NIEMEYER.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 February 1919, Page 4

NIEMEYER.

THE BRUTE OF HOLZMINDEN

A British officer reached Loudon receutly from Holzminden, a camp which shared with Ciansthal the notoriety of being commanded by fbe atrocious brothers Niemeyer. The one at Holzminden was, iu the opinion of people who came into contact with both, the worse. “ A thick-set man with a big stomach, who spent his time either posing straddle-legged with a stick in his hand or walking about bullying and threatiug to shoot us, he did everything possible to make life unbearable,” said the returned officer. ‘ Every day ho invented charges agaiust prisoners, and sent them into solitary confinement. “Once, for instance, when we appeared on parade iu ‘shorts,’ he said that thL was against the rules and sent us all hack into our quarters to be shut up for* the rest of the day. When several looked out of the windows, laughing, he scut a sentry into the building to tire at the last batch of men going along the passage, and the shot narrowly missed one. He was constantly saying; l lf you do not obey, l will shoot.’ “Once, fearing that escapes wtre possible, lie ordered every room to be lighted up. In one room the oecupants turned out- the lights to go to sleep, whereupon Neimeyer smashed up everything breakable with his stick.

“He was exasperated beyond measure at the escape of ‘J'J British officers this year. In a wooden partition under the stairs of the bu filing a secret door was made. It had hinges inside, but the catches were so cleverly concealed that nothing unusual could be detected from the outside. Although the place was examined a few days before the escape* this door was not found.

“ From it a tunnel 50 yards long was made, 12ft under the ground. It took nine months to excavate and the exit was in a garden amid a thick plantation of runner beaus. The men had only just room to crawl through ; some took an hour to do the lifty yards. - “ After the escape it took Niemeyer’s staff two hours to line! the tunnel. He ordered it to be opeued up from the top, and told us that, as his men would be employed on that for several days, they would be unable to censor our parcels, of which we were thus for the time deprived. “ Wheu we got our parcels we found that tiny meat cubes were cut up to see if they contained notes; and tea, rice and sugar were mixed together in the ‘ censoring.’ We >vere denied our walks and games on trumped-up charges. Once when the people in the building laughed because his police dog sat down and refused to obey him, Niemoyer ordered a sentry to lire into the building. The sentry tired from the hip. “‘I have in my room,’ Niemeyer nsed to tell us with a sneering grin, ‘several ‘Daily Mails’ in which I cut a big tigure.’ We hope to see him just once again when he comes here for justice.”