Note: A reader named Paul London has kindly shared with me an account of an incident involving my father’s first cousin, Heinz Löwenstein, which took place during the time he was detained on the estate of Count Mihály Andrássy at Szigetvár in southern Hungary in 1943-44 following his escape from a German stalag in 1943. The incident in question was recorded by Roy Natusch, a fellow POW, who had only kind words to say about Henry Lowenstein as he was known during his time in the British Military. Paul has been the curator of Roy’s archive since his death in 2009. Such first-hand accounts related to my ancestors bring the past vividly into focus in a way that historic documents alone cannot.
Related Posts:
POST 137: MY FATHER’S FIRST COUSIN HEINZ LÖWENSTEIN: DISCOVERING HIS WHEREABOUTS DURING WORLD WAR II
POST 163: THE WARTIME ESCAPADES OF HEINZ LÖWENSTEIN, FEDOR LÖWENSTEIN’S BROTHER
POST 181: JOE POWELL, ESCAPEE FROM A GERMAN STALAG WITH MY FATHER’S FIRST COUSIN HEINZ LÖWENSTEIN
Regular readers will recognize Heinz Löwenstein’s name. I’ve often written about him. He was my father’s first cousin. He was a very charismatic gentleman I met as a child in Nice, France where his sister, his only then-surviving sibling, lived. Heinz and his sister, Jeanne “Hansi” Goff, née Löwenstein, were my father’s closest cousins. It was in fact Hansi who suggested in 1938, after my father left Nazi Germany and moved to Nice but was unable to obtain a permit to work there, that he join the French Foreign Legion. Following his enlistment, he was assigned to Algeria at a safe remove from the Nazis.
As I’ve explained in multiple earlier posts, I learned about Heinz Löwenstein’s wartime whereabouts thanks to my English friend Brian Cooper (Figure 1) from Maidstone, England. He actively researches British Commonwealth POWs interned in German stalags. In connection with researching the still unknown fate of his uncle, Brian learned that Henry Loewenstein/Lowenstein (i.e., no umlaugh over the “o”), as he was known in the British Army, had been imprisoned in one of the same stalags as his relative. There is no evidence to suggest that Brian’s uncle and Henry knew one another. Brian also discovered that Henry had used the alias “Henry Goff” after he was recaptured in Hungary in March 1944 following his escape the previous year from Stalag VIIIB in Lamsdorf (today: Łambinowice, Poland) (Figure 2); this is a rechristening that miraculously went undiscovered by the Germans.
Brian stumbled upon the surname “Goff” in one of my blog posts. “Goff,” as mentioned above, was Heinz’s sister’s married name. The mention of this surname in conjunction with Heinz and Henry’s matching dates of birth caused Brian to ask whether they were the same person. We quickly determined that they were. Ever since, Brian has shared many documents he found in the British National Archives including multiple postwar intelligence interviews and book extracts mentioning Henry Lowenstein. These have allowed me to cobble together part of Heinz Löwenstein’s wartime whereabouts and exploits.
Among the books Brian brought to my attention was a fascinating account by Francis S. Jones entitled “The Double Dutchman: A Wartime Story of Escape and Intrigue.” It relates the adventures of a New Zealand soldier, Roy Natusch (Figure 3), following his escape from a German stalag where he made his way to Hungary and crossed paths with Henry Loewenstein. During this escape, the seventh of ten he made during his wartime captivity, he pretended to be a Captain and became involved in an ultimately unsuccessful international plot which was aimed at maneuvering Hungary from her German allegiance over to the Allied side.
