History

Jim Curran Old May ofHoy, evening 2005 Oil on canvas Private collection

ROGER CROSTON Prisoners of the Raj

he death of in January 2006 brought the retelling in T obituaries around the world of one the great adventure stories of the 20th century - his escape with from internment at Dehra Dun and years of sanctuary in . Aufschnaiter and Harrer had been together on the 1939 reconnaissance of , however, they were not the only prisoners to escape the Raj, a few of whom are still alive. The survivors' recollections and other material, unpublished or less well known than Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet, reveal more information about the expedition's preparation and the adventures of fellow internees' escape attempts over the Himalayas. The attempts to climb Nanga Parbat, at 8126m the world's ninth highest peak, are well documented. Following Merkl's 1932 expedition the mountain was regarded as 'German'. By 1938, 29 lives had been lost on the Rakhiot route, prompting Paul Bauer of the Alpine Club (AAVM) and leader in 1938, to seek a better route from Diamir. In consequence, in 1939, at Bauer's request, Peter Aufschnaiter assembled a lightweight expedition comprising himself, Max Reuss and two others, with a full-scale attempt proposed for 1940. In January 1939, Bauer wrote to the Foreign & Political and to the External Affairs Departments, , proposing the expedition. A letter to the Foreign Office, London, noted the other climbers as Ludwig Vbrg and Andreas Heckmair, who with Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek had first climbed the 's north face in 1938. However, at short notice, Harrer, Hans Lobenhoffer and Ludwig 'Lutz' Chicken replaced Ruess, Heckmair and Vbrg. This selection of the final team was the result of a lengthy, complicated and difficult power struggle between Bauer and the authorities. For a detailed account of this episode see Peter Mierau's well­ researched book Nationalsozialistische Expeditionspolitik , published just this year. Regarding permission, the North West Frontier Province government raised no objections and agreed that a liaison officer was unnecessary 'provided rates for coolies and supplies are fixed through Agency in advance and that Aufschnaiter can speak Hindustani sufficiently well to deal with coolies... ' However, hastening to depart, the expedition members left Europe without visas. Aware of this, and keen to help, Kenneth Mason, first editor of the Himalayan Journal and friend of Aufschnaiter, wrote to the Office, London, in April:

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My dear Peel, I advised Aufschnaiter to postpone his departure as it would be impossible to get word regarding his application to go to Nanga Parbat before his date of sailing.... In his letter he asked the specific question whether present political relations had prejudiced his chances. I replied that I could not say, but I did not think so, though "rather naturally, after recent happenings, we were all pretty disgusted at the way the Munich agreement had been cast aside; and that as a result, even an elderly man like myself had much less leisure than in normal times, owing to the crisis." I have had the following reply from Munich: "My dear Mason, Thank you ever so much for all the trouble you have taken, if we had not you, we would be at a loss. The [Munich] Consulate did not give us the visa. We are starting now without. If we would not go, we should have to pay the passage in the Lindenfels plus the passage to Egypt by an Italian boat; now we have gained some 19 days. In the meantime it will have been decided at least if they will allow us to enter Indian soil, or not. If not, we can go back from Port Said.

Peel replied, 6 April:

Dear Mason, I have just had your letter .. .informing us that the party had decided to start in anticipation of permission being granted. It is really rather tiresome of them. If we get the Government of India's decision in time we will consider your suggestion of telegraphing Aufschnaiter at Port Said.

A flurry of diplomatic telegrams was exchanged between London, and India and permission was granted. In June a grateful Aufschnaiter wrote to The Resident, Kashmir, from Base Camp:

I have received a letter from Bauer ... he expresses his great satisfaction that our party was granted permission. I am convinced that all quarters in Germany who get knowledge of it will appreciate particularly this attitude at the present time.'

