A German, if asked, might know
Holzminden as a pretty little town on the Weser River in Lower
Saxony. The name might have an entirely different context for an
Englishman, an Australian, a Canadian, and others. Today's town seems
to function without conscious memory of its own history a "mere"
century ago.
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| From Neil Hanson's Escape from Germany |
Ninety-five years ago my father Lt.
Hector Dougall and his colleagues in Holzminden Prisoner of War (POW)
Camp received the news of Armistice Day (more on Hector's escapades
here). The camp inmates in 1917-1918 were captured Allied officers
with some enlisted men as orderlies. In 2013 when we asked a few
residents of the town about the old camp buildings and their First
World War role, they were bewildered; shared memory seemed barely to
encompass the Second World War. The daring (and later celebrated)
wartime escape of 1918 in their midst was not on their radar.
The buildings housing the prisoners
were constructed as army barracks in
1913 and still exist today, above the town, as part of a German
military base. Holzminden was deemed a punishment camp for
rebellious prisoners, repetitively described as the "most
notorious" of First World War prison camps ―
the German Black Hole, as
Hanson mentions.[1]
Its notoriety was due to the strictest of controls and the reputation
of the bullying, brutal, temperamental Kommandant: Hauptmann Karl
Niemeyer.
 |
| Courtesy of contributor to The Real Great Escape, Michael Melching's website: www.holzminden-camp.com/ |
The camp conditions may pale in view of
later conflicts, but this was probably the last great war of
traditional military manners when officers of opposing forces gave
due respect to rank.[2]
However, Niemeyer flouted the Hague Conventions, treating the men
contemptuously as criminals, verbally and physically. Escape attempts
were punished with solitary confinement for arbitrary, long periods,
disgusting food
rations, and denial of medical aid. Real or perceived
infractions incurred deprivation and standing for hours in freezing
weather. Red Cross parcels and packages from home were pilfered or
even withheld. Sometimes Niemeyer ordered the guards to shoot
randomly into the prisoners' quarters. The facilities were sorely
inadequate for the numbers of incarcerated, so prisoners were usually
cold and hungry; by all accounts,
there was never enough food and much of what there was, was inedible.
In winter, six hundred men shared three stoves for heat.[3]
Judging from their personal diary
excerpts, the prisoners for the most part exhibited the plucky, stiff
upper lip syndrome and a sense of humour in foul conditions. They
mocked and defied Niemeyer whenever possible. Under his very nose the
men of Kaserne B dug their incredible escape tunnel. The epic project
was well-documented by a participant: the meticulous planning; the
inventive details; the coordination; the patience; the courage.[4]
Twenty-nine men escaped before the tunnel
collapsed, leaving a disappointed waiting lineup and the rest of the
camp to face Niemeyer's apoplectic, vindictive anger. Eventually
nineteen men were recaptured
in a great manhunt effort. They were held in
solitary confinement until a court-martial was arranged; fortunately
the turning tide of war prevented enforcement of their sentencing.
 |
| Wikimedia Commons |
Niemeyer
has been widely demonized as a dangerous, self-aggrandizing buffoon.
His own guards feared and despised him to the extent that some collaborated with the prisoners. When word of the Armistice came, he
disappeared; some say he donned a disguise to avoid facing Allied
troops. That last month of November into December, the guards also
trickled away to be replaced by German soldiers. Both captors and
prisoners were ill at ease as political turmoil reigned among the
defeated population. Lack of food was an even
more serious issue for everyone, including civilians. Time seemed to
drag on forever for the weary POWs whose collective expectation of
repatriation was dashed several times in the general confusion and
logistics failures. It took another month until a train was finally
arranged to transfer the men from Holzminden to the Dutch border. As
if in a dream come true, hundreds of weakened servicemen were
proceeding back to "Blighty." Niemeyer's later
whereabouts are unknown: myths arose about "sightings" to
feed the fantasies of would-be bounty hunters.
 |
| Holzminden today, courtesy Michael Melching: www.holzminden-camp.com/ |
Maybe we are all guilty of
collective memory deficit. As the twentieth century rolled on, the
evolution of broadcast media and film created modern, indelible
wartime images in the public eye. The
Second World War and further conflicts became more immediate and
visual. Most of us remember Steve McQueen in the movie "The
Great Escape," right? And so the
original Great Escape was eclipsed.
But now the exciting, gratifying news. The
lengthy project called Faces of Holzminden has
identified over 500 Allied war prisoners who were "guests"
in that camp. This month it gave birth to the Random House
(Australia) publication The Real Great Escape (see
also the dedicated Facebook page).[4]
I rather regret the new title ―
it lacks the emotional pull for those of us descendants
heavily involved with author Jacqueline Cook ―
but marketing wisdom
prevailed. Publication coincides with world-wide First World War
commemorations.
The
tunnel story has been told before. Half the book dwells on it while
the rest pays attention to the flesh-and-blood men. To my mind, what
distinguishes The Real
Great Escape is the
generous usage of many prisoners' personal wartime diaries, most of
them shared for the first time in public. Daily life in the camp
becomes real
through their comments, reactions, and struggles. Thanks to the
warmly extended interest of Cook and her colleagues, we
descendants became a cohesive resource group. It was especially
rewarding to make contact with grandchildren of the man whose life
Hector once saved.
Hector was
not involved in the tunnel operation; due to previous escape attempts
he was originally assigned to long
weeks of solitary confinement in the wretched basement cells of
Kaserne A. He came home to Canada in 1919 clutching the
enormous flag he had jubilantly "liberated" after a crazy
climb up the camp flagpole. Some of his diary thoughts appear in The
Real Great Escape.
Like all the soldiers, sailors, and
airmen who preceded and followed them, these were once lively young
men whose war experience would remain with them and affect them to
different degrees throughout their futures. We lost a great many of
them.
There are many stories about the Great War. Lest we forget.
[1]
Neil Hanson, Escape from Germany (London: Doubleday, 2011),
32.
[2]
Jacqueline, Cook, The Real Great Escape (Australia: Random
House, 2013), 28.
[2]
Ryan Lenegan, “The Great Escape,” Merredin-Wheatbelt Mercury,
18 April 2007
(http://www.merredinmercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/the-great-escape/283988.aspx?storypage=2
: accessed 16 August 2013).
[3]
Hugh Durnford, The Tunnellers of Holzminden (UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1920).
[4]
Jacqueline Cook, The Real Great Escape (North Sydney: Random House
Australia, 2013).
©
2013 Brenda Dougall Merriman
