter Port. Two French Algerans approached me and asked ff would lke some butter. No amount was mentoned so sad yes. t was a~reed that these two fellows would brng the butter to the Strand on the Tues~ay evenng, our house was n Hauteval. Our slopng rear garden had a do~r whch opened on to the Strand. At the a~ponted tme wated for them to arrve. must have wated for about an ~our but no-one arrved. Page 2

3 The n~xt day durng shop hours saw these two fellows outsde the shop on the f<j)otpath. approached them and they apologsed, sayng that the l eventlg they were due wth the butter the moon was shnng so they were unabl to procure the butter. Arrangements were made for a future date whch: agreed to., : thou~ht 'what has the moon to do wth ther delvery of the butter?' assum d that they had to get the butter from a member of the crew of one of the shps n the harbour, but that t had to be on a dark nght. On th9 next nght mentoned, wated by our back door to the Strand. n the ds~ance could see them comng and when they were close enough to me cpuld see that they had a sack each on ther backs. "Whatever s n those ~acks?" asked. "Cot Tee-beans" they repled. My mmedate l respon$e to hm was " don't want coffee beans". Ther only reply was that becaus~ they were so heavy "we want to put them down somewhere, we can't tke them". told them to follow me. They were glad to follow and put thet n our glasshouse. They lert mmedately wthout askng me for payment, n any case would have refused to pay them, coffee beans were the last thngs wanted, each sack we~ghted 100 klos. sad Jthng to my famly about ths and wondered to myself where these \ beans ca;me from. Page 3

4 Now thngs change completely. There was a German solder who was very knd tb me, he would brng me bread when he was able, and the occasonal cgarjte, was unable to gve hm anythng for hs kndness. He catne n the shop once sayng the colonel he was batman for, had asked hm tq try and get some coffee beans whch he would send to hs wfe n Germ~ny pror to hs leave. mentoned the dfferent barter shops and black ~arketeers, to whch hs reply was that he had tred everywhere, but wth nb luck. At that partcular moment dd not connect hs needs wth the co~fee beans had at home. SuddcJ1ly t dawned on me that could help hm n hs quest. "'ll try and help yqu, call n next tme you are n ths area", he sad he would. \ retur ed home after work and went to the sacks of coffee beans, made a lttle h.le larger and extracted about : lb plus of beans. took them to the shop t~e next day. Up to ths tme had not heard anythng from the two Alger+s. Now later on n the day the solder came n, he was delghted that 1as able to accommodate hm wth a few beans, he asked me how much ht owed me, but refused to charge hm. 1 Page 4

5 The ~ollowng day he came n the shop to extend the thanks of hs colonel who ~as gong to post the beans to hs wfe n Germany. After a few days was contacted by the Felgendarmere at ther headquarters n Queens Road. They explaned to me that the Feldpost had been lntercepted the package and traced t to the colonel who, n turn expla6ed that hs batman had got the beans for hm. Upon questonng the batmar explaned he obtaned them from me. was asked f ths was correct to whch repled n the affrmatve. had to tell them that got them from two Algerans, ther reply was, 'fnd the two Algerans and you wll b~ mmune from charges, meanwhle we wll collect the beans that are n yout possesson'. Ths they dd the same tme advsng me about fndng the two Algerans. vster many of the pubs n the St Peters Port askng the barman f he had come ~cross the two Algerans, each tme the answer was always n the negatv~. The ne*t heard from the Poltze was that was requred to attend ther headqu~rters n Queens Road at 6am the next mornng regardless of the curfew, \whch was lopm to 7am. \ Page 5

6 , Ths l dd, they then took me n ther car to a Bouet house where some of the foregn labourers were sleepng. Feldg~ndarmere The were kcked awake by the who asked me f my two Algerans were amongst the sleep'rs. told them none of the foregn labourers were known to me. We thbn motored to a hosptal, so called, n the Vlle au Rue Estate to see f the A~erans were there. They were not there, because had seen them n the Rorette Broge as we approached the hosptal. My es~ort sad nothng about these two and nether dd 1. At ths stage was ta*en back to the headquarters, where was really grlled, was told that m~ story was a pack of les, was told that my sster who was n prson had told them a dfferent story. remonstrated wth them that knew what they had told me was untrue, whereupon my chef nterrogator pcked me up by my jacket and just threw me across the room. What could do? Hs name Jas Statsfeldwebel Kuhn, he was a bg fellow, about ffteen stone; he was wlted. \ They thtn took me to the Guernsey Prson where was put n the Gennan quarters~ Betweenl the man outer wall and the prson buldng was a small path. Along t~s path were two cells, they were usually used for drunks n the Page 6

7 nght, by mornng they were sober. They unlocked the door of the cell and just Pfshed me n. could not see a thng, the only lght came from a very small tndow n the door. A voce sad "welcome" but could not see who welco,ned me untl, after a whle, my eyes grew accustomed to the very poor lght, and then recognsed who my cell mate was. He was one of my custonlters named Cyrl. He was pleased to see me for he had been alone n that ce~l for about three weeks. \ The ce~l was very small about ten feet by eght, two thrds of ths area was 1 taken 4P be a wooden bench whch was covered by straw, t was just large enoug~ for two people to sleep., n the corner was a tn contaner as a tolet. There were no washng faclt~s, at all, also you were not permtted to take a walk n the fresh ar. t condtfns were really terrble, Cyrl sad that f he stayed n that cell much longer 1e would go crazy, couldn't have agreed more, the amount of lght comng \through the small wndow n the door was so bad that you couldn't read a ~ook. The warder, a very smple Gennan solder, came n wth our three da ly meals, breakfast, lunch and an evenng meal, but t was really a starvat n det. Page 7

