Sitting at the kitchen table of his cozy home in Sechelt, Anthony (Tony) Price is a lifetime away from the Internierungslager (Ilag) camp, in Laufen, Bavaria, where he spent almost five years as a young man during the Second World War.
Now 104 years old, Price is an example of living history, sharing details of his capture, time spent first in a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany, before being moved to Ilag VII internment camp, near the Bavarian-Austrian border. The camp had a large number of British men among its population.
And, while Price struggles over some memories, there are others that come flooding back, which are obviously still painful to recall.
“I was in solitary confinement for 125 days,” Price says, his Belgian accent still pronounced. “It was a very long time.”
Price was born and raised in Belgium because his British-born father was working there after returning from India and Burma during his time with the Royal Engineers. In May of 1940, the Germans invaded Belgium and started arresting anyone who wasn’t Belgian, including Price’s father.
The Resistance
That spurred the 20-year-old Price to became part of a resistance group and he was tasked to plant bombs on the railway lines where German troops were being transported. "The Resistance" became the name for secret groups formed in Europe during the Second World War to fight the Nazis. Young Jewish men and women, who had escaped ghettos and camps and fought against the Germans, were also part of the Resistance and became known as "Partisans."
Robert Price says his dad's story is just as important as any tales of military valour to come out of the Second World War.
"Members of Partisans and Resistance fighters should be considered as equal veterans," he says. "They are the forgotten and ignored. Much like the Merchant Navy on the convoys. And, the bombs on trains action is how they finally got caught. Bombs are hard to miss."
Price’s wife Margaret picks up the story from there.
Margaret says, following the German invasion and as members of the Resistance, Price and his friend went into hiding.
“He and his friend were on the run and they depended on locals to protect them,” she says. “They were hiding in an attic in a house of French people, but a guy who was a German sympathizer gave them away. So, the Germans arrested him and his friend. They went into the attic and they arrested them.”
As a British citizen, Price was arrested as per the Geneva Conventions, but his Belgian friend was shot and killed. It was then Price was sent to the German prison and kept in small cell in solitary confinement, for more than four months.
Knowing his family likely assumed he was dead, Price was desperate to get word to them, so put a risky plan into action. Price pretended to have a painful toothache and was taken by a guard to the dentist by streetcar — it was his first time out of solitary confinement since his arrest. He was able to secretly write a note to his mother, which he hid until he boarded the streetcar.
“I was on the streetcar and there was a woman holding onto the strap,” he says. “We were holding the same strap and I gave her the note.”
Price had no idea what would become of the note after slipping it to the woman, but as it turned out she took it to the Swiss Embassy, which at the time was assisting British citizens. The message was sent to his mother in England, who let the British authorities know he was still alive.
That’s when Price was placed an a “cattle car,” and moved to Ilag VII in Laufen, a German town separated from Austria by the Salzach River. The men on the train had a choice between standing for the entirety of the lengthy journey or sitting on the floor, covered in filth from the cows that had been transported previously.
But not before the guards at the prisoner of war camp had removed all of Price’s teeth — “slowly.”
Price was moved, again as per regulations of the Geneva Conventions of 1929, created after the First World War on behalf of the International Red Cross, and based on the Hague Regulations of 1899 and 1907. According to the Conventions, prisoners were to be treated “humanely.”
Germany largely adhered to the Conventions during the Second World War, due to the threat of reciprocity. That meant while prisoners were kept alive and not tortured at the Internierungslager camps, the living conditions were almost unbearable.
When it came to meals, Price says the menu rarely wavered.
“Turnips. Lots of turnips,” he says, curling his nose up at the just the thought of the root vegetable, which grew in neighbouring fields and the Germans could pick for free.
The Bird-Cage
Massachusetts-based (retired) librarian and researcher Eve Brandel, has written extensively about her parents' experiences during the Holocaust, in particular her father’s stay in a camp for officers adjacent to where Price was being held.
Brandel wrote that under the Conventions, prisoners could be used for labour only under limited circumstances and they were entitled to food, shelter, clothing, medical care and repatriation in case of serious illness. “Prisoners could send and receive a fixed number of letters per month, although all mail was read and censored. Delegates of humanitarian agencies were allowed to monitor conditions.”
In an article for Medium magazine, Brandel writes about how she discovered her father had been drawing caricatures during his internment, now owned by the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.
The caricature on the cover of the book, The Bird-Cage: Ilag VII Laufen, Oberbayern-Germany was drawn by Brandel’s father, Max Brandel.
It’s the same book Price held in his hand, while speaking to Coast Reporter. He and his wife bought the book while visiting what remains of the camp during a trip retracing his steps as a young man.
“The people who were interned in the camp wrote the book,” says Margaret. “About different things about the camp, what they had to put up with. You know, how to wash their clothes, how to have a shower. It's quite interesting to read.”
Margaret says the visit to Laufen was a fascinating look into the place her husband spent so much time as a young man. It was the Americans who finally liberated the prisoners of Ilag VII.
“The men cheered and went crazy because the Americans were there. They heard that they were coming, but didn't know when and then the Americans came into the camp,” says Margaret. “They opened the camp and took the Germans and made them clean up the camp, instead of the prisoners doing it.”
It's a long way from Huddersfield to Sechelt
Following their release, the prisoners were repatriated to the country of their paperwork. The problem was, while Price was deemed British because of his father, the young man had never stepped foot in the country and couldn’t speak a word of English.
But, after taking English classes, Price found a job as a bus driver, which is where he met Margaret.
“He was driving a bus in my hometown, which was in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. And I travelled with him so when he was on early shift, I'd go to work with him,” remembers Margaret. “When he was on late shift, I'd go home with him.”
The couple eventually moved to Ontario, where Price got a job at a Cadillac dealership. Robert then joined the Canadian military and after retiring, settled in B.C., eventually making his way to the Sunshine Coast.
It didn’t take long for his parents to follow, in 2016.
“And, that’s how we got here,” says Margaret, smiling. “Right Tony?”
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