HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2025
This was one of some 20 depositions transmited from Berlin as evidence of the poor conditions then prevailing at Knockaloe in late 1915. The German original was included in the file as well as this slightly abridged English translation
Legal deposition of Gerhard Bertram (Extract)
ROYAL COURT. Present:- Assistant Judge BREUER, as Judge Registrar HUFENSTUL, as Clerk. Goch, 15th January, 1916.
There appears the Catholic Priest, Gerhard Bertram, and after being sworn deposes as follows:-
My name is Gerhard Bertram. I was born on the 18th September 1869 at Luftelberg, bachelor, Catholic Priest, and a Member of the Order of Praemonstratens.
I was in Handforth from the 9th June to the 8th October, 1915. Morning and evening we had tea and bread with a little milk, and porridge added in the morning. In the middle of the day meat and potatoes, and now and again some vegetables. The cooking was very bad and I could not enjoy the food. An average man could not get enough to eat with the Camp food. We made groups of 120 or 150 men and paid 3/- or 5/- a week into a fund. For this we got better food, but still even so this was not enough, and I had continually to buy such additional food as was allowed.
I was then in Knockaloe, Camp 4, Compound 2, from the 8th October to the 15th November, 1915. We were housed in badly heated wooden huts. The prisoners were very cold. There were from 700 to 800 prisoners in Compound 2. We slept at first on straw sacks which lay on the floor. At the beginning of Nov. they began to serve us out wooden supports [trestles]. Every men had three blankets.
The conditions of the latrines were very bad. There was a cement trough on which were secured wooden seats. There was a roof of boards above it which did not keep off the rain.
The washing conditions were very bad. The prisoners had to wash in the open air by 4 water taps which were about 150 metres from the hut. In November, a washing room was built in which were 10 water taps.
The food was the same as in Handforth. The canteen was very bad. The things were bad and the prices dear.
Our treatment was hard ; we had to salute to the officers in Military fashion, right hand to the forehead.
The sanitary conditions were, taken by themselves, not bad, but still the prisoners for the most part looked very ill.
At Handforth removal to Knockaloe was often threatened. The prisoner named Bannermann [Theodore Boennemann] who was suffering severely from his kidneys was nevertheless removed to Knockaloe; he died two or three days after his arrival. The Doctor at Knockaloe is stated to have said that Bannermann ought not to have been brought there when he was so ill. [arrived 8th, hospital on 9th + died on 10th in a Urenic coma from Bright's disease]
There were several doctors in the Camp. Invalids who wished to visit them had to wait for hours before in the open air unprotected from the wind and weather, so that for this reason many preferred not to see the Doctor.
The journey from Handforth to Knockaloe lasted from about 5.30 the morning to 8 o'clock in the evening. In the morning we got one or two bits of bread and a little bad beef. We had to put our luggage, even the heavy luggage, on board ship ourselves and take it off again. During the whole day we had nothing to eat. When we arrived at Knockaloe there was tea and bread. Some of the luggage was deliberately damaged on the transport. Leather and leather straps were cut with knives, and one man lost articles worth £5 ....
In Compound 2 in rainy weather there was much mud that for days one could hardly stand out of doors without sinking ankle deep in the mud.
Lastly, I was from the 15th November, 1915, to the 11th January, 1916, at Douglas Camp 1. Camp 1. was a privileged Camp. We were about 350 there. Conditions were very good. On the contrary things in Camp 2 at Douglas where the destitute were, were very bad. I had permission to visit Camp 2; I once took advantage of this permission. The prisoners were housed in wooden huts. They had hardly any air and light and only very small windows. In the day time you could only read in most places with artificial light. It was dusk all over. The prisoners slept in wooden bunks, three one over another. Their main complaint was they had no time left them to eat quietly; they all looked very ill.
Read over, approved, and signed. (Sgd) Gerhard Bertram. (Sgd) Breuer. (Sgd) Hufenstuhl.
It is interesting that as a recognised man of religion that he was not repatriated sooner - the religious order, often known as the Norbertines, was established in the 12th century (the current Pope Leo XIV is a member of this order) and had a special interest in parochial ministry in otherwise neglected regions. Father Bertram was based at the then recently opened (1906) and architecturally impressive Corpus Christi Priory in the working class district of Miles Plating in north Manchester (the church was closed and the community moved in 2007). He had been there from at least 1901 as he can be found in both the 1901 and 1911 censuses. In 1901 there was a Belgian Priest-in-charge and 4 assistant priests, Fr Bertram being the junior, there were also 5 lay brothers. By 1911 after the opening of the impressive priory buildings and parish chuch, there were 5 assistant priests still under the same, now 69year old Priest in charge with 3 lay brothers and a servant. I assume that by 1914 Fr Bertram spoke excellent english - I also wonder if there is some error in the english translation as having spent some 15 years ministering to the working class parishioners I would have expected him 'at once' to have taken advantage of his freedom to visit Camp 2.
The lack of provisions during a protracted journey to Knockaloe was a point raised in several other depositions - poor treatment of, and thefts from, internee luggage were noted - such were also common place in the repatriation transfers in 1919. He gives no information on the actual transfers which were in parties of some 200-250 over several days.
The crowded nature of the huts in Camp 2 at Douglas was raised later in 1917 and some 100 internees transferred to Knockaloe - this however caused complaints as though the accomodation was cramped, paid work was available at Douglas in the Brush factory which was especially appreciated by the poor, usually Polish, Austro-Hungarian prisoners.
Knockaloe had been expanded from its initially planned 5,000 to around 23,000 very quickly - internees were moved as soon as, sometimes even before, the sleeping huts were ready; all other support blocks, eg the latrines and washrooms were minimal causing significant number of complaints. The woodern huts soon showed their problems in their first wet and windy Manx winter.
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