P IVa No 421 (EW 13 16533-16547)

Imprisoned again

On 8 May 1945 we were theoretically liberated by the Russian army. The fortress 1Note 1: i.e. Theresienstadt was immediately put under quarantine because the camp was infected with typhus. The Czechs ignored the order not to leave the fortress and they and many others with them made trips to the area around Theresienstadt, from where they returned with lots of cherries. We had not seen any fruit for ages and when some of the prisoners brought cherries back to the camp without being stopped I too had the idea of picking cherries in the gardens nearby. I was to pay dearly for this!

On 5 June 1945 I followed the path leading to Leitmeritz, along which were the orchards. On my way I came across a Soviet soldier who thought I was a German officer who had put on civilian clothes in order to escape imprisonment. The Red Army soldier did not, or did not want to, understand German, and arrested me. I laughed, because I was convinced I would be free again within the hour, but I was terribly wrong. I was soon to stop laughing, for Ing [=Ingenieur] Vogel from Prague, who has been appointed by the Soviets as mayor of the liberated town of Theresienstadt, did nothing to get me released, although as a Czech and a former member of the Council of Elders it was he who knew best what I had done for the camp. I suppose that, instead of helping me, he wanted to take it out on the capitalist, who himself had become impoverished in the meantime. I have no idea what accusations he brought against me, nor have I ever found out what his arguments were. However, I learnt after my liberation that when questioning the former camp commandant, Dr Seidl, in Vienna, Ing Vogel asked him directly during the trial whether I had violated Jewish interests. With the rope around his neck, so to speak, Dr Seidl stated clearly and definitely that I had always represented the interests of the camp and had never acted against those interests. It would then damn well have been Vogel’s duty and obligation, in Prague as well as in Leitmeritz, to inform the authorities of this statement by Dr Seidl. Only a small group know of Dr Seidl’s answer. Vogel has succeeded in withholding Dr Seidl’s statement, which had been provoked by him and which was very favourable to me. Over the years

I have had political discussions with Vogel which showed that I was his political opponent, but I had always supported Vogel as the head of a technical department. He even greeted me after the liberation.

I was taken to the Pancrace prison in Prague, not to be questioned as the Czechs told me, but to keep me out of the way, so to speak. First, I had to strip to be searched for contraband – exactly the same procedure as with the Gestapo. Except for the uniform and the language, nothing had changed. Then I was led to the second floor of the prison to be admitted to cell 149 of section IIB. This cell was already occupied by nine men; when the door was opened there was such a nauseating stench that I could not help vomiting – the cell in question was in fact designed for a single prisoner. We had to lie on the floor like sardines; when one of us wanted to turn over – you could not lie on the same side all the time after all – he had to signal so that all the prisoners could turn over. My cell companions had been imprisoned since early May, and despite the short time there were completely starving. I had some bread with me, which they at once greedily devoured. The next day I was led to the office. There I had to provide my signature. I don’t know what I signed, since I don’t know any Czech at all. I had some Russian silver coins with me which I had kept as a souvenir from Minsk, and also 450 Czech crowns. All this was confiscated, I have never seen it again. This procedure being completed, I was led back, not to the same cell, however, but to the door of cell 197, section IIIB. The Roman numerals indicate the floor where the cell is. Thus IIIB was on the third floor.

Although I had not left the prison, I had to strip to be searched again. Only then was I allowed to enter the cell. To top it all, I had to stand there with my face turned to the wall – just like with the Gestapo.

In cell 197 there were only seven prisoners, six Czechs and one German from the Sudetenland. Although I spent only one night with these Czechs I got a very good impression of them. Later it turned out that my first

impression was correct. One of them escaped later. He had been the leader of a youth organisation. That was one reason why he was mistreated in an especially cruel way. They put a water hose into his mouth, turned the water on, and allowed the full water pressure into his body. It was terrible, the torture this man had to suffer. I just could not believe that Czech people could carry out such brutal actions. They had learnt well, too well, from the Gestapo. I saw atrocities like those I have experienced only at the worst times.

On Monday 16 July 1945 the Czechs were separated from the Germans because the Czechs were given more and better food. As I didn’t understand any Czech and only spoke German I was assigned to the Germans.