Well, lo and behold, on January 27, 2025, through my Blog’s Webmail, I received the following email from Paul London, a Kiwi who was Roy Natusch’s biographer in life and has since his death in 2009 been the curator of his archive:
“While ‘surfing’ the internet the other night, by happenchance I came across your family history website recording details on the lives of Rudolf Loewenstein and his wife Hedwig (nee Bruck). My interest in the Loewenstein family lies with the wartime activities of their son Heinz Kurt (aka Henry) who in 1944 as an escaped PoW was living on the estate of Count Mihály Andrássy at Szigetvár in southern Hungary with a group of allied evaders under the command of a New Zealand soldier, my late mentor Roy Natusch, who, as you have correctly recorded was himself an escaped PoW and over the course of four years made ten escape attempts before finally making that ‘home run’. During his time in Hungary Roy not only passes himself off as Henry Loewenstein but also masquerades as a recently escaped Dutch officer which the post-war UK tabloids identify Roy as ‘the Double Dutchman.’ I see you too have referred to his book that bears that same name and was released in 1977 and records their movements. For the record, over the past 80 years Roy’s activities have inspired 12 authors to record his clandestine activities in 15 books, with the last being published some 3 years ago in ‘The Flight’ by Tyler Bridges, a former American journalist now university lecturer in New Orleans. For over 20 years I was Roy’s biographer and since his death some 16 years ago I am now the custodian of his archive which I’m currently reviewing and adding to as new and indeed exciting evidence emerges through the release of documents via the likes of those two genealogical sites of Ancestry.com and Findmypast, and lately the British National Archives at Kew Gardens, a repository I used to visit whenever in the UK.”
Paul graciously offered to comb through Roy’s war diaries and share any mentions Roy had made of Henry. True to his word, Paul transcribed an incident involving my father’s first cousin that took place while Henry and Roy were detained on the estate of Count Mihaly Andrassy at Szigetvár, Hungary.
In his introductory email, Paul made the following intriguing observation:
“Roy talked very highly of him [Henry Loewenstein] and was amazed at his skills to forge documents most accurately and prior to his death Roy often wondered what became of Henry and thought he may have settled in Palestine after the war. We did go ‘looking’, but sadly with little success and now reading your various blogs confirms the reason why. My current challenge is an attempt to write a small biography on each man that was under Roy’s leadership at Szigetvár, an exercise I would like to think will bring ‘closure’ to a very unique story that forms part of today’s contemporary wartime history and in particular the disappearance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.”
Th incident in question warrants a few comments following the description of the event. The tantalizing mention of Raoul Wallenberg (born 4 August 1912 in Stockholm) refers to the Swedish diplomat who, as many readers may know, saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II through protective passports and safe houses, before being arrested by Soviet forces in January 1945 and disappearing under still‑mysterious circumstances.
Let me first briefly introduce Roy Natusch by quoting from “A Tribute to Roy Spencer” written by Paul following his death in 2009 at age 90, which include mentions Roy makes of his and Heinz’s interactions. I draw people’s attention to the tribute in its entirety at this link. Here readers will find the detailed discussion of Roy’s wartime escapades.
Following Roy’s last successful escape and his arrival in Cairo he was debriefed by a Major James Klugmann from British Intelligence. Major Klugmann found his tales to be so unbelievable that he was placed under camp arrest and sent back to New Zealand and deemed “psychologically disturbed.” While multiple witnesses ultimately confirmed that Roy’s astonishing tales were indeed true, several years ago Paul further investigated and discovered the following:
“As a footnote to Roy’s tribute a couple of years ago I went looking for evidence that a Russian agent had infiltrated British intelligence. In one of the recently declassified secret files of British undercover operations of World War II there is evidence showing the role played by James Klugmann, a confirmed Soviet sympathiser. Reports sent by Klugmann who was closely associated with the infamous British traitors known as the Cambridge Five, for the first time confirm that he was principally responsible for the sabotaging and modification of information being passed onto the British government. The Cambridge Five was a ring of British spies who passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and on into the early 1950’s. Klugmann was essentially the sixth member who could more accurately be described as a mole rather than a typical spy. The difference is that, unlike a spy who embarks on a mission with specific objectives, moles entrench themselves in key government roles and have the ability to manipulate and falsify information in a manner that causes suspicion to fall on someone else. I believe I’m total justified in saying Roy was a victim of Klugmann’s misguided loyalties.”
It’s astonishing that Roy’s heroic wartime acts almost went unrecognized on account of a traitor so closely associated with the infamous and treasonous Cambridge Five. To remind readers who may be unfamiliar with them, the Cambridge Five were a group of British spies who passed critical intelligence to the Soviet Union during and after World War II. The group consisted of Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross, all recruited by Soviet intelligence while studying at Cambridge University in the 1930s. They were motivated by Marxist beliefs and a conviction that Soviet communism was the best defense against fascism, which led them to infiltrate key British institutions, including the Foreign Office, MI5, and MI6.
