Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons: Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben

In August 1914 a British photographer is abruptly taken prisoner by the German war machine. Sent to the stark military jail of Wesel, he endures solitary confinement and begins a written record of daily life. Over the next sixteen months he is transferred through Sennelager, Klingelputz and the civilian camp at Ruhleben, each revealing its own routines, deprivations and occasional flashes of humanity. The account reads as a sober diary, letting listeners hear the clatter of doors and the whispered hopes of men behind barbed wire.

The author writes not for sensationalism but to set straight the wildly inaccurate stories circulating back home. He describes the frantic attempts to send letters, the interception by German censors, and the quiet support of a few compassionate guards whose names remain hidden for their safety. All the while his wife and children wait anxiously, their faith sustained by his brief, often censored notes. Listeners are invited into a world where survival hinges on small acts of kindness, careful observation, and a relentless will to bear witness.