8 My lather, not knowng where was, approached the German Comt~andant, and the result was my mmedate release. was really sorry to have to leave Cyrl behnd but was most grateful to be free. For m~, t was a return to work as usual. had no dea of the mpendng stuaton whch was to put me back nto prson for thrteen months untl to the en4 of World War. n the Parsh of St Sampson, ahead of me on the footpath, were t~e two Algerans, they were walkng towards the buldng that was a soup k,tchen for foregn workers. As passed them slowly told them the was ~yclng Genna~ polce were lookng for them, also that was not gong to betray them td the Germans, and that they had to take great care not to get caught. receed no reply from them although spoke usng the French language. also 1ew some German, and ths was to enable me to be that lttle more comfo~able when was n Germany. Dfferent tmes of workng were mposed by the German Commandant, ths was to ~Jlow more people to work on the land to produce food. Shop hours were frtm ten 0' clock n the mornng untl hal f past tw el ve, the afternoon sesson 'was from two to four o'clock. Workshops were allowed to work untl ha~f past fve. Page 8

9 Som~tmes would take the afternoon off to dg the ground at home ready for p,antng. One day was n the garden when was nformed that the Feldgrndarmere wanted to see me at the O.T. prson. must explan that ths ~rson was an old buldng on the south esplanade and t was used solely for the ncarceraton of all slave workers. went down to the prson : whcq was qute close to our rear entrance n the strand, n fact a slght upwa1d nclne and on the left sde of the strand at the bottom of the clff could Fe seen the prson courtyard. The moment entered the prson, was confronted by the two Algerans. The qerman Kuhn asked me f these were the two Algerans that had brougjt me the coffee-beans, was certanly not prepared for ths stuaton, my ha~d automatcally went to my pocket to get my cgarette papers and tred t~ make a cgarette out of the dust n my pocket. My answer was \ negat~e, no, dd not recognse these two, was hen told could go home, whch ~ was very pleased to do. Back t the garden once more commenced dggng. had not been dggn for very long, when heard shouts and yells comng from the prson, hs dd not bother me because often heard the cres of these slave worker~. Page 9

10 Ab04t half an our later ths fellow Kuhn came to our house, pcked me up and tpok me down to ths OT prson and was flung nto a cell. They were reall~ not cells, but a seres of small rooms on the frst floor. Mne was at the t~p of the stars, t conssted of a large long wndow just below the celnp' a wooden bed and a tn contaner for the tolet. There was a blanket on th~ bed, t smelt awful, don't thnk that t had ever been cleaned. Fortu~ately the cell was heated by a boler n the courtyard. was the sole occup~nt, but the cell was much better than the prevous one was n. : We wfre allowed out early to empty our tn and have a wash and shave. My ra~or, towel and facecloth were brought n by my father, could see hm flom my wndow f stood on my bed. He could see me from the strand; but we were unable to talk to each other. After two days, the pnson chef gave us the freedom of the prson. Becau~e he wore OT unform and was also a member of the SS t surprsed me tha~ he gave me the freedom of the prson...?... Ths of course made lfe that lttle bt more bearable., The wdather was extremely warm for the tme of the year. Usually t s qute c1ld, yet we were sunbathng on the roof n front of the prson. Page 10

11 Wth me were two other local men, two Frenchmen, Paul Ann(?) from Calv~dos and Henr Creshn from...?.. There were two Russan slave workfrs, whose crme was kllng ther foreman at work. That dd not seem to wtrry them although they knew that hey would both lose ther lves whenl they were sent to Germany. Ther names were Gregor and Kouptopafa. was able to leave my cell after the evenng meal to go nto ther ~ell and play cards to about eleven 0' clock and then would carefully let m~self nto my cell. They were very heavy smokers, don't know how \ they o~taned ther cgarettes. l asked the chef f could get my father to come and gve me a harcut. n the 1990s my father was a hardresser by trade. The chef sad he could come ~nd cut my har and cut hs also. Ths dd occur to the beneft of all, my father could come and vst me at any tme. had the unenvable job of collect,ng the md-day meal soup. We used a long wooden tray to carry the urns 01 soup, at each end of whch were shafts whch we held wth a rope harnessl around our shoulders, was put n the front whch made me too " promn~nt to my lkng. Fortunately there was always too much soup and, ample bread., The Ch~f told my father to come of an evenng wth a contaner to take some soup home for the famly. Ths was very welcome and sometmes was abld to send some of my bread to my famly. Page

12 The chef called me asde one mornng to explan why was arrested. The cres \ that heard whle was n the garden came from the two Algerans. The ~hef' who could also speak French, heard these two havng an argu ent. One was tellng the other that they were not n prson for stealng the beans, but because they would not work. The chef heard ths and ~nocked hell out of them, t was then they admtted that was the recptnt of the beans. \ t appfared that the beans had come from the German food stores n colluson wth the Feldwebel who was n charge of the store. He was sent to Germany for sentencng. The m:xt heard was that had to appear beforea Gennan War Court n two days tme. My father brought me my one alld only sut and a clean shrt. thought that lookng clean and respect' ble mght show my respect for the court and mght help to lessen my sen ence, never dd know f t made any dfference. You wll remember that after sentencng, was brought back to the O.T. Prson. A few days later was taken to the cvl sde of the prson, and after another ~wo days was transferred to the German sde of the prson. There were f01r others n ths cell, whch was qute large. The next mornng we, together \wth a guard, left the prson to work and ths certanly dd releve us of the monotony of remanng n our cell the whole day long. We were Page 12

