Sumner man tells his story of life on Somes Island

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33741, 14 January 1975, Page 1

Sumner man tells his story of life on Somes Island

Mr Charles Klingenstein, aged 64, of Christchurch, says that three Germans did escape from Somes Island in Wellington Harbour during World War IL

Mr Klingenstein was interned on the island for most of the war as an enemy alien even though he had lived in New Zealand from childhood and had a New Zealand-born father. Mr Klingenstein, retired and living at Sumner, spoke of injustice and personal hostility from the New Zea- ! land authorities and from mother internees. Aged 29 He said he was rounded up after the outbreak of war and at the age of 29 was imprisoned on the island because he had a German name and had been born of German parents. “My parents brought me to New Zealand when I was two. I knew nothing about Germany and always regarded myself as a New Zealander,” he said. “I felt pretty bitter about being stuck on that island. I wrote letters to the authori-1 ties and went on a hunger strike. They force-fed me. “In the finish 1 decided to get my case brought to public attention. The only way I thought I could do it was to do something desperate. “I set fire to the careta'set’s haybarn. I hoped that

;once in court I could get a [ hearing and demand to be , treated as a New Zea- ' lander. “I was taken to Welling- . ton and charged with arson. The proceedings were heard in camera and I was sentenced to three years gaol in Mount Eden.” Mr Klingenstein felt very ‘ bitter about it but admitted • he was glad to get off 1 Somes Island. Seventy to 100 ‘ prisoners were there and 1 some were very arrogant Nazis, he said. “Of course, at the start of ithe war they thought they . were going to win it and they . threw their weight around. When Japan came into the ' war they got even worse. “They didn’t regard me as 1 a German at all and they ' gave me heli. They knocked me about the same as they ' did some other aliens from 1 Norway, Russia and Tonga. ; More than 20 nationalities ■ were represented among the prisoners, who included 30 to 40 Italian fishermen. “Tonga had been a German dependency and some of I the Tongans were there be--1 cause they had German names even though they were as black,” he said. Mr Klingenstein said that while he was there three Germans escaped to Hutt Valley by stealing the quarantine caretaker’s rowing boat. The names of the three men ’ A

were Theodore Strewe, Hans Finke and Karl Schroeder.

They got away on November 27, 1941, and were at large for six days in the Hutt Valley, then a fairly sparsely populated area of Wellington. Finally, they were recaptured when they went to a shop to buy some food. Their accents gave them away and they were quickly rounded up.

Planned in advance

The escape was planned well in advance. The prisoners grew potatoes running down towards the beach where the boat lay.

Under cover of the potato leaves the escapers crawled down the hill and through the wire which let them on to the beach.

With Schroeder navigating the three sailed to Petone foreshore, landing there about midnight. The boat was found the next day. Schroeder was an apprentice in the German Navy and Strewe was a journalist, who had eluded the Gestapo, gone to America and then come to New Zealand. He did not know what became of the three after the war.

Mr Klingenstein spent just over two years in Mount Eden and a short time at Pahiatua before being returned to/Somes Island,

Mr Klingenstein disputes a story put out recently by a Mrs Gwyn Nicol, of Wellington, who lived on the island for six years as tire wife of the quarantine caretaker and is now studying the history of the island.

He disputes her claims that the Germans, tried to dig a tunnel to escape during the First World War. He said that the prisoners dug a hole and hid in it to annoy the guards. During World War II the hole was the home of oppossums which kept prisoners awake with their nocturnal noises.

Mr Klingenstein said he knew the facts because of his own experiences and because he had met a certain George Dibbem who had been imprisoned on the island during both wars. At Sumner school Mr Klingenstein said that he could not understand why he should be put there; His father had been bom in Christchurch in what is now Tattersalls Hotel. In 1879, it was known as Klingensteins Family Hotel. He attended the Sumner School as a boy and lived unmolested by anyone until the second war when “having a German name was enough to get anyone locked up.” Mr Klingenstein said he would be only too happy to help Mrs Nicol with