RE-IMPRISONED AT KLINGELPUTZ
My friend, being a well-known commercial man of Cologne, was acquainted
with the two gendarmes. He recognised the futility of attempting to run
against the decree of the Powers-that-Be, together with the fact that
these two officers were only doing their duty. He invited them to eat
and drink. They accepted the favour, our good spirits revived, and we
informally discussed the new situation and its portent.
The two officers, not wishing to hurt K----'s feelings more than was
absolutely necessary, and residing in the vicinity, suggested that they
should meet us at a certain point at a given time to escort us into
Cologne. The appointment being settled to mutual satisfaction they
departed and we at once busied ourselves with preparations for another
sojourn in prison, which we considered to be our certain fate. Our
hostess packed a huge reserve of dainties of all descriptions sufficient
to last us several days, by which time we fondly concluded that any
formalities demanded by the authorities would be completed, and we
should once more be allowed to go free on "passes."
We kept the appointment with the two officers who, out of respect for
our host, had discarded their uniforms for mufti. Consequently, to the
casual man in the street, we appeared to be only a little party going
into the city for a mild junketing.
We were told that the official fiat had gone forth that all Britishers
within the German Empire, both resident and touring, were to be
arrested. All sorts of reasons were advanced to explain this action but
they were merely speculative. There is one feature about the Teuton
Government which is far from being characteristic of the British
authorities. The Germans never do things by halves. What they authorise
to be done is carried out to the letter. What they say they mean and
there is no delay in executing an order once it is issued. The Teuton
system may have shortcomings but hesitation and vacillation cannot be
numbered among them. Directly the order concerning the re-arrest of the
British was issued, extreme activity was displayed in carrying it out.
Possibly it was a mere temporary measure, as K---- half hoped, but that
was immaterial. Every alien was rounded up within a few hours and placed
safely under lock and key.
We were not kept in doubt as to our future for many minutes. We learned
at the Polizei Prasidium that we were to be immured in Klingelputz
prison. Many of our number were gathered there, having once been
released on "pass," and from the circumstance that they were business
men in practice and residence in Germany the confident belief prevailed
that after re-registration all would be released. But we were speedily
disappointed. All of us without the slightest discrimination were placed
under restraint.
Directly we entered Klingelputz and had passed into the main building I
could not restrain my curiosity. This penitentiary was vastly dissimilar
from Wesel. It is a huge building not only covering a considerable tract
of ground, but is several floors in height, thus providing cell
accommodation for hundreds of prisoners.
But it was the method of securing the prisoners which compelled my
instant attention. Ahead of me I saw what I first took to be an
iron-railed barrier behind which a number of men were crowding as if to
catch a glimpse of us. But to my astonishment I discovered, as I
advanced, that this was not an iron barrier keeping back a
curiosity-provoked crowd but the cells and their inmates. I was startled
to hear frantic hails, "Mahoney! Mahoney! Hooray! Come on!"
I stepped forward to ascertain that I was being called by two or three
compatriots whom I had left behind at Sennelager, but who had afterwards
been released on "pass" and re-rounded up as aliens. I returned the
greeting hilariously, upon which one of the British prisoners, who was
remarkably agile, swarmed the bars, and poised thus above his comrades,
was emulating the strange and amusing antics of a monkey at the
Zoological Gardens, thereby conveying by his actions that he and his
friends were caged after the manner of our simian prizes at home.
The cells were indeed cages, as I discovered upon closer inspection, and
recalled nothing so much as parrot cages upon a large scale. All sides
were barred in the self-same manner so that from any point one could see
every corner of the cell and discover what the inmate or rather inmates
were doing, because each cell was really six cells in one. The cage was
rectangular in plan, each cell measuring about seven feet in length by
three feet in width, and fairly high. But it was the internal
arrangement of the cell which struck me. In plan it was set out
something like the following:--
[Illustration]
The middle gangway A not only served as the approach to the
sub-divisions or cells B on either side, but also constituted the space
occupied by the prisoners during the day. Each of the sub-divisions was
large enough to receive a bed and nothing else. There was only
sufficient space to stand beside the couch. Upon retiring for the night
the prisoner was compelled to disrobe in the central space or gangway A,
then, picking up his clothes he had to sidle round the door and climb
over his bed to get into it. In the morning, upon rising, he either had
to stand upon his bed to dress or to come out into the central gangway,
the space beside his bed being scarcely sufficient to permit free
movement.