13 taken to Granvele Mount barrack to prepare a large dnng room for offc~rs for a meetng and afterwards for a buffet. Really our job was to help n buldng an ar rad shelter n the garden of a house across the road from branvle House. t was very hard work movng large grante lntels t took $x of us to move each lntel nto poston, we never fnshed the job becaube we were drected to Government House n Queens Road to beat large~arpets wth stcks, a much easer and lghter job than the prevous one. \ \ The Gjerman corporal n charge of us was named Hardtkoph, he was clean shaven, but very solemn lookng, he came from Solngen and hs father O\vnedl a factory whch made razors and razor blades etc. We actually sold razor blades of hs make before the war, ths of course opened up to a qute nterestng chat. \ n 94~ was on holday. Walkng through Regents Park gong to the Zoo, \ saw al prsoner of war takng some freshly panted seats on a hand truck to poston them n the park, t was ths Hardtkoph. dd not stop to tell hm who \fas, as there were a number of people about and dd not know the atttude of the publc towards a German prsoner of war, 'm sorry now that dd no make myself known to hm. Page 13

14 t w~s on a Frday was taken to the prson offce and told 'tomorrow you wll be sent to a German prson n Frankfort-am-man, you wll be gven the day ~o go home and settle your affars you must be back by sx pm'. Ths Plea~d me no end that was to see my famly. On l11y way home went to see my uncle and aunt n Lttle St John's Street, they t5ave me a wonderful welcome, gave me a few potatoes for my lunch, : and, carrot cake to take wth me, wshed them goodbye then made my way ~ome to Hautevlle where my famly were so pleased to see me. The potat~es had been gven were turned nto chps and fred wth lnseed ol, the pl1edomnant taste of course was the lnseed ol, but t flled a gap n my, stomalch. collected a few tems to tak~ wth me, some soap, a lttle sugar and my carrot cake n my brefcase, a change of underwear and my overcoat. sad a reluctant goodbye to my famly and popped nto the shop to saygoodbye to the staff and then made my way back to the prson. Two ober11dwebers came to collect me. They were both gong to leave to Berlnl and were to drop me off at Frankfort. At about lopm we left the prsonlfor the docks and boarded a small boat on our way to St Malo. The b at had no accommodaton for passengers, she was purely a cargo vessel, was on the deck tryng to sleep, there were other vessels wth us, one of whch was towng a coller. The sea was qute calm wth a very slght $well, clouds shot across the moon at tmes. We had no problems Page 14

15 and reached St Malo at about eght o'clock on the Sunday mornng. My guarq explaned to me that there was no tran to Parsh untl Monday, so would have to spend my tme at a prson named 'Esperane' n the outskrts of St \Malo - St Servan. Well mssed my breakfast, but enjoyed my lunch whcll was soup. rested wthout any vst from the French warders except for th~m brngng my evenng meal, soup agan, and had a good nght's sleep f.vhch really needed. My Jo guards came for me about nne o'clock on the Monday mornng, Then t was a walk to 'La Gare', the ralway staton, the streets were qute busy ~th people on bcycles and people walkng, t was qute a walk. We arrved at he staton but there was no tran watng for us, ths beng war tme trans were few and far between and hardly ever punctual, durng my walk t4 the staton saw no sgns of any of the bombng, that was to come later. Eventually our tran dd arrve, n about twenty mnutes we were on our way. qur frst stop was at Rennes, where we were welcomed wth a large cup of oup and a large chunk of bread by German women n an unusual unfon. n twenty mnutes we were on the move once more. Our next stop waf Le Mans, where we were offered more bread and soup. refused ths because had my carrot cake, ths shared wth my two guards who Page 15

16 were extremely knd to me. was not handcuffed and had a far amount of freedbm. gave them my word, that of a Guernseyman, that would not attem~t to escape for knew that f dd escape another member of my famly would have to bear my sentence. Up to now my journey from Guerrlsey had been qute enjoyable, t was a sense of freedom, was young, and had no worres at all had no dea what confronted me n the very near f\lture. Our nfxt stop a very short one was at Chartres then Versalles then Pars, arrvng about 7.30pm at Gare Montparnass. We took the Pars Metro to 1, Gare 4e ' est. Stll stayng underground we went to a Soldatenhem, ths was fqr the benefl uf German personnel travellng. Agan soup and bread was plentful, tolets and washrooms were also avalable. was usng a washroom strpped to the wast. There was a German arman next to me who a~ked me where was from n German, answered hm n Englsh tellng tm that was an RAP plot that had been shot down. He sad was very lupky to be alve, but that would be well looked after n a POW camp, ~e left quckly so nothng more was sad. \ My twd guards sad they would lke to do a lttle shoppng to take some gfts to ~her wves, would look after ther baggage untl they returned,, agreed would, what a golden opportunty to escape, but kept my promse to them. Early mornng we boarded a manlne tran to Germany. We Page 16

17 pass d through many statons, am unable to remember ther names, eventually we met up wth the rver Rhne. We travelled north followng the tne whch was a very beautful rver, the countrysde had never seen the es of. Durng the journey to Frankfurt the tran stopped many tmes to avbd bombng. n some cases the engne left the tran, t was assumed that awed arcraft would only bomb a tran f the engne was attached. gav1 my guards a scare, the tran was stopped and they were dozng. left the cjmpartment to go to the tolet on my way back to my seat, saw them comfl\g towards me. They thought that had escaped and were very releved to fnd me. t was now about 11 pm, no lghts could be seen but n thc d~tance one could see the effects of many searchlghts n the sky, very werd. We at ~ast reached Frankfurt, everythng seemed dead, no lghts, no traffc and no\ people. My guard explaned to me that would stay at a mltary Prson fhat nght, n the mornng would go the prson destned for me. We el1tered ths prson to be confronted by a short cocky lttle Obergefreter. shook hands wth my two guards and asked them, when they retprned to Guernsey to tell my father that had arrved safely. The momenj my two guards left, ths Obergrefreter handcuffed my arms behnd me and beckoned me to follow hm to a prson cell whch was poorly lt Page 17

