Knoechlein on the Cage
An Explanation of Our Text by John Head and Peter Steward
Our site is dedicated to the 97 soldiers who were massacred together with other soldiers who also died in the defence of Le Paradis and of course the survivors. It is also a history of the massacre and the fighting in the area of Le Paradis and as such focuses on all aspects of the tragic events. For this reason we are duty bound to look at the German side of events.
It is not our intention to raise the profile of the perpetrator of the massacre nor to defend him in any way. We are conscious, however, that our site is also used by persons carrying out historic research into anything appertaining to the Le Paradis atrocity and those involved.
Most of what is contained in the transcript below of Fritz Knoechlein's booklet in respect of his experiences in the London Cage, has been subject to National Press coverage. We would ask the visitor to take a very balanced overview of his account cross referring to The London Cage written by Lt. Col. A. P. Scotland O.B.E. (Chapter 6 Mass Murder at Le Paradis) and the Prosecution and Defence papers of the trial of Fritz Knoechlein in 1948 (see extracts on our website).
We have no information in respect of the authenticity of the booklet or how it ever became published and in circulation. We revere the names of all those who died in the valiant defence of Le Paradis ensuring the corridors of Dunkirk were left open as long as possible to ensure the liberty we enjoy today. We would never knowingly print anything to diminish their valour or cause distress to others affected by the barbaric act of Fritz Knoechlien on 27th May, 1940.
For those who cannot obtain a copy of The London Cage by Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland. The following extracts may prove helpful.
Lt. Col. A. P Scotland’s first impressions of Fritz Knoechlein
"When Fritz Knoechlein was first ushered into my room at the London Cage, our Kensington Palace Gardens Interrogation HQ near Hyde Park, I studied his face for a full minute before speaking. Here was a Nazi of the first order, the worst order, a German who had dedicated himself to brutality; irresponsible in possession of power, ruthless in execution; a man who represented everything that Adolf Hitler desired of an officer serving in the Third Reich."
Lt Col A.P. Scotland’s instructions to his officers tracking down the perpetrator of the massacre
"On went the search with our widest net being cast among the German prisoners in Allied hands. Discovery of the Paradis murders and clear implication of the SS Totenkopf Division meant that every man held by Allies in Germany was now of great importance to our investigation. My officers, therefore, were firmly instructed to stay on the lookout for such prisoners, to interrogate them with care, and ship across to England any man who might possibly help to unravel the mystery. Two factors above all were now clear. The field of suspicion had narrowed to No 3 Company of the Totenkopf 2nd Infantry Regiment; and a man who planned the outrage was assuredly Captain Fritz Knoechlein."
Reason why Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland’s did not require a statement from Fritz Knoechlien
“Knoechlein” I began, “we have all the information we need about you. You are not to make a statement. I don’t want it. I repeat, no written statement will be accepted from you, nor will you be interrogated. Nor will you remain here. You will go to a camp where your identity will not be known unless you yourself choose to tell people why you are in England”
"I knew the case Knoechlein was, as they say, “sewn up”. My usual purpose in obtaining written statements was to assist the building up of our material for presentation to the trial court, but of all the hundreds of prisoners who went through my hands, Knoechlein seemed to me to require the most astute tactics; he was guilty, and I knew it; the facts were almost ready to be displayed, and I wanted no confusing documents with the aid of which he might try to wiggle from the net."
Lt. Col A. P. Scotland had witnesses from unexpected sources
The key witnesses were Pooley and O’Callaghan but assistance came from the SS itself.
Scotland says: "Theodare Emke had been a member of the machine-gun unit employed in the massacre. He claimed he had not actually manned the gun, declaring that his superior, a Lieutenant Petri, had taken over. But Emke had heard the order to fire. What was even more important, he could testify that the decisive shout came from company commander Knoechlein.
"This is what I was waiting for. Here at last was someone, and a German soldier at that, who had watched the British troops being herded into the field, heard the instructions for their execution, seen their bodies fall – and could identify the officer in charge. Such was the character of the damning evidence to be furnished by Emke when the trial took place.
"Among our witnesses was another valuable German – Emil Stuerzbecher, who had been in 1940 an SS Lieutenant in the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Totenkopf Division. From this man came not only an outline from the German viewpoint, of heavy fighting along La Bassee Canal but also a significant account of the demented attitude of Knoechlein on matters concerning the British.