Normally, I suppose, each cell or cage is designed to receive six
prisoners, one to each sub-division, in which event circulation in the
dividing open space would be possible. But the facilities of Klingelputz
were so taxed at the time that every morning further prisoners were
brought from the masonry cells below and locked in this open space for
the day. The result was considerable overcrowding, there being no fewer
than twenty-six men in one of the cages including some of our
fellow-countrymen from Sennelager upon the day I entered. But the men
from the latter camp happened to be some of the most irrepressible
spirits among us. They considered it to be huge fun to swing and climb
about the bars like monkeys, and their quaint antics and badinage kept
their comrades buoyant.
While I made application to be put in one of these extraordinary cells,
merely to experience the novelty, my four comrades expressed their
sincere hope that we should meet with superior accommodation. In this we
were not disappointed, if the quarters to which we were taken were
capable of being called superior. We were escorted down flights of steps
which appeared to lead to the very bowels of the State hotel. Finally we
were ushered into a long subterranean apartment, which was really a
cellar, and was evidently intended to house five prisoners at one time,
seeing that there were this number of beds. Except for the fact that it
was a cellar and very little light penetrated its walls, little fault
could be found with it. Certainly it was scrupulously clean, for which
we were devoutly thankful, while on the table an oil-lamp was burning.
Life at Klingelputz would have been tolerable but for one thing--the
prison fare. At six o'clock we were served with a basin of acorn coffee
and a small piece of black bread for breakfast. At twelve we were
treated to a small dole of skilly, the most execrable food I have ever
tasted even in a German prison camp. It was skilly in the fullest sense
of the word. Whatever entered into its composition must have been used
most sparingly; its nutritive value was absolutely negligible. At five
in the afternoon we received another basin of the acorn coffee together
with a small piece of black bread, and this had to keep us going for the
next thirteen hours.
Fortunately the food which we had brought with us served as a valuable
supplement to that provided by the State. It not only kept us alive but
enabled us to maintain our condition. The old fellow who was our gaoler
was tractable; indeed he was somewhat apologetic for having to look
after such estimable gentlemen, an attitude which was doubtless due to
the fact that he knew we should look after him! We endeavoured to see if
he could supply a little more "liberty and fresh air" but the old warder
shook his head sorrowfully.
[*large gap]
Lights had to be extinguished by nine o'clock, and it was the evening
which taxed our endurance. We had to while away the hours as best we
could. First we improvised an Indian band, using our basins as tom-toms
and singing the most weird music. As a variety we dressed up in our
blankets to resemble Red Indians and indulged in blood-curdling
war-dances. Such measures for passing the time may sound extremely
childish to readers, but it must be remembered that there was nothing
else for us to do unless we were content to sit down with our chins in
our hands, with the corners of our mouths drooping, and our faces
wearing the expression of undertakers' mutes. Had we not participated in
the admittedly infantile amusements we should have gone mad.
When we had demolished our food reserves and were utterly dependent upon
the prison diet, we speedily began to betray signs of our captivity and
deprivations. We petitioned for permission to purchase food from outside
but this met with a curt refusal. Eventually the prison authorities
relented and we were permitted to purchase our mid-day meal from a
restaurant, for which privilege by the way we were mulcted very heavily.
During the day we were permitted to stretch our limbs in the exercise
yard for about fifteen minutes. No steel-bound rules and regulations
such as I had experienced at Wesel prevailed here. We were free to
intermingle and to converse as we pleased. This relaxation was keenly
anticipated and enjoyed because it gave us the opportunity to exchange
reminiscences. We learned enough during this brief period to provide
material for further topics of conversation. This, however, was the
experience of our party. Others fared worse and were shut up in single
cells in which, as I had previously done at Wesel, they were compelled
to pace.
We only shared the large underground cell together at night because of
its sleeping accommodation. We were shut in separate cells during the
day, which prevented interchange of conversation and inter-amusement
during the day except in the exercise yard. But solitary confinement was
rare, and in the majority of cases we learned that the aliens were
placed in small parties of four or five in a single cell. After a few
days our party was swelled by five new arrivals from different parts of
Germany. We were a cosmopolitan crowd, comprising every strata of
society, from wealthy men down to stable lads. One boisterous spirit, a
Cockney, confessed far and wide that he had once suffered imprisonment
at home for horse-stealing, and he did not care a rap for anything or
anybody. He was always bubbling over with exuberant merriment and was
one of those who can project every situation into its relative humorous
perspective. Another prisoner was an Englishman who had been resident in
Germany for twenty-five years, and at the time of his arrest occupied a
very prominent position in one of the foremost banking institutions.
