DR. NELTE: May I ask you for the name of the camp commander who refused to hear you?
ROSER: I do not know the name, but I will tell you when I tried to complain. It was when I was in the infamous Linzburg Strafkommando (punishment squad) in the province of Hanover. This squad belonged to Stalag XC. In the morning following the night I have just described, when, after an unsuccessful attempt at escape, we were beaten for 3 hours running, some of us were kept in the barracks. We then saw the immediate superior of the commander of the squad. It was an Oberleutnant, whose name I do not know, who saw that we were injured, particularly about the head, and he considered it quite all right. In the afternoon we went to work. When we returned at 7 o’clock we had the visit of a major, a very distinguished-looking man, who also thought that, as we had tried to escape, it was quite in order that we should be punished. As to our complaint, it went no further.
DR. NELTE: Did you know that the German Government had made an agreement with the Vichy Government regarding prisoners of war?
ROSER: Yes, I have heard of that, but they did not inspect squads of this kind.
DR. NELTE: You mean to say that only the camps were inspected, but not the labor squads?
ROSER: There were inspections of the labor squads, but not of the punishment squads where I was. That is the difference.
DR. NELTE: You were not always in a disciplinary squad, were you?
ROSER: No.
DR. NELTE: When were you put in a disciplinary squad?
ROSER: In April 1941, for the first time. It was a squad to which only officer cadets and priests were sent without any obvious reasons. This was the Linzburg Strafkommando squad which did not receive any visits. At Rawa-Ruska we received the visit of two Swiss doctors; I think it was in September 1942.