18 and rth just a wooden bench for a bed, no bed coverng at all. was pushed nto ths cell wth the door mmedately closed behnd me. Ths suddpn change of treatment turned my stomach so that needed to use the. tole~. There was no tolet n the cell, but dd see a red button by the door that the occupant of the cell had to press for attenton. As my hands were handcuffed behnd my back, could not reach to button so, wth dffculty, had to use my nose. t was some tme before anyone came to my cell. t 1 was dfferent solder ths tme and when he asked me what wanted, all couldl say was 'tolet, tolet'. He then went off to get a bucket for me, also a pece of newspaper, no tolet roll, he refused to release my handcuffs. Now was n a predcament, how could manage. Well, dd manage to undo my btaces at thc back, but t was very dffcult to make use of the newspaper. was unable to rase my trousers, so sat on the bed for the rema~der of the nght, could not le down n any poston, t was much too panful Early text mornng was gven a mug of coffee and a small pece of dred bread. They removed the handcuffs to let me dress, then re-handcuffed me, n the front ths tme so was now able to eat my meagre breakfast. Shortly after :was removed from my cell to the prson offce where was to meet the wafden who was to escort me to my fnal destnaton. The ty~e of handcuffs they used would tghten at the slghtest movement, wth t~s n mnd the prson offcers smply pushed my brefcase n my Page 18

19 hand uffed hands whch caused great pan. Ths had to contend wth untl rea9hed ths "Strafgefangns" n an area called Preurgeshem. We +arded a bus for my fnal destnaton. My warden compelled two passebgers to gve up ther seats to us. Ths was not welcomed by them at all. They knew was a prsoner and when they realzed was an Englsh prson~r, all types of words were used aganst me, some even spttng on me. ~hs atttude dd not apprecate, as you can well understand, but my man torry was the tghtness of my handcuffs. They were now so tght that they had broken through the skn drawng blood and though my warder could ~ee ths he however dd nothng to help me. After a whle we got off the bus, we walked a far dstance before we arrved' at the prson was to stay n for just over twelve months, t was strargerengs, 112 Homburgherland Strasse, Preungeshen. We appjroached two very large doors, my warden pressed a lttle button and eventua~ly a warden opened the door to allow us admsson. After passng the dooray on the rght hand sde was a sort of offce, Now the entrance turned to a large courtyard, we crossed ths area whch led us to a door, the gro nd floor entrance to the prson. We walked up the passage to a door on \the left marked recepton n German. My Warden knocked on the, door and a voce sad 'heren' n whch meant 'enter' whch we dd. My Page 19

20 wardfn took off my handcuffs at long last, my wrsts were a bt of a bloody mess' by now. The German sttng on a char at hs desk, was a hgher rankpg warder to the one who brought me here, he was known as the Hausfvatere whch translated to Englsh means House Father. He was respohsble for the offcal entry of all prospectve prsoners. He asked my name~ address and relgon, roarng at me to stand to attenton, whch natur~lly dd, he then spoke to me qute reasonably about my home town, he th4n asked me to dsrobe. When was naked hs demeanour changed complbtely and he used a few ll-chosen words referrng to England, and Churchll partcularly. He then told me to have a quck shower. At ths ntake there were four other prsoners and when we had dred ourselves and were pstructed to go to another room to be ftted out wth prson clothes. There ~vas no choce whatever. was gven underpants and a shrt whch were a reasonable ft, my socks reached just past my heels and trousers that fnshe~ just below the knees. The jacket was a very tght ft and my sabots ere far too small. was just told to sort thngs out wth the other prsone s. The only tems that could change to my advantage were my sabots. Thus ftted out was taken for the usual ntervew wth the prson Governbr. He seemed a very reasonable man who told me that would be put to 10rk and thngs would go n my favour f behaved myself: told hm w?uld. He spoke to me n very good Englsh. \ Page 20

21 wa~ then taken to a cell n whch were the other four new ntakes, they were,all French natonals, each wth hs own story to tell. we were not n ths 411long before we were called out for our frst workng sesson. n a dfferent courtyard a lorry had unloaded qute a large amount of coal for heatng and cookng purposes. Ths coal was unloaded alongsde a, trapddor through whch the coal was shovelled and was put nsde the prson\ to dstrbute the coal as t came though the trapdoor. By the tme we had fnshed ths detal, we were black wth coal dust, our clothes were flthy. Ths necesstated the return to the shower room and clean clothes. When we had returned to our cell t was tme for our evenng meal. Ths consstjed of ersatz co[[t:t:, a small pece of bread and a pece of Gennan sausage. You wll remember earler on that took some sugar and soap wth me, was pe~tted to take ths to my cell. was now able to have sugar wth my coffee ~nd real soap to wash wth. t was now lghts out. We were awoken at sx 01' clock the next mornng and after breakfast a number of prsoners were let out of ther cells to assemble n the centre of the prson on the second roor. There were whspers of Francas?, Francas? As soon as sad 'N~n, Anglas from Guernsey' two voces came across to me sayng \ 'we are Englsh also, from Guernsey.' They were called Walter and Norman and they proved to be wonderful frends the whole of the tme n Page 21