This man felt his humiliation acutely. He paced his cell from morning to
night, peevish and nervous, brooding deeply over what he considered to
be an atrocity. He was a well-known man and on intimate terms with many
of the foremost members of the Government and of the Services. He wrote
to every man whom he thought capable of exerting powerful and
irresistible influence upon his behalf, but without any tangible
results. The fact that this man, apparently more Teuton, from his long
residence and associations in the country, than British, had been thrown
into prison brought home to us the thorough manner in which the Germans
carried out their task of placing all aliens in safety. It was
immaterial how prominent the position of the Britisher, his wealth, or
his indispensability to the concern with which he was identified. Into
prison he went when the general rounding up of enemies order was
promulgated.
The Cockney who had been imprisoned for horse-stealing badgered this
superior fellow-prisoner unmercifully. He was incessantly dwelling upon
the man's descent from a position of comfort and ease to "quod" as he
termed it. He would go up to the prisoner, pacing the exercise yard, and
slapping him on the back would yap:
"Now then, old sport! Don't get so down in the mouth about it!"
The prisoner would venture some snappy retort.
"All right, Cocky! Crikey, you'd look mighty fine stuck up against a
wall with half a dozen bloomin' Prussian rifles looking at yer. Blime if
I don't believe you'd dodge the bullets by caving-in at the knees!"
A fierce look would be the response to such torment.
"Gawd's trewth! My fretful bumble-bee, I'd write to old Tight-Whiskers
about it if I was you. Get 'im to come an' bail yer out!"
At first we wondered who the personality so irreverently described as
"Tight-Whiskers" was, but subsequently we were enlightened. He was
referring to Von Tirpitz, "Th' bloke wot looks arter th' Germin Navy!"
When the Cockney, who appeared to be downright proud of his ability to
keep his "pecker up," found banter to be unproductive, he would assume a
tone of extreme sympathetic feeling, but this was so obviously unreal as
to be more productive of laughter than his outspoken sallies.
Once a week there was a sight from which, after my first experience, I
was always glad to escape. On this day the prisoners were taken into the
exercise yard to meet their wives and children. On these occasions when
supplies of food were brought in, some very heart-rending scenes were
witnessed, the little toddlers clinging to their fathers' coat-tails and
childishly urging them to come home, while the women's eyes were wet and
red.
The sanitary arrangements in Klingelputz were on a level with those of
other prisons. Two commodes, with ill-fitting lids, sufficed for ten
men, and in the underground apartment to which we were condemned, and of
which the ventilation was very indifferent, the conditions became
nauseating. To make matters worse the vile prison food precipitated an
epidemic of acute diarrhoea and sickness, so that the atmosphere within
the limited space became so unbearable as to provoke the facetious
Cockney to declare that "'e could cut it with a knife," while he
expressed his resolve "to ask th' gaoler for a nail to drive into it" to
serve as a peg for his clothes! But it was no laughing matter, and we
all grew apprehensive of being stricken down with some fearful malady
brought on simply and purely by the primitive sanitary arrangements.
Only once a day were the utensils subjected to a perfunctory cleansing,
a job which was carried out by the criminals incarcerated in the prison.
These criminals would do anything for us. The first night they tapped at
the door to our cellar, and, peeping through the cracks, we saw a number
of these degraded specimens of German humanity in their night attire.
They had heard who we were and begged for a cigarette. We passed two or
three through the key-hole. The moment a cigarette got through there was
a fearful din in the fight for its possession, culminating in a terrific
crashing. The gaoler had appeared upon the scene! Quietness reigned for
a few minutes, when they would stealthily return and whisper all sorts
of yarns concerning the reasons for their imprisonment in order to
wheedle further cigarettes from us.
We were "clinked" in Klingelputz, as the Cockney expressed it, on
November 6, 1914, and were kept in a state of terrible suspense. At
last one morning the prison officials entered and called out the name of
the three managers of the large works at the village in which K----
resided, who had been imprisoned with us. My friend and I naturally
expected that their order for release had arrived, and we waited
expectantly for their return to congratulate them, since their release
would be a happy augury for us. They returned shortly, laden with bulky
parcels of food which had been sent to them, and we all sat down to a
Gargantuan spread. But we had scarcely started the meal when the gaoler
entered and calling our names, ordered us to follow him to the office.
