Facing Death (Part 1) - Courage vs. Cowardice - Germans Spies of World War I
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (Dylan Thomas)
Courage in the Face of Death
How does one "rage, rage against the dying of the light"? Is it an external raging or an internal? Some know that death is coming to get them. Some die a lingering death of illness and sickness. They can prepare. Others die shockingly quickly. Facing death is an intimately personal moment, but one that speaks to the interior character of a person.
World War I
Eleven German spies faced British firing squads at the Tower of London during World War I.
They came from various background and nationalities. They each faced
their impending death differently. No one asked these men about
their feelings in the moments before their executions. Were they terrified?
Most likely.
Mark Twain said "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of
fear -- not absence of fear." There is no courage where there is no
fear. It is what you do with the fear that distinguishes courage from cowardice.
For these men, we have only the testimonies of a variety of witnesses and their assessment of the condemned man's state of mind
Carl Hans Lody - Executed 6 November 1914
Lody was a 39 year old German citizen and a former Naval Reserve officer.
Carl Hans Lody (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
"... at a very early hour, Lody was brought from his cell and the grim procession formed up... [Lody said to the Assistant Provost Marshall, 'I suppose that you will not care to shake hands with a German spy?' The APM said 'No but I will shake hands with a brave man.']... The procession was led by the Chaplain... followed by the prisoner, with an armed escort marching on either side of him, and the firing party of eight stalwart guardsmen bringing up the rear... Of that sad little procession, the calmest and most composed member was the condemned man himself. A few moments later the procession disappeared through the doorway of the sinister shed [the miniature rifle range; here spies were blindfolded and secured by straps to a chair], and shortly after that came the muffled sound of a single volley [by the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards]... When I [Yeoman warder, John Fraser] think of Carl Lody a phrase always slips into my head - just three little words: 'A gentleman, unafraid!" (Sellers, 42)
Carl Frederick Muller - Executed 23 June 1915
Muller was born in Russia and living in Holland when the war broke out. He was 58 years old.
Carl Frederick Muller (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
On
Wednesday, 23 June at 6 am in the Miniature Rifle Range at the Tower,
the prisoner was calm, shook hands with me [medical officer ] and thanked me. I led him to
the chair which was tied to short stakes driven into the ground,
he sat on it quietly and the sergeant buckled a leather strap round his
body and the back of the chair and then blindfolded him with a cloth."
(Sellers, 62)
Haicke Petrus Marinus Janssen & Willem Johannes Roos - Executed 30 July 1915
Janssen and Roos were two Dutchmen who had been recruited by the Germans. Janssen was about 30 years old while Roos was 32 years old.
Haicke Petrus Marinus Janssen (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
Willem Johannes Roos (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
chair, from which the bleeding body of his accomplice had just been removed, with a fair show of indifference, begging leave to finish the cigarette he had requested as a last favour. That ended, he took one last look at it, then threw it away with a gesture which represented utter contempt for all the frailties of this world. With apparently no more interest in the proceedings, he seated himself in the chair. There was a momentary twinging of the face as they fastened the bandage around his face, but that was all. He too died bravely, and met his fate with a courage which should evoke nothing but admiration." (Sellers 79)
Ernst Waldemar Melin - Executed 10 September 1915
Melin was an out-of-work Swede. He was 49 years old.
Ernst Waldemar Melin (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
Augusto Alfredo Roggen - Executed 17 September 1915
Roggen was a 34 year old Uruguayan whose father had been German.
Augusto Alfredo Roggen (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
Fernando Buschman - Executed 19 October 1915
Buschman was born in Paris, France of a naturalized Brazilian father (originally from German) and a Brazilian mother (of Danish extraction). He was 25 years old.
Fernando Buschman (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
Georg Traugott Breeckow - Executed 26 October 1915
Breeckow was born in Germany and later apparently became an American citizen. He was 33 years old.
Georg T. Breeckow (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
Breeckow was by this time in a dreadful state of agitation. He was
literally shivering with fright and it was difficult to keep him in the
chair. So the officer in charge told those strapping him in to hurry up.
The last preparations were quickly gone through: Breeckow's chest was
bared to the cold morning air, and the waiting firing-party came to the
aim. The order was given to fire, and simultaneously with the crack of
the rifles the figure in the chair gave one tremendous, sickening bound.
There is little doubt, as was subsequently proved at the inquest, that
Breeckow had died of heart-failure before the bullets of the
firing-party had reached his chest." (Felstead, 119) [N.B. Sellers notes
that on Breeckow's death certificate the cause of death was given as
"violent gunshot wounds of the chest." (p. 138)]
Irving Guy Ries - Executed 27 October 1915
Ries (a pseudonym) was an American who only gave his real name shortly before his execution. He asked that it never be revealed so that his aged parents would never learn of his dishonour. He was 55 years old. [N.B. Several resources suggest that Ries was actually named Carl Paul Julius Hensel]
Irving Guy Ries (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
Albert Meyer - Executed 2 December 1915
Meyer claimed to be a Dutchman and was 22 years old.
Albert Meyer (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
He stopped on reaching the miniature rifle range where he was to be shot and cast a raving eye at the chair standing in the middle. Then he burst into a torrent of blasphemous cursing, reviling his Maker and calling down the vengeance of Heaven on those who had deserted him. Struggling fiercely with his stalwart guard, he was forcibly placed in the chair and strapped tightly in. Before the bullets of the firing party could reach him he had torn the bandage from his eyes, and died in a contorted mass, shouting curses at his captors, which were only stilled by the bullets.
Meyer, along with Rosenthal [who was hanged], was the youngest spy to be
shot. But, unlike the latter, who went to his doom with some semblance
of courage, he was the most arrant coward who ever lived." (Felstead,
158)
Ludovico Hurwitz-y-Zender (from German Spies at Bay - Public Domain) |
Ludovico Hurwitz-y-Zender - Executed 11 April 1916
Zender was a Peruvian and an army reserve officer. He was 38 years old.
"[Zender] was executed in the Tower on April 11th, 1916, nine months after the date of his arrest, and met his fate with a fair amount of calm." (Felstead, 142)
Resting in Eternal Peace
Whether they faced their executions with courage or cowardice, each of the World War I spies faced the same fate, death.
The spies were buried in East London Cemetery, Plaistow. Carl Hans Lody's grave is marked by a headstone placed by friends of the family.
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Gravestone of Carl Hans Lody, East London Cemetery, Plaistow. (From Find-a-Grave) |
The other spies were interred in common graves that have been reused several times over. A common headstone commemorates their final resting places and includes the names of of seven German prisoners who died of ill health or accident.
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Gravestone for German spies executed during World War I, East London Cemetery, Plaistow. (From Find-a-Grave) |
References
After the Battle Magazine, volume 11.
Felstead, Sidney Theodore. German Spies at Bay, 1920.
Find A Grave website.
Sellers, Leonard. Shot in the Tower, 1997.
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