DR. NELTE: You mentioned, if I heard correctly, the case of Robin from Oflag XI D. You said that there was an officer who dug a tunnel in order to escape from the camp, and that as he was the first to emerge from the tunnel, he was shot. Is that right?
ROSER: Yes; I said so.
DR. NELTE: Were you with those officers who tried to escape?
ROSER: I said before that this was related to me by Lieutenant Ledoux who was still in Oflag XI D when that happened.
DR. NELTE: I only wanted to ascertain that this officer, Robin, met his death while trying to escape.
ROSER: Yes, but here I should like to mention one thing, namely, all the prisoners of war who escaped knew they risked their lives. Everyone attempting to escape, knew that he risked a bullet. But it is one thing to be killed trying to climb the barbed wire, for instance, and it is another thing to be ambushed and murdered at a moment when one cannot do anything, when one is unarmed and at the mercy of somebody, as was the case with Lieutenant Robin. He was in a low tunnel, flat on his stomach, crawling along, and was killed. That was not in accordance with international rules.
DR. NELTE: I see what you mean, and you may rest assured that I respect every prisoner of war who tried to do his duty as a patriot. In this case, however, which you did not witness, I wanted to make the point that this courageous officer who left the tunnel might not have answered when challenged by the guards and was therefore shot.
ROSER: No.
DR. NELTE: Though you have just given a vivid description of the incident, I think it was a product of your imagination because, according to your own testimony, you did not see it yourself; is that correct?
ROSER: There are not 36 different ways of getting out of an escape tunnel: You lie flat on your stomach, you crawl, and if you are killed before you get out of the tunnel, I call that murder.