22 ll, Germ~ny, we only separated when we arrved n England.. was taken to a work~oom whch was stuated n a courtyard. Ths room contaned electrc grnd~ng machnes we had to clean the surface of castellated nuts. These were bf all szes and cleanng the small nuts was very panful because our fngerl ends often touched the emery wheel whch took off a layer of skn but you just had to carry one. Our foreman was also a prsoner. He was qute reasonable and caused no problems. On the left hand sde of the room was aj arch parttoned off wth wre. t contaned a large number of metal chamber pots, why, shall never know. There were sx of us workng these machnes, one partcular fellow suffered wth eplepsy, he was restraned by the fotman and put n the area wth the chamber pots untl he returned to normal. Our room was above a carpenter workroom. To get to our room we had to clmb stars. Wth each machne was a strong electrc lght so we were able to see our work very clearly. Some engneerng workers had connected the electrcs to a lght at the bottom of the stars so that when our warder\came up the stars the lght by one of the machnes would flcker. j Ths w~s of great advantage to us as you wll apprecate. t was wonderful to have: a Guernsey man to talk to. knew Walter, but had never met Norma~, we used to talk about our tmes n Guernsey. Walter at one tme was a b~s drver and Norman worked for the Guernsey Press. At twelve o'clock the warder took us to our cells for our mdday meal. found that had been gven a sngle cell, known as A238 whch was cell no Page 22

23 1 38 o~ A Block, on the second story, had hardly entered my cell when the meal was brought to the cell door whch was unlocked by our warder., pres+ted my bowl to the prsoner who was on duty to serve the soup, WhC, was n a large urn whch at the begnnng was extremely heavy. Each.prsoner had two ladles full, and f any soup was left over t meant that they started at No 1 agan. On each door was a card marked 'nachtsleyer' that told the warder where to start wth a second round of soup f any was left over. never receved a second helpng so asked the wardet 'why?' He dd not answer, sad 's t because 'm Brtsh?' He refused to reply but smply closed the door. Hs name was Warder Rttng and h spoke Englsh qute well. Hs duty was sometme taken over by \Vltrder Hldebran we got on qute well untl he found out that was Englsh. Then was scum. To ref~r to my cell, A2 38, t was reasonably large wth a bed whch folded up agajnst the wall when not n use, a table and char, a small cupboard, n whch rou kept your dsh, a mug and a knfe and fork whch was made of alumn~lm To the rght of the door as you entered was a large contaner whch you used as a tolet. My lun~h that day was a soup made wth sauerkraut whch to me was so unappetzng that threw t nto my tolet. On returnng to work Norman 1 asked ~e how 1 had enjoyed my soup, ] told hm t was ten'ble and that J had thrqwn t away. He sad "you'll soon get used to t. n the meantme Page 23

24 brng t out to me n your mug." dd ths for a very short whle but hunger made me eat anythng was gven, wth the excepton of Caraway Seeds. The prson was shaped lke a cross and four storeys hgh wth four ; courty'rds. Our courtyard held the pg stes, the carpenters and above ourselves. Opposte was a covered area contanng all types of scrap, paper, metal, clothng, all to be sorted by the prsoners, sometmes outsde and s~metmes n ther cells. n the centre of the courtyard was a Frenc~man who was heavly tattooed whose job was to sort out large peces of eleotrc cable whch was blown up by consstent bombng and separate the vall'ous strands of the cables. The lead was melted by a huge fre, ths took place n any weather except of course, heavy ran. n Germany at ths tme nothng was wasted. Beyond ths area was the entrance to the cookhouse and on the rght hand sde was the bakery and an outsde tolet whch was exactly opposte the bakery, the tolet had no door so the bakers, f theyl were lookng through ther wndows, could see you performng The wndor frames were glazed wth narrow peces of glass, about three nches wde 1nd ftted vertcally. A pece of ths glass was very cunnngly cut about ~x nches n length, when removed they could pass out bread for anyone wth cgarettes. The chef baker was a prsoner named Maurce who Often gave me a pece of bread even though had no cgarettes to gve hm. Page 24

25 To return to the prson tself, the chef warder, who looked very smart n hs unfor:m, had hs offce n the exact centre of the prson from whch he could see the whole nteror of the prson. He would press a button for a bell tj rng and a warder would appear ready for nstructon. Each arm of the prson had a warder, fourteen n all, they all dd shft work, the nght staff was about four warders. Day ~, Frenc~men day out, we would be at work wth very lttle news. Sometmes workng outsde the prson would have some news whch eventually reached us. There was the occasonal ar rad warnng but the bombng was not n our area. The prson was exceptonally clean, had ts rules whch were a bt severe. f YOQ behaved yourself you were smply gnored by the warders, but f you Jsbehaved n any way punshment was swft. Arrest cell, wooden bed, ~read and water for three days. Each mornng we passed these cells, they tere always occuped, one mornng as we left the prson for our workrpom, outsde on the left was a greasy mound wth a large... tree. reco~nsed, sent t~ three Guernsey men, Frank, Cyrl and Erne, they had been our prson to dg an ar rad shelter for the beneft. Lttle could be sad btcause ther warder was always wth them. Page 25

26 We w~nt back to our machnes and started work. We had a quota each day whchwe had to acheve, f we ddn't reach our quota you were treated as a, sabote~r whch meant at least three days n the arrest cells whch was not pleasaht. One thng that really annoyed us was.... keepng rght at the top of the stars was another room Page 26