Now, on to an abbreviated account of Roy’s story, or as Paul characterizes him, to a man known to “ . . .his brothers-in-arms [as] Sapper Natusch, to the Greeks [as] simply Roy, to the Hungarians [as] Captain Natusch, to the German Gestapo [as] Lieutenant Eddie van Hootegem, to his POW comrades [as] both Henry Loewenstein and the fictional Mario Brioni, but to the world [as] the ‘double Dutchman’.”
Roy was born in New Zealand in 1918. He enlisted in New Zealand Army’s Corps of Engineers as a sapper in 1940, and in early April 1941 joined the hastily formed Anglo-ANZAC Hellenic coalition force. This group was sent to repel the German army in northern Greece. Throughout April the Allies were pushed south onto the beaches of southern Greece. While ships of the Royal Navy valiantly tried to evacuate remnants of the coalition force, they were under constant harassment from aerial bombardment and forced to abandon many soldiers. Roy was amongst the 7,000 men abandoned at Kalamata on the Peloponnesian Peninsula and captured by the Germans. Heinz Loewenstein was also captured in Kalamata.
After the mainland campaign ended in Greece with the Allied evacuation, fighting continued on the island of Crete for another ten days. An even larger number of Allied servicemen were left behind and captured there, though some using their own initiative independently made their way to the safety of Alexandria, Egypt.
Following Roy’s capture on the Greek mainland, he along with an Australian soldier named Johnny Sachs jumped from the train on its way to Corinth. The pair made their way north following the coast and avoided capture for the next eight months with the help of Greek patriots. Their goal was to eventually steal a plane (i.e., Johnny Sachs was a trained pilot) or boat and make their way to Turkey. Several attempts ended in failure.
Realizing they were placing too great a burden on the communities through which they passed and took refuge, the pair agreed to split up. A few days later Johnny chanced to join a party of Greek officers about to depart mainland for Turkey. He eventually made his way back to Australia and thereupon was commissioned into a special unit sent to operate behind enemy lines in Indonesia; he was captured there and murdered by the Japanese.
For Roy’s part, he eventually linked up with a party of escapers awaiting the arrival of a motorboat from Athens headed for Turkey. After the party set sail and neared Turkey, the vessel ran out of gas and was blown back towards where they came.
Roy’s escape attempts variously landed or headed him towards the Greek islands of Kythnos, Kea, and Rhodes. After his recapture and transport to the island of Rhodes, Roy was shipped to the Italian POW reception center at Bari, then sent to the northern POW camp of PG57 at Grupignano, from which he escaped and was again recaptured.
By 1943, the Italians were reeling from defeats they’d suffered in North Africa. The Allies were planning the invasion of mainland Italy in Operation Husky and Operation Avalanche. By September 1943, the Italian Armistice—formally the Armistice of Cassibile—had been signed which resulted in the remaining POWs being rounded up by the Germans and shipped to various lagers in central Europe, Roy being amongst this group. Henry had previously been shipped to a German lager via an altogether different route since, unlike Roy, his multiple escapes did not begin until after he arrived in Lamsdorf. I’ve discussed this in previous posts.
By late 1943, after several transfers, Roy wound up at Stalag XVIIIA, located in Wolfsberg, Austria. He was detailed to a work camp attached to this stalag located near Gaas, Austria, which was only about a mile-and-a-half southeast of the Austrian border with Hungary. Under cover of darkness, along with two other POWs, the threesome successfully crossed the frontier into Hungary on the night of November 28, 1943. This turned out to be Roy’s seventh escape attempt.
I pick up the story by quoting sections of what I wrote in Post 163, reminding readers how and when Henry and Roy’s paths crossed:
“. . .Following the beginning of WWII, the British and Americans declared war on Hungary, an ostensible ally of Germany and Hitler. However, the declaration of war was not reciprocated by the Hungarian government. Thus, any escaped Allied prisoners who made their way to Hungary were merely incarcerated but not sent back to the Germans. Clearly, this is what happened to Heinz Löwenstein.
While Roy Natusch was only a Corporal, with the agreement of his two companions, he passed himself off as a Captain knowing that if the three were captured by the Hungarians an officer would be better treated. Eventually, the three escapees were in fact arrested by Hungarian police or military, and temporarily interned in Komorom, Hungary, near the then-Czechoslovakian border. Had they avoided capture and internment by the Hungarians, Roy and his traveling companions had always intended to do a dog-leg through Hungary into then-Yugoslavia (i.e., head east into Hungary, then turn southwards towards Yugoslavia), linking up with Tito’s Partisans and being repatriated with the Allies in Italy. This was not to be their fate, at least not immediately.
