Peter Hassall's Memoirs Title 'Night and Fog Prisoners'
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NIGHT AND FOG PRISONERS OR LOST IN THE NIGHT AND FOG OR THE UNKNOWN PRISONERS PETER D. HASSALL 1562 Gordon Street Wallaceburg, Ontario Canada N8A 4Y9 Tel: 519-627-7124 Copyright: 408278 Dedicated to Dennis Audrain, Maurice Gould and all victims of Hitler's criminal Night and Fog Decree. Go tell the Spartans, thou that passeth by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie. Herodutus 1 LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Map of the Channel Islands and surrounding reefs. Copy of a section from the Jersey "Evening Post," of Saturday, May 9, 1942, showing German report of our attempted escape on 3 May, 1942. Map showing 1940, German-French Armistice partition and places mentioned in book. Copy of deportation order, number 16, transporting Maurice Gould and writer to SS Sonderlager Hinzert. Map of war time Germany showing places mentioned in book. Author's drawing of SS Sonderlager Hinzert, Germany. Sketch of SS Sonderlager Hinzert by prisoner number 5156, circa 1962. Copy of Maurice Gould's Death Certificate, Number 181, Volume C, dated 2 October, 1943, Registrar of Births and Deaths, Wittlich, Germany. Copy of a section from a French newspaper regarding the trial and sentencing of André Callaux, former Hinzert Kapo. INDEX OF PHOTOGRAPHS - AUTHOR'S COLLECTION Sapper Edmund Hassall, Royal Engineers, 1917. Emma Elvina Maria née Le Normand. My father at work taking visitors' photographs. Dennis Audrain, 1941, in the garden at Winchester House. Dennis Audrain and writer on roof at Winchester House, 1942. Maurice Gould taken in my father's studio, 1941. Green Island at low tide - the site of our escape. German Cemetery in Wittlich where Maurice Gould was buried. The Chapel at the Wittlich Penitentiary, where we were able to celebrate Mass. Circa 1957 - Father Anton Barz, the compassionate and brave pastor to the prison of Wittlich. Circa 1989 - Cell door to one of my former cells in Wittlich. Note pastel colours and plants. 2 - AUTHOR'S FOREWORD - I began this book in January, 1946 - less than a year after being liberated from German concentration camps and prisons. I had returned home with two diaries: the first of which was started in April, 1944, in the Keltschkaustrasse prison, Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), then the capital of Silesia. In the first diary I wrote about events which had taken place between June, 1940, and April, 1944, and in the second I made entries of ongoing events, then using both diaries, I began my manuscript in 1946. I hand wrote over four hundred pages, but gave up, as I attempted to get on with my life, which was not an easy task. There were many times that I, with a great deal of shame, looked at the dormant manuscript. Sometimes I felt compelled to finish it, but was unable to, as I did not want to re-open wounds, nor cause more grief to the families of Dennis Audrain and Maurice Gould. However, after I retired I felt compelled and somewhat pressured, to complete our story, and after several years of research and interviews I finally completed it, but not without a great deal of prodding from my former French deportee friends. The first chapters of the book are not historical facts relating to the German occupation of Jersey, Channel Islands, as there are dozens of books on that subject - they are the memories, frustrations and aspirations of three young men coping with the outbreak of World War Two and the first twenty-two months of German occupation of their idyllic, Channel Island home. The book is intended as a testimony to the short lives of two very courageous islanders: Dennis Audrain and Maurice Gould. It is also written, with deep respect and admiration, for the handful of islanders who, by resisting the Occupiers in any manner, dared to be different. It is also in memory of the thousands of French, Luxembourgers, Netherlanders, Belgians, and Norwegians Resistants, who suffered and perished in the Hell of Hitler's criminal Nacht und Nebel Erlass (Night and Fog (NN) Decree), without knowing why. Many foreign language books have been written about Hitler's NN Decree, however, in the hundreds of English language books, in which the subject matter was Nazi concentration camps, I have not read an factual explanation or reason for the NN Decree, nor was there mention of the trials and executions of NN deportees, most of whom simply disappeared as a result of the Decree, which was promulgated on 7 December, 1941 - The handful of survivors are indeed fortunate! In 1987, I made contact with a group of former French NN deportees, with whom I was imprisoned between May, 1942, and May, 1945. It