Letter from Walter Schuckman to Emil Loeb, 7 July 1945

This is a letter from Walter Schuckman to Emil Loeb, written on July 7, 1945 at the Choir House at the Dean's Court in London, England.

In the letter, Walter tells Emil about Emil's son Ernest visiting him in London. He apologizes that he cannot ask Ernest to stay with him, as he is living at his university. He says that he is surprised Emil's other son Frank is not married yet.

He then talks about some of his war-time experience. "You know, in August 1944 I came from Friedrichsfeld via Darmstadt to Frankfurt-Sued [south] on the way to Sweden, thus only a few hundred yards from Elfengrund. And part of my captivity I spent at Limburg a. Lahn in 1940. That was rather tantalizing. More so than being far away in Poland where I spent several months, actually a little more than a year in Torun. The next two years I was in Tost in Upper Silesia, and the rest of the time in a place close to Belort in France." "It was on the whole a very difficult time. To impersonate another person is never very easy. But to do that for many years and under constant observation is still much more difficult. I had never a minute I could be off my guard really, because I had to watch my Co-internees as much as the guards. Some were definitely pro-G. and others might do some harm just by sheer negligence. I had therefore to play my role right through to everyone." "After 13 months of captivity they suddenly put me into a subterranean vault in a Fort at Torun - probably because the Intelligence Officer thought he could get the Iron Cross for convicting me. He thought I was Secret Service. At that occasion they took everything off me, every bit of paper and all. The only posessions I have left now from before the war are my watch and the remains of a wallet taken to pieces by them. They kept me in that dark unaired meldewy room for six weeks. Then I was put in the horse-bath in the moat which was a lot better. Eventually they shifted me to a camp for civilians. I have heard meanwhile that the officer responsible for all that shot himself, and it seems soon after I left. Well, it is all over now. But one thing, I dont want to go back there. I have tried to make it clear to everybody who asked me on that question that I would rather go to any corner of the world than back to G. But I hope there will be no need to fear anything on that score. It seems that people have become a little more sensible now." He concludes his letter with some unrelated remarks to Emil.