latter were just as cruel in their
way as the military; they not only got every ounce of work possible out
of each prisoner, but they inflicted the most terrible punishment for
every slight offence. A few days after I went there, a splendid young
Canadian boy from Toronto was found dead with the back of his head
smashed in. He had been on night shift, and he had not been hurt in a
cave-in, for our own boys found him. We asked for an investigation,
but we were told to go to work and mind our own business; so we
Canadians went on strike. A German who spoke a little English asked us
what was the matter, and we said we wanted to find out what had killed
our comrade. He laughed in our faces and said, "You are prisoners, you
must do as you are told." We told him where he could go, and against
the advice of all the old prisoners refused to go to work, and this was
our punishment; we were stood "at attention" in fifteen-minute periods,
with five minutes "at ease," until ready to go back to work. This was
indeed torture--the five minutes' rest made it possible to prolong the
agony. Men faint if made to stand "at attention" for many hours, but
doing it this way we never lost consciousness. Guards marched up and
down behind us; if we moved hand or foot we were knocked down and
kicked; though they kicked us on the ankles whether we moved or not--my
right ankle was so swollen I was not able to do up my boot for three
weeks. Well, we stood this without food for two days and nights, and
then we were so exhausted that we had to give in. The old prisoners
had all been through this kind of thing, that was why they warned us
not to go on strike. But no matter what the punishment was, we could
not let the murder of one of our number go unnoticed.

Shortly after this we had another lesson of the same kind. An
Englishman on night shift was found sleeping and the foreman who found
him knocked him down a shaft and killed him. Another Britisher, who
saw the murder, reported the foreman, and accused him of the murder,
but when the trial came off the Britisher was given six months in
prison for perjury.

But to go back to our work. We were supposed to be on eight-hour
shifts--only sometimes they would make us do a double shift, or sixteen
hours. When this was required they gave us an extra bread ration. The
German in charge of the camp thought himself very smart because he
could speak a few words of English and also write a litt