Just imagine, I who had been persecuted for many years by the Gestapo and the SS was now lumped in with my enemies. The small food ration was particularly hard for me because I had been underfed for years and had hardly recovered. The food was totally insufficient. Dinner consisted of 0.2 litres of soup, sometimes with a small potato in it. If there was gravy and potatoes you might perhaps be lucky enough to get one and half potatoes and 0.1 litre of gravy. Every day we got 145g of bread and an additional 72.5g in the evening three times a week. Many ate their bread immediately, others watched it carefully in order to ration it; I belonged to the latter group, because of my own experience. But whatever you did, there was not enough, and you did not get any more. People died of exhaustion, precipitated by frequent bouts of diarrhoea which we all suffered from. I had starved in Minsk, but had not felt the hunger so much there as in the prison, perhaps because of the additional mental suffering.

We were so dreadfully hungry that we tore grass from the meagre lawn during our turns in the courtyard in order to eat it. Anyone caught red-handed was flogged. That is why there was a big but: how could we get this grass without being noticed by the overseer? That was not easy because the guards watched us very closely. One of our cell mates would stop and bend down in order to re-tie loose shoe laces. Thus he drew the guard’s attention to himself and one of the others could pull up some grass which was shared out

and eaten in the cell.

We noticed that one of the head warders lived on eggs – allegedly for health reasons. Convinced, though wrongly, that by eating egg shells we would provide our bodies with calcium, we asked him to give us the shells, which he did very readily. We then ground the shells to powder and ate them, until a doctor was transferred to our cell. He told us that the egg shell had no nutritional value at all, and left the body unchanged.

We had lost an illusion!

To fill our stomachs more effectively we soaked the bread in water until it was like mush. Thus the volume of our food was greater and we felt full, even though it was not more nutritious. We only had one thought: what can we do about the hunger? Some smoked the potato peelings to try to think of something else.

Although the Gestapo and SS men were my enemies, I could not bear to watch them being even more maltreated … and they really were dreadfully maltreated!

In our cell there was a Gestapo man who was targeted from time to time by the guards. It was particularly horrible because I was forced to watch.

Usually these atrocities took place on Sundays, because there was less supervision. On the floor below us there were Hitler youth, they were called Werewolves, a name I had not come across before. It was terrible to be forced to hear them howling with pain. One day a cell mate called Gallee was fetched for an interrogation. When he came back we hardly recognised him. His face was puffy, his hands extremely swollen, he was carrying his shoes because they no longer fitted. The interrogator wanted to make him confess that he was a member of the Gestapo, which Gallee kept insisting he was not, despite the torture. For quite some time Gallee was unable to walk or eat. As we learnt later, he had been mistaken for a Gestapo man of a similar name.

On 25 July 1945 there was a sudden and unexpected order: To work! The guard selected those men who were strong enough to work; Gallee and I were not amongst them.

When the workers returned from work in the evening they were thrilled, because they had been received so well by the population. It turned out that the people had not known that these were Germans. From all sides they had been slipped bread and an occasional piece of sausage. The bread which they were unable to eat they brought back to the cell. Unfortunately, I gave into temptation to eat my fill, which did not agree with me – it turned my stomach.

The following evening the workers had to line up outside the cell door. All the bread they had was taken away.

The work they had to do was to clear the narrow courtyards of the rubbish that had accumulated over the years. As I saw later, the rubbish was metres high in the narrow Prague courtyards, giving rise to air pollution.

Since my cell mates painted a glowing picture of their work I was also tempted to apply for work, to make life more tolerable. My guard wanted to help me, and put me into a group which worked for the Russians. He thought we would be well fed there; but although we had to work very hard, we did not get anything at all to eat. The next day the Russian soldier wanted to fetch us again, but nobody wanted to go. The Russian promised us a hot meal and plenty of bread … and compensation for the previous day. We had to work even harder, we were harried like slaves. We were given not food but whippings.

Some days later I went into the town with a work detail. We were employed to sweep the streets and also to clear the heaps of rubble. These were so firmly compacted that we had to use hoes to loosen them. To make up for this we received 250g of bread and 50g of sausage. After starving for so long this was a real relief. But we only got this ration once, it became smaller every day – whether this was above board or through racketeering I don’t know. My body, however, was telling me that I was using up more calories than I was consuming, so that I had to give up working: after all, I did not want to go completely to the dogs. What made the work worse was that the guards were workmen themselves who beat us with their rifle butts. Even though they were road sweepers themselves they did not have a clue how to work efficiently. They forced us eight at a time to load a lorry from one side. Consequently we stood in each other’s way, and could not help throwing the dirt at each other. If they had employed four men at a time, letting us

work in turns, we could easily have done much more. But this would have required brains, which they did not have.