"Two days before the attack on Le Paradis, Knoechlein had announced to his comrades in the mess that he had no intention of taking prisoners; for his part he would kill any British soldier who came into his hands. There was, it seemed, no limit to his maniacal behaviour on this subject, for at one stage of the fighting he had demanded the handing over of a batch of wounded British prisoners who were being evacuated to the rear by a German medical officer. Stuerzbecher reported: 'Knoechlien came running from the road, shouting loudly and very excited. He roared at the M.O. and myself. These prisoners are nothing to do with you. They belong to me.’ My first impression was that he had gone mad, and only after some argument during which he insisted that the prisoners were his did he quieten down.
"In addition, Stuerzbecher had witnessed Knoechlein’s deliberate shooting down of a number of captured Royal Scots at le Cornet Malo shortly before the incident at Paradis.
"Old Madame Castel (Editor's Note: A refugee who ended up in Paradis) and the other terrified women were forced by a certain SS officer to go down on their knees. What was she doing here, where was she going, had she seen any British, was she sheltering them…? Seeming half mad in his rage, the man threatened her with a pistol, and spoke of killing her as a “spy” She would never forget, she told us, the face of the German who threatened her. Nor did she let us down when the time came.
"On October 12th, 1948, this old Frenchwoman stepped from the witness box and hobbled towards the centre of a Hamburg military courtroom. She turned slowly, peering at the faces around her, at their lawyers, interpreters, clerks, court officials and witnesses alike….Then, suddenly, she pointed the forefinger of a thin and bony hand at Fritz Knoechlein, crying 'That’s him, that is the man!'
"The trial of Fritz Knoechlein held in the Curiohaus at Hamburg, opened on October 11, 1948, before a court of six. Its president was Lt-Colonel E.C. Van der Kiste, of the Essex Regiment. The others were Mr H. Honig (the Judge Advocate), Major P. Witty, Major C. Champion, Captain J.E. Tracey and Captain A. Preston. Mr T. Field-Fisher was the prosecuting council, and counsel for the defence was a Dr. Uhde."
Lt Col A. P. Scotland on the subject of Knoechlein's Defence
"Not that the case was all plain sailing. We were faced with, among other inanities, that forty year-old red herring from the First World War – the accusation that British troops were using “dum-dum” ammunition (bullets with flattened, filed, blunted or otherwise distorted points, causing excessive injuries). We were faced with suggestions that the British flag of surrender at Paradis had a Swastika painted upon it; that our own troops had fired on German prisoners; and a “horrified” protest against the so called ill-treatment of our accused man. We were faced with everything from flat denials to blank faces
"The trial brought up an interesting attempt at a justification of criminal acts by Knoechlein. Indeed he astutely succeeded in confusing the Court by a suggestion that his actions were fully legalised under the old German law which provided for the setting-up of a “court” on the field of battle.
"The next night I removed everything from his room, even his bed – leaving only the mattress on the floor - to ensure that he did himself no damage before being flown to Hamburg. I also paraded him in front of the entire staff and gave him a severe reprimand for his shameful behaviour. Then I went to my office to write a detailed report on Knoechlein’s movements – and attitudes – from the day he was brought to England. This report went to our lawyers, for I half expected that this murderer might well decide, at the last moment, to complain of ill-treatment. In this I was not disappointed, for when the trial was almost over he delivered himself of a lame allegation that he had been tortured while at The Cage in London."
Our site is dedicated to the 97 soldiers who were massacred together with other soldiers who also died in the defence of Le Paradis and of course the survivors. It is also a history of the massacre and the fighting in the area of Le Paradis and as such focuses on all aspects of the tragic events. For this reason we are duty bound to look at the German side of events.
It is not our intention to raise the profile of the perpetrator of the massacre nor to defend him in any way. We are conscious, however, that our site is also used by persons carrying out historic research into anything appertaining to the Le Paradis atrocity and those involved.
Most of what is contained in the transcript below of Fritz Knoechlein's booklet in respect of his experiences in the London Cage, has been subject to National Press coverage. We would ask the visitor to take a very balanced overview of his account cross referring to The London Cage written by Lt. Col. A. P. Scotland O.B.E. (Chapter 6 Mass Murder at Le Paradis) and the Prosecution and Defence papers of the trial of Fritz Knoechlein in 1948 (see extracts on our website).
We have no information in respect of the authenticity of the booklet or how it ever became published and in circulation. We revere the names of all those who died in the valiant defence of Le Paradis ensuring the corridors of Dunkirk were left open as long as possible to ensure the liberty we enjoy today. We would never knowingly print anything to diminish their valour or cause distress to others affected by the barbaric act of Fritz Knoechlien on 27th May, 1940.
For those who cannot obtain a copy of The London Cage by Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland. The following extracts may prove helpful.
