Hakluyt
12-18-2005, 05:36 AM
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Britain ran post-WW2 torture camp: documents
Scotland Yard detective wrote scathing report on abuses at German facility
Dec. 17, 2005. 12:14 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Britain ran a post-Second World War interrogation camp in which prisoners were systematically beaten, tortured and starved to death, a newspaper reported today.
The report in the British newspaper the Guardian cited documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act that described the suffering of some of 372 men and 44 women detained at the centre in Bad Nenndorf, a spa town in northwest Germany occupied by the British after the conflict.
Many of the detainees had been former Nazi party members or former members of the SS, who had been rounded up to prevent any insurgency, the Guardian said. However, other detainees included businessmen and industrialists who had flourished under Adolf Hitler's regime.
The documents detail an investigation by Inspector Tom Hayward, a Scotland Yard detective, who wrote a report for the military government. Included in the report was the result of an investigation into the death of one inmate, Walter Bergmann, who had offered to spy for the British but came under suspicion because he spoke Russian.
"There seems little doubt that Bergmann, against whom no charge of any crime has been made, but on the contrary, who appears to be a man who has given every assistance, and that of considerable value, has lost his life through malnutrition and lack of medical care," Hayward is reported to have written.
Prisoners told Hayward that they had been whipped and beaten, the newspaper said. Although Hayward wrote that he at first found the charges incredible, "our inquiries of warders and guards produced most unexpected corroboration."
The Guardian wrote, "Despite the precise and formal prose of the detective's report to the military government, anger, and revulsion leap from every page as he turns his spotlight on a place where prisoners were systematically beaten and exposed to extreme cold, where some were starved to death and, allegedly, tortured with instruments that his fellow countrymen had recovered from a Gestapo prison in Hamburg."
Hayward's reports led to courts martial of three men. Two were acquitted and the other found guilty of neglecting inmates and dismissed from the service, the newspaper reported.
Britain ran post-WW2 torture camp: documents
Scotland Yard detective wrote scathing report on abuses at German facility
Dec. 17, 2005. 12:14 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Britain ran a post-Second World War interrogation camp in which prisoners were systematically beaten, tortured and starved to death, a newspaper reported today.
The report in the British newspaper the Guardian cited documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act that described the suffering of some of 372 men and 44 women detained at the centre in Bad Nenndorf, a spa town in northwest Germany occupied by the British after the conflict.
Many of the detainees had been former Nazi party members or former members of the SS, who had been rounded up to prevent any insurgency, the Guardian said. However, other detainees included businessmen and industrialists who had flourished under Adolf Hitler's regime.
The documents detail an investigation by Inspector Tom Hayward, a Scotland Yard detective, who wrote a report for the military government. Included in the report was the result of an investigation into the death of one inmate, Walter Bergmann, who had offered to spy for the British but came under suspicion because he spoke Russian.
"There seems little doubt that Bergmann, against whom no charge of any crime has been made, but on the contrary, who appears to be a man who has given every assistance, and that of considerable value, has lost his life through malnutrition and lack of medical care," Hayward is reported to have written.
Prisoners told Hayward that they had been whipped and beaten, the newspaper said. Although Hayward wrote that he at first found the charges incredible, "our inquiries of warders and guards produced most unexpected corroboration."
The Guardian wrote, "Despite the precise and formal prose of the detective's report to the military government, anger, and revulsion leap from every page as he turns his spotlight on a place where prisoners were systematically beaten and exposed to extreme cold, where some were starved to death and, allegedly, tortured with instruments that his fellow countrymen had recovered from a Gestapo prison in Hamburg."
Hayward's reports led to courts martial of three men. Two were acquitted and the other found guilty of neglecting inmates and dismissed from the service, the newspaper reported.