After a longer interval some workers were withdrawn from a work detail, the best one in Prague, and were put into a transport. A cell mate who worked in this group took me with him and now a golden period began for me, which was to last from 10 October until just before Christmas. There was plenty of very good food, there was so much that I was able to bring some food back to my cell mates who were not allowed to go to work. This was to be my undoing later.

In July and also in August somebody had delivered a parcel with linen and food for me. The food was withheld from me, a KZ2Note 2: Konzentrationslager – concentration camp prisoner! – it was confiscated because at that time Germans were not allowed to receive food. Finally I received one parcel with the help of the guard; the trusty had stolen only the butter. In this parcel there were two pieces of soap and 125g of bacon fat. As the cells were searched almost daily and the bread we had saved was confiscated each time, I preferred to take the bacon fat and soap with me when I went to work. The reader will be surprised and ask, So, there was some saved bread was there? On Saturdays we only worked until noon, and often not at all. That’s why we saved some bread, so that we did not have to make do with the scarce food in the prison on Saturdays and Sundays.

On 10 December 1945 I met my misfortune in the person of the head warder Waliczek. I had brought my billycan full of food for my cell mates. This was immediately confiscated for Waliczek’s watchdogs, followed by my towel, soap and the bacon fat. He argued that I had stolen these things. I was lucky that he did not become violent, particularly as he was drunk. Usually he beat people up mercilessly. When I wanted to complain about him the guard said, Don’t do it, you’ll be left to carry the can!

I had saved the bacon fat because I knew that we would not be working from before Christmas until 4 January because of lack of coal, and I had wanted to have something to eat during that time. But I had not reckoned with warder Waliczek, whom the prisoners who had been guards in the prison during the German times described as someone who had always boasted that he was German. They thought that now he wanted to prove that he was a good Czech.

One evening when the cells were already locked for the night

our cell door suddenly opened. Waliczek appeared with several officials; he said to Knurrhahn, a prisoner and former guard, Please come outside! No sooner had the door closed again than we heard a heavy fall, followed by loud groans. Knurrhahn had been thrown to the floor by all the officials, then picked up, thrown down, and finally flung into the cell.

On another occasion a new prisoner was thrown into the cell, who was bleeding like a stuck pig. His name was Walter, he had become a German and the Czechs did not forgive him for that 3Note 3: Translator’s note: this was of course during the German occupation of the Czechoslovakian Republic. I often thought I was in a madhouse. I could continue talking for a long time about these incidents; but I think that will do to give the reader an idea of what human irrationality can lead to. Instead of turning away from the atrocities committed by the Germans, these were used as pretexts and excuses to commit new crimes, even murders, in prisons.

I am convinced that none of these atrocities could have happened if there had been strict supervision. The director was nowhere to be seen, the head warders were either too lazy or too cowardly or they even took part in these crimes. They let the younger guards do as they wished.

From 4 January 1946 until 6 February I was again with my work detail. I was glad that I did not hear or see anything of the prison, and that I was receiving good food again. Unfortunately these good times were to end on 6 February. On that day a five-ton lorry came especially to take me from my work back to the prison. In the police guardroom in the prison I was informed that my sons were fine … and then I was forbidden to work. Perhaps the official was afraid I might escape. If I had wanted to do that I could have fled any day, as many others did. I was not interested in escaping because that would have proved that I had a guilty conscience. But if I had known what lay ahead of me, that I would have to spend another whole year in Czech prisons and that I would almost die, I would have fled then.

On 15 February I was suddenly fetched and handed over to a superintendent of the police headquarters. He took me to his office, and this was my first and only examination. When it was over the official explained to me, On Monday or Tuesday we are having a conference. I am going to present your personal case and you will be released in a few days. You can count on compensation for wrongful imprisonment. Then he led me to the

officers’ mess, ordered a considerable amount of food for me, and left after shaking my hand. Then I really believed that I would be released in a few days. But I was to stay another eleven long, hard months, virtually put into cold storage. I had expected the affairs of a former KZ prisoner to be given priority treatment, but I was mistaken; there was no conference at all. The Czechs had overdone it by arresting hundreds of thousands indiscriminately. They were simply not able to cope with these cases.