27 sabote~r whch meant at least three days n the arrest cells wh;::h \'/as not, pleasa~t. One thng that really annoyed us was"",."'.... TUrn1g rght at the top of the stars was another room n ths ~oom two Frenchmen were makng the coverng for the German...?..., one was very short and stout, the other was a crpple, tall and ver: slm. they receved a raton of cgarettes but we dd not n spte of askng our varder whl) was nanted Schroder, he sad the frm they worked for allowed them so many cgaret~s per week but ours dd not. We worked for a fnn called Gelb;-uck Heno trom Offenbach. At sx o'clock we returned to our cell;, then came th\ evenn~ meal all the cells were now full those prsoners workng for outsck factord,s, havenng fnshed, we lowered our bed and went to sleep. slept very at lunch tme the prsoners who served the soup, left ther empty cans,;[t the assembly area, when the bell rang, our door was opened for us to ea"e f~)r \\ork. f you were quck enough. you assembled before the soup came so you wen;:- abk to take the urn back to the cookhouse and were able to scrape the b(lttolll of th~ urn, yo~ always kept your spoon n case you couldn't. One of the coob was Stephe1 he was from Lthuana, he always put a mug of soup behnd the door for me on my way to work, always had a mug to exchange for next trm', The tme was approachng Aprl, the ar was gettng wanner, and at tmes we look orf our coat anf shrts. Very lttle happened and we fnshed our work at pm each saturd+ We had our lunch and afterwards we went for our weedy,hower. Ths w1s n a large cell comprsng four showers. A barber was there to gve everyon~ a harcut. f the warder named...?... was n charge, he W1S a devl. He had a cruel dsposton he would regulate the flow and the heat of the Page 26

28 water as you would enter the shower the warder, Hldabrand, would a'ter tht~ now to coldl, then suddenly he would turn on to very hot. We jumpec out of the showerl f he was near you he would ht you n the kdneys. Wh.:n Jl;;, was complered we went to the housevater to change our drty clothes. T:ls tn't' we were n lw allowed to choose Ollr own. They thought was a German bec:ll'se could speak the language, and sad would be gven a par of slp}:ers whch could wear, my feet n my sabot, to me, ths was qute a change of hemt by the war~er. We then went back to our cells to awat our evenng mea, the T~st or the day, Sunday, we were all n our cells for he full day. Ths de. y was very monotonous snce cleaned my floor, scrubbed my table had a lttle lght exercse. On my wall scraped my famles names and crossed off the days )n tht~ \,.-all besde my cupboa.rd. The only way could see through the wndow to let me look down on courtyard whch was used tor prsoners takng ther dal:: wej; was There wfs no prson dress or unform, the clothng we wore was very nondescrpt. These ctbthes were made of patches, blue beng the predomnant ~olour. Some of these tro~sers had lttle pockets sew11 on the nsde leg, ths enahled prsolllrs to brng n varous vegetables such as leeks etc, these were the agrcultu 'al '.,vorkers. they were hardly ever found out. Qute frequently the guards would make a search add sometm,s they were reported, sometmes not. can re~ember one day durng a spot search the warder found an earr: hone whch had been turned nto a crystal set. The warder. who was one {f he most Page 27

29 reasolable of the bunch, smply threw the earphone aganst the wall \\'hen~ t was shattered to peces, nothng more was done, but the prsoners had a q'jck tdcng off. Sometmes on our way to work we would pass a large door wh( h s,eparateo our courtyard wth the man entry. Nothng partcular about hs youl:vould t1n', but sometmes we would hear very odd noses. On makng enq'jre:; of another nmate, was told that that was the gullotne n operaton and th,~ nose we h,eard was the blade dong the choppng. As we left our cells to work we would pass cells n a certan block C2. We would see clothes neatly packed outsde celtan cells, 'fe then realzed that the nmate was due for the gullotne. We onc(~ r.und ourselves down by these doors, peepng through a slt n the door \\e coulj se: two warders wth a prsoner dressed n a whte robe, no handcuff~" ben~ led toward the gullotr.e room, would magne that he was well druge ed, W; sa\\ hm dsappt:ar and shortly heard the gullotne knfe drop. 1 hs 'vas a c:aly routne; t would appear that these condemned prsoners could not be d~;patt:hed at ther:own prsons because of the advance.of the alles. They were nm'cd hack to the ~earest, prson that could accommodate them. The two Frenc 1 drv,;:rs of the prsfn truck would take these bodes and...?... away from the prson, where. never ~d fnd out. Workng at my machne one day had the msfortune to get a sted splnt;" r: my left eye, explaned my problem to my warder who sad not to worry, and tha my eye W011d soon be clear. All nght suffered and n the mornng repor.ed sck. but no help \was offered me. As soon as arrved at work. my warder toc k me tc th~ prson tfrmary. Whle watng to see the doctors a prsoner workng n the nfnnary put drops n my eye and mmedately felt relef. Unfortunately v,hen Page 28

30 was a~le to see the doctor the deadenng had worn off. By ths lme got to see hm my eye was n great pan. He came towards me wth an arm e:~tellded and spoke ~o me n Englsh. thought he wanted to shake hands, ddn'l know what gave me that dea, but receved a terrfc punch n the chest almost knocknf. ml.. to the ~round. He examned my eye wth the ld closed, told hm tht~l th:: deadenng had \\-orn off but to no aval. t was wth great dffculty th::rt he removep the splnter and great pan for my eye. t took about three days tn recoveq durng whch tme] was made to work. The nfrmary by tlc '.\a)' was stuated\ above the...?.. entrance n the man courtyards. ]n front WeS a veranda whch made t look most mposng. n the mornng, after the roll, call prsoners would gather to explan [her reason for not gong to work but no matter what your problem was yoe wodd b~ gven an asprn. One nmate had had toothache due to a decayng too11. fletooth should have been extracted, but he lke others had to make do wth an asprn. The WOl'st case saw wus a fellow who complaned about hs haemo The/ds. H~ was told to drop hs trousers, on exposng hs rear porton you could see th~ haemorr~ods far beyond hs body, the remedy for th~. was one aspr: n. a kck ll hs hae~orrhods and beng sent back to hs cell. The pan was so e reat that he yelled om hs way back to hs cell. t was very unfortunate for hm became hs was a sttng down job makng and fttng buckles to straps. Fortun.+y for me, dd not suffer the way others dd, wth the except0n or the problem wth my eye, although one day when roll call soundej, ( J'emand n bed, 1 fdt too rotten to go to work. had been unable to eat thl~ prevous day's meals. The warder came to get to the assembly pont explaned to the chef Page 29