Lt. Col. A. P Scotland’s first impressions of Fritz Knoechlein
"When Fritz Knoechlein was first ushered into my room at the London Cage, our Kensington Palace Gardens Interrogation HQ near Hyde Park, I studied his face for a full minute before speaking. Here was a Nazi of the first order, the worst order, a German who had dedicated himself to brutality; irresponsible in possession of power, ruthless in execution; a man who represented everything that Adolf Hitler desired of an officer serving in the Third Reich."
Lt Col A.P. Scotland’s instructions to his officers tracking down the perpetrator of the massacre
"On went the search with our widest net being cast among the German prisoners in Allied hands. Discovery of the Paradis murders and clear implication of the SS Totenkopf Division meant that every man held by Allies in Germany was now of great importance to our investigation. My officers, therefore, were firmly instructed to stay on the lookout for such prisoners, to interrogate them with care, and ship across to England any man who might possibly help to unravel the mystery. Two factors above all were now clear. The field of suspicion had narrowed to No 3 Company of the Totenkopf 2nd Infantry Regiment; and a man who planned the outrage was assuredly Captain Fritz Knoechlein."
Reason why Lt. Col. A.P. Scotland’s did not require a statement from Fritz Knoechlien
“Knoechlein” I began, “we have all the information we need about you. You are not to make a statement. I don’t want it. I repeat, no written statement will be accepted from you, nor will you be interrogated. Nor will you remain here. You will go to a camp where your identity will not be known unless you yourself choose to tell people why you are in England”
"I knew the case Knoechlein was, as they say, “sewn up”. My usual purpose in obtaining written statements was to assist the building up of our material for presentation to the trial court, but of all the hundreds of prisoners who went through my hands, Knoechlein seemed to me to require the most astute tactics; he was guilty, and I knew it; the facts were almost ready to be displayed, and I wanted no confusing documents with the aid of which he might try to wiggle from the net."
Lt. Col A. P. Scotland had witnesses from unexpected sources
The key witnesses were Pooley and O’Callaghan but assistance came from the SS itself.
Scotland says: "Theodare Emke had been a member of the machine-gun unit employed in the massacre. He claimed he had not actually manned the gun, declaring that his superior, a Lieutenant Petri, had taken over. But Emke had heard the order to fire. What was even more important, he could testify that the decisive shout came from company commander Knoechlein.
"This is what I was waiting for. Here at last was someone, and a German soldier at that, who had watched the British troops being herded into the field, heard the instructions for their execution, seen their bodies fall – and could identify the officer in charge. Such was the character of the damning evidence to be furnished by Emke when the trial took place.
"Among our witnesses was another valuable German – Emil Stuerzbecher, who had been in 1940 an SS Lieutenant in the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Totenkopf Division. From this man came not only an outline from the German viewpoint, of heavy fighting along La Bassee Canal but also a significant account of the demented attitude of Knoechlein on matters concerning the British.
"Two days before the attack on Le Paradis, Knoechlein had announced to his comrades in the mess that he had no intention of taking prisoners; for his part he would kill any British soldier who came into his hands. There was, it seemed, no limit to his maniacal behaviour on this subject, for at one stage of the fighting he had demanded the handing over of a batch of wounded British prisoners who were being evacuated to the rear by a German medical officer. Stuerzbecher reported: 'Knoechlien came running from the road, shouting loudly and very excited. He roared at the M.O. and myself. These prisoners are nothing to do with you. They belong to me.’ My first impression was that he had gone mad, and only after some argument during which he insisted that the prisoners were his did he quieten down.
"In addition, Stuerzbecher had witnessed Knoechlein’s deliberate shooting down of a number of captured Royal Scots at le Cornet Malo shortly before the incident at Paradis.
"Old Madame Castel (Editor's Note: A refugee who ended up in Paradis) and the other terrified women were forced by a certain SS officer to go down on their knees. What was she doing here, where was she going, had she seen any British, was she sheltering them…? Seeming half mad in his rage, the man threatened her with a pistol, and spoke of killing her as a “spy” She would never forget, she told us, the face of the German who threatened her. Nor did she let us down when the time came.
"On October 12th, 1948, this old Frenchwoman stepped from the witness box and hobbled towards the centre of a Hamburg military courtroom. She turned slowly, peering at the faces around her, at their lawyers, interpreters, clerks, court officials and witnesses alike….Then, suddenly, she pointed the forefinger of a thin and bony hand at Fritz Knoechlein, crying 'That’s him, that is the man!'