In the meantime I had been put back into section BIII and so I was starving again. So I tried to obtain the Czech rations I was entitled to. I asked to see the director, but the guard took me to the head warder instead. This man listened to me … nothing happened! Section IIIB was run particularly badly, the guard was the mere tool of the trusty, he did not care about anything. We even had to collect drinking water from the toilet; I can well imagine that this was why we all suffered from diarrhoea. In April 1946 I saw the director for the first time on his rounds. I presented my request to him, he promised to examine my case, but nothing happened!

When at last I had had enough I tried in vain to file a petition. This was not allowed but had the effect nevertheless that my situation was considered, and that I was transferred to Leitmeritz because the people in Prague did not dare to decide anything.

Well, I continued to starve until the wife of a fellow prisoner felt sorry for me and sent me a parcel. This was not allowed either, but for a week I had something to eat.

On 26 June 1946 I was transferred to Leitmeritz. Leitmeritz was better organised than Prague. Immediately and urgently I demanded Czech food, which the guard simply denied me, since I had not spoken to him in Czech. When I demanded to be taken to the director, he refused this too. The following week, however, I requested permission to write letters. When I asked the director to allow me to write to the English ambassador, to the Red Cross and to my son, he at once granted permission. Getting bolder, I asked for Czech food, which I received the same day. Now at last I had contact with the outside world, although it took a long time until I received an answer.

On the day after my committal to Leitmeritz I was presented to the prison

doctor who realised how weakened I was, and promised at once that I would be put into the prison hospital as soon as there was a bed available. But before my admission I had a serious bout of enteritis.

At last, on 9 August, I was admitted and stayed in this ward until my release on 9 January 1947.

In Leitmeritz for the first time I came across guards who had stayed humane. Prohaska and Faltin, two young guards who had suffered themselves under the Germans and therefore knew how a prisoner felt. But there were also others: the worst ones were probably Adamczyk and Pfeifer. The latter treated an Austrian called Seifert on his arrival by forcing him to lie in a bath filled with cold water. He was made to put his feet out, and Pfeifer tortured them so badly that Seifert passed out. Seifert never recovered from this maltreatment, and died in the autumn of 1946. Although as an Austrian he was entitled to Czech food, he did not get it, nor was he taken to the director as he had requested.

Adamczyk shattered a boy’s eardrum.

In Prague as well as in Leitmeritz not knowing the Czech language was the worst that could happen to you. The SS men were able to gain many an advantage thanks to their knowledge of the Czech language.

Even worse then the guards were the trusties, though they were prisoners themselves. They were chosen by the guards. The trusties distributed the food and whoever could pay with a cigarette got more food and more bread, naturally at the expense of those who did not have anything to offer. That the guards were bad psychologists is surely proved by the fact that one of the trusties was hanged and another one was sentenced to ten years’ hard labour. It often happened that the trusties beat their fellow prisoners in order to gain the respect of the guards.

In Prague-Pancrace I was in four different sections. Only one, section A11, was properly organised, although this was the German section. Every day we received a jug of drinking water, a bucket of water for washing, and more drinking water several times on hot days. Each cell had a jug and a bucket, something no other section had to offer. There were also enough blankets and palliasses

[straw mattresses] in section AII and they were well kept. The guard Prohaska saw to it that the palliasses were refilled from time to time and that the dust was beaten out of the blankets. In section A1 the palliasses were in a bad state and there were not enough of them: seven men had to share three.

Section BIII was the worst of all. There had been only two palliasses for seven men until we gave some cigarettes [in exchange] for two extra palliasses, and even for blankets! Although when we had asked before for blankets and palliasses the guard had told us he had not got any. Cigarettes were the keys to every door! From about April 1946 smoking was officially permitted in Pancrace but only for the Czechs. But this ban for Germans was not observed too strictly since it meant a good income. The daily ration was two cigarettes but the cigarettes which arrived in the parcels – and there were fifty in each parcel – usually were not sufficient until the next delivery because there were too many fellow smokers. Many workers brought cigarettes from outside into their cells. That was forbidden, and there were daily body searches, but they still succeeded. Often the cigarettes were confiscated but just as often the workers succeeded in tricking the guards. It was a daily struggle between guard and prisoner. First the guard won, then the prisoner. Often good-natured guards let the cigarettes through. Once even a razor was smuggled into the cell, although the prisoner had been stripped.

