PRISONERS OF WAR
During the period of the first months of the war, in addition
to other work, it became necessary to look after those subjects
of other nations who had been confided to my care.
At first the British were allowed considerable liberty, although
none were permitted to leave the country. They were required to
report to the police at stated times during the day and could
not remain out late at night.
The Japanese had received warning from their Embassy as to the
turn that events might take and, before sending its ultimatum,
the Japanese government had warned its citizens, so that a great
number of them had left Germany. After the declaration of war by
Japan, all the Japanese in Germany were immediately imprisoned.
This was stated to be in order to save them from the fury of
the population and certainly the people seemed to be greatly
incensed against the Japanese. When I finally obtained permission
for their release and departure from Germany I had to send some
one with the parties of Japanese to the Swiss frontier in order
to protect them from injury. They were permitted to leave only
through Switzerland and, therefore, had to change cars at Munich.
Before sending any of them to Munich I invariably telegraphed
our Consul there to notify the Munich police so that proper
protection could be provided at the railway station.
On one occasion a number of Japanese were waiting in the Embassy
in order to take the night train for Munich. I sent a servant
to take them out in order that they might get something to eat
in a restaurant, but as no restaurant in Berlin would sell them
food, arrangements were made to give them meals in the Embassy.
The members of the Siamese Legation, who in appearance greatly
resemble the Japanese, were often subjected to indignities, and
for a long time did not dare move about freely in Berlin, or
even leave their houses.
The Japanese were marvels of courtesy. After I visited some of
them at the civilian camp of Ruhleben, they wrote me a letter
thanking me for the visit. Nearly every Japanese leaving Germany
on his arrival in Switzerland wrote me a grateful letter.
When I finally left Germany, as I stepped from the special train
at Zürich, a Japanese woman, who had been imprisoned in Germany
and whose husband I had visited in a prison, came forward to thank
me. A Japanese man was waiting in the hotel office in Berne when
I arrived there, for a similar purpose, and the next morning
early the Japanese Minister called and left a beautiful clock for
Mrs. Gerard as an expression of his gratitude for the attention
shown to his countrymen. It was really a pleasure to be able to
do something for these polite and charming people.
On August twentieth I paid my first visit to a German prison
camp. This was to the camp at Doeberitz situated about eight
miles west of Berlin, a sort of military camp with permanent
barracks. Some of these barracks were used for the confinement
of such British civilians as the Germans had arrested in the
first days of the war. There were only a few British among the
prisoners, with a number of Russian and French. I was allowed
to converse freely with the prisoners and found that they had
no complaints. As the war went on, however, a number of British
prisoners of war were taken by the Germans during the course of
the great retreat of the British in Northern France. Then officers
and privates began to come into Germany and were distributed
in various camps. Finally, in the autumn of 1914, the British
Government decided on interning a great number of Germans in
Great Britain; and the German government immediately, and as
a reprisal, interned all the British civilian men who, up to
this time, had enjoyed comparative freedom in Berlin and other
cities of the Empire. The British civilians were shut up in a
race track about five miles from the centre of Berlin, called
Ruhleben. This race track in peace times was used for contests
of trotting horses and on it were the usual grandstands and brick
stable buildings containing box stalls with hay lofts above,
where the race horses were kept.
On August twentieth I paid my first visit to the police presidency
in Berlin where political prisoners, when arrested, were confined. A
small number of British prisoners subject to especial investigation
were there interned. This prison, which I often subsequently
visited, was clean and well kept, and I never had any particular
complaints from the prisoners confined there, except, of course,
as the war progressed, concerning the inadequacy of the food.
I had organised a special department immediately on the breaking
out of the war to care for the interests of the British. At first
Mr. Boylston Beal, a lawyer of Boston, assisted by Mr. Rivington
Pyne of New York, was at the head of this department, of which
later the Honourable John B. Jackson, formerly our Minister to
the Balkan States, Greece and Cuba, took charge. He volunteered
to give his assistance at the commencement of the war and I was
glad of his help, especially as he had been twelve years secretary
in the Berlin Embassy and, therefore, was well acquainted not
only with Germany but with German official life and customs. Mr.
Jackson was most ably assisted by Charles H. Russell, Jr., of
New York, and Lithgow Osborne. Of course, others in the Embassy
had much to do with this department.
The first privates, prisoners of war, came to the camp of Doeberitz
near Berlin. Early in the war Mr. Grew, our First Secretary, and
Consul General Lay visited the camp for officers at Torgau. The
question of the inspection of prisoners of the camps and the rights
of Ambassadors charged with the interests of hostile powers was
quite in the clouds. So many reports came to Germany about the
bad treatment in England of German prisoners of war that I finally
arranged to have Mr. Jackson visit them and report. This was arranged
by my colleague, our Ambassador to Great Britain, and in the first
winter Mr. Jackson made his trip there. His report of conditions
there did much to allay the German belief as to the ill-treatment
of their subjects who were prisoners in Great Britain and helped
me greatly in bringing about better conditions in Germany. After
vainly endeavouring to get the German government to agree to some
definite plan for the inspection of the prisoners, after my notes
to the Foreign Office had remained unanswered for a long period of
time, and after sending a personal letter to von Jagow calling his
attention to the fact that the delay was injuring German prisoners
in other countries, I finally called on von Bethmann-Hollweg
and told him that my notes concerning prisoners were sent by
the Foreign Office to the military authorities: that, while I
could talk with officials of the Foreign Office, I never came into
contact with the people who really passed upon the notes sent by
me, and who made the decisions as to the treatment of prisoners
of war and inspection of their camps; and I begged the Chancellor
to break down diplomatic precedent and allow me to speak with
the military authorities who decided these questions. I said,
"If I cannot get an answer to my proposition about prisoners, I
will take a chair and sit in front of your palace in the street
until I receive an answer."
