luggage through the streets to the railway stations amid the jeers of the local
towns-folk and many were kept for long periods without food, observations
which were supported by James W. Gerard the (neutral) American
Ambassador in Berlin who later wrote
20 ;
In the first days of the war it was undoubtedly and unfortunately true that
prisoners of war … both at the time of their capture and in transit to the prison
camps were often badly treated by the soldiers, guards or civil population …
the instances were too numerous, the evidence too overwhelming, to be denied.
Once in the capital, all internees were taken to the Stadtvogtei jail
21
—one of
the largest criminal prisons in Berlin—which now acted as a clearing house.
Robert’s address at Prinzregentenstrasse placed him in close proximity to the
Ruhleben camp so he was easily arrested on the very first day of internment.
Like all internees Robert was allowed to take some personal items to the
Stadtvogtei; a bed sheet, a pillow case and two light blankets and from there he
would have suffered the indignity
22 of being marched publicly through the
Berlin streets to the railway station at Alexanderplatz. The Berlin press had
made much of the new interment measures and the public turned out in
numbers to view the spectacle. In general, it seems that these crowds were
well behaved. Some Berliners even offered to help the prisoners with their
luggage and others prayed for their early release but there were some reports
of spitting and fist shaking. The saddest scene however was that of the wives
of prisoners who were previously domiciled in Berlin. Many came to the
Stadtvogtei to support their husbands and walked alongside them openly
weeping and looking utterly distraught.
23
From Alexanderplatz the prisoners were taken by train to the railway station at Spandau, known as the Auswanderer Bahnhof or the ‘emigrants’ station’, where Russian and Polish emigrants to North America were
disembarked and disinfected before travelling on to Hamburg or Bremen. At
Spandau the internees were lined up in groups of four and marched the short
distance to the racecourse at Ruhleben. For many of these men it was to be
the last glimpse of the outside world they would see for the next four years.
For others, freed in exchange agreements, their stay was mercifully shorter but
they all became pawns in a game of international diplomacy,
24 and even
though they were to be spared the horrors at the front, Ruhleben was to be an
experience they would remember for the rest of their lives. These men, raked
in from cities all over Germany, dumped in a swamp and housed in stables,
set to work to found a British ‘colony’ within a few miles of their enemy’s
capital.
25
14 Robert’s War 1914–1918
281
towns-folk and many were kept for long periods without food, observations
which were supported by James W. Gerard the (neutral) American
Ambassador in Berlin who later wrote
20 ;
In the first days of the war it was undoubtedly and unfortunately true that
prisoners of war … both at the time of their capture and in transit to the prison
camps were often badly treated by the soldiers, guards or civil population …
the instances were too numerous, the evidence too overwhelming, to be denied.
Once in the capital, all internees were taken to the Stadtvogtei jail
21
—one of
the largest criminal prisons in Berlin—which now acted as a clearing house.
Robert’s address at Prinzregentenstrasse placed him in close proximity to the
Ruhleben camp so he was easily arrested on the very first day of internment.
Like all internees Robert was allowed to take some personal items to the
Stadtvogtei; a bed sheet, a pillow case and two light blankets and from there he
would have suffered the indignity
22 of being marched publicly through the
Berlin streets to the railway station at Alexanderplatz. The Berlin press had
made much of the new interment measures and the public turned out in
numbers to view the spectacle. In general, it seems that these crowds were
well behaved. Some Berliners even offered to help the prisoners with their
luggage and others prayed for their early release but there were some reports
of spitting and fist shaking. The saddest scene however was that of the wives
of prisoners who were previously domiciled in Berlin. Many came to the
Stadtvogtei to support their husbands and walked alongside them openly
weeping and looking utterly distraught.
23
From Alexanderplatz the prisoners were taken by train to the railway station at Spandau, known as the Auswanderer Bahnhof or the ‘emigrants’ station’, where Russian and Polish emigrants to North America were
disembarked and disinfected before travelling on to Hamburg or Bremen. At
Spandau the internees were lined up in groups of four and marched the short
distance to the racecourse at Ruhleben. For many of these men it was to be
the last glimpse of the outside world they would see for the next four years.
For others, freed in exchange agreements, their stay was mercifully shorter but
they all became pawns in a game of international diplomacy,
24 and even
though they were to be spared the horrors at the front, Ruhleben was to be an
experience they would remember for the rest of their lives. These men, raked
in from cities all over Germany, dumped in a swamp and housed in stables,
set to work to found a British ‘colony’ within a few miles of their enemy’s
capital.
25
14 Robert’s War 1914–1918
281