A FRIEND OF BRITISH WAR PRISONERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 March 1924, Page 4

A FRIEND OF BRITISH WAR PRISONERS.

SIGNAL ACT OF GRATITUDE. Kindness to British prisoners in a German prison camp by SergeantMajor Willie Hatzmann, an ex-Prus-sian cavalryman, was rewarded in a way that is perhaps unique among all the incidents of the war (says an English paper). Hatzmann is now in Toronto, having been brought there from his home, in l.ubcck, near Hamburg, by the soldiers whom he saved from starvation. Troooer Harry Deacon, of Toronto, lias been the central figure in this little post-war drama, and is Hartuman’s |lost for a few days before he goes to a job that has been found for him in surroundings that will not embarrass him. SAVED BRITISH LIVES. “This chap was one of the cleanest, whitest men I ever met, and so say al the others who were in the prison camp with me,” said Trooper Deacon.

“If it were not for him many of us who survived would never have left Germany alive. He was a friend of British soldiers at the time when friendship was needed, and instead of having him subjected to offence we want to have life in this country made agree able for him. Nobody hates the Germans worse than we who were prisoners. but Hatzmann was the kind of an enemy that any soldier would honour.”

Trooper Deacon and Trooper Bert lleywood were both captured in tbo great German push of March, 1919. Donald Rennie, a Scotch signalling sergeant, now in Toronto, was also a prisoner at the camp at Flavy-le-Mar-tellc, where Hartzmnn was senior N.C.0., behind the German lines in France. Previous to being in this camp they bad suffered under Captain Hans Mueller, the notorious prison camp commander, who was sentenced to six months alter tho war for his brutality to prisoners, and was later reported to have committed suicide. RISKED LIFE TO HELP PRISONERS.

The prisoners wore literally worked to death. So little and such poor food was given them that they could not have survived long had they not been moved to Flavv, where YVillio Hntzliiaim aided them. His assistance was given at grave personal risk to himself. On various nights he took a group ol the prisoners out of the camp under cover of the darkness to a potato field and allowed them to commandeer food supplies and then smuggled them back to camp.

One night a sentry discovered them and llartznutnn threatened to shoot the sentry if he shot the British prisoner. He would draw extra rations whenever he could find ail excuse for doing so and give them to his charges. When the prisoners arrived at his camp he obtained water and what clean clothing he could for them and prevented the spread of dysentery from which many had died. One British lad named Snape, was in a critical condition and Hatzmann, when lie had got flic other German guards away out of sight, would carry the boy on bis back across tho river to where a humane German doctor would give him treatment. At other times Hatzmann. who has a beautiful voice, would sing to, the prisoners at night when the other guards were away. A MEMORABLE DOCUMENT.

When Hartzmann was removed from the camp at Flavy-le-Martelle to another camp the British prisoners drew up a letter in which they declared how well they had been treated. They appealed to any Allied soldiers into whose hands Hartzmann might fall to treat, him well in return. The letter was signed by every prisoner in the camp. When Hartzmann went from there to a camp where French prisoners were held tho Poilus wrote a translation of the English letter on the reverse side to the effect that they had received kind attention at his hands, and attached all their signatures.

Last spring jHnrtzmann forwared this letter to Air Deacon in Toronto and told him how he was in straitened circumstances. Mr Deacon communicated with those others whose names were signed and various returned soldiers who were interested in the case. They sent money to help Hartzmann in Lubeck, and finally sent him the money to come out to Canada. Hartzmann was wounded three tim-

XO ArOTIVE BUT lIUAJANITY. “I don’t want Canadians to think that I had any motive other than Christian humanity in my conduct towards the British prisoners,” said Hatzmann through the interpreter. “It never occurred to me that I would be benefited by it in tlic future. I could not bo otherwise than decent to these fellows who were suffering so. The interviewer asked him what conditions were like in Lubeck, which is a Prussian port on the Baltic, when he left. He replied that they were helpless. The mark had descended to a worthless figure. His gas bill for a month was 85,000 marks, and his -salary was only 95,000.

‘•AH the northern ports are Socialistic now. They are finished with monarchy and militarism. They will never stand for conscription again. “My desire is to become a good Canadian citizen. I have never done anything in my life that I was ashamed of, and I hope to be accepted as a good man' here.”