31 warde~ that felt qute ll, my warder butted n to tell the chef that had a...?... ':," on my table, the reply to my effort was "you are ft enough for VvNk". Half ~y through the mornng almost collapsed, lay on the floor <watng th~, arrval lof my warder, when he saw me on the floor he sad must go back te my cell, told hm that the chef warder had sad that) had to go to work, hs reply was wll take you back to your cell and 'll talk to the chef vl:arder, "heh he dd. ) was allowed to reman n my cell for three days. wthout an asprn The days pa~sed by, vcry monotonously at tmes wth lttle to talk about., One dar my warder took me to a downstars workroom, there' wele ahollt SX machnes n operaton. They were machnes for cuttng the castdlatons. n llut~.. All szes of nuts were processed, you had to attan a quota, f not - trcubl~. (was on nght shft whch meanl was gven an extra meal at mdnght.. t wa.~ always soup, t vared slghtly, carrot soup, sauerkraut soup, bread soup ar_ soll1<;tmes ;) meat soup wthout meat. The other soup was made wth plums or p(aches. \"hen we had t for our mdnght meals t was always sour, but we stll had tc eat t. One Fr~ay nght n August, Frankfurt was very heavly bombed, t was ole bg fre, t c~uld be seen for mles. Here n Preungesthem on the outskrt~ of the dty, could r~ad a book. Almost opposte my cell was the prson lbrary, ) always had dffcultylon gettng of book, the frst one had was by W H Thac kery : was called v+t y Far, The second one was called 'The Archmandrake?? There were very few Englsh books n the lbrary, whch was ratonal enough SLlppOS';:. A German ~rsoner was n charge of he lbrary, but you could only use l f a v,arder condescended to take you. My thrd and last book was a book of pctures of the Page 30

32 USA. t made me thnk of the Amercans lvng a lte of luxury v;hle Europe was starvng. On enterng the prson for our mdday meal, was beckoned to a cell by a prso~r name Bos. t was a punshable offence to be found n a eel other than your ojn. Ths fellow Bos used to repar rados for the warders., and he tuned n to Ame~ca, and we heard Grace More sngng 'One Nght of Love' \\hch amost brought tears to my eyes. t was very nce to get th; Englsh ;lew~ sometmes from hm. whch was the workers entrance, occasonally Ve w,uld see an l nmate gvng us a wave. dd not know hm, so asked Walter who he 'NUS. and On 'C' ~OCk he told nle that the prsoner was Cannon Cotn 7... from Jersey n pas3ng hs cell one day he beckoned me over to hm. He explaned that he had served h:; sentence and was due to be transported to an nternment camp, h~ wac; o\crj,)yed. shook hands wth hm, wshed hm good luck and went tc my cell. Th~ unfortun,te part of ths was that he never survved. Ths happen,:d to qute a fe\\ Jerseyml, they never made t. knew them all by name at th,~ tne but. after ffty yearf' am unable to remember ther names now. sometmts would feel sad and a lttle homesck. would sng my Le,ndon songs "Maybe t's Because 'm a Londoner" 'Old Father Thames'.' My Old Man'. Ths dd gve te a fee.ng of confdence, but could not be heard above the nose of the, machnes workng. was the only Englsh-speakng prsoner to speak our language:1 the others spoke French or Dutch. 1 Page 31

33 Somet~es a lorry would arrve wth coal for the bakery and fae k tch~n. w~ would leave our ma ::;hnery and unload the lorry to be gven a quarter of a Gt:rman loaf. The weght (f the sacks was about a hundredweght whch we managed wthoutl" dffculty. Other tmes a bgger lorry would arrve wth sa,;ks of nour each sa k weghed 100 klos, these were somewhat heavy to lfo con.;derng th..: meagre meals, bm meant 3/4 of a German loaf. The base of the lorry was farly hgh; the sacks smply fell on yljur shouldt:r and back. Tre temptaton of carryng these sacks was the thought of r(cevng th.: bread, ~hese German loaves were qute large, were brown. and r ad a ;lluch dfferent texture to what we were accustomed to the loaf that v:e mad,~ n Guernsey. My frst attempt at carryng a sack ended n dsaster. managed to ge' the s?ck l the COT Ct postc'h clmbed the three steps nto the bakery, was then dr 'cted up a flght of steps about twelve n all ths was too much for me. Half way Uf th..: steps smply collapsed wth the sack of flour on tom of me. Othen had leo get the sack off me and take t up to the frst floor, one of the bakers sad 0 me, look. hde be~nd the sacks on the ground floor, next tme just carry onc sack downsta~rs and stay put. n future that s exactly what dd and w~s gven my pece ofbread. remember one nstance when brushed off the nour on my (.:oat, the warder refused ~o gve me my pece of bread. Everyone else was coved n tl,lur and that taught +, a lesson for the future. Page 32