The archives show the British did everything to help, though the German government was requested that longer notice be given in future as German expeditions were making a habit of setting off without permission. A note to the British Secretary of State, however, indicates some concern:

In the present state of international affairs it is obviously necessary to be vigilant in regard to the activities of German expeditions...the policy of the Foreign Office is still to treat German applications in the same way as other foreign applications. We have always maintained friendly relations with Dr Bauer... and Aufschnaiter is a friend of Mason and apparently not a Nazi. In any case this expedition will not apparently have much opportunity to engage in undesirable activities. PRISONERS OF THE RAJ 215

To which Peel added the comment:

I do not suppose this expedition is likely to be mischievous, though it has caused us a great deal of unnecessary trouble by failing to apply in proper time.

At the expedition's end, having climbed Diarnir Peak (5570m) and Ganolo Peak (6400m), with war immediate, the mountaineers sought passage home on the ship Uhlenfels. However, the vessel had been instructed not to approach India. Unable to find other ships or aircraft, Harrer, Chicken and Lobenhoffer attempted to reach Persia via the Principality of Las Belas, Beluchistan, whose ruler was no friend of the British and might be of help. Unbeknown to them, they were being watched: Indian News Agency Telegram, Simla: ', 30th August. Defying Government order directing them not to leave city limits four German residents are reported to have left Karachi last night under mysterious circumstances for unknown destination.' Word reached the India Office where an official noted 'I'm afraid they are going to have considerable difficulty in getting home unless they left India before 29th August.' The trio's flight ended abruptly when, after bivouacking, they were arrested for travelling without papers. Interviewed in 2003, Harrer recalled,

We were not 'arrested' but were involuntarily taken to Karachi. Newspapers stated that aliens leaving main roads were liable to ten years' imprisonment. The superintendent of police received us with 'Well gentlemen, you lost your way while hunting, didn'tyou?' We replied "Yes, Sir!" We were much relieved by this act of kindness.'

Archived intelligence relates:

The superintendent of police... stated there was nothing suspicious about them, except an intense desire to get away to Germany before war broke out. There was no case against them... The four came prominently to our notice on account of the rush tactics they adopted in getting to India... We are now trying to fmd out something about them and if they did any serious climbing.

All four were interned in the Central Internment Camp, Ahmadnagar, west of Bombay, and their baggage impounded. Although civilians, they were 'Prisoners-of-War' under the Geneva Convention. The censor returned Aufschnaiter's maps and books, including Bell's Colloquial Tibetan as being close to Bombay these were thought to be harmless, little realising the prisoners would later end up near the Himalayas. In 1941 they were moved to Deolali, north-east of Bombay which provided an escape opportunity 216 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2006 when Lobenhoffer and Harrer jumped from the back of a moving truck. They were immediately detected and recaptured. Deolali was unbearably hot with dusty, poor accommodation, so all went on hunger strike. Internee No. 1775 Rolf Magener, interviewed in 1999, related how an investigating senior British officer walked into a melee of prisoners by now intent on murder and asked 'Gentlemen, whatever is the matter?' His self-assured behaviour saved his life. Consequently, the authorities directed an interned architect to design a purpose-built camp with all facilities at Premnagar, Dehra Dun, Mussoorie, 120 miles from the Tibetan border. The journey from Deolali to Dehra Dun provided another escape opportunity. According to the archives: 'On the evening of 10 October 1941 a train conveying internees...halted for two hours at Delhi. It was discovered that Lobenhoffer, internee No. 1085, was missing. He was re-arrested at Puri, Orissa, 13 October. The arrangements by the Military escort for the safe custody of these internees appear to have left much to be desired.' Later, he claimed to be an army officer, which in fact he was. He had been commissioned on 1 January 1938 as a lieutenant in the 100th Mountain­ Chaser Regiment and had been detailed to accompany the expedition. However, the archives state: 'There is nothing in our papers to show that Lobenhoffer was, as now claimed, detailed by the German High Command to accompany the Expedition.' He persuaded the British to treat him as an 'Officer Prisoner of War' and he was transferred to Canada, where he pretended to be mad and was repatriated under a prisoner exchange scheme. Harrer, still determined to escape, had few resources, so one night he crept to the Italian sector to meet General Marchese who could finance escapes but needed an experienced Himalayan fellow traveller. In 1999, Magener related that Marchese had visions of ultimately making a triumphal return march down the Via Del Corso in Rome. Escaping by night in June 1943, they put a ladder over a sentry-post; as they ran off, the alarm was raised. A sentry grabbed the ladder from the assisting Magener and threw it away - and an incredulous Magener simply walked back unpunished to his hut. After 18 days, Harrer and Marchese were confronted and arrested by an Indian, the multi-lingual Chief Forester of Tehri-Garhwal. Shortly afterwards, they were amazed to be joined by Aufschnaiter and Father Carl Calenberg, a Jesuit priest, who had escaped six days later. Back in Dehra Dun, Camp Commandant Colonel Williams received them with: 'You made a daring escape. I am sorry, I have to give you 28 days.' By now, five others as well as Harrer and Aufschnaiter had also plotted to escape, including fluent English speakers Magener and Heins von Have. Magener had been interned in Bombay; von Have in Dutch Indonesia, from where he, with 1320 other civilians, was sent to India in 1941 after Japan entered the war, in three crowded, unmarked ships; his was sunk by the Japanese with the loss of 500 lives. After landing in Bombay, he escaped with Hans-Peter Hulsen by jumping from a moving train. They were soon PRISONERS OF THE RAJ 217