As an officer, or at least claiming to be one, Roy quickly came to the attention of the only other escaped Allied ‘officer’ in Hungary, a real officer, the South African Lieutenant Colonel Charles Telfer Howie hiding in Budapest (i.e., Komorom and Budapest are only about 60 miles apart). Along with a Private named Tibor Weinstein (who used the alias ‘Tim/Tom Sanders’), Howie had escaped from Stalag VIIIB in Lamsdorf.
While at Komorom, Roy Natusch was visited by a Colonel Utassy from the Hungarian War Office along with a Foreign Service Officer, presumably to be vetted for possible involvement in a plot to change the course of the war. He eventually made his way to Budapest where he met other members of the Hungarian resistance and was introduced to Lt. Colonel Howie. While Howie could have left Hungary and rejoined the Allies, he consciously decided to remain there. Clandestinely, he was working with the various opposition factions in Hungary to switch them from the Axis to the Allied side. This was a particularly precarious undertaking since Budapest and more generally Hungary had Nazi spies everywhere. Moreover, it was an open secret that as soon as the Soviets got anywhere near Hungary, a day which was quickly approaching, the German troops would invade the country and quickly seize Budapest.
At the time Natusch met with Lt. Colonel Howie, Germany had not yet invaded Hungary, however. Howie dispatched Natusch to the detention camp in Szigetvár at Count Mihály Andrássy’s castle estate with specific orders that the detained British POWs there not attempt to escape to Yugoslavia, or they would be court-marshalled after the war. Sargeant Major Norman McLean was ostensibly in charge of the soldiers. As noted above, Heinz Löwenstein was among the twenty or so British soldiers confined there and was considered the ‘intellectual of the camp’; here is where Roy Natusch first encountered Heinz.(FIGURES 4a-c) With Heinz’s nod of approval, the British soldiers put off their escape attempt, a fateful decision, as it turned out. By the time Natusch and Howie made their request, Heinz, because of his fluency in multiple languages, had already contacted a local Hungarian resistance fighter who would facilitate their escape by accompanying them to the Partisans in Yugoslavia. The distance from Szigetvár to the Yugoslav border was less than 15 miles, although the march to reach Partisan lines once inside Yugoslavia was long and dangerous because the Wehrmacht troops were active in the northern part of the country.
. . .Germany’s sudden invasion of Hungary took place on the 19th of March 1944, and came from three directions, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Germany [EDITOR’S NOTE: PUTTING AN END TO THE PLANS BY THE HUNGARIAN OPPOSITION TO SWITCH HUNGARY FROM THE AXIS TO THE ALLIED SIDE]. As expected, the Wehrmacht immediately headed for Budapest and the internment camp at Szigetvár where they recaptured all the British soldiers, including Natusch and Löwenstein. The warning the soldiers had been awaiting from Lt. Colonel Howie never arrived because the phone lines were immediately cut throughout the country upon Germany’s invasion, and the man Howie sent to warn the soldiers instead decamped for Romania.
Because of Natusch’s knowledge of ‘The Mission’ (i.e., the Allies plan to try and peel off Hungary from the Axis alliance) and the players involved, he was a wanted man. Under torture, Natusch could have divulged the names of no fewer than eleven co-conspirators. For this reason, it was imperative he escape the clutches of the Gestapo. Fortunately, he managed to escape at Szigetvár despite being guarded by seven Wehrmacht soldiers. Following his getaway and subsequent travails, he eventually made his way back to Budapest in the company of another British escapee, and reestablished contact with Lt. Colonel Howie who was in hiding. In Budapest, through contacts he had there, he connected with some Dutch soldiers, including a Lieutenant Eddie van Hootegem. The latter would wind up giving him his identity card, so for a period this was his alias. However, when he and two other Dutch officers (Lieutenant Frank Brackel & Lieutenant Joob Sengor) were arrested in Budapest and taken to Buda prison, together they crafted an elaborate explanation for why the purported Dutch soldier “Eddie” was unable to speak Dutch.
Suspicious of his explanation, the Germans transferred Roy Natusch, now Eddie van Hootegem, along with a contingent of almost a hundred Hungarians, Poles, French, and Jews, and non-descripts, by train from Buda prison. The Wehrmacht intended to take Roy/Eddie to an Oflag, a prisoner of war camp for officers established by the Germans during WWII, in Neubrandenburg, about 120 miles north of Berlin. This presented a major problem for Roy since they would ultimately have discovered he was Natusch, not van Hootegem.