The result was a meeting in my office.
I discussed the question involved with two representatives from
the Foreign Office, two from the General Staff, two from the War
Department and with Count Schwerin who commanded the civilian camp
at the Ruhleben race track. In twenty minutes we managed to reach
an agreement which I then and there drew up: the substance of
which, as between Great Britain and Germany, was that the American
Ambassador and his representatives in Germany and the American
Ambassador and his representatives in Great Britain should have
the right to visit the prison camps on giving reasonable notice,
which was to be twenty-four hours where possible, and should have
the right to converse with the prisoners, within sight but out
of hearing, of the camp officials; that an endeavour should be
made to adjust matters complained of with the camp authorities
before bringing them to the notice of higher authorities; that
ten representatives should be named by our Ambassador and that
these should receive passes enabling them to visit the camps
under the conditions above stated. This agreement was ratified
by the British and German Governments and thereafter for a long
time we worked under its provisions and in most questions dealt
direct with the War Department.
Of course, before this meeting I had managed to get permission
to visit the camps of Ruhleben and Doeberitz near Berlin; and
Mr. Michaelson, our consul at Cologne, and Mr. Jackson and others
at the Embassy had been permitted to visit certain camps. But
immediately preceding the meeting on the fourth of March and
while matters were still being discussed we were compelled to
a certain extent to suspend our visits.
In the first days of the war it was undoubtedly and unfortunately
true that prisoners of war taken by the Germans, both at the time
of their capture and in transit to the prison camps, were often
badly treated by the soldiers, guards or the civil population.
The instances were too numerous, the evidence too overwhelming,
to be denied. In the prison camps themselves, owing to the peculiar
system of military government in Germany, the treatment of the
prisoners varied greatly. As I have, I think, stated in another
place, Germany is divided into army corps districts. Over each
of these districts is, in time of war, a representative corps
commander who is clothed with absolute power in that district,
his orders superseding those of all civilian officials. These
corps commanders do not report to the war department but are
in a measure independent and very jealous of their rights. For
instance, to show the difficulty of dealing with these corps
commanders, after my arrangements concerning the inspection of
prisoners of war had been ratified by both the Imperial and British
governments, I went to Halle to inspect the place of detention
for officers there. Halle is some hours from Berlin and when
I had driven out to the camp, I was met by the commander who
told me that I might visit the camp but that I could not speak
to the prisoners out of hearing. I told him that our arrangement
was otherwise, but, as he remained firm I returned to Berlin.
I complained to the Foreign Office and was told there that the
matter would be arranged and so I again, some days later, returned
to Halle. My experience on the second trip was exactly the same
as the first. I spoke to von Jagow who explained the situation to
me, and advised me to visit first the corps commander at Magdeburg
and try and arrange the matter with him. I did so and was finally
permitted to visit this camp and to talk to the officers out of
ear-shot.
This camp of Halle was continued during the war, although not at
all a fit place for the detention of officers, who were lodged in
the old factory buildings surrounded by a sort of courtyard covered
with cinders. This building was situated in the industrial part
of the town of Halle. There was no opportunity for recreation
or games, although several enterprising officers had tried to
arrange a place where they could knock, a tennis ball against
the wall.
It was the policy of the Germans to put some prisoners of each
nation in each camp. This was probably so that no claim could
be made that the prisoners from one nation among the Allies were
treated better or worse than the prisoners from another nation.
In the beginning of the war the Germans were surprised by the great
number of prisoners taken and had made no adequate preparations
for their reception. Clothing and blankets were woefully wanting,
so I immediately bought what I could in the way of underclothes
and blankets at the large department stores of Berlin and the
wholesalers and sent these to the camps where the British prisoners
were confined. I also sent to the Doeberitz camp articles such
as sticks for wounded men who were recovering, and crutches,
and even eggs and other nourishing delicacies for the sick.
At first the prisoners were not compelled to work to any extent,
but at the time I left Germany the two million prisoners of war
were materially assisting the carrying on of the agriculture
and industries of the Empire.
The League of Mercy of New York having telegraphed me in 1914,
asking in what way funds could best be used in the war, I suggested
in answer that funds for the prisoners of war were urgently needed.
Many newspapers poked fun at me for this suggestion, and one bright
editor said that if the Germans did not treat their prisoners
properly they should be made to! Of course, unless this particular
editor had sailed up the Spree in a canoe and bombarded the royal
palace, I know of no other way of "making" the Germans do anything.
The idea, however, of doing some work for the prisoners of war was
taken up by the Young Men's Christian Association. Dr. John R.
Mott was at the head of this work and was most ably and devotedly
assisted by the Rev. Archibald C. Harte. I shall give an account
of their splendid work in a chapter devoted to the charitable
work of the war.
At only one town in Germany was any interest in the fate of the
prisoners of war evinced. This was, I am glad to say, in the
quaint university town of Göttingen. I visited this camp with
Mr. Harte, in April, 1915, to attend the opening of the first
Y. M. C. A. camp building in Germany. The camp was commanded by
Colonel Bogen, an officer strict in his discipline, but, as all
the prisoners admitted, just in his dealings with them. There
were, as I recall, about seven thousand prisoners in this camp,
Russian, French, Belgian and British. It is a pity that the methods
of Colonel Bogen and his arrangements for camp buildings, etc.,
were not copied in other camps in Germany. Here, as I have said,
the civil population took some interest in the fate of the
unfortunate prisoners within their gates, led in this by several
professors in the University. The most active of these professors
was Professor Stange who, working with a French lawyer who had been
captured near Arras while in the Red Cross, provided a library
for the prisoners and otherwise helped them. Of course, these
charitable acts of Professor Stange did not find favor with many
of his fellow townsmen of Göttingen, and he was not surprised
when he awoke one morning to find that during the night his house
had been painted red, white and blue, the colours of France,
England and America.