recaptured. A second attempt ended with Hiilsen's death, when, under police escort, they leapt from a bus, the door of which swung back, killing Hiilsen. Also from Indonesia were Friedel Sattler, who planned to cross the Himalayas to reach the Japanese in China, and Bruno Treipl who, in 2004, related how badly the Dutch had treated them until they were embarked on the ships - their captors knowing Japanese aircraft were likely to attack. He was grateful to end up in British hands to be treated in exemplary fashion. Another plotter was Hans Kopp, interned in Iraq. He had previously escaped Dehra Dun with Edmund Kramer, a renowned wrestler who could overthrow a bull. They smuggled themselves out in a dung cart and reached Tibet. There, as Magener recalled in 1999, they were huddled together one night for warmth enough to stay alive when Kopp had a nasty realisation. Kramer was a giant of a man who had deserted the French Foreign Legion in Morocco before the war along with a fellow German. They had crossed the High Atlas, but Kraemer arrived in Germany alone and would tell nobody what had happened to his compatriot. Kopp now guessed that Kraemer might have killed his former companion in similar circumstances at high altitude and eaten him in order to survive. Kopp spent the rest of the night a very worried man indeed. Finding the conditions too severe, the pair gave up their attempt to cross Tibet and instead, pretending to be Swiss missionaries, headed for Goa, seeking help in New Delhi from an Indian car dealer friend of Kramer's who betrayed them. Returned to camp they were paraded before Colonel Williams, who let fall a newspaper from in front of his smiling face - their escape was emblazoned in bold headlines across the front page. They received the inevitable 28 days. All seven would-be escapers assembled. Magener had noted that the unguarded, fenced alleyways - the 'Chicken Runs' - between camp sectors led to a gate where passes were never checked. Accordingly, he and von Have disguised themselves as British officers complete with swagger sticks, in charge of the others disguised as a native wire repair gang. On 29 April 1944 at 2.30pm, having broken through the wires into a Chicken Run, they boldly marched through the main gate with the guard presenting arms - a heart-stopping procession none of them would ever forget. They split; five headed for Tibet while Magener and van Have went for Burma and the Japanese. This necessitated using fast trains and bluff. Their play-acting as British officers succeeded and reaching Calcutta they travelled onwards as Swiss businessmen eventually crossing the front lines into Burma where the Japanese captured them as suspected spies. Mistreated until known to be German allies, they were sent to Tokyo where they were regaled as heroes. Half a century later, Magener could still not believe 'why this lunatic undertaking succeeded at all'. Meanwhile, in the Himalayas, Sattler, badly affected by altitude and exhaustion, returned to camp where his 28 days solitary were spent recovering in hospital. Now there were four, who, 19 days from camp, 218 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2006 crossed Tsangchokla pass (5240m) into Tibet. Ordered to leave they travelled to the Sutlej river where the altitude-afflicted Treipl also gave up, his goal of reaching the Japanese via the Gobi now seeming impossible. Back in camp he too received 28 days. The remaining three, intent on staying in Tibet, headed to the Spiti river making slow progress. Without Aufschnaiter's spoken Tibetan - how valuable that language book had been - they would have got nowhere. At Tradom, they requested permission to go to . In November, having waited months for a reply, Kopp's patience ran out. Offered work in , he thought to claim asylum. Given a military escort as he approached Kathmandu, he was taken straight to the British Embassy - the trap had sprung! He re-entered Dehra Dun on Christmas Day without receiving 28 days from the long-suffering Colonel Williams, as he had honestly believed Nepal was neutral. Now there were two, both hardy, experienced mountaineers, mentally and physically fit for lonely and strenuous life at altitude. Again ordered to leave, they appealed to Lhasa for permission to stay. Months later, learning the war was over and knowing they would still be imprisoned ifthey returned to India, they illegally set off for Lhasa, making an incredible grim winter journey across the plateau, reckoning such an approach to the capital might go unchallenged. According to 'Confidential Weekly Reports' of the British Mission, Lhasa, they were being watched throughout - the had long tentacles.