On their way to Neubrandenburg, however, the prisoners were unloaded in Stalag XVIIA [Kaisersteinbruch, Austria]. Roy once again had the good fortune to run into Henry Loewenstein there, who had by now assumed his own alias, the previously mentioned ‘Henry Goff.’ As a side note, Francis Jones, author of ‘The Double Dutchman,’ incorrectly notes that Heinz’s alias was ‘Henry Lewis.’ Regardless, Roy had learned from his time in Szigetvár that Heinz was a master forger, so he asked him to prepare a set of papers so that he could pass as an Italian.”
Below is how Francis Jones describes the episode and the results:
“Henry Lowenstein appeared a few hours later and got past the guards without difficulty. ‘Here you are, sir,’ he said. ‘It’s finished. He glanced around nervously. ‘Best hide it. I’m not sure about these guards.’ Natusch put the slim package he’d been given into his breast pocket. The Palestinian was as jumpy as a cat. ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything for your friends [EDITOR’S NOTE: THE TWO DUTCH OFFICER ESCAPEES NAMED BRACKEL & SENGOR]’ he went on, ‘but there was only enough material for you.’ Pride of craftsmanship calmed some of Henry’s agitation. ‘You’ll find a passport there, properly stamped,’ he announced, ‘a travel warrant, also stamped, and a couple of letters. You’re Mario Brioni, sir. That’s if you want to be Italian. I’d better go now, sir. Good luck.’ He shook hands with Natusch, gave Frank and Joob a half-bow, and left.
The New Zealander passed the little folder to his two friends without a word and stayed on the alert whilst they examined him it. The verdict came quickly. ‘It’s perfect,’ Frank said slowly. His eyes were wide with admiration. ‘This is first-class work.’ Joob Sengor, taking longer over his examination, agreed, and with that, Natusch was really satisfied. Joob was a protégé of the great Bentinck [EDITOR’S NOTE: A DUTCH FORGER], and a connoisseur of forgery. He put the documents back into his pocket and breathed thanks once again to the ever-helpful Henry Lowenstein.”
Resuming what I previously wrote in Post 163:
“What the Germans had failed to do in Budapest, namely check his photo and fingerprint files in Berlin, they would certainly have done in the Oflag in Neubrandenburg; obviously, they would quickly have learned his real identity and turned him over to the Gestapo for interrogation. This meant that Natusch couldn’t risk facing new interrogators and had planned to jump off the train in route to the Oflag and change his identity from Eddie van Hootegem to Mario Brioni, who happened to be a fictitious Italian traveling legitimately. Incidentally, Roy had opted for an Italian surname because he spoke passable Italian and thought he could fool most Germans.
Roy’s intention after he jumped from the train was to travel in the opposite direction along the same line from Stettin [today: Szczecin, Poland] towards Hegyeshalom, near the Austrian-Hungarian border. Stettin lay 30 miles east of Neubrandenburg, which made the revised journey feasible. Roy was concerned that if his luck failed some attentive German might check and discover there was no such person as Mario Brioni. If this happened, he knew that he could no longer be Eddie van Hootegem, a Dutchman who didn’t speak Dutch, and certainly not be himself. Henry Lowenstein again came to his rescue and offered him his own identity since he now went by Henry Goff. Roy jumped at the offer, so Lowenstein gave him his identity tag. This was the last interaction between Heinz and Roy documented by Francis Jones.
As fate would have it, when Roy jumped off the train at the stop before Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland], he was seriously hurt. Knowing he would be recaptured because of his injuries he ditched the identifications for both Mario Brioni and Henry Lowenstein. He was arrested at the train station near Breslau by one of the three guards escorting him to the Dutch Oflag in Neubrandenburg. On the 2nd of August 1944 two guards from there came to collect Roy. Because his Hungarian civil papers were in order, upon his arrival in the Oflag he continued to pass himself off as Eddie van Hootegem. However, eventually he gave up the ghost and admitted to his interrogators that he was Roy Natusch, an escapee from Stalag XVIIIA in Wolfsberg. Fortunately, the Germans didn’t immediately make the connection that he was wanted by the Gestapo; consequently, they sent him back to Stalag XVIIIA where he’d originally escaped from years before. Knowing he was still in danger, he quickly had himself assigned to a work party in a place called Radkersburg near the Yugoslavian border. With help from the Hungarian resistance, he escaped across the border and after a dangerous journey through German lines reached the Partisans. From there he was eventually repatriated in Italy.”