I heard of so many instances of the annoyance of prisoners by
the civil population that I was quite pleased one day to read
a paragraph in the official newspaper, the _North German
Gazette_, which ran somewhat as follows: "The following
inhabitants of (naming a small town near the borders of Denmark),
having been guilty of improper conduct towards prisoners of war,
have been sentenced to the following terms of imprisonment and
the following fines and their names are printed here in order
that they may be held up to the contempt of all future generations
of Germans." And then followed a list of names and terms of
imprisonment and fines. I thought that this was splendid, that
the German government had at last been aroused to the necessity
of protecting their prisoners of war from the annoyances of the
civil population, and I wrote to our consul in Kiel and asked him
to investigate the case. From him I learned that some unfortunate
prisoners passing through the town (in a part of Germany inhabited
by Scandinavians) had made signs that they were suffering from
hunger and thirst, that some of the kind-hearted people among
the Scandinavian population had given them something to eat and
drink and for this they were condemned to fines, to prison and
to have their names held up to the contempt of Germans for all
time.
I do not know of anyone thing that can give a better idea of
the official hate for the nations with which Germany was at war
than this.
The day after visiting the camp at Göttingen, I visited the
officers' camp situated at the town of Hanover Münden. Here
about eight hundred officers, of whom only thirteen were British,
were confined in an old factory building situated on the bank of
the river below the town. The Russian officers handed me some
arrows tipped with nails which had been shot at them by the
kind-hearted little town boys, and the British pointed out to me
the filthy conditions of the camp. In this, as in unfortunately
many other officer camps, the inclination seemed to be to treat the
officers not as captured officers and gentlemen, but as convicts.
I had quite a sharp talk with the commander of this camp before
leaving and he afterwards took violent exception to the report
which I made upon his camp. However, I am pleased to say that
he reformed, as it were, and I was informed by my inspectors
that he had finally made his camp one of the best in Germany.
Much as I should have liked to, I could not spend much time myself
in visiting the prison camps; many duties and frequent crises kept
me in Berlin, but members of the Embassy were always travelling
in this work of camp inspection.
For some time my reports were published in parliamentary "White
Papers," but in the end our government found that the publication
of these reports irritated the Germans to such a degree that the
British Government was requested not to publish them any more.
Copies of the reports were always sent by me both to Washington
and to London, and handed to the Berlin Foreign Office.
[Illustration: A COVER OF THE MONTHLY ISSUED BY THE RUHLEBEN
PRISONERS.]
While Winston Churchill was at the head of the British Admiralty,
it was stated that the German submarine prisoners would not be
treated as ordinary prisoners of war; but would be put in a place
by themselves on the ground that they were pirates and murderers,
and not entitled to the treatment accorded in general to prisoners
of war. Great indignation was excited by this in Germany; the
German government immediately seized thirty-seven officers, picking
those whom they supposed related to the most prominent families
in Great Britain, and placed them in solitary confinement. A
few were confined in this way in Cologne, but the majority were
put in the ordinary jails of Magdeburg and Burg.
As soon as I heard of this, accompanied by Mr. Charles H. Russell,
Jr., of my staff, I went to Magdeburg, using my ordinary pass
for the visiting of prisoners. The German authorities told me
afterwards that if they had known I was going to make this visit
they would not have permitted it, but on this occasion the corps
commander system worked for me. Accompanied by an adjutant, in
peace times a local lawyer from the corps commander's office in
Magdeburg, and other officers, I visited these British officers
in their cells in the common jail at Magdeburg. They were in
absolutely solitary confinement, each in a small cell about eleven
feet long and four feet wide. Some cells were a little larger,
and the prisoners were allowed only one hour's exercise a day in
the courtyard of the prison. The food given them was not bad, but
the close confinement was very trying, especially to Lieutenant
Goschen, son of the former Ambassador to Germany, who had been
wounded and in the hospital at Douai. Among them I found an old
acquaintance, Captain Robin Grey, who had been often in New York.
The German authorities agreed to correct several minor matters of
which the officers complained and then we went to the neighbouring
town of Burg, where other officers were confined in the same manner
and under similar conditions in the ordinary jail. After visiting
these prisoners and obtaining for them from the authorities some
modifications of the rules which had been established we visited
the regular officers' camp at Burg.
This was at that time what I should call a bad camp, crowded and
with no space for recreation. Later, conditions were improved
and more ground allowed to the prisoners for games, etc. At the
time of my first visit I found that the commander, a polite but
peppery officer, was in civil life a judge of the Supreme Court
at Leipzig, the highest court in the Empire. As I had been a
judge in the State of New York, we foregathered and adjourned
for lunch with his staff to the hotel in Burg.
After Churchill left the British Admiralty, his successor reversed
his ruling and the submarine prisoners were placed in the ordinary
confinement of prisoners of war. When the Germans were assured of
this, the thirty-seven officers who had been in reprisal placed
in solitary confinement were sent back to ordinary prison camps.
In fact in most cases I managed to get the Germans to send them
to what were called "good" camps.