"The trial of Fritz Knoechlein held in the Curiohaus at Hamburg, opened on October 11, 1948, before a court of six. Its president was Lt-Colonel E.C. Van der Kiste, of the Essex Regiment. The others were Mr H. Honig (the Judge Advocate), Major P. Witty, Major C. Champion, Captain J.E. Tracey and Captain A. Preston. Mr T. Field-Fisher was the prosecuting council, and counsel for the defence was a Dr. Uhde."
Lt Col A. P. Scotland on the subject of Knoechlein's Defence
"Not that the case was all plain sailing. We were faced with, among other inanities, that forty year-old red herring from the First World War – the accusation that British troops were using “dum-dum” ammunition (bullets with flattened, filed, blunted or otherwise distorted points, causing excessive injuries). We were faced with suggestions that the British flag of surrender at Paradis had a Swastika painted upon it; that our own troops had fired on German prisoners; and a “horrified” protest against the so called ill-treatment of our accused man. We were faced with everything from flat denials to blank faces
"The trial brought up an interesting attempt at a justification of criminal acts by Knoechlein. Indeed he astutely succeeded in confusing the Court by a suggestion that his actions were fully legalised under the old German law which provided for the setting-up of a “court” on the field of battle.
"The next night I removed everything from his room, even his bed – leaving only the mattress on the floor - to ensure that he did himself no damage before being flown to Hamburg. I also paraded him in front of the entire staff and gave him a severe reprimand for his shameful behaviour. Then I went to my office to write a detailed report on Knoechlein’s movements – and attitudes – from the day he was brought to England. This report went to our lawyers, for I half expected that this murderer might well decide, at the last moment, to complain of ill-treatment. In this I was not disappointed, for when the trial was almost over he delivered himself of a lame allegation that he had been tortured while at The Cage in London."
The following is what Fritz Knoechlein wrote about his time in the London Cage. We leave the reader to make up his/her mind on the accuracy of the texts of both Scotland and Knoechlein.
"On the 10th of October, 1948, I was brought into the London District Cage (L.D.C). After my first interrogation on the 15th of October, at which I was unable to render up the confession apparently sought from me, the Commandant Lt. Col. Scotland, prescribed the following regulations:
These measures were supposed to lead to the required confession. Three days with practically no food and without any sleep make a man very weak and softens him up for interrogation. The interrogator was Warrant Officer Ullman who said, and I quote exactly: "The Alexanderplatz in Berlin is not the only place where Gestapo methods existed. Here we can apply them much better," and also "We'll smash you up miserably here," and "Here in this room you're going to be beaten so frightfully that you will whimper." With that he seized me by the throat, twisted my collar together until I was choking, and shouted directly into my face, "I hate you, I hate you. I have never hated anyone as much as I hate you." Learning that I had a religion and believed in God, he declared: "Then you need not answer anything, for your oath will be worth nothing anyway," an utterance which hurt me deeply.
The guards had, during this time, been advised to give me "adequate" treatment, and so, for example, one guard forced me to do 100 trunk bends, one after the other, without pause, and then other physical exercise to the point where I was staggering. A sergeant who came in interfered in no way. When I tried to stop I was told it was insubordination and would be punished accordingly. These remarks were accompanied by continual threats with wooden truncheons.
Then I had to walk around in a circle of the smallest dimensions for four hours continually in the same direction, even though I said that I was becoming dizzy and asked at least if the direction could be changed. For this, I received. each time I walked past the guard, a hard kick of his boots in the seat of my pants. I received about 15 or 20 of these kicks in total. Ginally I had to turn for so long on my own axis that I could no longer hold myself erect, and fell to the floor. This occurred on the 11th of October, 1946. Following this, I was again interrogated. On the late evening of October 18th Captain Cornish finally procurred a temporary cessation of these cruelties, and ordered that I should again receive food and opportunity to sleep. In the meantime, I was put to work with hard labour, mostly of a wholly senseless kind. For example, to scour a staircase, and when I had finished at the bottom, to begin again. Senseless scrubbing of the stone floor with a brush (not to clean it); wiping up a large room with a tiny cloth, such as half of a sock; cleaning toilets; hauling coal, depite my pointing out my broken hand joint. This was despite international agreements relating to officer prisoners of war. When it came to taking care of one's personal needs, the guards often intentionally refrained from hearing one's request, or simply came and insulted one, and went away without allowing one to go to the toilet. For instance, one day I asked continually to be taken to the toilet from 9am to 4pm. Although during this time the guards came into my cell five or six times. They merely laughed jeering at my request (witness to this was fellow prisoner Werner Schafer). On another occasion, when three of us were squeezed into a narrow little room, so that no one could even move, the guard, in answer to repeated requests to be taken to the toilet, shoved an open pail into the room, inviting us to evacuate into it. When his attention was drawn to the condition of the air in this tiny cell during the approaching night, he laughed mockingly (witness fellow-prisoners Werner Schafer and Oskar Schmidt)
On the 6th of October 1946, an ordinary guard, without rank, demanded that I stand upon his entry, and a military salute be given while standing at attention, fingertips along the seams of the trousers, and so forth. Then he had kicked my legs with his boots until he was satisfied that they were at the right angle. I then demanded to see an officer, in order to make a complaint. I was led to the Commander of the Prison, Colonel Scotland, and pointed out that the placards explicitly posted in each room (Daily Routine Orders) specified that officers were obliged to render military honours only to similar ranking or higher ranking allied officers. To this, Colonel Scotland replied that the German Army had ceased to exist, and that thus there were no longer any German officers. And furthermore, that I must do all that was required of me by the guard.
