SENTENCED TO DEATH

Shannon News, 10 December 1926, Page 1

SENTENCED TO DEATH

A REPRIEVE IX RUSSIA. GERMAN DOCTOR'S EXPERIENCE . Two young Germans, Dr. Kinderi mann and a student named Wolscht, | who, on a trumped-up charge of plotting against the Soviet regime, were ! solemnly condemned to death while travelling in Russia at the invitation of tlxe Russian Government some yea,rs ago, recently' returned to Berlin. These two men,, together with a number of German Consular officials, who on equally flimsy. grounds were accused of commercial espionage, were in reality hostages seized by Russia : in its determination to enforce by fair means or by foul the liberation of the notorious Russian known as Skobolevsky. Skobolevsky was sentenced first to death and subsequently to penal servitude by the Leipzig Supreme Court for organising the Hamburg Communist rising of 1922. The stratagem adopted by the, Soviet Government ha s now led to the exchange of prisoner's referred to, and the desperado. Skobolevsky, had the satisfaction a few weeks ago of crossing the Ger,man frontier on his way to Russia. Both ;Kindermann and i Wolscht have visibly aged as the result of the ordeal through which they have passed. They are very reserved concerning their experiences during the two years' sojourn in Moscow prisons. When the death sentence was pronounced, they confess that they were both convinced that they would. be shot, and they wrote farewell letters to their relatives in Germany. Kindermann washed a shirt for himself in prison in order that he might, as he says, die in clean linen. A black cloth was hung out of the little window of their cell as a sign that the execution of the two men was impending. After three days of suspense they were told that they had been for .the present reprieved,, and they removed to another goal. Thewalls of their new cell they found ; scribbled over with thousands.of depressing inscriptions, dating mainly from the time of the revolution. Many of these" merely contained the laconic statement: "I am about to be shot." Many of the signatures showed that the writers were Cossack officers. Finally, the two Germans were Informed that their sentences had < been commuted to ten years' imprisonment with hard labour. It was not until September 14 that they learned that, they were to be liberated, an official from the German Embassy bringing the Avelcome news. That evening, under a" strong ' escort, theyi were to the Moscow railway station *nd sent 1 to Leningrad, where they were placed on board a German steamer bound for Swinemunde. i