MONTHS IN GAOL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24254, 23 March 1940, Page 12

MONTHS IN GAOL

AUSTRALIAN WOMAN PRISONER OF THE NAZIS SUFFERINGS AT HAMBURG LONDON, Mar. 12. Kept in prison at Hamburg for the last four months, Mrs Norman Walker, wife of a former Melbourne schoolmaster, will not be released, the Nazis say, "while German women remain in a concentration camp at Sydney." This information was brought to London by Miss Lily Collins, whose sister is married to a Melbourne doctor, and who shared a room in gaol with Mrs Walker for two months.

"I have been trying to move heaven and earth to rescue Mrs Walker," she said to-day. "Hamburg's concentration camp is the town gaol, in which male prisoners are housed on the first and second floors, and women on the third floor. "I had been living in Hamburg for many years, and was not allowed to return to England after the outbreak of the war. Early in December I was taken to the police station, then to gaol in a prison van, with nine other British women. For the first three nights we all occupied one room; then I shared a room with Mrs Walker.

Depressed and Nervous " Mrs Walker had already been an inmate for 16 days and was fearfully depressed, being the solitary internee among the women prisoners. Her inability to speak German caused great distress. " The authorities told the internees in January that they coud go to England or stay. Only two elected to go, the others having domestic ties in Germany. The police came and said, 'We do not force you to go, but, if you stay, you will be sent to South Germany, and you will have no visits from friends and no food parcels.' "Six more decided then to go to England. Mrs Walker had letters of introduction to Mr S. M. Bruce and Australian officials. The police confiscated the letters." Kindness from Englishwomen Miss Collins added that Miss Graf and Miss Graf's young niece, Miss Gom, from Sydney, who travelled from Australia with Mrs Walker, are in prison in Berlin. A German from Sydney is believed, she said, to be responsible for the harsh treatment of Australians, because, he said, Australia was the first country to intern German women. She added that the prison director at Hamburg was unkind, but the wardresses and sentries were most kind towards the internees, but the greatest kindness came from Englishwomen married to Germans, who deprived themselves of food and gave it to others.

No women are interned in any alien concentration camps in Australia. Mrs Walker's husband gained his LL.B. degree at Sydney University, and, some years ago, was a master at Carey Baptist Grammar School, Camberwell, Melbourne. He went to London some time ago.