as with only
an extreme effort that he could rise. Then he was treated to an outburst
of bullying and cursing from the Commandant such as we had never heard
before. He was threatened with this, that, and some other frightful
punishment if he dared to disobey any order in future. The old man, his
legs bent and quaking beneath him, listened with a pathetically helpless
demeanour. The tears coursed down his face as he shivered beneath the
string of oaths, curses, and imprecations that were rained upon him.
Many of us feared that he would be condemned for four hours to the tying
post, so infuriated was the despot of the camp, but he escaped this
terrible ordeal.

About four weeks after we had entered Sennelager permission was extended
to those who felt so disposed to enjoy the luxury of an open-air bath.
Seeing that we never had the chance of more than a wash in the bucket at
the pump, and were in urgent need of a dip, we accepted the offer with
alacrity. We were escorted under strong guard to a stream some distance
from the barracks and were given a quarter of an hour for our pleasure.
We hurriedly tore off our clothes and took advantage of every minute to
have a roaring joyous time in the water. Thoroughly refreshed we were
marched back to camp and told off to our various duties.

By this time every man in the camp had been assigned to some particular
task. Major Bach did not encourage idleness; it only fomented brooding
and moping over our position, was his argument. But he was also a
staunch believer in forced labour, which was quite a different thing.
Consequently we found ourselves condemned to some of the most filthy
tasks conceivable. Incidentally, however, these duties only served to
reveal still more convincingly the hollowness of Germany's preachings
concerning the principles of health and hygiene to the whole world while
herself practising the diametrically opposite. We were commanded to
clean out the military hospital.

Now, if there is one building among others in which one would expect to
discover scrupulous cleanliness it is a hospital, but this accommodation
provided for the German recruits was in an indescribably filthy
condition. The conveniences for the patients were in a deplorable state.
They had neither been disinfected nor cleaned for months. Faecal matter
and other filth had been left to dry, harden and adhere with the
tenacity of glue to the surfaces. Its removal not only taxed our
strength to t