As a result of this complaint, I had to undergo the following mistreatment. Under the pretext of cleaning a room, the room was filled with dirty water, a the depth of a centimetre, and I was ordered to kneel down. Since I only possessed one single pair of trousers, I refused. I was held up by the knees, with my head pointing downward, and then let fall. About 10 pails of water were poured over my head and my clothes were soaked, and I was then battered with a wooden club numerous times down narrow cellar steps. This was so severe that all my bones felt as though they must have been broken, and I had then to remove my shoes and clean the room in my socks in the ice-cold water. Then, in my stockings, holding my shoes in my hands, I had to run around outside in the pouring rain, with a wooden cudgel at my back forcing me to hurry.
I could change neither my completely soaked clothing nor my underwear. Time was scarcely left for me to eat. Usually I had to do this standing before an open toilet door, and to gulp it down in a very few minutes. Finally I was once more forced to kneel down in the slops as I cleaned the wash-room.
A guard got astride my back and tried with all his power to force me to my knees. At the same time, I was pulled up by the legs.
This occurred in the presence of about eight men of the guard, and two corporals.
On the 9th November, I was placed in the kitchen beside a multi-flamed gas-range in a corner. The gas flames on which no cooking vessels were standing were turned up very high, so that they gave out a tremendous heat. Then I was forced to scour for one and a half hours a very small piece of wood (a kind of chopping board), , I caught a heavy bronchial without water, without rest, until I was entirely senseless! With the sweat running from my face and body. I was then taken into a bath room, with the doors and windows wide open. I was forced to undress and to stand under an ice-cold shower in my over-heated condition. It was a special kind of shower which sprayed not only from above, but also from the sides. When I was clean and was freezing and shivering and wanted to dry myself, three men prevented my leaving the bath. I was then smeared with coal dirt from the furnace and forced to remain under the cold douche longer for reasons of cleanliness and torment. Finally, in addition, they threw pails of cold water over me. As a result of this treatment I , caught a heavy bronchial infection and an increase of my suffering from rheumatism. It is only due to my good constitution that I owe the fact that I recovered from this dangerous illness, probably inflicted deliberately, and intended to add to my suffering.
On the same day, with dusk already beginning, I was led into the garden, the exercise place, with fellow-prisoner Oskar Schmidt and was there invited to kneel down on the ground in front of the guard.
When I refused, we both had to run continually in circles, while the guard prodded us in the small of the back with his wooden truncheon. I was given a wooden block - a sort of chopping block, weighing about 50 pounds to carry about with me as I ran. Schmidt had to carry a wooden beam. At last, we both had to carry together a heavy barrel, partly filled with lubricating oil, this also at a running pace for many times around the exercise yard, and all this time, owing to a lack of a contrivance for holding it, one of us had always to hold it by only two fingers stuck into the bung hole.
They told my fellow-prisoner, Oskar Schmidt, a 48-year-old man, who was visibly at the point of collapsing, that he had to suffer all this because I had refused to kneel down on the ground.
They said that I was a bad comrade, and responsible for the suffering of Schmidt. At this point Schmidt collapsed completely with a heart attack. In order to put an end to his torment, I announced myself ready to kneel before the guard inside the house, and then I had to do it in front of the washroom. I was still at this time a prisoner-of-war, a Lieutenant Colonel of the German Armed Forces. During this entire sadistic torment, in addition to the guard, a corporal was also present, and many other guards were watching from the window. The guard said many times that he was doing it on the express command of the Commandant Colonel Scotland.