Once a German played a nasty trick on me. He put a pencil into my pocket without me noticing. The pencil was found, of course, at a control. The guard must have seen from my surprised expression that I was dumbfounded. He did not do anything about it, otherwise this would have meant being put into a darkened cell for me.

In section AII there were strict rules about hygiene – we had to shave and have a bath once a week; but this was not the case in the other sections. Those who worked outside usually had a chance to get shaved, which they used liberally. Such criminals we were!

Smoking was of course strictly forbidden in the cells, but there was not a single cell where we did not smoke. In Leitmeritz smoking was generally forbidden, but nevertheless people smoked. I don’t want to described how we managed, not having any matches. Necessity is the mother of invention.

In Pancrace we were allowed to play games like chess, dominoes, and nine men’s morris 4Note 4: A board game for two players, also known as merels.

In Leitmeritz this was forbidden, but we still played. Many a guard turned a blind eye to this, others used it as a welcome opportunity to hit us. There was one guard who searched the cell every day; what he permitted one day he forbade the next. I had two bottles of different medicines. He ordered me to pour these together into one bottle and give the second bottle to him. A small aluminium mug in which I kept my false teeth he threw away, telling me I could use my drinking mug instead. This man was small and stunted with a deeply rooted inferiority complex.

Here the guard Prohaska was remarkable for his correct behaviour. His demeanour was always measured, he never shouted, he was always a decent chap, a praiseworthy exception! Never lazy, nothing was too much [trouble] for him and I was surprised to see the prisoners’ reactions. When Prohaska was on duty the workers never brought cigarettes back with them, and when he unexpectedly had to do an extra shift nobody smoked in the cells. Nobody wanted to get him into trouble, since there was always the possibility of a snap check.

In Leitmeritz it was really unpleasant that we did not have wc’s in the cells. It was particularly unpleasant on Saturdays and Sundays. On these days the cells were locked by noon, and they were not opened again until the following day. So we had to make do with one toilet bucket which was just big enough for one man. That was impossible, as we all suffered from diarrhoea. Once a man came into the cell at 6 pm. I asked him to let us slop out [empty the bucket] because the bucket was overflowing. He refused, and we were forced to use our washbasin too. Even today I wonder why there was no epidemic. When Prohaska was on duty he came without being asked, and let us empty the bucket.

In Leitmeritz there was no drinking water in the cells, so we had to take water from the bucket which was used for cleaning the cell. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why all of us suffered from diarrhoea. Washing clothes was also a problem under these circumstances. Some guards allowed us to rinse our washing in the laundry but most did not. We were dependent on moods! I leave it to the reader to imagine what sometimes resulted from these conditions.

In Leitmeritz exercise in the prison yard was also on the agenda, but often, far too often, the cells were searched instead, and often daily for a whole week, so that we had to do without the necessary fresh air.

Very often the exercise was anything but recreation: we were hounded as if we had to set a record. Then we returned to our cell, completely exhausted. We threw ourselves down onto the floor because sitting on the palliasses was forbidden. Often after such an event the cells were searched as well. Every guard was a law unto himself. One allowed paper cartons to put the washing in, another threw them out. A few allowed us to sit on the palliasses since there was only one stool and there was not enough room for so many prisoners to sit down.

There were guards who were really inventive as far as torturing us during our exercise periods was concerned. When I said once to a guard that the treatment here was worse than in the KZ, he answered that it was in a KZ that he had learnt it. From then, whenever he was on duty I had to keep out of the way.

As already mentioned I could have sent letters if I had had stamps or money. But how could I get money or stamps? That was sheer sadism. They had taken away my 450 Czech crowns. Now I wrote some letters and mentioned this money. Some months later the trusty showed me the letters – they had not been posted. The guard had not even tried.

