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The Reprisal
The balloon went up in spectacular style. A 'Grossfahndung'
(national alert) was ordered with troops, police, Gestapo and Landwacht (Home Guard)
alerted. Hitler, incensed, ordered that all those recaptured were to be shot. Goering,
Feldmarschall Keitel, Maj-Gen Graevenitz and Maj-Gen Westhoff tried to persuade
Hitler to see sense. Eventually he calmed down and decreed that 'more than half are to be
shot and cremated.' This directive was teleprinted to Gestapo headquarters under Himmler's
order, and a list of 50 was composed by General Nebe and Dr Hans Merton.
One by one the escapers were recaptured and on Himmler's
orders, handed over to the Gestapo. This was not the normal practice; usually, recaptured
PoWs were handed over to, and dealt with, by the civilian police. Singly, or in small
groups, they were taken from civilian or military prisons, driven to remote locations, and
shot whilst offered the chance to relieve themselves. The Gestapo groups submitted almost
identical reports that 'the prisoners whilst relieving themselves, bolted for freedom
and were shot whilst trying to escape.'' This infamous expression has now passed into
history as an euphemism for cold blooded murder.
Three escapers, Per Bergsland (aka Rocky Rockland), Jens
Muller and Bram van der Stok, succeeded in reaching safety. Bergsland and
Muller reached neutral Sweden, and van der Stock arrived in Gibraltar via Holland,
Belgium, France and Spain. Out of the 73 others, 50 were murdered by the Gestapo, 17 were
returned to Sagan, four sent to Sachsenhausen, and two to Colditz Castle. Word reached England
of the atrocity; in mid July 1944 Anthony Eden, British Foreign Minister, made a
speech in the House of Commons declaring that the perpetrators of the crime would be
brought to justice.
At the camp, von Lindeiner-Wildau, the Kommandant, had
surrendered to his superiors and been arrested. (He escaped execution, and was sentenced
to two years' fortress arrest, which he survived.) A new man, Oberst Braune,
arrived. On April 6th 1944 he called G/C Massey to his office. Under different
circumstances, von Lindeiner and Massey, both professional and honourable career officers,
would have been friends. Normally such meetings were as cordial as the peculiar
circumstances allowed, and were preceded with a formal handshake. This time and with a new
man in command, there was none. With a clear reluctance, the new Kommandant announced via
the interpreter, S/L 'Wank' Murray, (102 Sqdn, shot down 8/9-Sep-39, Whitley III
K8950 DY:M) that he was ordered to inform the Senior British Officer that forty-one
escaping officers had been "shot whilst trying to escape." Massey couldn't
believe it. "How many were wounded?" he asked, staggered. "None, and I am
not permitted to give you any further information, except that their bodies and effects
will be returned to you," was the stilted reply.
Prisoners and Luftwaffe alike were horrified. Hauptmann
Pieber, the adjutant, afterwards said to Murray, "You must not think the
Luftwaffe had anything to do with this ... we do not wish to be associated ... it is
terrible." Later the list of names was posted and contained 47 names; an update a few
days later added three more.
Later the Luftwaffe quietly allowed the prisoners to build
a local memorial. This was designed by S/L John Hartnell-Beavis (10 Sqdn, shot down
25/26-Jul-43, Halifax II, JD207 ZA:V), a former architect, and erected in the local
cemetery. Urns containing ashes of the Fifty were originally buried there, but after the
war were taken to the Old Garrison Cemetery at Poznan. Both still remain
today, but there were very few traces of the camp left when some veterans and survivors
visited it all 50 years later. One local man has a museum of camp exhibits. Paul Tobolski
on visiting the memorial, corrected a small error on his father's initials, and liberated
one of the tiles from Harry's entrance. He had never known his father.
An examination of the local road showed a shallow
depression running at right angles across it, where 'Harry' runs 30 feet beneath. Some
subsidence since 1944 has caused the depression to occur.
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