The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-01-11
PRISONER
FOR four YEARS
French Judge Returns to Battered,
Remains of Cambria
Home.
Hid PRICELESS CITY RECORD
Refused to Leave Post When Hun,
Hordes Poured Through His Cpun5s
try-TelIs of cruelties lnhict-4
IS lnHfcG
ed by invaders,

Paris.-There reached Paris regent
II a ~fine-looking old French gentleman.
~sad-eyed, hollow-cheeked. For four,
years he had been held prisoner by
the Germans in the city of CambTasss
He had seen the Hun kaiser three
times passing through the streets of,
his city which previously had ! been
swept by the French women, Night
after night he had been forced to 90.
and sit in the railroad stations of fhS
city while the British bombed them.
He had seen his friends, people once
wealthy and of high birth, sent out, to
dig trenches, to bury the dead and to-
cultivate and weed the fields. For two,
years he had only soup and cocoa for
his dinner and a semi-monthly allow
ance of t~hree-quarters of a pound Of
meat and black bread.
Henri Berger reached Paris, Just as
the news came from the frapt that
British and American troops bad freed
his home. AS soon as he Is, strong !
enough to travel again he viii return
there to find, if possible, the priceless,
records of the city which he hid IN
1914 when the Huns swept across BelsI
GUM and invaded northern Franco
Stuck to His Post
AS a judge of a tribunal OF, court
of Cambria, Bergier refused to 1eaye,.
his post when the German hqrdes
poured through his country in August
1914. By a trick of chance he had
just sent his wife and three daughters,
to Boulogne-sur-Mer, on the, COAST Of
France, for a holiday and was plan7n
ming to join them early in September.r
The meeting al deferred just four
years. He was captured, but was
spared the bitterness of seeing his
family subjected to the h~umiliatIolS,
which anne to the other women, of
Cambria. His wife and daughters at
once volunteered for hospital service.
and worked so heroically for three
years that they were decorated BY the
French government with the medal
"des epidemies ct du devouementI% -
The story which Bergier brought
back was one of want and suffering 7
The Germans held him as hostagevsos
he was not maltreated. Whenever the
city was bombed, however, he was
sent with three other judges, also held
as hostages, to sit in the railway sta
lions so that they would be killeda4
the traffic centers were d~estr0yed.d
The people of the city who did not
hold official positions were treated
more summarily. The women were
all made to do mental work of some
kind, such as sweeping the streets 1
of the city or %cultivating and, weed
ing the fields. The young boys and,
men were sent out to dig trenches and
to bury the dead. No one was al
lowed to leave his lodgings after seven
o'clock at night, and no lights were 5
allowed at any time.
Turned Out of Homes.
Family after family was turned out
of homes to make place for the wiYes
of the German officers who came TO +
stay in Cambria with their husbands
and for German actresses and sing
ers who were brought from Germany
to stage performances of grand opera
and to make merry in the CASINOS.
The prisons were kept filed with
Offenders One woman was threWnr
into jail because she had hidden a
copper vessel. a family heirloom, in
defiance of the German order requisi-s
tioning everything of metal from the
people. Another woman was arrested
because she read a copy of a French
paper which had been dropped into the
city by allied airplanes.
Early in September Bergier was told
that an exchange had been effected
and he was to return to France. He
would be permitted to take with him
what belongings he could carry He
found an old baby carriage with two
wheels off and patched it up with
wheels from a d%ismantled gun His4I
clothing. though threadbare, still held
together, but he had no shoes at ALL
He took the leather portfolio which
his youngest daughter had used TO .
carry 10 school and made a sort of ,
~footgear out of it, using for solesi the
betting from a machine in an abaRa,
doned factory.
Part of his journey to Belgium he +
made on foot, pushing his belongings
along in the old baby carriage, Part
he made by train.
From Belgium NJ. Berger weptato
Switzerland, finally arriving in Paris
where he rejoined his family