Since these tortures were the result of my personal complaint, any further complaint would have been senseless. A somewhat more humane guard also gave the advice that I should not complain again, or else it would simply become worse. (Witnesses for these events are my fellow-prisoners Werner Schafer and Oskar Schmidt. Similar things are to be found in my deposition in the No 1 Major Trial, and my record on the same point in June or July 1947 in London).
That these methods had not altered in the London Cage, even up to June 1948 are proved by my own experiences.
From 10pm onwards, I was systematically awakened in my cell every ten minutes, even though the guard sat in the meantime by the closed door and the light was on. There was no question of seeing whether I was there, but each time either the cover was taken off me, or else I was shaken until I was definitely awake. After the 12th or 16th time I said to the two guards that these were really Gestapo methods. For this I was punished on the following day by Colonel Scotland, by being sentenced to 28 days arrest. The table, chair, bed, washstand etc were removed from the room, and I had to eat off the floor and sleep on the floor with two blankets. The next nights passed in exactly the same way as the previous ones.
The following further occurrences are known to me personally from my own experiences:
1
About the end of November, 1946, the excited voice of a German prisoner was heard crying through the whole building "Kill me I can't stand it any longer! Kill me!" and the like.
2
My fellow prisoner Werner Schafer, in spite of a certificate of an international commission of doctors attesting to his grievous war wounds, was beaten continuously on his dislocated back with a wooden cudgel. The medical certificate was in French, German and English. It was shown to the guard and then it was thrown on the ground with scornful laughter. Once when a guard woke him in the middle of the night, he showed him a written statement by an officer, that he was now fit to receive any kind of treatment. When he reported himself to the doctor after many heavy Malaria attacks, Sergeant Major White struck him with a stick. Fellow prisoner Oakar Schmidt, during his interrogation by a specialist called Waldmann, was repeatedly hit in the face. This was done with heavy blows with Waldmann's fist, and he was then thrown against a wall. When he came back into our room from this interrogation his face was smashed and his eyes were bleeding.
3
The prisoners Reinholdt, Bruchkardt and Zacharias, among other mistreatments, had hair pulled from their heads in tufts. Bruckardt also had to undergo a "cold water treatmeding cnt and other "special treatments."
4
Colonel Scotland, the commandant, told several prisoners (Bruckhardt and Noa) that he had a hippopotamus whip that he wanted to test out. Similarly he also described a whole list of other torture methods.
5
To the German, Lieutenant Colonel Beutler, Colonel Scotland declared that there were many ways in England that a man could vanish completely, and that he would not be the first to vanish from this place the London District Cage, without any trace whatsoever.
6
Wunder, a former member of a signals echelon, was thoroughly beaten because he could not incriminate his battalion's adjutant in the manner desired. When the L.D.C requested Wunder again, the English Holding Camp Commandant refused to give him up again. Wunder was thereupon transferred to P.O.W Camp Number 17.
These examples could be multiplied many times over if desired.
All statements and experiences can be sworn to.
The motto of the L.D.C (an official institution of the British War Ministry) is best expressed in the words often cited by an English guard:
The best German is a dead German.
"On the 10th of October, 1948, I was brought into the London District Cage (L.D.C). After my first interrogation on the 15th of October, at which I was unable to render up the confession apparently sought from me, the Commandant Lt. Col. Scotland, prescribed the following regulations:
- Rations: Breakfast, a half plate of gruel. Noon meal, nothing. Afternoon, one cup of tea; Evening meal, water.
- Sleep: One or more guards were continually in my room, or else I had to pass the night in the lavatory whilst the guards played and sang. Although I was permitted to lie down, there was no question of sleep. This continued for four days and nights.
- All my clothing, coat, trousers, shoes, handkerchief, and so forth, were taken from me, and a very thin pair of athletic trousers were given me like a sort of pyjamas to wear day and night.
These measures were supposed to lead to the required confession. Three days with practically no food and without any sleep make a man very weak and softens him up for interrogation. The interrogator was Warrant Officer Ullman who said, and I quote exactly: "The Alexanderplatz in Berlin is not the only place where Gestapo methods existed. Here we can apply them much better," and also "We'll smash you up miserably here," and "Here in this room you're going to be beaten so frightfully that you will whimper." With that he seized me by the throat, twisted my collar together until I was choking, and shouted directly into my face, "I hate you, I hate you. I have never hated anyone as much as I hate you." Learning that I had a religion and believed in God, he declared: "Then you need not answer anything, for your oath will be worth nothing anyway," an utterance which hurt me deeply.
