British Internment - Mainland Britain

I think in the beginning they didn’t know- They, they thought we were... Nazis. But after that when they realised we were in fact as much if not more against Hitler than they were, they treated us much better. But in the beginning we were badly treated and when we were there for some time, the... the dear guards who guarded us, were thieves! They stole everything they could. I mean there was no - no doubt about it. As far as they were concerned we were Nazis, and they took everything away. So in the beginning we were very short of everything.

We had a lovely time in York [internment camp]. It was away from the war, very understanding people who were in charge of us. One was the father of an M.P. today, Janner, a Liberal M.P, I believe. And he kept us there no longer than he could. He made it easy for us to find reasons for leaving. One of the main reasons was bad health. And we had in our company a man with diabetes, and he would sell his urine to people, which we took ourselves to the camp doctor, one by one, and every day one of us was released for suffering from diabetes, except the man himself, who stayed till the end, of course, because it was a marvelous revenue for him. He was the last one to leave the camp. So we stayed for a total of about six months or so.