J. T Baily in his manuscript recollections of life in Knockaloe recalls Fritz Nieman as:
The chairman of Knockaloe Camp III Industrial Committee, Fritz Niemann was a prisoner of war I much admired, he was a tall slim young man, dark and handsome and of pleasing personality. Prior to the outbreak of war he was a clerk in a German bank in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to where he had emigrated, his home was Halberstadt, Germany where he had left his fiancèe pending the time he could have a home ready in Brazil. That time had arrived and he took passage in a liner for a German port with the intention of marrying and taking his bride back with him. War was declared during the voyage, the liner was stopped by a British cruiser and all passengers of enemy countries taken prisoners of war and in this way Fritz Niemann came to be interned in the Isle of Man.
Baily recounts that he had considerable dealing with him - that he was subject to fits of depression but would look at a photo of his fiancee pinned over the head of his bed and exclaim "How much longer must we wait for each other" and would then shake off his depression by returning to the task of administering the occupations of his fellow prisoners. He was much respected by the sub-Commandant Major Quayle-Dickson - Baily noting that it was in camp III that they had one of their most successful industrial work that of basket making.
Baily met him again in Halberstadt in 1920 with his long waited for fiancèe by then married with children.
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Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2019 |
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