I tried to find another way to order a food parcel – we could not think of anything else. So I wanted to smuggle a letter out of the prison. I gave this letter secretly to a Czech fellow prisoner. A German fellow prisoner who had been the Managing Director of the Raiffeisenbank in Prague gave me away. The guard did slap me but he was fair and did not report me. I told him that I had been forced to write in order to get something to eat, since he had not posted my letters. Perhaps that was why he refrained from reporting me, and also because the letter was addressed to the Red Cross.

In Leitmeritz it was not necessary to write letters secretly because the director was generous in allowing us to send letters; he even paid for my stamps. It was such a relief to meet this man – he treated all the prisoners as human beings. Unfortunately, every prisoner had to tell the head warder in advance what he wanted to speak to the director about, so complaints were hardly possible. I am sure the director would have stopped that at once. I know about one case when the prisoner invented something in order to be taken to the director. When at last he was received by the director he complained about being repeatedly maltreated. On the

way back to his cell the guard led him to his office and mistreated the poor chap so much that he had to be carried back to his cell. If the prisoners had had the chance to do what they were allowed to do according to the prison rules or by the director there would have been fewer punishments.

The guard was the power, the prisoner had no rights.

I will always have fond memories of the director in Leitmeritz. It was to him that I owed contact with my sons.

On 22 June 1946 I wrote to the examining magistrate in Leitmeritz in order to learn what I was accused of, so that I might be able to comment on it. I wanted to know the reason for my arrest.

I received no reply. When I was released the examining magistrate told me that he had never had a letter from me, there had never been a file on me.

On 2 October I had a longer discussion with the guard who was my boss. On the same day he brought me paper and ink, thus giving me the opportunity to submit a petition to the public prosecutor. He later handed it personally to the public prosecutor. Whenever he went off duty he took with him what I had written in order to give it back to me when he came to work. In this petition I described my fate in Theresienstadt and gave the names of about twenty Czechs who were in public life. The public prosecutor ordered these witnesses to be heard. Unfortunately they lived in different areas, all over Czechoslovakia, and of course I did not know their precise addresses. So the whole procedure took longer than expected. My file was sent to Prague, where the witness General Dr Pollak was heard, then they came back to Leitmeritz. After that they were sent to Brünn [Brno]. When four of the witnesses named by me had been heard the public prosecutor did not want to listen to any others and ordered my release.

On 9 January 1947 I was taken before the examining magistrate who said to me: There is nothing here held against you, you may go wherever you wish. If you want to stay in Czechoslovakia there is no reason why you should not. There are no restrictions. You are free!

When I said to him that that would have been easier nineteen months ago, he replied: I am not responsible for this.

I did not even know that you existed. I have never seen your file, there isn’t one. There is too much work for too few judges, which is completely preventing regular work. We dealt with those cases where the person concerned got in touch. The others did not get done. Unfortunately you were amongst these. That was pretty cold comfort! When I told him that I would have expected my case to be first to be dealt with, he shrugged his shoulders. He said, however, that he could understand my anger, particularly since I had suffered so much. But that would not help me. I should try to get compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

There I was on the street, without any money. An icy wind hit me. I did as the magistrate had suggested and went to the house he had described. And in this house lived a family Bobeck with whom I had been in Theresienstadt. They did not know that I had been in prison, nor that I had been so very close by. They immediately offered me a room and also a considerable sum of money. I was safe! Two days later I went to Prague. Here I was given accommodation by a Mr Paul Schlesinger, who had never met me before, having only heard about me. In the street I met people I had known in Theresienstadt, none of whom knew I had been in prison. I was not able to accept all the invitations I received. First I had to get used to the good food and all the hurly-burly. Only now did I feel that I was really free. Because of my precipitate arrest I had lost the few belongings the SS had left me.

A petition to the Czechoslovakian government

1. For replacing lost belongings
2. For compensation

was refused on the basis of a decree of President Benesch. This decree states that compensation is not paid and that people spreading libellous gossip must not be sued.

But the German authorities, too, refused to pay any compensation for nineteen months’ arrest. When I was released the Czechs provided me with all kinds of support. They even offered me a pension if I wanted to stay in the Republic.

But as soon as I was strong enough the ecumenical organisation sent me to England by air.

Dr Karl Loewenstein/Löwenstein

5 Note 5: Translated for the Wiener Library by Irmgard Liste with Sue Boswell