MADE TOY SOLDIERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23033, 10 May 1938, Page 12

MADE TOY SOLDIERS

PRISONER OF THE NAZIS LONDONER'S EXPERIENCE [from a special correspondent] LONDON, April 18 A Londoner who made tin soldiers while imprisoned in a Nazi gaol told a London newspaper a remarkable story this week, "Germany is planning to undermine Britain's growing toy industry by dumping toys made by unpaid prison labour," he said. "For nearly a year I have been making toy soldiers in a prison at Brandenburg. An enormous stock is accumulating there, ready to be sent to England. "I was arrested in 1936 at the frontier when leaving Germany after a business trip. I was imprisoned in Berlin for eight months without trial and without knowing the charge against me. Only after 11 days of a hunger strike was I eventually given a trial. Then I was accused of infringing the currency regulations and was sent back to prison for a further 11 months. "It was then that I was forced to make toys. When I said I had no training in such work, they struck me in the mouth, knocking out several teeth. "At another prison that 1 was in for a few days the prisoners were all making women's handbags. Once I ran a London business with a weekly turnover of about £7OO. Now I have nothing to keep my family on. I am tramping the streets in search of work."