was they who encouraged me to finish writing this book. It is written, but I still get news of them through our organization's newspaper, "Souvenier de la Déportation NN," and with each edition, I note, with sadness, that our numbers have steadily declined. Some of my former NN comrades had reminded me that it was time to get on with the book, or else my testimony would also be lost forever. I would like to thank them, particularly those who insisted that it had to be written, "As the present would soon be the past." The President, of our organization, the late Colonel Roger Delachoue, suggested that I write about the good as well as the evil. I did what he suggested, and wrote about the "good" Germans whom we were privileged to meet. I needed no more convincing to get on with the book, when Colonel Roger Delachoue reminded me that: "Heroes have a place in history and should not be forgotten." I had hedged to that point, but I then knew that I had a duty to write about Dennis and Maurice, despite the wounds this book might re-kindle. Readers may wonder at the vagueness of our imprisonment, however, the book is purposely written that way, as we did not know, for the longest time, why we were so badly treated, nor what the Nazis intended to do with us, as we were unaware that we had been categorized as NNs, and it was not until two decades after the war that we learned all the facts pertaining to Hitler's Night and Fog Decree. When I returned to Jersey after the war, I visited Dennis and Maurice's parents, and told them what had occurred, then respecting their grief, I spoke no more about it; not even to my family - I had my reasons, however, my silence has, possibly, been responsible for the many distorted versions of our escape and imprisonment - the most inaccurate of which was a letter, dated on or about 30 June, 1945, sent to a Jersey newspaper, and allegedly written by me. I was in no condition to write letters in June 1945, however, such inaccuracies still follow me in 1997. Perhaps, the most uninformed writer reasoned that our attempted escape was "irresponsible," as we had not considered what effect it would have on the local population. Another author wrote, "There were others, however, whose schoolboy enthusiasm simply got themselves, and their parents too, into trouble..." - We did not feel that our actions were irresponsible, indeed, we hoped that a successful escape might raise islanders' morales a little; just as Dennis Vibert's successful escape had done - again, I owe it to Dennis, Maurice, my Night and Fog companions and to myself, to set the record straight, after which, the news media and writers may be able to write with a greater degree of accuracy. Peter D Hassall Canada, 1997 3 B I B L I O G R A P H Y de la Martinière, Joseph, "Nuit et Brouillard à Hinzert, Université François Rabelais, Tours, France. Jonca, Karol and Konieczny, Alfred, "Nuit et Brouillard NN l'operation terroriste Nazies," Imprimerie - Le Dragon, Draguinan, France, 1981. Klopp, Eberhard,"Hinzert, kein richtiges KZ?" Edition Treves, Trier, Germany, 1983. Schoenbrun, David, "Soldiers of the Night," E. P. Dutton, New York, N.Y., 1980. Uttley, John, "The story of the Channel Islands," Faber and Faber, London, England, 1966. 4 - 1 - Jersey and some of its people The Channel Islands are situated about one hundred miles south of England and approximately fifteen miles from the west coast of Normandy, France. The Bailiwick of Jersey is made up of the island bearing that name and two reefs known as the Ecréhous and Minquiers. The second Bailiwick is comprised of the Island of Guernsey and the smaller islands of Alderney, Sark, Herm and Jethou. The most northerly island is Alderney, and Jersey is the southernmost. Alderney is the closest to France and England, however, Jersey is quite close, and on clear nights the headlights of French cars may be seen about fifteen miles away. The Channel Islands were part of Normandy in 933 AD, and when William the Conqueror defeated the English at Hastings, in 1066, he continued to rule the Islands as the Duke of Normandy. After the Hundred Years War, when France regained her northern and southern possessions from the English, the Channel Islands remained loyal to the English crown, and this loyalty was rewarded by certain social and legal privileges, which were confirmed by all successive British monarchs. These unique privileges; the distance between the Channel Islands and England and the proximity between the Islands and France, have been the main influences on the Islands' history. When William the Conqueror annexed England, he did not annex the Channel Islands to his new realm. They remained part of his Duchy of Normandy, and were never ceded to France.