The guards had, during this time, been advised to give me "adequate" treatment, and so, for example, one guard forced me to do 100 trunk bends, one after the other, without pause, and then other physical exercise to the point where I was staggering. A sergeant who came in interfered in no way. When I tried to stop I was told it was insubordination and would be punished accordingly. These remarks were accompanied by continual threats with wooden truncheons.
Then I had to walk around in a circle of the smallest dimensions for four hours continually in the same direction, even though I said that I was becoming dizzy and asked at least if the direction could be changed. For this, I received. each time I walked past the guard, a hard kick of his boots in the seat of my pants. I received about 15 or 20 of these kicks in total. Ginally I had to turn for so long on my own axis that I could no longer hold myself erect, and fell to the floor. This occurred on the 11th of October, 1946. Following this, I was again interrogated. On the late evening of October 18th Captain Cornish finally procurred a temporary cessation of these cruelties, and ordered that I should again receive food and opportunity to sleep. In the meantime, I was put to work with hard labour, mostly of a wholly senseless kind. For example, to scour a staircase, and when I had finished at the bottom, to begin again. Senseless scrubbing of the stone floor with a brush (not to clean it); wiping up a large room with a tiny cloth, such as half of a sock; cleaning toilets; hauling coal, depite my pointing out my broken hand joint. This was despite international agreements relating to officer prisoners of war. When it came to taking care of one's personal needs, the guards often intentionally refrained from hearing one's request, or simply came and insulted one, and went away without allowing one to go to the toilet. For instance, one day I asked continually to be taken to the toilet from 9am to 4pm. Although during this time the guards came into my cell five or six times. They merely laughed jeering at my request (witness to this was fellow prisoner Werner Schafer). On another occasion, when three of us were squeezed into a narrow little room, so that no one could even move, the guard, in answer to repeated requests to be taken to the toilet, shoved an open pail into the room, inviting us to evacuate into it. When his attention was drawn to the condition of the air in this tiny cell during the approaching night, he laughed mockingly (witness fellow-prisoners Werner Schafer and Oskar Schmidt)
On the 6th of October 1946, an ordinary guard, without rank, demanded that I stand upon his entry, and a military salute be given while standing at attention, fingertips along the seams of the trousers, and so forth. Then he had kicked my legs with his boots until he was satisfied that they were at the right angle. I then demanded to see an officer, in order to make a complaint. I was led to the Commander of the Prison, Colonel Scotland, and pointed out that the placards explicitly posted in each room (Daily Routine Orders) specified that officers were obliged to render military honours only to similar ranking or higher ranking allied officers. To this, Colonel Scotland replied that the German Army had ceased to exist, and that thus there were no longer any German officers. And furthermore, that I must do all that was required of me by the guard.
As a result of this complaint, I had to undergo the following mistreatment. Under the pretext of cleaning a room, the room was filled with dirty water, a the depth of a centimetre, and I was ordered to kneel down. Since I only possessed one single pair of trousers, I refused. I was held up by the knees, with my head pointing downward, and then let fall. About 10 pails of water were poured over my head and my clothes were soaked, and I was then battered with a wooden club numerous times down narrow cellar steps. This was so severe that all my bones felt as though they must have been broken, and I had then to remove my shoes and clean the room in my socks in the ice-cold water. Then, in my stockings, holding my shoes in my hands, I had to run around outside in the pouring rain, with a wooden cudgel at my back forcing me to hurry.
I could change neither my completely soaked clothing nor my underwear. Time was scarcely left for me to eat. Usually I had to do this standing before an open toilet door, and to gulp it down in a very few minutes. Finally I was once more forced to kneel down in the slops as I cleaned the wash-room.
A guard got astride my back and tried with all his power to force me to my knees. At the same time, I was pulled up by the legs.
This occurred in the presence of about eight men of the guard, and two corporals.
On the 9th November, I was placed in the kitchen beside a multi-flamed gas-range in a corner. The gas flames on which no cooking vessels were standing were turned up very high, so that they gave out a tremendous heat. Then I was forced to scour for one and a half hours a very small piece of wood (a kind of chopping board), , I caught a heavy bronchial without water, without rest, until I was entirely senseless! With the sweat running from my face and body. I was then taken into a bath room, with the doors and windows wide open. I was forced to undress and to stand under an ice-cold shower in my over-heated condition. It was a special kind of shower which sprayed not only from above, but also from the sides. When I was clean and was freezing and shivering and wanted to dry myself, three men prevented my leaving the bath. I was then smeared with coal dirt from the furnace and forced to remain under the cold douche longer for reasons of cleanliness and torment. Finally, in addition, they threw pails of cold water over me. As a result of this treatment I , caught a heavy bronchial infection and an increase of my suffering from rheumatism. It is only due to my good constitution that I owe the fact that I recovered from this dangerous illness, probably inflicted deliberately, and intended to add to my suffering.