Lieutenant Goschen, however, became quite ill and was taken to the
hospital in Magdeburg. At the time of his capture, the Germans
had told me, in answer to my inquiries, that he was suffering
from a blow on the head with the butt end of a rifle, but an
X-ray examination at Magdeburg showed that fragments of a bullet
had penetrated his brain and that he was, therefore, hardly a
fit subject to be chosen as one of the reprisal prisoners. I
told von Jagow that I thought it in the first place a violation
of all diplomatic courtesy to pick out the son of the former
Ambassador to Germany as a subject for reprisals and secondly
that, in picking him, they had taken a wounded man; that the
fact that they did not know that he had fragments of a bullet in
his brain made the situation even worse because that ignorance
was the result of the want of a proper examination in the German
hospitals; and I insisted that, because of this manifestly unfair
treatment which had undoubtedly caused the very serious condition
of Lieutenant Goschen, he should be returned to England in the
exchange of those who were badly wounded. I am pleased to say
that von Jagow saw my point of view and finally secured permission
for Lieutenant Goschen to leave for England.
Dr. Ohnesorg, one of our assistant Naval Attachés, went with
him to England on account of the seriousness of his condition,
and I was very glad to hear from his father that he had arrived
safely in London.
Undoubtedly the worst camp which I visited in Germany was that
of Wittenberg. Wittenberg is the ancient town where Luther lived
and nailed his theses to the church door. The camp is situated
just outside the city in a very unattractive spot next to the
railway. An outbreak of typhus fever prevented us from visiting
the camp, although Mr. Jackson conversed with some of the prisoners
from outside the barrier of barbed wire. When the typhus was
finally driven out, Mr. Lithgow Osborne visited the camp and his
report of conditions there was such that I visited it myself,
in the meantime holding up his report until I had verified it.
With Mr. Charles H. Russell, Jr., I visited the camp. Typhus
fever seems to be continually present in Russia. It is carried by
the body louse and it is transmitted from one person to another.
Russian soldiers seem to carry this disease with them without
apparently suffering much from it themselves. The Russian soldiers
arriving at Wittenberg were not properly disinfected and, in
consequence, typhus fever broke out in camp. Several British
medical officers were there with their prisoners, because, by the
provisions of the Hague conventions, captured medical officers
may be kept with the troops of their nation, if prisoners have
need of their services. These medical officers protested with
the camp commander against the herding together of the French
and British prisoners with the Russians, who, as I have said,
were suffering from typhus fever. But the camp commander said,
"You will have to know your Allies;" and kept all of his prisoners
together, and thus as surely condemned to death a number of French
and British prisoners of war as though he had stood them against
the wall and ordered them shot by a firing squad. Conditions in
the camp during the period of this epidemic were frightful. The
camp was practically deserted by the Germans and I understand
that the German doctor did not make as many visits to the camp
as the situation required.
At the time I visited the camp the typhus epidemic, of course,
had been stamped out. The Germans employed a large number of
police dogs in this camp and these dogs not only were used in
watching the outside of the camp in order to prevent the escape
of prisoners but also were used within the camp. Many complaints
were made to me by prisoners concerning these dogs, stating that
men had been bitten by them. It seemed undoubtedly true that the
prisoners there had been knocked about and beaten in a terrible
manner by their guards, and one guard went so far as to strike one
of the British medical officers. There were about thirty-seven
civilian prisoners in the camp who had been there all through
the typhus epidemic. I secured the removal of these civilian
prisoners to the general civilian camp at Ruhleben, and the
conditions at Wittenberg may be judged by the fact that when
it was announced to these civilians that they were to be taken
from Wittenberg to another camp one of them was so excited by
the news of release that he fell dead upon the spot.
In talking over conditions at Wittenberg with von Jagow I said,
"Suppose I go back to Wittenberg and shoot some of these dogs,
what can you do to me?" Soon after the dogs disappeared from
the camp.
The food in all these camps for civilians and for private soldiers
was about the same. It consisted of an allowance of bread of
the same weight as that given the civilian population. This was
given out in the morning with a cup of something called coffee,
but which in reality was an extract of acorns or something of the
kind without milk or sugar; in the middle of the day, a bowl of
thick soup in which the quantity of meat was gradually diminished
as war went on, as well as the amount of potatoes for which at
a later period turnips and carrots were, to a large extent,
substituted; and in the evening in good camps there was some sort
of thick soup given out or an apple, or an almost infinitesimal
piece of cheese or sausage.
In the war department at Berlin there was a Prisoners of War
Department in charge of Colonel, later General, Friedrich. This
department, however, did not seem to be in a position to issue
orders to the corps commanders commanding the army corps districts
of Germany, who had absolute control of the prison camps within
their districts. Colonel Friedrich, however, and his assistants
endeavoured to standardise the treatment of prisoners of war in
the different corps districts, and were able to exert a certain
amount of pressure on the corps commanders. They determined on
the general reprisals to be taken in connection with prisoners
of war. For instance, when some of the Germans, who had been
taken prisoners by the British and who were in England, were
sent to work in the harbour of Havre, the Germans retaliated
by sending about four times the number of British prisoners to
work at Libau in the part of Russia then occupied by the Germans.
But while the British permitted our Embassy in Paris to inspect
the prisoners of war at Havre, the Germans for months refused
to allow me permission to send anyone to inspect those British
prisoners at Libau.
Cases came to my attention where individual corps commanders
on their own initiative directed punitive measures against the
prisoners of war in their districts, on account of the rumours
of the bad treatment of German citizens in England. Thus the
commander in the district where the camp of Doeberitz was situated
issued an order directing reprisals against prisoners under his
command on account of what he claimed to be the bad treatment
of German women in England. It required constant vigilance to
seek out instances of this kind and cause them to be remedied.