34 Outsd~, n the roof gutterng was a brds next kept an eye on t unt t the chcks and mother had flown away, used to say to myself, how wonderful to be free. The la~est news was that Water had served hs tme. He told Norr:mm and that he was beng sent to an nternment camp for the duraton of the ',.var. Later when we dd catch up wth hm he sad he had been sent to a mltary prson nstead, h. suffered qute a bt. The arrad sren was gong oft qute a lot lately, gettng closer to our prson. One n~ht, Frday t was, about two o'clock n the mornng, full alarm sounded A warder came to unlock our door and take us to shelter and we were just rnd"dng an entry nto the prson when a bomb struck our workroom, t w,s blo'.v1 to peces.. We were very lucky to escape wth our lves. fortunately Jlobod) was njured. We were taken back to our cells untl the mornng. l\ext nornnb we were taken down to our workroom, alas, just rubble. We were told to make a long bench so that the rubble could be sorted out. We had to go through tl ths mess to fnd rvery bolt, then sort out the dfferent szes. Ths took us abollt three weeks. \FortunatelY the outer wal of the prson had not been brea::hed. Ths happened n August when t was almost too warm. lost my j, eket, the exploson and when asked for another one 1 was greeted wth qute a 1 amount of abuse that wshed that had not asked. Every scrap of drt had tel be seved whch w~s a very monotonous job. The clearng of the debrs '.vas bllowcd by the erect~on of new workrooms. now had to be found somethng else to do. was told to clean the passage way of A Block whch conssted of swcepng the corrdor and polshng a leather carpet strp, also helpng n the del\ery of soup Pane 33 b

35 durng meal tmes. The Chef Warder would rng hs bell ajld call but 'Essenhaben', whch means those who had to fetch the soup, paraded hy h':> offc.: to awat for a warder to appear to take them to the ktchen. There f somethng should have mentoned earler that on Block P. was a cell wth tve Canadar, anncn awatng transport to a POW camp. They were provded wth a food ssue exactly half of what we were gettng wh;;h for them would ~e a starvaton det, they were allowed outsde each day for abovt ten mnutesl not walkng, but at the double. : Whle our workrooms were beng rebult was put to cleanng the block and servng meals, when on my knees cleanng the leather strp stopped as lon:~ as dare talkng to them. They had bccn shot down a few days earl er they all.:afll~ from Canada. 1 ask,~d them for one of ther names, and ther address ll Canada so that could nform hgh authorty when would eventually be releas{~d?. The syst~m used by the ",arders was to open up three or four cdl d )ors, b) the tme you\made the thrd door, he would retrace hs steps but whenw~ arrved at the cell Wth the fve Canadans, he would wat to see that ~ervej them half portons. :They appeared to be farly ft, ther treatment had not yet attt'cted them. should ~ave mentoned earler how made a frend of a young Frenc'llad n:lmed Annand tho carle from a lttle town near Rettrel? n Northern France. He arrved a week or so after me. He had been nvolved n kllng a German solder wth two <;>ther Fr'~nchmen, they were sentenced to death. but n vew (f Annlnd's Page 34

36 age he had a long prson sentence meted out to hm. He would laugh ~d wh.;;n hs sentence was mentoned, he always sad that ths war would be over long hefon he had 1erved hs tme. He v.as a very cheerful ndvdual, makng the best of all stuatons. One mornng he turned up for work, he worked a machne smlar to nlne. h was n agony wth a bol on hs left arm near the elbow. He had reponed s ck, and had hs Asp*n lke everyone else. You wll remember that was allow\d to keep my soap an~ a lttle sugar. My father had always mpressed upon me th:lt maklg a pomade of soap and sugar n equal parts would have a quck a1fect on the bol. relevng the pan farly quck. made ths pomade for Armand durng my mdday meal n my cell. and gave t to hm on our return to work "V;;S hs frend, we used to correspond after the war. Untortunately Armand p3ssed away. he was not yet mddle aged. He had marred and had chldren, (:annct renhr:1ber how many. The ereqton of the new work buldng was almost complete. t ",as 1101 'ong before ~as back on a machne, they were old machnes always gvng trcuble. The machne had a jaw nto whch a nut would be tned, t could take any szed nut. The jaw would be locked tght then a lever would be moved )y he tght hand an~ ths allowed a cuttng wheel to engage the nut, cuttng nto ;t each sde. Ths f0nted the castellaton. These cuttng wheels dd not last very long before they needed resharpenng. There was always a flow of lqud runnng ;lver the nut to keep ~he entre process cool, n Germany t was called bohroel, bdeve n Englsh t was called mstc or mystc. The toreman from Gebrude' H.Yllc for Page 35

37 whom we worked dd not attend any more, hs place was taken by a prj ;oner named Adolph Muelber, he v~as now responsble for lookng after the mh:hnery. To eacl batch of nuts was a docket so when eventually usng the nut f anythng was wr1ng wth the nut lke problem could be traced rght back to the cutler. The small n*ts, were used n arcraft engnes, n vtal spots lke the carburdto.~, what dd sometmes was to cut more out of the groove of the nut, som~tmes less, hopng that my attempt would upset 'the works' and the plane mght ev('1l crash. f ths dd happen would never know. After the castcllaton of the~e nuts. they were sett upstars to Walter and Norman's workroom for the edges 0 ~ th,~ 11U':S to be cleattd on the emery wheel. As soo11 as arrved back n England mentoned the plght of the Canadans when returned to Guernsey. 1 receved a letter trom thl;: Judge Advoc He Ge:;selal that they had all survved whch was great news. Back n June, we had heard through the ppelne that the alles haj landed n Norman~y. Ths we took wth a pece of salt because so many tems )f news had proved tlse, later on, evdence proved ths news was correct. The Fwnch worker reckoned that the war was would be over before Chrstmas There was a lot cf ar bombardment n our area manly the cty of Frankfurt. th~ suburbs were qute quet. The nex, news we heard was that Bar la Duc and Calmar had been overrun by the alles. n Nove~ber we he.d our frst lght fall of snow whch was apparently was very early. Page 36