ROSER: No, not at all. Like all my comrades of the same rank and like
most of the noncommissioned officers and like all “aspirants,” I had
refused to work, invoking the provision of the Geneva Convention, which
Germany had signed and which prescribed that noncommissioned officers
who were prisoners cannot be forced to perform any labor without their
consent. The German Army, into whose hands we had fallen, practically
speaking, never respected that agreement undertaken by Germany.
M. DUBOST: Are you familiar with executions that took place in Oflag XI
B?
ROSER: I was made familiar with the death of several French or Allied
prisoners, specifically at Oflag XI at Grossborn in Pomerania. A French
prisoner, Lieutenant Robin, who with some of his comrades had prepared
an escape and for that purpose had dug a tunnel, was killed in the
following manner: The Germans having had information that the tunnel had
been prepared, Hauptmann Buchmann, who was a member of the officer staff
of the camp, watched with a few German guards for the exit of the
would-be escapees. Lieutenant Robin, who was first to emerge, was killed
with one shot while obviously he could in no manner attack anyone or
defend himself.
Other cases of this type occurred. One of my friends, a French
Lieutenant Ledoux, who was sent to Graudenz Fortress where he was
subjected to a hard detention regime, saw his best friend, British
Lieutenant Anthony Thomson, killed by Hauptfeldwebel Ostreich with one
pistol shot in the neck, in their own cell. Lieutenant Thomson had just
sought to escape and had been recaptured by the Germans on the airfield.
Lieutenant Thomson belonged to the RAF.
I should like to state also that in the camp of Rawa-Ruska in Galicia,
where I spent 5 months, several of our comrades . . .