NIEMEYER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 123, 18 February 1919, Page 4

NIEMEYER

THE BRUTE OP HOLZMLVDEiY.

A British officer reached London recently from Holzminden, a camp which shared with Clausthal the notoriety of being commanded by the atrocious broth. ersNiemeyer.- The one at Hoizinindeu was, in the- opinion of people who cauio into contact with both, the worse. .■ "A thick-set man wtih a big stomach, who spent his time either posing straddlelegged with a stickiii his hand or walking about bullying and threatening to shoot us, he-did everything possible to make life unbearable," mi the returned officer, "Every day he invented charges against prisoners, and eent them into solitary confinement.

''Once, for instance, when we appeared on parade in 'shorts,' he said that this was against the rules and Gent us all back into our quarters to. be shut, up for the rest of the day. When several looked out of the windows, laughing, ho sent a sentry into the building to- fire 'at the last batch of men going along the pnssage, and the .shot narrowly missed one. He wa3 constantly saying: 'If you do not obey, I will shoot.' "Once, fearing that escapes were possible, he ordered every a'ooni to be lighted up. In one room the occupants turned out the lights to go to sleep, whereupon Neimeyer smashed up everything breakable with his stick,

"He was exasperated beyond measure at tho escape of 29 British officers this year. In a wooden partition under, the stairs of the building a secret door was made. It had hinges inside, but the catches were eo cleverly concealed that nothing unusual could be detected from the outside. Although the place was- examined a. few days before the escape, this door was not found. "From it a tunnel 50 yards long was made, 12ft. under the ground. It took nine months to excavate and the exit was in a garden amid a thick plantation of. runnea- beans. The men had only just room to crawl through; some took an hour to do the 50 yards. "After the escape it took Niemeyer'a staff two hours to find the tunnel. Hβ ordered it to be opened up from the top, and told us that, as his men would be employed on that for several days, they would be unable to .censor our parcels, of which we were thus for the time deprived.; . ' , '•When we got.our parcels we tound that tiny meat cubes were cut up to see if they contained notes; and tea, nre," and sugar were mixed together in tho 'censoring.' We were denied our walks and games on trumped-up charges. Once when the people in the building laughed ■because his police doe sat down and refused to obey him, Niemeyer ordered- a sentry to five into the buildiug. 'lhe sentry fired from the hip. " 'i have in my room,' Niemeyer used to tell us with a sneering grm, several 'Daily Mails' iu which I out a big figure.' We hopn to see him just once again —when he comes here for justice."