Here we had to answer to our names once more. Then the Governor, in a
sonorous voice, went on:
"Gentlemen! You are free men. Passes will be re-issued to you, but you
will have to go to the Polizei Prasidium to have the requisite papers
prepared."
At this intelligence we became wildly excited. K---- had been
anticipating such a development, but the process of deciding the issue
had been protracted from the slow pace and roundabout journey which such
matters have to take through the German Circumlocution Office. We
started off to the Prasidium, escorted, strange to say, by the two
officials who had arrested us at K----'s residence, and with whom my
friend was now conversing gaily. As we passed the cages the English boys
caught sight of me, and there were frantic yells of congratulation and
good wishes upon our good fortune.
Reaching the Prasidium we were ushered into an outer room, the two
officials proceeding into an inner room armed with our papers. While we
were waiting K---- turned to me and remarked:
"I hope they'll get us fixed up jolly quickly. Those two officers told
me that to-morrow all aliens are to be sent from Klingelputz to the
internment camp at Ruhleben. If we get our 'passes' we shall dodge that
excursion very neatly!"
While we were talking the two officials came out and hurriedly left the
building. They did not glance at us, and from their bearing I surmised
that something had gone wrong at the last minute. I turned to my friend.
"Did you notice those fellows' faces? They looked pretty solemn. I'll
bet you something's in the wind, and it won't be to our advantage."
At that moment we were summoned into the inner office. The official
called out our names, to which we answered, mine being the last.
"Ach! Ma-hone-i!" he exclaimed, "Englische Spion! Eh?"
I acknowledged the accusation. Although I was fully accustomed to the
repetition of these words by now, since they were hurled at me at every
turn, they were beginning to become somewhat irksome. Upon each occasion
when the interrogation was flung out for the first time by a new
official, it was delivered with a strange and jarring jerk.
"Well, you were to be free on 'passes,' but the papers are not in order.
They have been sent from the wrong place. They should have come from
Coblentz. So they will have to be returned to be dispatched through the
correct channel!"
How we cursed that German Circumlocution Office and this latest
expression of Teuton organisation. The papers were correct, but because
they had happened to come from the wrong office they were to be sent
back to be re-dispatched from Coblentz, although they would not suffer
the slightest alteration or addition in the process. Prussian red-tape
was going crazy with a vengeance.
We were escorted to a cell in the basement of the Prasidium. Were we
going to be kept here until the papers came to hand again? However,
seeing that the trip would take some days, this was scarcely likely
unless something extraordinary supervened. While we were discussing this
latest and totally unexpected _dénouement_ we heard the low rumbling of
heavy wheels. K---- cocked his ears with an acute tension.
"Hark!" he blurted out. "Damn it all, Mahoney, that's the 'Black Maria!'
We are going back to Klingelputz or somewhere else!"
It was indeed the Teuton "Black Maria," and we were hurried upstairs to
be tumbled into it. It was a dismal vehicle, there being barely
sufficient space to accommodate our party, which had been further
encumbered by two German demi-mondaines, who had been arrested for some
infraction of the German law as it affected their peculiar interests. We
were so tightly packed that we had to stand sideways, and I amused
myself by working out the allowance of air space per person. It averaged
about fourteen cubic inches!
We rumbled into the courtyard at Klingelputz, dejected and somewhat ill
of temper at our disappointment. We were worrying because apparently the
alien prisoners were to be dispatched to Ruhleben on the morrow. Unless
we received our "passes" in time the chances were a thousand to one that
we should be doomed to the self-same camp.
As we re-entered the prison we were greeted with a deafening yell. It
came from the caged British prisoners.
"Hullo, boys! What cheer, Mahoney!" they shrieked. "Have they dished you
again? Thought you were going home? Well, we're mighty pleased to see
you back at the 'Zoo'!" and there was another wild exhibition of simian
acrobatics upon the bars for our especial amusement.
But I had become so inured to the juggling tactics of Prussian
officialdom that I was far from showing my inner feelings of chagrin. I
entered into their banter as energetically, and with a parting "See you
to-morrow, boys!" vanished down the steps with their frantic hails
ringing in my ears.
The following morning we were marshalled, and as K---- had been
dreading, the worst had happened. We were consigned "British Prisoners
of War for internment at Ruhleben!" Home was now farther from me than
ever!
PRISON FOUR--RUHLEBEN