Την ιστορία την πληροφορήθηκα από τη συνοπτική περιγραφή σε προχτεσινό άρθρο του Κώστα Λεονταρίδη στην Καθημερινή:
http://www.kathimerini.gr/767061/opinion/epikairothta/politikh/den-einai-proeklogiko (πρώτη παράγραφος)
Με πολλές λεπτομέρειες διαβάζουμε την ιστορία του Βρετανού λοχαγού Ρόμπερτ Κάμπελ στην Ντέιλι Μέιλ και το BBC:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...on-camp-dying-mother-kept-promise-return.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-23957605
Για λίγη πρόσθετη αξία αντιγράφω το σχετικό απόσπασμα από το βιβλίο Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War του ιστορικού Richard van Emden:
Introduction
Captain Robert Campbell was at a low ebb. Badly wounded and captured during the fighting at Mons in August 1914, he had been incarcerated at Magdeburg prisoner-of-war camp for the best part of two years. During that time, he had undergone several very painful operations on his face and a shattered arm, and now, to cap it all, he had just received an upsetting letter from Gladys, his sister, at home in England: their mother, Louisa Campbell, was dying.
The commandant at Magdeburg was a genial man, as far as any camp commandant could be, and Campbell had got to know him as well as circumstances permitted. On hearing Campbell’s bad news, the commandant’s sympathy went beyond mere words of consolation. He suggested that Campbell write to the Kaiser to ask whether he might be given special dispensation to return home to see his mother; the commandant would propel the letter up the chain of command with a recommendation that the application be granted.
Against all rational expectations a reply did come, and from the highest authority, allowing Captain Campbell to leave the camp. He would travel through Germany to Holland and back to England for a fortnight’s leave. This would be permitted as long as he promised, on his honour, to return.
Campbell travelled home from the continent, arriving at Gravesend on 7 December 1916. What Louisa made of her son’s miraculous appearance is not hard to imagine. Sadly she died the following February.
While Robert was still at his mother’s bedside, a letter was passed to the Imperial Foreign Office in Germany. It was written by Friedrich Gastreich, a father and husband from the town of Kirchhundem, east of Cologne. His wife, Anna, was bedridden, suffering from tuberculosis and pneumonia: she was fading fast and her son was, like Captain Campbell, locked up in enemy territory. Twenty-five-year-old Peter Gastreich was held in Knockaloe internment camp on the Isle of Man. Would it be possible, his father asked, for his son to be given special licence to leave England for Germany?
The Imperial Foreign Office asked Britain through American intermediaries. Referring to the parole being given to Campbell, the Germans tried to work on the British sense of fair play to parole Gastreich in turn. The British were not willing to comply. ‘Unable to agree to release of P. Gastreich. Capt. Campbell’s case cannot be quoted as a precedent,’ the Foreign Office official replied in a memo. Gastreich would remain where he was: his mother died just a week after the initial request, although this news had not been communicated to the British government when it made its decision.
It can be safely assumed that this attempt at a ‘temporary exchange’ was unique, owing to the refusal of the British to reciprocate. In October 1917, when a similar situation arose, relatives of another captured officer, Captain Bushby Erskine, petitioned for a temporary parole for him. The government’s reply to the Erskine family was polite but negative. ‘In one case the Germans permitted a British officer to visit this country on parole, but without consulting us. This case has since been used to support applications for German officers to visit Germany, which could not possibly be entertained.’ The letter was forwarded to Captain Erskine’s father by his niece. She wrote to the Foreign Office: ‘I fear the result of the shock, as he [Erskine’s father] had been led to believe, by irresponsible people, that there was a good chance of his son being allowed to return “en parole”.’
There is no doubt that Captain Campbell was extremely fortunate, although his extraordinary return home was not reported in the national press: the Kaiser’s seemingly spontaneous act of kindness was hardly the right sort of war news in 1916, and so only private communication could have brought the Campbell case to the attention of the Erskines.
As for Captain Campbell, no one would have blamed him had he chosen to stay where he was, in England, and by his mother’s bedside. True to his word, however, he returned to the camp on time, where, released from his bond of honour, he set about trying to escape. He broke out of camp the following year only to be recaptured on the Dutch border. Thereafter, he remained in Germany until the end of the war.