17th June 1945: The two internees were in Kyrong. They had been seen taking surveys and distributing medicine in exchange for supplies. 26th August The order to turn out the internees across the Nepalese border­ no action seems to have been taken. 20th January 1946: The two reached Lhasa on 15 January. They were reported to have been dressed as Tibetan nomads in tattered sheep skin Chhu-pas, it is said they had a donkey, carrying their few effects. They have been staying in the house of a Tibetan official who picked them up in the streets... Government are at present interrogating them. It is learnt that a few Tibetan officials and Chinese have called and have given them clothes and provisions. Tibetan Government has also given some presents. 27th January: It is reported that the two are now permitted to go about the city. The 's parents entertained the Germans and gave them presents of provisions and cash. It is reported that the Dalai Lama himself [then aged 11] asked his parents to entertain them. 10th February: The Germans have expressed their wishes of going across China overland; it is reported that Government has issued a warning stating they should be prepared to go back to India. 24th February: The two, for whom Tibetan escorts and the transport are now ready, were told to leave. But are reported to have requested the authorities to remain until the younger one, who is said to be laid down with some trouble of his hip, gets better. 24th March: PRISONERS OF THE RAJ 219

Dzasa has suggested to Government that for the meantime the two should remain in order that Government may benefit of the younger one's [actually the older Aufschnaiter's] knowledge of agricultural tree planting schemes. 14th July: The Austrians have added wine making to their activities, and have produced red and white wine from black and white raisins respectively. A number of people seem to have suffered from drinking these concoctions. 6th October: Harrer is teaching English to several sons of Tibetan and Nepali traders. It is said that he has been asked by Tibetan officials to supervise construction of tennis courts. He seems to be quite popular in Lhasa.

Interviewed in 2003, Harrer was most amused and fascinated by the accuracy of British intelligence. Actually, they had an unknown sympathiser in in the shape ofArthur Hopkinson, British Political Officer Sikkim, and Tibet, who himself had been a PoW in the Great War. He was influential in allowing the Austrians to remain in Lhasa as he thought it no use to re-intern them. (Interview 30 March 2004 with Robert Ford, a British radio operator in Tibet 1945-1950). Other internees attempted to reach Tibet, including Ludwig Schmaderer (Nanga Parbat, 1938) and Herbert Paider. In Sikkim, they and Ernst Grob, a Swiss, who owned a machine shop, had made a magnificent lightweight first ascent of Tent Peak (7363m) on 29 May 1939. On 24 March 1945, Schmaderer was undergoing a medical examination outside the wire, ready to be sent to Deoli, a secure camp south west of Agra, with another 22 who had made escape attempts, when he made a run for it. Before the guards could shoot he was hidden in jungle. Creeping back at night he contacted Paidar to arrange for him to escape three days later. Paidar made a repeat of the dung-cart ruse, this time hiding under empty meat tins. They travelled the same route as the others to the river Spiti, where, while Paidar set up camp, Schmaderer went to buy provisions. Meeting hostility in the nearest village of Tabo he had to pay high prices and was seen with money, gold coins and a watch. Laden with food, he was crossing a steep, narrow bridge on his way towards Paidar's camp when three locals offered him more supplies. Taken unawares he was pushed into the river and murdered with stones thrown from above that caused him to drown. Paidar spent three days searching for his companion before turning back to India. A fortnight later in Tashigang a Tibetan witness told Paidar all. The Indian police arrested the culprits - two escaped but the third was charged with murder and hanged. (Ironically, Paidar was to die in a stone fall on the Grossglockner in the 1950s). Kopp, recaptured in Nepal, was also transferred to Deolali with the 22. He later wrote that, en route, each prisoner was closely guarded. Despite this, Schonfeld, a German Buddhist, leapt from a moving train in his yellow mo.nk's robes at Hatwar. He was recaptured three weeks later near the pilgrimage centre of Badrinath, high up the river Ganges. 220 THE ALP INE J 0 URN A L 2 0 0 6

