SENTENCED TO DEATH

Southland Times, Issue 20043, 3 December 1926, Page 11

SENTENCED TO DEATH

A REPRIEVE IN RUSSIA. GERMAN DOCTOR’S EXPERIENCE. Two young Germans, Dr. Kindermann and a student named Wolscht, who, on a trumped-up charge of plotting against the Soviet regime, were solemnly condemned to death while travelling in Russia at the invitation of the Russian Government some year ago, recently returned to Berlin. These two men, together with a number of German Consular officials, who on equally I flimsy grounds were accused of commercial espionage, were in reality hostages seized by Russia in its determination to enforce by fair means or foul the liberation of the notorious Russian known as Skobolevsky. Skobolevsky was sentenced first to death and subsequently to penal servitude by the Leipzig Supreme Court for organising the Hamburg Communist rising of 1922. The stratagem adopted by the Soviet Government has now led to the exchange of the prisoners referred to, and the desperado Skobolevsky, whose real name seems to be Kryloeff, had the satisfaction a few weeks ago of crossing the German frontier on his way to Russia. Both Kindermann and Wolscht have visibly aged as the result of the ordeal through which they have passed. They are very reserved concerning their experiences during the two years’ sojourn in Moscow prisons. When the death sentence was pronounced they confess that they were both convinced that they would be shot, and they wrote farewell letters to their relatives in Germany. Kindermann washed a shirt for himself in prison in order that he might, as he says, die in clean linen. A black cloth was hung out of the little window of their cell as a sign that the execution of the two men was impending. After three days of suspense they were told that they had been for the present reprieved, and they were removed to another gaol. The walls of their new cell they found scribbled over with thousands of depressing inscriptions, dating mainly from the time of the revolution. Many of these merely contained the laconic statement: “I am about to be shot.” Many of the signatures showed that the writers were Cossack officers.

Finally the two Germans were informed that their sentences had been commuted to ten years’ imprisonment with hard laboiir. It was not until September 14 that they learned they were to be liberated, an official from the German Embassy bringing the welcome news. That evening, under a strong escort, they were taken to the Moscow railway station and sent to Leningrad, where they were placed on board a German steamer bound for Swinemunde.

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