I did not find the Germans at all efficient in the handling of
prisoners of war. The authority was so divided that it was hard
to find who was responsible for any given bad conditions. For
instance, for a long period of time I contended with the German
authorities for better living conditions at the civilian camp of
Ruhleben. I was promised time and again by Colonel Friedrich,
by the camp commander and by the Foreign
Office that these conditions would be remedied. In that camp men
of education, men in delicate health, were compelled to sleep
and live six in a box stall or so closely that the beds touched
each other in hay-lofts, the outside walls of which were only
four feet high.
I finally almost in despair wrote identical personal letters,
after having exhausted all ordinary diplomatic steps, to General
von Kessel, Commander of the Mark of Brandenburg, to the commander
of the corps district in which the Ruhleben camp was situated,
and to the Minister of War: and the only result was that each
of the officers addressed claimed that he had been personally
insulted by me because I had presumed to call his attention to
the inhuman conditions under which the prisoners were compelled
to live in the Ruhleben camp.
The commander of this civilian camp of Ruhleben was a very handsome
old gentleman, named Count Schwerin. His second in command for
a long time was a Baron Taube. Both of these officers had been
long retired from the army and were given these prison commands
at the commencement of the war. Both of them were naturally
kind-hearted but curiously sensitive and not always of even temper.
On the whole I think that they sympathised with the prisoners
and did their best to obtain a bettering of the conditions of
their confinement. The prisoners organised themselves in their
various barracks, each barrack having a captain of the barrack,
the captains electing one of their number as a camp captain or
_Obmann_.
The man who finally appeared as head man of the camp was an
ex-cinematograph proprietor, named Powell. In my mind he, assisted
by Beaumont and other captains, conducted the affairs of the camp
as well as possible, given the difficulty of dealing with the
prisoners on one hand and the prison authorities on the other
hand. Naturally he was always subject to opposition from many
prisoners, among whom those of aristocratic tendencies objected
to being under the control of one not of the highest caste in
Great Britain; and there were others who either envied him his
authority or desired his place. The camp authorities allowed
Powell to visit the Embassy at least once a week and in that
way I was enabled, to keep in direct touch with the camp. At
two periods during my stay in Berlin I spent enough days at the
camp to enable every prisoner who had a complaint of any kind
to present it personally to me.
The organisation of this camp was quite extraordinary. I found
it impossible to get British prisoners to perform the ordinary
work of cleaning up the camp, and so forth, always expected of
prisoners themselves; and so, with the funds furnished me from
the British Government, the camp captain was compelled to pay a
number of the poorer prisoners to perform this work. Secretaries
Ruddock and Kirk of our Embassy undertook the uninteresting and
arduous work of superintending these payments as well as of our
other financial affairs. This work was most trying and they deserve
great credit for their self-denial. By arrangement with the British
Government, I was also enabled to pay the poorer prisoners an
allowance of five marks a week, thus permitting them to buy little
luxuries and necessities and extra food at the camp canteen which
was early established in the camp. I also furnished the capital to
the camp canteen, enabling it to make its purchases and carry on
its business. In this establishment everything could be purchased
which was purchasable in Germany, and for months after the
commencement of the war articles of luxury were sold at a profit
and articles of food sold at a loss for the benefit of those
who required an addition to the camp diet. There was a street
in the camp of little barracks or booths which the prisoners
christened Bond Street, and where many stores were in operation
such as a tailor shop, shoe-maker's, watch-maker's, etc. Acting
with Powell, I succeeded in getting the German authorities to
turn over the kitchens to the prisoners. Four of the prisoners
who did most excellent self-denying work in these kitchens deserve
to be specially mentioned. They were Ernest L. Pyke, Herbert
Kasmer, Richard H. Carrad and George Fergusson.
The men in this camp subsisted to a great extent upon the packages
of food sent to them from England. Credit must be given to the
German authorities for the fairly prompt and efficient delivery
of the packages of food sent from England, Denmark and Switzerland
to prisoners of war in all camps.
In Ruhleben the educated prisoners volunteered to teach the ignorant:
two hundred and ninety-seven different educational courses were
offered to those who desired to improve their minds. A splendid
orchestra was organised, a dramatic society which gave plays in
French and one which gave plays in English and another one which
gave operas. On New Year's day, 1916, I attended at Ruhleben a
really wonderful performance of the pantomime of "Cinderella";
and, in January, 1917, a performance of "The Mikado" in a theatre
under one of the grand stands. In these productions, of course,
the female parts were taken by young men and the scenery, costumes
and accessories were all made by the prisoners. There was a camp
library of over five thousand volumes sent over by the British
Government and a reading and meeting hall, erected by the American
Y. M. C. A. There was even a system of postal service with special
stamps so that a prisoner in one barrack could write to a friend in
another and have a letter delivered by the camp postal authorities.
The German authorities had not hired the entire race track from
the Race Track Association so that I made a special contract
with the race track owners and hired from them the in-field and
other portions not taken over by German authorities. Here the
prisoners had tennis courts and played hockey, foot-ball and
cricket and held athletic games. Expert dentists in the camp
took care of the poorer prisoners as did an oculist hired by me
with British funds, and glasses were given them from the same
funds.
The prisoners who needed a little better nourishment than that
afforded by the camp diet and their parcels from England, could
obtain cards giving them the right to eat in the Casino or camp
official restaurant where they were allowed a certain indicated
amount of wine or beer with their meals, and finally arrangements
were arrived at by which the German guards left the camp, simply
guarding it from the outside; and the policing was taken over
by the camp police department, under the charge of the prison
camp commander and committee. The worst features, of course,
were the food and housing. Human nature seems always to be the
same. Establishment of clubs seems inherent to the Anglo-Saxon
nature. Ten or more persons would combine together and erect a
sort of wooden shed against the brick walls of a barrack, hire
some poorer person to put on a white jacket and be addressed as
"steward," put in the shed a few deck chairs and a table and
enjoy the sensation of exclusiveness and club life thereby given.