Below is part of the extract from Roy Natusch’s diary describing the incident involving Henry Lowenstein that took place when Henry and Roy were detained on the estate of Count Mihaly Andrassy at Szigetvár in southern Hungary:
“The next stir occurred a few days later. The Count had already gone back to Budapest when Mac [EDITOR’S NOTE: CSM NORMAN MCLEAN MENTIONED ABOVE WAS CANADIAN. HE WAS CAPTURED IN AUGUST 1942 DURING THE ILL-FATED DIEPPE RAID. WHILE IN THE GERMAN POW CAMP, STALAG VIIIB AT LAMSDORF HE AND A GROUP OF CANADIANS ALONG WITH HENRY (HEINZ) LOWENSTEIN SUCCESSFULLY TUNNELLED THEIR WAY OUT AND ON OCTOBER 21ST, 1943 MADE THEIR WAY TO THE HUNGARIAN BORDER VIA TRAIN. ON ARRIVAL IN BUDAPEST, HE WAS TAKEN TO THE INTERNEE’S CAMP AT SZIGETVÁR WHERE HE ACTED AS THE OFFICER COMMANDING THE UNRESTRAINED POWS UNTIL THE ARRIVAL OF “CAPTAIN” ROY NATUSCH] came in and asked if I would see Henry Lowenstein and Tom Sanders [IN REALITY TIBOR WEINSTEIN, SERGEANT MAJOR, BORN IN TEL-AVIV 1920]. Sanders was the Hungarian Jew in the British Army who had brought Howie through from Germany. Lowenstein was a Czechoslovakian Jew, whose father was Czech consul in Danzig for many years, as Henry was himself for two years after his father’s death. Henry was quite a brilliant linguist; his German was absolutely natural and his command of the English vocabulary used to amaze me. Added to these qualifications he was a master-hand at forging German passports. Howie and Sanders had travelled safely over the German frontier with them and Henry and Mac had later followed them. Besides this, Henry had forged passports whose bearers had carried them with success, to Danzig and France. He was a good man, Henry, now in his 40th year and I’d had him up in my room for the past week, making Greek passports for each Britisher in the camp, purporting that the bearer was travelling through Hungary to Greece. These I intended to allow the men to use if it ever became necessary to skip. I already had an American civilian’s papers, a resident Italian’s and a permit for the journey to Budapest. Up till this time no one outside the camp knew that Lowenstein and Sanders were anything else than English.
Lowenstein came in, white with rage: ‘Sir, someone has been talking to the Hungarians at the factory and to others in the town, saying that there are two Jews now, but this is worse – he’s been saying that I am a Germany spy. I’ve found out who said it and it’s Rackman.’
Old Henry fairly quivered. ‘Steady, who told you this?’ ‘Tony.’ Tony was a Hungarian tailor in the town whom I knew quite well! ‘He was in the wine shop last night and Rackman was there telling them that there was a German spy in the camp and that he reckoned it was me.’
‘Hmm! Bring Tony here immediately please.’
Tony arrived, hat in hand and looking a bit nervous in the presence of the Sazados or Captain, as I was known to him. With a glass of schnapps, he warmed up a bit.
‘Yes, that is so. The English soldier, Rackman, did say that.’
‘Bring Rackman in, will you Mac? Dai, sit down and make a copy of the statements.’
Rackman entered. I repeated the Hungarian’s statement to him. ‘Did you say that?’
‘No, sir.’
Tony knew enough English to follow the denial and sprang up looking as if he was out for a fight. ‘Close him down, Lowenstein.’ Henry said a few words in German and Tony subsided.
‘The evidence is against you. According to this witness you made this statement.’
Rackman was very uneasy. ‘I was speaking in German, sir, and you know it isn’t very good. I think that this Hungarian misunderstood me. I did say that perhaps there was a German spy in the camp, because you know yourself how news has leaked out.’
‘How did you mention my name?’ Henry leant forward excitedly.
‘Control yourself, Lowenstein. How do you account for that?’
‘I didn’t, sir, – at least not like that. I may have said that Lowenstein spoke very good German for an Englishman.’
