Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. On the Way to the Front
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT 33
my parents and my fiancee to learn that I am still alive and
doing well ? I am now in enemy country and have no means
of writing." I asked him for his address, and he wrote in my
diary, " Monsieur Verrier- Cachet, Horticulteur, 52, rue du
Quinconce, Angers, Marne et Loire." A minute later I was
seated at a desk and wrote on postcards in German the adven-
tures of the young Frenchman and sent them to my family
in Stockholm, who, with the assistance of the French Minister,
would forward the news to the above address. I know that
it reached its destination and caused great joy, for later on I
received very hearty greetings and thanks from Verrier’
s
home.
I have often since wandered with a heavy and lingering
step through the " field " and war hospitals, especially the wards
containing wounded Frenchmen, British and Belgians who
lay there counting the slowly passing hours. How easy would
it not have been for me, who had both liberty and health, to
send off a postcard here and there which would have reached
distant homes with a message of release from the wearing
anguish of anxiety ! There is nothing so trying and so difficult
to bear as the uncertainty of the fate of those we love. When
the name of a son, a brother, or a husband appears in the list
of missing after a battle, the sickening anguish is almost
greater to those at home than if they knew that he had fallen.
Their mental vision pictures him as wounded, bleeding to
death, alone and abandoned to the horrors of darkness, cold
and thirst. But I had really no grounds for such qualms of
conscience, for in the first place I had no business to interfere
with the regulations of the German military authorities regard-
ing the communication between wounded prisoners and their
homes, and in the second place there were far too many of
them, and by the evening I realised that the task of acting
as a good Samaritan was an altogether hopeless one.^
Meanwhile I took a hearty farewell of Verrier and wished
him a speedy recovery and a happy reunion with his people at
home at Angers.
Before leaving, we looked at the memorial stone com-
memorating the fateful and firm reply given " on the 13th of
^ After the beginning of October all prisoners, even wounded F’renchmen in
German hospitals, had permission to correspond with their homes. This was given
after the French Government had granted the same privilege to German prisoners
and wounded.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
