I5 
LAND & WATER 
February 15, 1917 
Prisoners of War in Germany 
IT was related the other day by a British prisoner 
of war just returned from Kuhlebcn, Samuel Ormc, 
of Port Sunlight, a ship's cook, that he was first 
interned at Sennclager, where he had to submit 
to the indignity of being clean shaved on one side only 
of head and face. The incident is fully described in 
Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons (Sampson Tow 
Marston. 6s.) Thp narrator is Mr. Hcnr\- Mahoncy, 
who left this country for Russia on Augu>t ist, 1014, 
was arrested on board a train in his endoa\our to get 
back to the Dutch frontier from Berlin, and narrowly 
escaped being shot as a spy in that he had a camera on 
him. The book's interest lies less in the narrator's own 
experiences than in his unemotional description of the 
scenes he witnessed. Major Bach was the brutal military 
commander of the Sennelager Prisoners' Camp : 
There was one party of Britisli prisoners whom Major 
Bach singled out for spcciallv liarsh and brutal treatment. 
The Invincible High Seas I'Icet u]ion one of its sporadic 
ventures into salt water during the very ealiest days 
of the war, stumbled across a lleet of Grimsby trawlers 
unconcernedly pursuing their usual peaceful occupation. 
The whole of the fishermen were made prisoners and were 
despatched, to Sennelager. But iMajor Bach stedfastly 
refused to believe that they were simple fishermen pursuing 
their ordinary- tasks. To his narrow and distorted mind 
a man on a trawler was only toiling in the sea for one or 
both of two purposes. The one was laying mines ; the 
other was mine-sweeping . . . liach man was 
submitted to the indignity of having one half of his head 
shaved clean, one half of his moustache removed, or one 
half of his beard cut away. The men branded in tliis 
manner presented a strange spectacle, and one which 
afforded Major Bach endless amusement. 
One has to read a record such as this book to under- 
stand how thoroughly brutality and bullying are in- 
grained in the German nature. There are exceptions, 
but only sufficient to prove the rule. Dr. Aschcr, the 
civilian doctor at Sennelager, was one, and he did his 
best to stand between the wretched prisoners and the 
brute Bach who was in military control. The gra\'cst 
offence in Germany is insult to the imiform, which practic- 
ally permits the latest joined recruit to take the law 
into his own hands and to deal out summary punishment 
with bayonet or butt, certainly wherever a prisoner of 
war is concerned. The one check on the brutality of a 
camp appears to be a high death roll, though that does 
not operate when there is an epidemic of typhus, as 
Wittenberg proves ; and in other camps it is dodged by 
sending prisoners in extremis to civil hospitals in the 
neighbourhood. 
People who talk glibly of a revolution in Germany, 
a rising of the civil population against the militarists ; 
can have no idea of the military terrorism under which 
all classes dwell. A German who commits an offence 
against the uniform or against the State will be shown 
no more mercy than a prisoner of war. Mr. Mahoney's 
experience of the torture chambers of Wesel prison in 
August, 1914, is evidence of this. " The German 
warders never attempt to correct by words, the ritle 
is a handj' weapon. Consequently if you are dull of 
comprehension, your body speedily assumes a zebra 
appearance with its patches of black and blue." Even 
in those days the food was abominably insufficient in 
quantity and vile in character. In fact there is abound- 
ing evidence that the semi-starvation of prisoners of 
war has from the outset been the approved policy at 
all prisoners' camps in Germany, with, maybe, one or two 
exceptions. For Germans to declare it was forced on 
them by the British blockade is a lie. 
We hear so much about the German " will " theory — 
the will to live, the will to power, the will to victory, etc., 
that it is as well not to forget that in the eyes of the pre- 
sent rulers of Germany, the worst crime imaginable 
is " the will of your own." It is crushed mercilessly. 
The assumption of individuality is laughed at : liberty 
consists in going exactly where you are told ; no man 
calls his soul his own because the soul is not recognised 
under the German code, only the body which is maltreated 
until its owner becomes an unresisting dumb animal 
in the hands of his persecutor. A little time ago 
a play was produced in London called " .\ugustus.dGes 
his Bit," holding up to ridicule the British military officer. 
It was laughed at here, and the . worst punishment 
its author received was reproof for bad taste by certain 
critics. But in Berlin had such a play conceivably foiind 
its way on the stage the author and all concerned 
would have been seized and hustled into prison, like 
cattle. We have to envisage this essential difference 
in the natiue and character of the British and (ierman 
peoples if we wish to arrive at a. right understanding 
of the two nations. The deepest impression that this 
recital of German prison qxperience leaves is how en- 
tirely the whole German nation is beneath the heel of the 
soldier, especially the Prussian soldier. 
There is a good deal told about the cruel punish- 
ment of tying to the post for the most trifling offences. 
It was a form of horrible torture, for the prisoner was so 
tightly bound as to stop circulation in hands and feet. 
For three hours, eventually extended to eight hours, 
prisoners of war of all nationalities had to undergo it. 
When a prisoner was in the height of his torment the 
eminent Commandant would stroll up, and from a couple 
of paces away would stand, legs wide apart and hands 
clasped behind his back, surveying the results of his 
devilry with the greatest self-satisfaction. As the prisoner 
groaned and moaned he would fling coarse joke, badinage, 
and gibe at the helpless wretch, and when the latter 
struggled and writhed in order to seek some relief, though 
in vain, he would laugh uproariously, urge the unhappv 
man to kick more energetically, and then shriek with delight 
as his advice was apparently taken to heart only to 
accentuate the torture. 
Sunday was the day of days which the tyrant preferred 
for meting oat this punishment. The governing reason for 
the selection of this day was because it offered such a 
novel entertainment for the gaping German crowds. The 
public, as already mentioned, were invited to the camp 
on Sunday mornings to sec the prisoners. Young girls 
. and raw recruits considered a trip to Sennelager on the 
chance of seeing a writhing, tortured prisoner as one of 
the delights of the times, and a sight which should not be 
missed on any account. They clustered on the path 
on the opposite side of the road facing. the stake, laughing 
and joking among themselves. The recruits, who openls^ 
manifested their intense amusement, cheered frantically 
when the trussed wretch gave an abnormally wild and 
ear-piercing shriek of pain. At his moans, groans, and 
desperate abortive attempts to release himself, the girls 
would laugh as gaily as if witnessing the antics of a clown 
at a circus, and were unrestrained in their applause. 
Is it conceivable that such a scene could take place in 
England at this time of day ? One knows that there are 
regions in the East were prolonged torments are still 
considered a recognised object of mirth, but we had 
thought A\'estern Europe had done for ever with this 
barbarism. One is inclined to ask in dismay how is it 
possible to treat with a State in the future, which not 
only officially sanctions these barbarities, but actually 
encourages its officers to plav the part of showman. 
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