Owing to the failure of Germany and Great Britain to come to an
agreement for a long time as to the release of captured crews
of ships, there were in Ruhleben men as old as seventy-five years
and boys as young as fifteen. There were in all between fifty and
sixty of these ships' boys. They lived in a barrack by themselves
and under the supervision of a ship's officer who volunteered to
look after them as sort of a monitor. They were taught navigation
by the older prisoners and I imagine were rather benefited by their
stay in the camp. I finally made arrangements by which these boys
were released from England and Germany. With the exception of
the officers and crews of the ships, prisoners were not interned
who were over fifty-five.
The British Government was generous in the allowance of money for
Ruhleben prisoners. The amount allowed by the German Government to
the camp commanders for feeding the prisoners was extremely small,
only sixty pfennigs a day. At first many of the camp commanders
made contracts with caterers for the feeding of the prisoners
and as the caterers' profit had to come out of this very small
sum the amount of food which the remainder purchased for the
prisoners was small indeed. As the war went on the prisoners'
department of the war office tried to induce the camp commanders to
abandon the contractors' system and purchase supplies themselves.
A sort of convention of camp commanders was held in Berlin which I
attended. Lectures were there given on food and its purchase, and
methods of disinfecting prisoners, on providing against typhus,
and on housing and other subjects. A daily lunch was served,
supposed to be composed of the exact rations given at the prison
camps.
The schedules of food, etc., made out by the camp commanders
and furnished to foreign correspondents were often not followed
in practice. I know on one occasion when I was at the camp at
Doeberitz, the camp commander gave me his schedule of food for
the week. This provided that soup with pieces of meat was to be
given on the day of my visit, but on visiting the camp kitchen I
found that the contractor was serving fish instead of meat. Some
of the camp commanders not only treated their prisoners kindly but
introduced manufactures of furniture, etc., to help the prisoners
to pass their time. The camps of Krossen and Göttingen deserve
special mention. At Giessen, the camp commander had permitted
the erection of a barrack in which certain prisoners who were
electrical experts gave lessons in electrical fitting, etc.,
to their fellow prisoners. There was also a studio in this camp
where prisoners with artistic talent were furnished with paints
and allowed to work. As more and more people were called to the
front in Germany, greater use was made of the prisoners, and in
the summer of 1916 practically all the prisoners were compelled
to work outside of the camps. They were paid a small extra sum
for this, a few cents a day, and as a rule were benefited by the
change of scene and occupation. The Russians especially became
very useful to the Germans as agricultural laborers.
Professor Alonzo E. Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania,
a food expert, and Dr. D. J. McCarthy, also of Philadelphia,
joined my staff in 1916 and proved most efficient and fearless
inspectors of prison camps. Dr. Taylor could use the terms calories,
proteins, etc., as readily as German experts and at a greater
rate of speed. His report showing that the official diet of the
prisoners in Ruhleben was a starvation diet incensed the German
authorities to such fury that they forbade him to revisit Ruhleben.
Professor Buckhaus, the German expert, agreed with him in some of
his findings. I do not know what will happen to the Professor,
who seemed willing to do his best for the prisoners. He wrote a
booklet on the prison camps which he asked permission to dedicate
to me, but the War Office, which published the book, refused
to allow him to make this dedication. It was a real pleasure
to see the way in which Dr. Taylor carried on his work of food
inspection; and his work, as well as that of the other doctors
sent from America to join my staff, Drs. Furbush, McCarthy, Roler,
Harns, Webster and Luginbuhl, did much to better camp conditions.
Dr. Caldwell, the sanitary expert, known for his great work in
Serbia, now I believe head of the hospital at Pittsburgh, reported
in regard to the prison diet: "While of good quality and perhaps
sufficient in quantity by weight, it is lacking in the essential
elements which contribute to the making of a well-balanced and
satisfactory diet. It is lacking particularly in fat and protein
content which is especially desirable during the colder months
of the year. There is considerable doubt whether this diet alone
without being supplemented by the articles of food received by
the prisoners from their homes would in any way be sufficient
to maintain the prisoners in health and strength."
Dr. Caldwell also visited Wittenberg and found the commander by
temperament, and so on, unfitted for such a position.
The Germans, as Dr. Taylor has pointed out, tried to feed prisoners
on schedule like horses. There is, however, a nervous discrimination
in eating so far as man is concerned; and a diet, scientifically
fitted to keep him alive, may fail because of its mere monotony.
Think of living as the prisoners of war in Germany have for years,
without ever having anything (except black bread) which cannot
be eaten with a spoon.
Officer prisoners were, after matters had settled down and after
several bitter contests which I had with the German authorities,
fairly well treated. There was, as in the case of the camps for
the privates, a great difference between camps, and a great
difference between camp commanders. Mr. Jackson did most of the
visiting of the officers' camps. In many camps the officers were
allowed a tennis court and other amusements, as well as light
wine or beer at meals, but the length of the war had a bad effect
on the mental condition of many of the officers.
