PRISON CAMPS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 213, 3 May 1932, Page 7

PRISON CAMPS

EX-SOLDIER'S NIGHTMARE REVELATIONS OF HORRORS WAR-TIME PRIVATIONS How a man in the grip of nightmare revealed to his wife time after time> the terrible privations he underwent in a German war prison was disclosed in St. Pancras Coroner's Court during the inquest on Emile Pierre Chatenet, age 41, and his three children, Madeleine, Paulette and Piere, aged 11, 10, and 3 years, respectively, of Hornsey Lane, Highgate, London. The father, a dress designer of French nationality, gave his wife tickets for a theatre on Friday evening, and when she went to the nursery shortly after midnight she found Madeleine and Pierre shot dead and her husband and Paulette dying from pistol shots in the head. The little girl died on the way to the Royal Northern Hospital, where the father died on Monday without becoming conscious. Highly Sensitive The evidence revealed the tragedy of a highly sensitive man, looking older than his years, "whose word could always be relied on," beset with financial difficulties and haunted by the fear that he would be unable to pay his debts. As a prisoner of war he endured great privations which he used to relate in his sleep. ♦ The Rev. Hoffman De Visne, pastor of the Swiss Church, Highgate, and a friend of the family, said that he gave consolation to Chatenet, who was sometimes in great distress about his business. "On Friday he said he felt desperately miserable. He had been ill with a high temperature and wanted to see a specialist of repute who was not available. I offered to telephone for a doctor, but he said, 'Not yet.' "He mentioned something that seemed strange; he asked about the cost of cremation at Golders Green. He was," said the pastor brokenly, "extraordinarily delicate and most conscientious in everything." Mrs. Anne Go.pstance Chatenet, the widow, darlc, pale, slender, and heavily veiled, said she met her husband in 1910 in Londan, where he had since lived. She was married to him at Streatham in 1919, and they had always got on well together. He preferred English life. "From 1926," she continued, "my husband was living from hand to mouth, chiefly by selling things on commission, and I started an education house for paying guests — mainly foreigners who were learning English. "Between 1921 and 1926 he got into financial difficulties, but he paid all he owed, and I did not know until after his death that he was being pressed for mo'ney. Banged On the Door "Always he was serious and depressed, and during the last fortnight he had been very bad indeed. On Friday he seemed very much better." Explaining the events that followed her return from the theatre, Mrs. Chatenet 'said: "The others went to bed, and I was alone when my theatre eompanion came down and told me she could not get into the nursery, where she slept with the children. I banged the door and shouted, and heard a groan. "It was the voice of my husband. I called the butler, and he forced the door. I did not go into the room. They told me what had happened." Mrs. Chatenet, replying to Mr. J. H. H. Kidgell, her solicitor, said she heard about her husband's treatment as a prisoner of war when he suffered from nightmare and talked about it in his sleep at least twenty times. Agreed to Pay £100 Mr. Montagu Douglas Macduff, a solicitor, of Golders Green, said that last autumn Chatenet was threatened with proceedings regarding business affairs and agreed to pay £100 in settlement on February 29 of this year. "You could always rely on his word." Mr. Bentley Purchase, the coroner, said that Chatenet had left certain letters, some in French, others in English. They referred to his affairs, and in one addressed to Mr. Macduff he said, 'My mother will make provision in her will for your costs." ® "Another letter," said Mr. Purchase, "addressed 'Manana' (it may be his wife or mother, I presume it is his wife), refers to cremation and ashes. It is a perfectly rational letter." * Tbn j|rv found that Ch^e^^^g^