soldiers

[44fish22]

Hi can anyone help me on this issue .the prisoner of war camp doeberitz which was 10 miles outside berlin held some very high profile british military and british civilians the period being 1917 .does anyone have any information for example that roger casement attempted to recruit irishmen to join the geman army when he visted doeberitz pow camp and were any very senior figures incacerated here.kind regards hartleyc

[sotonmate]

HC

You might be interested in this snippet from a book by the US Ambassador to Germany,James W GERARD, "My Four Years in Germany" written in 1917. He catalogues his various visits and a fair amount of detail of living conditions in the POW camps.He mentions Doeberitz,which he seems to say was for soldiers rather than Officers,but this may have been at a particular time,and from which changes may have occurred at a later stage. He writes of Casement:

" The Germans collected all the soldier Prisoners of Irish nationality in one camp at LIMBURG not far from Frankfurt am Mein. There efforts were made to induce them to join the German Army. The men were all well-treated and were often visited by Sir Roger Casement,who,working with the German authorities,tried to get these Irishmen to desert their flag and join the Germans. A few weaklings were persuaded by Sir Roger, who finally discontinued his visits after obtaining about 30 recruits,because the remaining Irishmen chased him out of the camp"

Sotonmate