A great step forward was made when arrangements were entered
into between Germany and Great Britain whereby wounded and sick
officers and men, when passed by the Swiss Commission which visited
both countries, were sent to Switzerland; sent still as prisoners
of war, subject to return to Germany or England respectively, but
the opportunity afforded by change of food and scene, as well as
reunion of families, saved many a life. By arrangements between
the two countries, also, the severely wounded prisoners were set
free. I believe that this exchange of the heavily wounded between
the Germans and the Russians was the factor which prevented the
entrance of Sweden into the war. These wounded men traversed the
whole length of Sweden in the railway, and the spectacle afforded
to the Swedish population of these poor stumps of humanity, victims
of war, has quite effectually kept the Swedish population from
an attack of unnecessary war fever.
Officers and men who tried to escape were not very severely punished
in Germany unless they had broken or stolen something in their
attempt. Officers were usually subjected to a jail confinement
for a period and then often sent to a sort of punitive camp.
Such a camp was situated in one of the Ring forts surrounding
the city of Kustrin which I visited in September, 1916. There
the officers had no opportunity for exercise except in a very
small courtyard or on the roof, which was covered with grass, of
the building in which they were confined. I arranged, however,
on my visit for the construction of a tennis court outside. The
British officers in Germany practically subsisted on their parcels
received from home, and during the end of my stay a much better
tea could be had with the prison officers than with the camp
commander. The prisoners had real tea and marmalade and white
bread to offer, luxuries which had long since disappeared from all
German tables. On the whole, the quarters given to the officers'
prisons in Germany were not satisfactory, and were not of the
kind that should have been offered to officer prisoners of war.
At the time I left Germany there were nearly two million prisoners
of war in the Empire, of whom about ten thousand were Russian
officers, nine thousand French officers and about one thousand
British officers.
As a rule our inspectors found the hospitals, where the prisoners
of war were, in as good condition as could be expected.
I think this was largely due to the fact that so many doctors
in Germany are Jews. The people who are of the Jewish race are
people of gentle instincts. In these hospitals a better diet
was given to the prisoners. There were, of course, in addition
to the regular hospitals, hospitals where the severely wounded
prisoners were sent. Almost uniformly these hospitals were clean
and the prisoners were well taken care of.
[Illustration: IN RUHLEBEN CAMP. A SPECIMEN BOTH OF THE
PRISONER-ARTIST'S WORK AND OF THE TYPES ABOUT HIM.]
At Ruhleben there was a hospital which in spite of many
representations was never in proper shape. In addition, there
was in the camp a special barrack established by the prisoners
themselves for the care of those who were so ill or so weak as
to require special attention but who were not ill enough to be
sent to the hospital. This barrack was for a long time in charge
of a devoted gentleman, a prisoner, whose name I have unfortunately
forgotten, but whose self-sacrifice deserves special mention.
I arranged with the camp authorities and the German authorities
for permission to enter into a contract with Dr. Weiler. Under
this contract Dr. Weiler, who had a sanatorium in the West of
Berlin, received patients from Ruhleben. Those who were able paid
for themselves, the poorer ones being paid for by the British
Government. This sanatorium, occupied several villas. I had many
disputes with Dr. Weiler, but finally managed to get this sanatorium
in such condition that the prisoners who resided there were fairly
well taken care of.
An arrangement was made between Great Britain and Germany by
which civilians unfit for military service were sent to their
respective countries, and just before I left I effected an
arrangement by which all civilians over forty-five years old,
with the exception of twenty who might be held by each country
for military reasons, were to be released. I do not know whether
this arrangement was actually carried out in full. With the lapse
of time the mental condition of the older prisoners in Ruhleben
had become quite alarming. Soldier prisoners, when they enter the
army, are always in good physical condition and enter with the
expectation of either being killed or wounded or taken prisoner,
and have made their arrangements accordingly. But these unfortunate
civilian prisoners were often men in delicate health, and all
were in a constant state of great mental anxiety as to the fate
of their business and their enterprises and their families. In
1916, not only Mr. Grafton Minot, who for some time had devoted
himself exclusively to the Ruhleben prisoners, but also Mr. Ellis
Dresel, a distinguished lawyer of Boston, who had joined the
Embassy as a volunteer, took up the work. Mr. Dresel visited
Ruhleben almost daily and by listening to the stories and complaints
of the prisoners materially helped their mental condition.
The Germans collected all the soldier prisoners of Irish nationality
in one camp at Limburg not far from Frankfurt a. M. These efforts
were made to induce them to join the German army. The men were
well treated and were often visited by Sir Roger Casement who,
working with the German authorities, tried to get these Irishmen
to desert their flag and join the Germans. A few weaklings were
persuaded by Sir Roger who finally discontinued his visits, after
obtaining about thirty recruits, because the remaining Irishmen
chased him out of the camp.
I received information of the shooting of one prisoner, and although
the camp authorities had told Dr. McCarthy that the investigation
had been closed and the guard who did the shooting exonerated,
nevertheless, when I visited the camp in order to investigate, I
was told that I could not do so because the matter of the shooting
was still under investigation. Nor was I allowed to speak to those
prisoners who had been witnesses at the time of the shooting.
I afterwards learned that another Irishman had been shot by a
guard on the day before my visit, and the same obstacles to my
investigation were drawn about this case.
The Irishmen did not bear confinement well, and at the time of
my visit among them many of them were suffering from tuberculosis
in the camp hospital. They seemed also peculiarly subject to
mental breakdowns. Two devoted Catholic priests, Father Crotty
and a Brother Warren from a religious house in Belgium, were
doing wonderful work among these prisoners.
The sending out of the prisoners of war to work throughout Germany
has had one very evil effect. It has made it to the financial
advantage of certain farmers and manufacturers to have the war
continued. The Prussian land owners or Junkers obtain four or
five times as much for their agricultural products as they did
before the war and have the work on their farms performed by
prisoners of war to whom they are required to pay only six cents
a day. When the _Tageblatt_ called attention to this it was
suppressed for several days.