‘Hm! Now did you say to outsiders that Lowenstein and Sanders were Jews?’
‘Well, er – everyone knows they are Jews sir.’
‘You admit you said it in outside company?’
‘No, sir.’
‘What!’
‘No, sir, at least, I told the Count and one or two others, when they asked me. But they already knew.’
‘You’ve got it down, Sergeant Davies?’
Rackman woke up. ‘I’m not signing that, sir.’
‘There’s no need if you don’t want to. I will sign it and MacLean and Davies can witness it. Is there anything else you wish to say?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Right These statements will be forwarded to Colonel Howie. What you have done, Rackman, is the most despicable act you could perform against your own comrades, to discredit them in the eyes of their friends. You can go!’
To Howie I expressed my wishes concerning the matter. He had the ear of the Hungarian military authorities through whom any wishes of ours affecting the camp must go.
A few days later I had a telephone call from Howie. ‘I am sorry Natusch, but I’ve seen the Count about this matter, and apparently Rackman told him we had Jews in the camp alright, but he refused to allow Rackman to be punished, either on that score or the other. Legally he’s got no right, but he’s forced my hand by saying that if Rackman is sent away from the camp the whole lot will go. I’m in the position of a Colonel with no command over his own men.’
‘Jesus! That’s a corker, sir. What the hell’s up with the Count?’
‘I don’t know, but someone wrote to him about the matter first. He knew all about it. I’m really sorry about it, but the ground’s cut right out from under. I’m afraid you can’t do anything except keep records.’
‘I’ll keep them, but there is one other thing I can do.’ It looked like I’d have to play my last card. ‘Good-bye and good luck!’
This was lovely! The opposition had scored a complete victory and all I could do was tell Lowenstein and Sanders that I could give them no protection from malicious statements while in Hungary.
I called Rackman to my room and informed him of the exact position. ‘A record of this will be kept till the war ends. It depends on your behaviour whether you will be charged with them.’ It took the glint of victory out of his eye a bit, but I’ve often noticed that very few people visualize the future clearly, and I did not expect Rackman to. He came to quicker than I expected and I was rather surprised to find him lose his temper.
‘I know things about you too. The Count told you that he didn’t wish you to have anything to do with the Jews. I know that you have been to the German-Jew and his wife.’ That was correct but what Rackman didn’t know was that a New Zealander had fallen in love with the German wife and the Jewish husband had caught them out. I was trying to smooth out a particularly difficult situation with a very rattle-headed husband who would theatrically draw a revolver and threaten to shoot himself or the New Zealander and instead of doing it, wait for me to take it from him.
MacLean eventually took it from him altogether. Next thing he accused Mac and then me of tampering with his wife’s affections! By the Lord Harry! She was about 40 though still good to look at, but all I wanted was a rest from worry. Rackman ranted on, ‘and I know you have been out all hours of the night with MacLean and I know why!’ Gee! I picked up my ears. I had been out very late several times trying out different lamps for the landing field. ‘If you try anything on me, I’ll report it all to the Count.’
My word! I was shaken! And I looked at the innocent looking bundles on the sideboard, wondering if by some chance Rackman knew their secret. I cross-questioned him but got no positive idea other than that he thought that I had been visiting Jewish families. Before he left, he fired the last shot, ‘and we in the camp think that it is because you and the Colonel are having such a good time in Hungary that you don’t want us to escape.’
Quite seriously, Mac and discussed the advisability of bumping the blighter off, and dumping him in the Mill stream. The total lack of evidence that he knew of our plans saved him.
With all these untoward incidents the camp was becoming very restless and little good it did me to know the prime movers in it. We were now well into February and I had already become aware that some of the personnel were preparing to escape from Hungary across the border to join the Yugoslavs. Any move of this nature might bring German pressure to bear on the Hungarians to curtail our freedom and thus disrupt our plans. Previously I had asked the men to tell me if any of them wished to escape and had explained the position to them. Now, with the new feeling of distrust in the lager, I did not care to trust them too much, when the stake we played for was so high. In the lager next mid-day, I spoke to the men and forbade them to escape. The majority of the men did not need to be told this, but some would only respond to fear.
‘If you wish to escape again you may go back to Siklós or to another camp. I will then give you all the help I can. If you do escape from this camp, it is against my orders. I cannot tell you why you must not escape but any disobedience on your part will be met with a charge after the war and you will be charged as soldiers on active service.’