Η Μέιλ έχει πλούσιο φωτογραφικό υλικό. Στη σελίδα του BBC διάβασα:
Mr van Emden told the BBC that Capt Campbell would have felt a duty to honour his word and "he would have thought 'if I don't go back no other officer will ever be released on this basis'".
http://www.kathimerini.gr/767061/opinion/epikairothta/politikh/den-einai-proeklogiko (πρώτη παράγραφος)
Με πολλές λεπτομέρειες διαβάζουμε την ιστορία του Βρετανού λοχαγού Ρόμπερτ Κάμπελ στην Ντέιλι Μέιλ και το BBC:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...on-camp-dying-mother-kept-promise-return.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-23957605
Για λίγη πρόσθετη αξία αντιγράφω το σχετικό απόσπασμα από το βιβλίο Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War του ιστορικού Richard van Emden:
Introduction
Captain Robert Campbell was at a low ebb. Badly wounded and captured during the fighting at Mons in August 1914, he had been incarcerated at Magdeburg prisoner-of-war camp for the best part of two years. During that time, he had undergone several very painful operations on his face and a shattered arm, and now, to cap it all, he had just received an upsetting letter from Gladys, his sister, at home in England: their mother, Louisa Campbell, was dying.
The commandant at Magdeburg was a genial man, as far as any camp commandant could be, and Campbell had got to know him as well as circumstances permitted. On hearing Campbell’s bad news, the commandant’s sympathy went beyond mere words of consolation. He suggested that Campbell write to the Kaiser to ask whether he might be given special dispensation to return home to see his mother; the commandant would propel the letter up the chain of command with a recommendation that the application be granted.
Against all rational expectations a reply did come, and from the highest authority, allowing Captain Campbell to leave the camp. He would travel through Germany to Holland and back to England for a fortnight’s leave. This would be permitted as long as he promised, on his honour, to return.
Campbell travelled home from the continent, arriving at Gravesend on 7 December 1916. What Louisa made of her son’s miraculous appearance is not hard to imagine. Sadly she died the following February.
While Robert was still at his mother’s bedside, a letter was passed to the Imperial Foreign Office in Germany. It was written by Friedrich Gastreich, a father and husband from the town of Kirchhundem, east of Cologne. His wife, Anna, was bedridden, suffering from tuberculosis and pneumonia: she was fading fast and her son was, like Captain Campbell, locked up in enemy territory. Twenty-five-year-old Peter Gastreich was held in Knockaloe internment camp on the Isle of Man. Would it be possible, his father asked, for his son to be given special licence to leave England for Germany?
The Imperial Foreign Office asked Britain through American intermediaries. Referring to the parole being given to Campbell, the Germans tried to work on the British sense of fair play to parole Gastreich in turn. The British were not willing to comply. ‘Unable to agree to release of P. Gastreich. Capt. Campbell’s case cannot be quoted as a precedent,’ the Foreign Office official replied in a memo. Gastreich would remain where he was: his mother died just a week after the initial request, although this news had not been communicated to the British government when it made its decision.
It can be safely assumed that this attempt at a ‘temporary exchange’ was unique, owing to the refusal of the British to reciprocate. In October 1917, when a similar situation arose, relatives of another captured officer, Captain Bushby Erskine, petitioned for a temporary parole for him. The government’s reply to the Erskine family was polite but negative. ‘In one case the Germans permitted a British officer to visit this country on parole, but without consulting us. This case has since been used to support applications for German officers to visit Germany, which could not possibly be entertained.’ The letter was forwarded to Captain Erskine’s father by his niece. She wrote to the Foreign Office: ‘I fear the result of the shock, as he [Erskine’s father] had been led to believe, by irresponsible people, that there was a good chance of his son being allowed to return “en parole”.’
There is no doubt that Captain Campbell was extremely fortunate, although his extraordinary return home was not reported in the national press: the Kaiser’s seemingly spontaneous act of kindness was hardly the right sort of war news in 1916, and so only private communication could have brought the Campbell case to the attention of the Erskines.
As for Captain Campbell, no one would have blamed him had he chosen to stay where he was, in England, and by his mother’s bedside. True to his word, however, he returned to the camp on time, where, released from his bond of honour, he set about trying to escape. He broke out of camp the following year only to be recaptured on the Dutch border. Thereafter, he remained in Germany until the end of the war.
Η Μέιλ έχει πλούσιο φωτογραφικό υλικό. Στη σελίδα του BBC διάβασα:
Mr van Emden told the BBC that Capt Campbell would have felt a duty to honour his word and "he would have thought 'if I don't go back no other officer will ever be released on this basis'".