129. Peter Aufschnaiter and Tessala (Tsering Yangzom) on an excursion to Tra Yerpa, the cave of Padmasambhava who brought to Tibet. (Heinrich Harrer, Ethnographic Museum ofthe University ofZurich) 130. Peter Aufschnaiter and theodolite with . Surveying Lhasa from the Chakpori (College of Medicine) for a city map, with 60-year-old theodolite found in the house of Tsarong, the wealthy host of Aufschnaiter and Harrer. (Heinrich Harrer, Ethnographic Museum ofthe University ofZurich)

131. Heinrich Harrer skating in Lhasa with the Chakpori Medical College in the background. (Heinrich Han'er, Ethnographic Museum ofthe University ofZurich) 222 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2006

Epilogue Harrer and Aufschnaiter resided in Lhasa until 1950 when China invaded and annexed Tibet. Aufschnaiter later worked for the governments of Nepal and India plus the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the U.N. in Kathmandu. At his life's end he returned to , dying aged 73 in Innsbruck in October 1973. Harrer wrote his famous book and in 1953 lectured at the Royal Festival Hall, London, where he received a letter from his former Camp Commandant, Colonel Williams, which Harrer read out: 'As commander of your prison camp in India I had to take the blame for your successful escape, from headquarters in New Delhi. Not only that, but adding insult to injury, tonight I even had to pay to listen to you as to how you did it.' Harrer devoted much energy campaigning for the Tibetan cause. All internees were repatriated, most landing in Hamburg in January 1946 wearing tropical kit. In 2004, Treipl recollected how they were cruelly forced to stand outdoors for hours in extreme cold by a Czech division of the British army - it was months before he could walk properly again. Kopp, an engineer, returned to India in 1948 to work on a dam project at Bhakra and again met Aufschnaiter in New Delhi. He went trekking in Tibet in 1954, a land that fascinated him. He moved to Ontario, Canada, to run a motor business and died there in the mid 1980s. Sattler was also transferred to Deoli where the Maharaja of Bundi was building a summer palace - he employed Sattler in his profession as an architect. He was repatriated to Germany and returned to work in Jakarta in 1949; he died in Germany in 1985. Treipl returned to Austria where he ran hotels with his wife and sold agricultural machinery. In 2006, aged 89, he was living in his native Salzburg where his father had been one-time Castle Commander. Magener and von Have, re-interned in Japan by the Americans, were returned to Germany 18 months after the war to be interned yet again. Magener joked how he would have got home much earlier had he stayed in camp. He later built up the export business of the German multinational BASF, becoming their Chief Financial Officer. An anglophile, he lived in London in the 1950s and died in Heidelberg in 2000, just short of 90. Heins von Have returned to Hamburg in 1948, where his family had been for generations, to join 'Johs. Rieckermann' a trading company set up for him in his absence by his father. In 1949 he established 'Panobra' to trade with Brazil and Japan, plus 'Heins von Have Co.' in 1967 to trade with Indonesia. All three companies still exist. He frequently travelled to Japan and Indonesia, was a member of many German institutions and became president of the East Asiatic Association of Hamburg. He died in 1985 aged 78. Dr Ludwig 'Lutz' Chicken returned to South Tyrol, Italy, where for many years he ran his own medical practice; he published his autobiography in 2003 (see Book Reviews, p367). In 2006 aged 90, he was happily retired. Finally, Bruno Treipl put the author in contact with fellow internee Peter Schiimmer, aged 94. He had been working in India for Klockner Humboldt Deutz on diesel PRISONERS