The Better Germany in War Time: Being Some Facts Towards Fellowship
Being some Facts towards Fellowship.
HAROLD PICTON.
THE NATIONAL LABOUR PRESS, LIMITED, Manchester and London.
TO THE BRITISH AND THE GERMAN PEOPLES AND IN MEMORY OF MY MOTHER WHO KNEW AND LOVED THEM BOTH.
“Forsooth, brothers, fellowship is heaven, and lack of fellowship is Hell.”— A Dream of John Ball.
“Either we are all citizens of the same city and war between us, a civil war, a monstrous iniquity to be forgotten, as soon as it may bring in peace; or else there is no city and no home for man in the universe, but only an everlasting conflict between creatures that have nothing in common and no place where they can together be at rest.”— Times Literary Supplement , Nov. 11, 1915.
“He had to be extremely careful, said Lord Newton at Knutsford last Saturday, because if he made any statement which did not accuse the Germans of brutality he was denounced by many people as pro-German.”— Common Sense , April 20, 1918.
“Des faits de ce genre méritent dêtre mis en evidence. Il faudrait, dans ce déchaînement d’horreurs et de haines, insister sur les quelques traits capables d’adoucir les âmes.”— La Guerre vue d’une Ambulance par L’Abbé Félix Klein.
“Hate as a policy is either inadequate to deal with the crimes (real and invented) of our enemies, or, if adequate, so recoils on the hater that he himself becomes ruined as a moral agent.”—G. Jarvis Smith, M.C. (late Chaplain at the Western Front). Nation , Nov. 2, 1918.
“The belief at home that the individual enemy is an incurable barbarian is simply wrong ...”—Second-Lieut. A. R. Williams, killed in action August, 1917.
“I will go on fighting as long as it is necessary to get a decision in this war.... But I will not hate Germans to the order of any bloody politician; and the first thing I shall do after I am free will be to go to Germany and create all the ties I can with German life.”—J. H. Keeling (B.E.F., December, 1915).
One kind of German has been too often described, and not infrequently invented. I propose here to describe the other German. At a military hospital a lady visitor said to the wounded soldiers: “We’ve had lots of books and tales of horror; why don’t some of you fellows prepare a book of the good deeds of the enemy?” There was a slight pause. “Ah,” said one of the soldiers, “that would be a golden book.” Very imperfectly, and in spite of all the barriers raised by war passions, I have tried to collect some of the materials already to hand for such a book.
Harold W. Picton
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Letters from Officers and Others.
Merseburg, Dœberitz.
Correspondence and Packages.
Altdamm.
Rumours v. Inspection.
Dœberitz.
Three Poor Camps.
Gœttingen.
German Help for Prisoners.
Cologne.
Crefeld.
Gardelegen, Salzwedel.
Guestrow, Muenster (Lager), Soltau, Scheuen, Schloss Celle.
Zueder Zollhaus, Wahn.
Blankenburg.
Senne.
General Remarks of Dr. Ohnesorg.
New Regulations.
Erfurt, Ohrdruf.
Mr. Gerard’s Comments.
Muenden, Friedberg, Torgau, Merseberg.
A Penny Blue Book.
A Prisoner in Austria.
A Prisoner’s Report.
The Credulity of Hate.
Torgau.
Censor Fined by Prisoner.
Visits Outside Camp.
Prisoners and Populace.
MS. Returned.
Another Prisoner’s Report.
Credulity Once More.
Ordinary Humanity.
Reports of the International Red Cross.
German Camps: Food.
General Result.
Vermin.
Tact.
Prisoners in France.
Later U.S. Reports.
Hunger During Transport.
Friedrichsfeld.
Organisation and Reciprocity.
Lazarets.
A Difficulty.
Some Officer Camps.
Kœnigsbrueck, Zwickau, Görlitz.
Schloss Celle, Wittenberg, Stendal, Food.
Reports and Information.
Favourable and Humorous.
Food.
“Atmosphere.”
A Contradiction.
A Military Prison.
Hospital Treatment.
Wuensdorf, Crefeld.
Parchim, Brandenburg.
Absence on Leave.
Limbau, Guestrow.
Hospital Treatment.
The Repatriations.
Conclusion.
Camps in U.K.
A Friendly Thought.
Rumours.
Prisoner Workers.
Some Other Prisoners.
Turkey.
Russia.
An Important Comparison.
Resident Enemy Nationals.
Origin of General Internment.
Civilian and Military Prisoners Compared.
Some Reports on Ruhleben.
A Controversy.
Short Rations.
Some Comparisons.
Absence on Leave.
Prisoners’ Activity.
A Friendly Enemy.
War Terrorism.
Last Days at Ruhleben.
Havelberg.
On Behalf of the Civilians.
“Rotting Away.”
A Report on Knockaloe.
A British Commandant.
Food Difficulties.
Two Kinds of Rumour and Some Reality.
Against Bitterness.
Neutral Camps.
Some Previous Records.
Napoleonic Wars.
American Civil War.
Franco-German War, 1870.
Russo-Japanese War, 1904.
Boer War.
Concentration Camps.
German Work for Prisoners.
“Joining Hands with the Enemy.”
The Spectroscope Story.
A Baby Case Visitor.
Prof. Stange.
The Last Resting Place.
I.—England.
II.—Germany.
A Witness from Serbia.
A Witness from France.
Another Sort of Witness.
War Zone Children.
The Child in No Man’s Land.
Austro-Hungarians in Cetinje.
Not all Barbarians, nor All Chivalrous.
A German Priest.
The Civilian’s Hate.
And Civilian Kindness.
Some German Newspapers and other German Comments.
School-Books.
Belgium and War Aims.
Against Annexation.
Germany and Contracts.
“Frightfulness.”
The Brotherhood of Enemies.
Wounded.
More Christmas Incidents.
Wounded Enemies.
Whose Fault?
Our Common Humanity.
Are We Always Chivalrous?
Some British Opinions.
The Ease of Accusation.
Troops in Occupation.
From the International Review; a Common Memorial.
German Help of “Alien Enemies.”
Brotherhood Again.
The Way of New Russia.
Thoughts From the Other Side.
War Literature.
From an American Lady.
Two Soldiers’ Letters.
Albert Klein.
Germany in Peace Time.
British Recognition.
Industries Dependent on Synthetic Organic Chemistry.
The Policy of Boycotting Thought.
THE MENTAL HAVOC WROUGHT BY THE WAR.