Unfortunately, Rackman had chosen the opportunity to absent himself. ‘This morning Private Rackman informed me that you, in this camp, feel that Colonel Howie and I keep you here only because we are having a good time ourselves. Anyone care to back up this statement?’
Only one did. ‘I assure you that is not the reason.’ I left it at that. One good thing was that later a lot of the men took the trouble to tell me that the entertained no such ideas. It still didn’t do away with the trouble. It left me my last card to play to break this blasted underground movement in the cam and in lieu of Selby not coming to light it had to be Rackman. That afternoon at three o’clock, I called MacLean to my room.
‘Is Rackman in the lager Mac?’
‘Yes.’
‘Many of the men in?’
‘Most of them.’
‘Good! Well, come with me. We’ll go down there.’
Mac was wearing his usual rig with his hat cocked well over his right eye and I knew that he, better than any, recognised how serious the position in the lager had become. Under my trench coat I was wearing battledress trousers and an old jersey.
Down in the lager the wireless was playing German martial music and as I stepped through the door, Rackman and some others were lying on their beds or sitting talking at the table.
‘I want a word with you, Rackman. Yesterday, in private, you made a personal accusation against Colonel Howie and myself of enjoying ourselves at the expense of the British personnel here. Did you not?’
‘Yes, I did.’
‘Now, I’m asking you for an apology in public for those remarks. I want it here and now.’ From the corner of my eye, I saw Mac watching curiously from the doorway. Rackman’s face showed surprise but no confusion.
‘I don’t see why I should apologise, sir. You haven’t proved that it is wrong. When you do that and tell us why we cannot escape from here then I’ll apologise.’
‘You’ll get none of these explanations. I’ll give you five seconds to apologise.’ The men in the lager stayed quiet where they were standing and Rackman held his ground until the five seconds had passed.
‘Follow me outside Rackman.’ And as we passed through the door, ‘see that all the men come out too, Mac. I want them here as witnesses.’ Outside, rain had melted the winter snow and off the narrow brick sidewalk lay mud and water, ankle deep.‘One more chance Rackman. Do you wish to apologise?’
‘I don’t see why I should, sir.’”
Having been left with no alternative because of Rackman’s unwillingness to apologize, Count Mihály Andrássy’s threat to remove all the POWs at his estate if Rackman was compelled to leave, and the importance of the mission the soldiers there had been tasked with, “Captain” Natusch challenged Rackman to a fight. While Natusch technically outranked Rackman, and the latter fighting an officer could have been grounds for court-martial after the war, Natusch was willing to overlook this fact. After a tough bare-knuckles fight, which Roy describes in detail in his diary, Natusch prevailed.
It is clear from Roy’s account that antisemitism among POWs and even among the local populace that aided them was prevalent. Readers will recall from Post 205 that Julius Bruck recounted how the Jewish prisoners at the “Internierungsläger” where he was detained were segregated in a separate room. From Roy’s account, I also detect some underlying anti-intellectualism where people who happened to speak German were suspected of being Nazi spies and “pro-German,” as Rackman clearly thought Henry Lowenstein was.
It is evident from Roy’s war diary that the real reason why the English detainees at Count Andrassy’s estate were prohibited from attempting to escape to Yugoslavia was kept from them. The real reason was obviously their importance in helping Allied planes safely land near Szigetvár; the planes were supposed to bring in Allied negotiators to sway Hungary to the side of the Allies. Had this information been leaked to the Germans the operation would clearly have been compromised. In any case, landing Allied negotiators was rendered moot by the Germany invasion of Hungary on the 19th of March.
REFERENCES
Bruck, A. (1946). The Sane Asylum [Unpublished manuscript]. Leo Baeck Institute.
The Sane Asylum. (Box 1, Folder 1) Alfred Bruck Collection, DM 325
Jones, Francis S. The Double Dutchman: A story of wartime escape and intrigue. The Dunmore Press Limited, Palmerston North, New Zealand, 1977.
London, P. (2009). A Tribute to Roy Spencer. (prepared by Flight Sergeant Paul London and given at the Saint Matthew’s Anglican Church Hastings, New Zealand Saturday, March 28, 2009).
Natusch, R. Extract From Roy Natusch’s War Diary (Chapter 34). [Unpublished manuscript].