At many of these so-called working camps our inspectors were
refused admission on the ground that they might learn trade or
war secrets. They succeeded, however, in having the men sent
outside in order that they might inspect them and hear their
complaints. There were in Germany about one hundred central camps
and perhaps ten thousand or more so-called working camps, in
summer time, throughout the country. Some of the British prisoners
were put to work on the sewage farm of Berlin but we succeeded
in getting them sent back to their parent camp.
The prisoners of war were often accused of various breaches of
discipline and crimes. Members of the Embassy would attend these
trials, and we endeavoured to see that the prisoners were properly
represented. But the Germans often refused us an opportunity
to see the prisoners before their trial, or even before their
execution. The case of Captain Fryatt is in point.
Captain Fryatt who commanded a British merchant ship was captured
and taken to the civilian camp at Ruhleben. In searching him the
Germans claimed that he wore a watch presented to him for an
attempt to ram a German submarine. They, therefore, took Fryatt
from the Ruhleben camp and sent him to Bruges for trial. When I
heard of this I immediately sent two formal notes to the German
Foreign Office demanding the right to see Fryatt and hire counsel
to represent him, inquiring what sort of counsel would be permitted
to attend the trial and asking for postponement of the trial
until these matters could be arranged. The German Foreign Office
had informed me that they had backed up these requests and I
believe them, but the answer of the German admiralty to my notes
was to cause the trial to proceed the morning after the day on
which my notes were delivered and to shoot Fryatt before noon
of the same day.
As to the evidence regarding the watch, the British Foreign Office
learned that, when captured, Captain Fryatt had neither a watch
nor any letter to indicate that he had tried to ram a submarine!
This cruel and high-handed outrage caused great indignation in
England, and even in certain circles in Germany; and the manner
in which my request was treated was certainly a direct insult
to the country which I represented. In conversation with me,
Zimmermann and the Chancellor and von Jagow all expressed the
greatest regret over this incident, which shows how little control
the civilian branch of the government has over the military in
time of war. Later on, when similar charges were made against
another British sea captain, the Foreign Office, I think through
the influence of the Emperor, was able to prevent a recurrence
of the Fryatt outrage.
As I have said, many of the camp commanders in Germany were men,
excellent and efficient and kind hearted, who did what they could
for the prisoners. It is a pity that these men should bear the
odium which attaches to Germany because of the general bad treatment
of prisoners of war in the first days of the war, and because
certain commanders of prison camps were not fitted for their
positions.
The commander at the camp at Wittenberg was replaced, but the
Germans have never acknowledged that bad conditions had existed
in that camp. Shortly before we left Germany the war department
seemed to gain more control of the prisoners of war situation,
and on our representations at least one camp commander was
permanently relieved. If examples had been made early in the
war of the camp commanders who were not fit for their places
and of those who had in any way mishandled prisoners of war, the
German people as a whole would not have had to bear the burden
of this odium. The many prisoners will return to their homes
with a deep and bitter hatred of all things German.
The British Government took a great interest in the British prisoners
in Germany. Nothing was omitted and every suggestion made by me
was immediately acted on; while many most valuable hints were
given me from London as to prisoners' affairs. Their Majesties,
the King and Queen, showed a deep personal concern in the welfare
of the unfortunate British in German hands; and this concern
never flagged during the period of my stay in Berlin. Lord Robert
Cecil and Lord Newton were continually working for the benefit
of British prisoners.
At a time when the British prisoners were without proper clothing,
the British Government sent me uniforms, overcoats, etc., and I
hired a warehouse in Berlin as a distributing point; but, after
some months, the German authorities refused to allow me to continue
this method of distribution on the ground that it was the duty
of Germany to provide the prisoners with clothes. But Germany
was not performing this duty and the British prisoners had to
suffer because of this German official woodenheadedness.
In the spring of 1916, quite characteristically, the Germans
broke their "treaty" concerning visits to prisoners, and refused
to permit us to speak to prisoners out of hearing. Von Jagow
told me that this was because of the trouble made among Russian
prisoners by the visits of Madam Sazonoff, but this had nothing
to do with the arrangement between Great Britain and Germany.
I think that the Germans suspected that I had learned from fellow
prisoners of the cruel and unnecessary shooting of two Irish
prisoners at Limburg. It was not from prisoners, however, that
I obtained this information, but from Germans who wrote to me.
In addition to the English and Japanese, I had the protection
of the Serbian and Roumanian subjects and the protection of the
interests of a very small country, the Republic of San Marino.
Soon after the Serbians and Roumanians appeared in the prison
camps of Germany we made reports on the condition and treatment
of these prisoners, as well as reports concerning the British.
I was able to converse with some Serbians, in the first days
of the war, in their native tongue, which, curiously enough,
was Spanish. Immediately after the persecution of the Jews in
Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella and other monarchs, a number of
Spanish Jews emigrated to Serbia where they have remained ever
since, keeping their old customs and speaking the old Spanish
of the time of Cervantes.
The German authorities, in the most petty manner, often concealed
from me the presence of British prisoners, especially civilians,
in prison camps. For a long time I was not informed of the presence
of British civilians in Sennelager and it was only by paying
a surprise visit by motor to the camp at Brandenburg that I
discovered a few British, the crew of a trawler, there. It was
on information contained in an anonymous letter, evidently from
the wife of some German officer, that I visited Brandenburg where
the crew of this trawler, deprived of money, were without any of
the little comforts or packages that mitigate life in a German
prison camp.