On the same day, with dusk already beginning, I was led into the garden, the exercise place, with fellow-prisoner Oskar Schmidt and was there invited to kneel down on the ground in front of the guard.
When I refused, we both had to run continually in circles, while the guard prodded us in the small of the back with his wooden truncheon. I was given a wooden block - a sort of chopping block, weighing about 50 pounds to carry about with me as I ran. Schmidt had to carry a wooden beam. At last, we both had to carry together a heavy barrel, partly filled with lubricating oil, this also at a running pace for many times around the exercise yard, and all this time, owing to a lack of a contrivance for holding it, one of us had always to hold it by only two fingers stuck into the bung hole.
They told my fellow-prisoner, Oskar Schmidt, a 48-year-old man, who was visibly at the point of collapsing, that he had to suffer all this because I had refused to kneel down on the ground.
They said that I was a bad comrade, and responsible for the suffering of Schmidt. At this point Schmidt collapsed completely with a heart attack. In order to put an end to his torment, I announced myself ready to kneel before the guard inside the house, and then I had to do it in front of the washroom. I was still at this time a prisoner-of-war, a Lieutenant Colonel of the German Armed Forces. During this entire sadistic torment, in addition to the guard, a corporal was also present, and many other guards were watching from the window. The guard said many times that he was doing it on the express command of the Commandant Colonel Scotland.
Since these tortures were the result of my personal complaint, any further complaint would have been senseless. A somewhat more humane guard also gave the advice that I should not complain again, or else it would simply become worse. (Witnesses for these events are my fellow-prisoners Werner Schafer and Oskar Schmidt. Similar things are to be found in my deposition in the No 1 Major Trial, and my record on the same point in June or July 1947 in London).
That these methods had not altered in the London Cage, even up to June 1948 are proved by my own experiences.
From 10pm onwards, I was systematically awakened in my cell every ten minutes, even though the guard sat in the meantime by the closed door and the light was on. There was no question of seeing whether I was there, but each time either the cover was taken off me, or else I was shaken until I was definitely awake. After the 12th or 16th time I said to the two guards that these were really Gestapo methods. For this I was punished on the following day by Colonel Scotland, by being sentenced to 28 days arrest. The table, chair, bed, washstand etc were removed from the room, and I had to eat off the floor and sleep on the floor with two blankets. The next nights passed in exactly the same way as the previous ones.
The following further occurrences are known to me personally from my own experiences:
1
About the end of November, 1946, the excited voice of a German prisoner was heard crying through the whole building "Kill me I can't stand it any longer! Kill me!" and the like.
2
My fellow prisoner Werner Schafer, in spite of a certificate of an international commission of doctors attesting to his grievous war wounds, was beaten continuously on his dislocated back with a wooden cudgel. The medical certificate was in French, German and English. It was shown to the guard and then it was thrown on the ground with scornful laughter. Once when a guard woke him in the middle of the night, he showed him a written statement by an officer, that he was now fit to receive any kind of treatment. When he reported himself to the doctor after many heavy Malaria attacks, Sergeant Major White struck him with a stick. Fellow prisoner Oakar Schmidt, during his interrogation by a specialist called Waldmann, was repeatedly hit in the face. This was done with heavy blows with Waldmann's fist, and he was then thrown against a wall. When he came back into our room from this interrogation his face was smashed and his eyes were bleeding.
3
The prisoners Reinholdt, Bruchkardt and Zacharias, among other mistreatments, had hair pulled from their heads in tufts. Bruckardt also had to undergo a "cold water treatmeding cnt and other "special treatments."
4
Colonel Scotland, the commandant, told several prisoners (Bruckhardt and Noa) that he had a hippopotamus whip that he wanted to test out. Similarly he also described a whole list of other torture methods.
5
To the German, Lieutenant Colonel Beutler, Colonel Scotland declared that there were many ways in England that a man could vanish completely, and that he would not be the first to vanish from this place the London District Cage, without any trace whatsoever.
6
Wunder, a former member of a signals echelon, was thoroughly beaten because he could not incriminate his battalion's adjutant in the manner desired. When the L.D.C requested Wunder again, the English Holding Camp Commandant refused to give him up again. Wunder was thereupon transferred to P.O.W Camp Number 17.
These examples could be multiplied many times over if desired.
All statements and experiences can be sworn to.
The motto of the L.D.C (an official institution of the British War Ministry) is best expressed in the words often cited by an English guard:
The best German is a dead German.