OF THE RAJ 223 engines. He had escaped with Schmaderer in May 1943. Their first plan had been to do a 'wire job' using a homemade ladder but their plans were betrayed. One day they were delegated to clean up the cemetery at a far end of the camp where they told the sentry that they needed to urinate in the bushes - it was not noticed until evening that they had absconded. For the next two days they hid in a cave in a nearby gorge where they had cached supplies, before heading north. After three weeks they were recaptured near Badrinath, one march short of the Tibetan border. For a second joint escape attempt Schiimmer had planned to run into the jungle with Schmaderer when the group of 22 persistent escapers were due to be transported to Deoli. However, a Colonel Hunt, while searching his baggage found a book on Central India, which much interested him and he struck up a conversation with Schiimmer. Meanwhile, fearing excess delay, Schmaderer ran for it. Schiimmer was prevented from following as he was suddenly surrounded by six soldiers pointing guns at his sides. He made no further escape attempts. He later worked in India, East Pakistan and Iraq before retiring to his native Cologne, where in 2004 he concluded that it was 'far better for us all to have been interned than to die a pointless death in a stupid war'. He died in autumn 2005. It would be September 1947 before all Dehra Dun's internees were repatriated.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Published in London unless stated: Peter Aufschnaiter, 'Diamir Side of Nanga Parbat, Reconnaissance 1939', Himalayan Journal 14, 110-115, 1947. - 'Escape to Lhasa 1944-1945', Himalayan Journa114, 116-120, 1947. Martin Brauen (ed), Peter Auftchnaiter's Eight Years in Tibet, Orchid Press, Bangkok, Thailand,2002. Lutz Chicken, 'Nanga Parbat Reconnaissance 1939', Himalayan Journal 14,53-58,1947. - Durchs Jahrhundert. Mein Leben als Arzt und Bergsteiger, Edition Raetia, Bozen, Italy, 2003. Ernst Grob, Ludwig Schmaderer and Herbert Paidar, Zwischen Kantsch und Tibet. F Bruckmann, Munich, Germany, 1940. Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1953. - Mein Leben. Ullstein, Munich, Germany, 2002. , My Life, Eiger North Face, Grandes Jorasses, and other adventures. Baton Wicks, 2002 Hans Kopp, Himalayan Shuttlecock. Hutchinson, 1957. Rolf Magener, Our Chances Were Zero. Leo Cooper / Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley, 2001. (Originally Prisoners' Bluff. Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954.) 224 THE ALPINE JOURNAL 2006

Peter Mierau, Die Deutsche Himalaja-Stiftung. Ihre Geschichte und Ihre Expeditionen. Bergverlag Rudolf Rother, Munich, Germany, 1999. - Nationalsozialistische Expeditionspolitik. Deutsche Asien-Expeditionen 1933­ 1945. Herbert Utz, Munich, Germany, 2002. Herbert Paidar, 'Destiny Himalaya', Himalayan Journal 15, 69-74, 1948. Friedel Sattler, Flucht durch den Himalaja. UndErlebtes beim Maharadscha von Bundi. Das Bergland-Buch, Salzburg, Austria, 1956. Republished, Edition Dax, Hamburg, Germany, 1991.

Interviews: Rolf Magener Heidelberg, Germany. 23 June 1999. Heinrich Harrer Hiittenberg, Austria. 12 May 2003. Bruno Treipl Salzburg, Austria. 21 May and 30 August 2004. Peter Schiimmer Cologne, Germany. 13 June and 27 August 2004.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is indebted to the former internees for their interviews and to Dr Lutz Chicken and Heins von Have for their correspondence. Frank Drauschke in Berlin, and Dr Isrun Engelhardt of Munich both generously provided information from their respective researches in the National Archives of India and the India Office Collections in the British Library. Finally, the author is grateful to Bettina von Reden of Hamburg for assistance with translation and in locating and interviewing former internees.